Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth over Breadth

Abstract

Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this we develop a framework for curriculum choice, taking into account ability and preferences for academic and vocational work. We test model predictions using detailed transcript and earnings information from the NLSY97. Our results are two-fold. First, students positively sort into vocational courses, suggesting the belief that low ability students are funneled into vocational coursework is unlikely true. Second, we find higher earnings among students taking more upper-level vocational courses -a nearly 2% wage premium for each additional year, yet we find no gain from introductory vocational courses. These results suggest (a) policies limiting students' ability to take vocational courses may not be welfare enhancing, and (b) the benefits of vocational coursework accrue to those who focus on depth over breadth.

The dropout effects of career pathways: Evidence from California

“…The empirical literature on the effect of career preparation and training suggests that participation in CTE are associated with consequential, though not transformative, improvements in student outcomes. Previous research has documented a correlation between participation in vocational coursework and increased wages and labor participation rates (Mane 1999;Bishop & Mane 2004;Meer 2007;Kreisman & Stange 2017). However, research on older models of CTE also note that students positively select into vocational courses (Meer 2007;Kreisman & Stange 2017).…”

“…Previous research has documented a correlation between participation in vocational coursework and increased wages and labor participation rates (Mane 1999;Bishop & Mane 2004;Meer 2007;Kreisman & Stange 2017). However, research on older models of CTE also note that students positively select into vocational courses (Meer 2007;Kreisman & Stange 2017). A defining argument for the career pathway approach is increased student engagement and completion because students are able to make a connection between academics and their future work prospects.…”

“…Given their small scale, select-student population, and unique set of resources, these studies of CTE impact are useful proof of concepts but may not generalize to the broader population. Furthermore, prior descriptive work on CTE course taking has documented positive student selection into career pathways suggesting that Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates will produce biased estimates of CTE participation (Dougherty 2016, Kreisman & Stange 2017. This study leverages a natural experiment that allows me to recover causal estimates in an at-scale policy environment using data from over 800 school districts in California.…”

Does Technical Education Improve Academic Outcomes?: Evidence from Brazil

“…Finally, with respect to the probability of enrolling in higher education, Kreisman and Stange (2017) show descriptively that students who complete a higher proportion of upper level technical education courses during high school have a higher probability of enrolling in 2-year colleges than students who complete more core and elective courses during high school, but a lower probability of enrolling in 4-year colleges in the US. For Australia, Polidano and Tabasso (2014) find, using propensity score matching (PSM), that vocational high school increases the probability of studying at a higher-level post-high school VET course and reduces the probability of enrolling in higher education.…”

“…Literature on the effect of technical education during high school on labor market outcomes is significantly more extensive, although mostly descriptive, as it does not address the self-selection of students into vocational education(Kreisman and Stange, 2017;Bishop and Mane, 2004;Kang and Bishop, 1986;Gustman and Steinmeier, 1982, Neuman andZiderman, 1991; Ziderman, 2003, Moenjak andWorswick, 2003;Polidano and Tabasso, 2014). Causal estimates, obtained with methodologies that address the self-selection bias, show positive or no effect of technical education on wages and the probability of being employed(Kemple and Willner, 2008;Malamud and Pop-Eleches, 2010;Zilic (2018),Chen, 2009;Bucarey and Urzúa, 2013).…”