Since its inception in 2017, the CTE portfolio in the National Center for Education Research (NCER) at IES has grown to 11 research grants and a research network! Several other CTE-related grants have been funded under other topics, such as “Postsecondary/Adult Education” and “Improving Education Systems” in the education research grants program, and in other grant programs such as “Using SLDS to Support State Policymaking.” Two CTE-related grants under the latter program were awarded in FY21—
- The Distributional Effects of Secondary Career and Technical Educational (CTE) Programs on Postsecondary Educational and Employment Outcomes: An Evaluation of Delaware's CTE Programs of Study (PI: Luke Rhine, Delaware)
- Analyzing and Understanding the Educational and Economic Impact of Regional Career Pathways (PI: Jonathon Attridge, Tennessee)
The newest grants funded in FY21 in the CTE topic of the Education Research Grants program include—
- College and Career Readiness: Investigating California's Efforts to Expand Career Technical Education Through Dual Enrollment (PI: Michal Kurlaender, University of California at Davis)
- Postsecondary and Labor Market Effects of Career and Technical Education in Baltimore City Public Schools (PI: Marc Stein, Johns Hopkins University)
- SREB Career and Technical Education Leadership Academy Study (PI: James Stone, SREB)
- Sub-baccalaureate Career and Technical Education: A Study of Institutional Practices, Labor Market Demand, and Student Outcomes in Florida (PI: Angela Estacion, WestEd)
- An Experimental Evaluation of the Efficacy of Virtual Enterprises (PI: Fatih Unlu, RAND)
As a causal impact study, the last project (on Virtual Enterprises) has been invited to join NCER's CTE Research Network as its sixth and final member. Funded in 2018 to expand the evidence base for CTE, the CTE Research Network (led by PI Kathy Hughes at the American Institutes for Research) includes five other CTE impact studies (one project's interim report by MDRC was recently reviewed by the What Works Clearinghouse and was found to meet standards without reservations). You can read more about the network's mission and each of its member projects here.
On AIR's CTE Research Network website, you can find several new resources and reports, such as:
- Ready for Causal Research: A National Evaluability Assessment of Career and Technical Education Programs (Final Report). This report describes four CTE programs identified as most immediately viable for causal research—and all these programs are willing to be studied!
- Identification and Counterfactuals for Program Evaluation of Career and Technical Education. Identifying a control group, or counterfactual, is tricky in a subject like CTE into which students self-select. To guide researchers, this paper presents a series of case studies assessing the counterfactual for a selection of experimental and quasi-experimental CTE program evaluations.
- Improving Measurement in Career and Technical Education to Support Rigorous Research. This paper catalogs the measures of CTE exposure that prior studies have used, documents measures and outcomes in more recent causal studies, and offers a framework for how to measure CTE exposure and outcomes in the future.
The CTE Research Network has also been conducting training, including workshops in causal design for CTE researchers and online modules on data and research for CTE practitioners, shared widely with the field by a Network Lead partner, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).
Last but certainly not least, if you are interested in getting your CTE project funded by IES, see the new FY22 research grant opportunities on the IES funding page. To apply to the CTE topic in the Education Research Grants program specifically, click on the PDF Request for Applications (ALN 84.305A). Contact Corinne Alfeld with any questions you might have.
Written by Corinne Alfeld (Corinne.Alfeld@ed.gov), NCER Program Officer
