U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

NCES 2018-043 DECEMBER 2017

 Participation in High School 

Career and Technical Education 

and Postsecondary Enrollment 

This Data Point uses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) and its 2012 follow-up. ELS:2002 

is a nationally representative study of over 15,000 public and private school students who were in the 10th grade in 

2002. The ELS:2002 sample was supplemented in 2004 to provide a nationally representative sample of high school 

seniors, and high school transcripts were collected for this “freshened” sample. This Data Point examines ELS students 

who were 2004 public high school graduates. 

Among the public high school 

graduating class of 2004, 89 percent 

of graduates enrolled in postsecondary 

education at some point in the 8 

years after graduation (i.e., by 2012) 

(figure 1). This rate of postsecondary 

enrollment was higher for graduates 

who earned fewer career and technical 

education (CTE) credits in high school 

than for graduates who earned more 

CTE credits.1 Among those earning 

fewer than 4 CTE credits, 91 percent 

enrolled by 2012, while among those 

earning 4 or more CTE credits, 83 

percent enrolled (not shown in figures; 

see https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/

tables/h134.asp).2

This Data Point looks at students’ 

postsecondary enrollment based on 

different measures of CTE coursetaking. 

First, students are classified based on 

whether they “concentrated” in CTE. 

A CTE concentrator is a student who 

earned at least 3 credits within one of 

the 12 occupational areas listed in 

figure 2. A nonconcentrator is a 

student who earned any number of 

CTE credits, but without earning at 

least 3 credits in a specific occupational 

area. CTE concentrators are different 

from nonconcentrators because they 

concentrate their CTE credits and they 

earn a relatively high number of CTE 

credits. To look at each of these 

coursetaking characteristics separately, 

nonconcentrators are divided into two 

groups: students who earned 3 or more 

CTE credits without concentrating their 

credits, and students who earned fewer 

than 3 CTE credits.

Postsecondary enrollment 

rates were lower for high 

school graduates who were 

CTE concentrators than for 

nonconcentrators. 

Overall, 82 percent of high school CTE 

concentrators enrolled in postsecondary 

education, compared to 91 percent of 

graduates who were not concentrators 

(figure 1). Comparing concentrators 

to the two groups of nonconcentrators 

shows that both the number of CTE 

credits earned and concentrating in 

FIGURE 1. Percentage of 2004 public high school graduates 

who enrolled in postsecondary education as of 2012, by 

career and technical education (CTE) participation in high 

school: 2012 

92

88

82

91

89

0 20 40 60 80 100

Fewer than 3 CTE credits

3 or more CTE credits, no concentration

Concentrators

Nonconcentrators

All graduates

Percent of graduates

CTE participation

NOTE: CTE includes the 12 occupational subject areas listed in figure 2. Concentrators are students who earned at 

least 3 credits in any one of the occupational areas in figure 2; nonconcentrators did not earn at least 3 credits in one 

occupational area. Standard errors for estimates can be found at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/H134.asp. 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 

Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002/12), Third Follow-Up Restricted-Use Data File.

To learn more about ELS:2002, visit https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/els2002.

For questions about content or to view this report online, go to 

https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018043.
 

Participation in High School Career and Technical Education and Postsecondary Enrollment

FIGURE 2. Percentage of 2004 public high school graduates who enrolled in postsecondary 

education as of 2012, by area of career and technical education (CTE) concentration: 2012 

‡ Reporting standards not met. Too few cases to report.

NOTE: CTE includes the 12 occupational subject areas listed in the figure. Concentrators are students who earned at least 3 credits in any one of the occupational areas listed 

in the figure. Standard errors for estimates can be found at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/H134.asp.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002/12), Third 

Follow-Up Restricted-Use Data File.

CTE were associated with lower 

postsecondary enrollment rates. 

Enrollment rates were highest (92 

percent) for graduates who earned 

fewer than 3 CTE credits, lower (88 

percent) for those who earned at least 3 

CTE credits with no concentration, and 

lowest (82 percent) for concentrators.

Postsecondary enrollment 

rates also varied among 

graduates who concentrated 

in different occupational 

areas. 

Among the 11 occupational areas for 

which enrollment rates could be 

calculated, postsecondary enrollment

rates ranged from 66 percent for 

graduates who concentrated in repair 

and transportation to 93 percent for 

graduates who concentrated in 

computer and information sciences 

(figure 2). Graduates who concentrated in three areas—computer 

and information sciences, health 

sciences, and marketing—enrolled 

in postsecondary education at rates 

that were not measurably different 

from nonconcentrators, and were 

higher than for concentrators in 

general.3

Endnotes 

1 A credit is equivalent to one course that 

meets for one period per day for one school 

year. 

2 Hudson and Boivin (2016) and Dalton (2015) 

also use the ELS:2002 data to look at the 

postsecondary outcomes of 2004 high school 

graduates. Readers should note that the 

content of CTE courses, and students’ CTE 

coursetaking patterns, could have changed 

since 2004. 

3 These three concentration areas include (as of 

2004) some 20 percent of all CTE concentrators. 

(Not shown in figures; the more precise estimate 

is 19.6, with a standard error of 1.66 percent.)

References 

Dalton, B. (2015). Eight-Year Postsecondary 

Outcomes of Career and Technical Education 

Students From the High School Class of 2004. 

U.S. Department of Education. Washington, 

DC: Office of Career, Technical, and Adult 

Education. Retrieved November 9, 2017, from 

http://ctecenter.ed.gov/research/ps_outcomes. 

Hudson, L., and Boivin, S. (2016). Career and 

Technical Education Coursetaking and 

Postsecondary Enrollment and Attainment: 

High School Classes of 1992 and 2004 (NCES 

2016-109). U.S. Department of Education. 

Washington, DC: National Center for Education 

Statistics.

This National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Data Point presents 

information on education topics of current interest. It was authored by Lisa 

Hudson of NCES. Estimates based on samples are subject to sampling 

variability, and apparent differences may not be statistically significant. All 

stated differences are statistically significant at the .05 level. In the design, 

conduct, and data processing of NCES surveys, efforts are made to minimize 

effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, 

data processing error, or other systematic error.

‡

66

68

74

79

81

83

87

88

89

90

93

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Public services

Repair and transportation

Manufacturing

Construction and architecture

Agriculture and natural resources

Consumer and culinary services

Engineering technologies

Business

Communications and design

Marketing

Health sciences

Computer and information sciences

Area of CTE concentration