In FY 2023, IES and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Career Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) co-sponsored a second research network focusing on career and technical education (CTE) through the Research Network Focused on Critical Problems of Policy and Practice grant program. This research network, called the Extending the Reach of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network, fulfills the requirement in the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act for a National Research Center [Section 114(d)(4)] to carry out scientifically based research and evaluation for the purpose of developing, improving, and identifying the most successful methods for addressing the education, employment, and training needs of CTE participants in CTE programs.

This network continues to build off of the momentum initiated under an earlier research network competition, the Expanding the Evidence Base for Career and Technical Education Network, which was established in FY 2018.

The purpose of the Extending the Reach of CTE Research Network is to serve as a hub for CTE research, research training, leadership, and dissemination of research findings. The network will continue to provide information and evidence to the CTE community about what works, for whom, and why. In addition to conducting their own research, network members will engage in conversations and collaborations around CTE research issues, train new CTE researchers, and disseminate research findings to a wide variety of audiences.

Descriptions of each of the projects in the Expanding the Evidence Base for CTE Network are as follows:

Extending the Reach of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network—Research Network Lead 2.0
Principal Investigator: Katherine Hughes, American Institutes for Research (AIR)
The Extending the Reach of CTE Research network lead will move the CTE research field forward by coordinating the work of IES-funded CTE study teams and supporting the development and dissemination of new research knowledge. The network lead team will coordinate a learning community of its members, conduct an evidence review of work-based learning (WBL), offer a research training institute with a focus on equity, and bridge research and practice by developing and disseminating engaging products to share the new research findings broadly.

Research projects will be joining the network starting in FY 2024 (descriptions forthcoming).