What Works in Workforce? The Impact of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Concentration on Students with Disabilities

Career and Technical Education (CTE)

Supporting students with disabilities throughout their education-to-workforce journey is a policy imperative. Our prior research has shown that individuals with disabilities often face barriers to employment, including a lack of education or training. Career and Technical Education (CTE) is uniquely positioned to address these challenges by providing high school students with hands-on technical training and opportunities to develop valuable durable skills.

But does CTE have a positive impact on students after graduating high school? Simply comparing the employment or educational outcomes of CTE and non-CTE students would obscure the fact that other differences matter, too, such as academic ability and demographic attributes. What we’re interested in, and what this study seeks to measure, is the causal impact of CTE on students while controlling for these other factors.

In this study,[1] we use administrative data from the North Carolina Common Follow-up System (CFS) to evaluate the impact of CTE on students with disabilities, finding that CTE “concentrators”—students who earned multiple credits in a CTE career pathway[2]— experienced improved labor market and educational outcomes in subsequent years, including higher employment rates, higher wage earnings, and higher postsecondary enrollment rates.

Our study follows a cohort of 9,205 students with disabilities who graduated high school in North Carolina from 2015 to 2019 and who were CTE concentrators in the twelfth grade. We observe these students’ employment and enrollment outcomes up to four years after graduation.

We compare the outcomes of our cohort to those of a comparison group of students with disabilities with similar demographic, academic, and geographic characteristics,[3] but who were not CTE concentrators. In other words, the only observable difference between these two groups was CTE concentration status in high school. The resulting “apples-to-apples” comparison enables us to estimate the causal impact of CTE concentration on students with disabilities.[4]

Employment Impact

Many students in this study had employment experience even before completing high school. In the year prior to graduating, 45% of CTE concentrators and 42% of individuals from the comparison group worked [Figure 1]. In the first year after graduation, CTE concentrators and individuals from the comparison group had similar employment rates—69% and 68%, respectively. However, this gap grew steadily over the next few years, and by the fourth year, the employment rate for CTE concentrators rose to 74%. In contrast, the employment rate for the comparison group increased marginally to 69%.[5]

Figure 1

Additionally, CTE concentration influenced the industry sectors where students ended up working. In the fourth year after graduation, CTE concentrators were more likely to be employed in the Construction, Health Care and Social Assistance, and Manufacturing sectors relative to the comparison group [Figure 2]. These sectors tend to be higher paying than common sectors for young workers, such as Retail Trade and Accommodation and Food Services.

Figure 2

Earnings Impact

Not only did CTE concentration boost employment rates, but it also increased average wage earnings for students with disabilities. The two groups had similar wage earnings, on average, the year before graduation. However, within a year of completing high school, CTE concentrators earned $971 more on average (in 2023 dollars) than the comparison group [Figure 3]. By the fourth year, CTE concentrators earned $2,809 more on average than the comparison group, representing a significant boost to earnings.[6]

Figure 3

Postsecondary Enrollment Impact

Finally, our analysis assessed the impact of CTE concentration on postsecondary enrollment at community colleges and public universities in North Carolina. Again, we find positive impacts. Over the entire four-year period following high school graduation, CTE concentrators had higher postsecondary enrollment rates than the comparison group [Figure 4].[7]

Figure 4

Conclusion

The findings from this study add to a growing line of research that shows CTE concentration can significantly improve the labor market and educational outcomes of students with disabilities. There are many reasons why CTE might produce these positive, long-term impacts. CTE programs are designed to cultivate work readiness through applied training, credential attainment, and early exposure to career options. Students gain valuable technical and employability skills that complement their academic studies, preparing them for both college and career options.

CTE remains essential to engaging and equipping the future workforce of North Carolina, especially for individuals with disabilities who have historically faced many barriers to employment.