Public High School Students’ Career 

and Technical Education Coursetaking: 

1992 to 2013

STATS IN BRIEF

November 2020

NCES 2020-010

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

A Publication of the National Center for Education Statistics at IES

AUTHORS

Albert Y. Liu

Insight Policy Research

Laura Burns

RTI International

PROJECT OFFICER

Lisa Hudson

National Center for Education Statistics

Statistics in Brief publications present descriptive data 

in tabular or graphic formats to provide useful 

information to a broad audience, including members of 

the general public. They address simple and topical 

issues and questions. They do not investigate more 

complex hypotheses, account for interrelationships 

among variables, or support causal inferences. 

We encourage readers who are interested in more 

complex questions and in-depth analysis to explore 

other National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 

resources, including publications, online data tools, 

and public- and restricted-use datasets. See nces.ed.gov

and references noted in the body of this document for 

more information.

The federal government has long 

supported career and technical 

education (CTE). Federal policymakers 

first invested in CTE in 1917 by 

providing funding under the SmithHughes Act for high school vocational 

education programs in agriculture, 

home economics, and trade and 

industrial education. Today the 

Strengthening Career and Technical 

Education for the 21st Century Act (P.L. 

115–224) funds CTE programs across 

a wide range of occupational areas 

for secondary and subbaccalaureate 

postsecondary students.1

 In 2014–15, a 

total of 7.4 million high school students 

enrolled in CTE courses supported by 

federal funding (U.S. Department of 

Education 2018).

Prior studies have documented the 

large role of CTE in the high school 

curriculum. For example, Arbeit, 

Leu, and Dalton (2017) found 

79 percent of high school graduates 

earned at least one credit in CTE. 

Past research has also shown 

coursetaking is more common in 

some CTE subject areas, such as 

business, than in other subject areas, 

and different groups of students 

participate in CTE at different 

levels (Arbeit, Leu, and Dalton 2017; 

Levesque et al. 2008). For example, 

males have been found to earn more 

CTE credits than females, and Asian 

students have been found to earn 

fewer CTE credits than students 

from other racial/ethnic groups. 

Finally, Hudson (2013) found that 

from 1990 to 2009, the percentage of 

public high school graduates earning 

credits in CTE decreased, but that 

in spite of that overall decline, 

some CTE subject areas grew in 

prevalence (e.g., communications 

and design, healthcare).

To help set the context for CTE 

research and policymaking, this 

Statistics in Brief updates previous 

descriptive analyses of high school 

student participation in CTE.2

 The 

analysis in this brief differs from 

those for past studies, however, 

because it uses a new course coding 

system and a new taxonomy to 

organize courses into subject areas. 

1 This legislation, in effect since July 1, 2019, 

includes a mandate for the National Center for 

Education Statistics (NCES) to collect and report 

national data on CTE. This report helps meet 

that mandate. The NCES CTE Statistics website 

(https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes) provides a 

more comprehensive set of statistics on CTE at the 

secondary and postsecondary levels and on adults’ 

preparation for work.

2 Previous studies of high school students’ CTE 

participation include Arbeit, Leu, and Dalton 

2017; Dalton et al. 2013; Hudson and Laird 2009; 

Levesque et al. 2008; and U.S. Department of 

Education 2014.
 2 

Data and Methods

The findings in this report are based 

on three nationally representative 

data collections conducted by NCES: 

the National Education Longitudinal 

Study of 1988 (NELS:88), the 

Education Longitudinal Study of 

2002 (ELS:2002), and the High 

School Longitudinal Study of 

2009 (HSLS:09). NELS:88 is a 

longitudinal study of students who 

were in eighth grade in spring 1988, 

ELS:2002 is a longitudinal study of 

students who were in tenth grade 

in spring 2002, and HSLS:09 is a 

longitudinal study of students in 

ninth grade in fall 2009. All three 

data collections followed students 

over time and included a high school 

transcript data collection in the 

year participants were expected to 

graduate from high school—1992 for 

NELS:88, 2004 for ELS:2002, and 

2013 for HSLS:09—to enable analyses 

of high school coursetaking.3

The analytic samples used in this 

report consist of students who 

graduated from public high schools 

by their scheduled graduation dates 

and whose transcripts were deemed 

complete. Specifically, the samples 

consist of high school students who 

graduated from a public high school 

with an honors or standard diploma 

by August 31 of the scheduled 

graduation year (1992, 2004, or 2013) 

