Differences in Academic Achievements among High School Graduates’ from Four Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program Areas

Abstract

Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a popular trend in education due to the increased demand from American citizens to include CTE opportunities in schools along with federal funding to build new CTE programs and improve existing ones. Schools are tasked to improve student achievement. Testing performance is a central process to demonstrate satisfactory student achievement and school quality. In this study, the academic achievements of CTE completer high school graduates were measured by their performance on the nationwide American College Test (ACT), including the subjects of English, reading, writing, math, and science. CTE graduates in this study received CTE endorsements in the four program areas: 1) business and marketing education; 2) education, hospitality, and human services; 3) information and media technologies; and 4) skilled and technical sciences. The testing scores from an entire graduating class in a large school district with over 64,000 students were analyzed. The results revealed significant differences in students’ academic achievements among the four CTE program areas. Especially, students in the Skilled and Technical Science cohort and the Information and Media Technologies cohort had higher mean scores on ACT examination subjects of math, reading, science, and English than those from the other two cohorts.