and whose transcripts recorded at 

least 16 Carnegie units4

 including 

units completed in English. The 

unweighted number of such 

graduates was approximately 10,600 

in NELS:88; 8,600 in ELS:2002; and 

11,500 in HSLS:09. 

The HSLS:09, NELS:88, and ELS:2002 

transcript data were coded using the 

3 The HSLS:09 transcript data are the most 

recent national high school transcript data 

available as of 2020.

4 A Carnegie unit is a credit hour, defined at the 

secondary level as the equivalent of a course 

taken every school day, one period per day, for 

a full school year.

School Courses for the Exchange of 

Data (SCED) and the 2018 Secondary 

School Course Taxonomy (SSCT). The 

SCED includes about 1,400 five-digit 

course codes organized into 22 subject 

areas (Bradby, Pedroso, and Rogers 

2007). While the HSLS:09 was already 

coded using the SCED, NCES recoded 

the NELS:88 and ELS:2002 data using 

the same system to provide 

comparable data across the studies. 

To facilitate a more consistent analysis 

of CTE in particular, the approximately 

1,400 SCED-coded courses in all 

3 longitudinal studies were aggregated 

into subject areas using the SSCT 

(Hudson 2019). The SSCT includes 

6 broad subject areas in the academic 

curricular area (4 core academic 

subjects of English, mathematics, 

science, and social studies, plus fine 

arts and foreign languages), 10 broad 

subject areas in the CTE curricular 

area (agriculture and natural 

resources; business, finance, and 

marketing; communication and 

communication technologies; 

computer and information sciences; 

construction; consumer services; 

engineering, design, and production; 

healthcare; mechanical repair and 

operation; and public services), and 

7 broad subject areas in the 

enrichment curricular area (family 

and consumer sciences education, 

career exploration, religious 

education, physical and health 

education, military sciences, computer 

literacy, and miscellaneous).5

This report measures participation 

in CTE in three ways: the percentage 

5 Because of the use of this newer taxonomy, 

the names of subject fields in this study are 

somewhat different from those used in past 

NCES studies. For example, “communications 

and design” no longer includes design courses 

and is now “communication and communication 

technologies.” Two subject areas in the 

enrichment curriculum—family and consumer 

sciences education, and career exploration—were 

included in the definition of CTE in some past 

NCES studies but are no longer classified as CTE. 

See Hudson (2019) for more information on how 

the new and old taxonomies compare.

of graduates who earned CTE 

credits, the average number of 

CTE credits graduates earned, and 

the percentage of graduates with 

a CTE concentration. Students are 

considered to “concentrate” in CTE 

if they earn a minimum number of 

credits in 1 of the 10 CTE areas listed 

above. Students who earned at least 

two credits in a single CTE subject 

area are referred to as two-credit 

concentrators, and students who 

earned at least three credits in a 

single CTE subject area are referred 

to as three-credit concentrators.6

Participation in CTE is examined 

in detail for graduates in 2013; for 

selected questions, participation 

trends are examined for graduates in 

1992, 2004, and 2013.

All statements of comparison were 

tested for statistical significance 

using the Student’s t statistic. No 

adjustments were made for multiple 

comparisons. Because the study 

design is descriptive, readers are 

cautioned against drawing causal 

inferences based on the results 

presented. The Technical Notes 

section at the end of this brief 

includes more information on the 

data sources and analyses used in 

this report. 

For readers interested in additional 

information about the survey 

from which the findings were 

drawn and the analyses underlying 

the findings, please see the “View 

Technical Notes” link at https://

nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.

asp?pubid=2020010. 

6 Two and three credits are the thresholds 

for defining concentration used in past NCES 

reports (e.g., Hudson and Laird 2009; Levesque 

et al. 2008). Current federal legislation defines 

concentrators using the two-credit threshold (P.L. 

115–224, section 3). “Concentrating” in a CTE area 

may indicate a student is preparing for a career 

in that area because CTE is intended to provide 

students with skills required for future work.
 3 

STUDY QUESTIONS AND KEY FINDINGS

1 To what extent do 

public high school 

graduates participate 

in career and technical 

education (CTE), and 

has their participation 

changed over time?

2 Does participation 

in CTE vary by the 

characteristics of 

public high school 

graduates, and have 

gender gaps in CTE 

subject areas changed 

over time?

3 Does the 

participation 

of public high 

school graduates 

in CTE vary by 

their academic 

achievement at the 

start of high school?

• Most public high school 

graduates earned CTE credits but 

did not necessarily concentrate 

in a specific CTE subject area. 

Overall, 88 percent of graduates 

earned CTE credits, 20 percent 

were 3-credit concentrators, and 

an additional 18 percent (for a 

total of 38 percent) were 2-credit 

concentrators.

• Public high school graduates 

earned more credits in business, 

finance, and marketing than in 

any other CTE area (FIGURE 2).

• CTE participation declined from 

1992, when public high school 

graduates earned an average 

of 3.13 CTE credits, to 2013, 

when they earned an average of 

2.60 CTE credits (FIGURE 4).

• Credit earning decreased in 

the three CTE subject areas 

of mechanical repair and 

operation; engineering, design, 

and production; and business, 

finance, and marketing, while 

it increased in the five subject 

areas of public services, 

healthcare, agriculture and 

natural resources, computer 

and information science, 

and communication and 

communication technologies 

(FIGURE 5).

• Male public high school 

graduates earned more CTE 

credits than female graduates 

(FIGURE 6). White and Black 

graduates earned more CTE 

credits than their Asian/Pacific 

Islander peers. Graduates whose 

first language was English 

earned more CTE credits than 

their peers whose first language 

was not English.

• Students who had an 

Individualized Education 

Program (IEP) earned more CTE 

credits than students who did 

not have an IEP, and students 

whose parents had lower levels 

of educational attainment earned 

more CTE credits than students 

whose parents had higher levels 

of attainment (FIGURE 7).

• In business, finance, and 

marketing, a gender gap 

favoring females disappeared 

between 1992 and 2013. Over 

the same period, a gender gap 

favoring females appeared 

in communication and 

communication technologies and 

in public services, and a gender 

gap favoring males appeared 

in computer and information 

sciences (FIGURE 8).

• Public high school graduates 

who took lower and mid-level 

mathematics courses in ninth 

grade completed more CTE 

credits than graduates who 

took higher-level mathematics 

courses (FIGURE 9). 

• Relatedly, public high school 

graduates with lower levels 

of mathematics achievement 

in ninth grade earned more 

CTE credits than those with 

higher levels of mathematics 

achievement (FIGURE 9).
 4 

1 To what extent do public high school graduates participate 

in career and technical education (CTE), and has their 

participation changed over time?

Career and Technical 

Education Participation 

Among 2013 Graduates

Earning CTE credits was relatively 

common among public high school 

graduates in 2013, although most 

graduates did not concentrate in 

a specific CTE area. Among 2013 

graduates, 88 percent earned CTE 

credits.7

 One in 5 graduates (20 percent) 

were 3-credit concentrators, meaning 

they earned at least 3 credits in one of 

the 10 CTE subject areas. An additional 

18 percent (for a total of 38 percent) 

were 2-credit concentrators, earning at 

least 2 credits in a specific CTE area.

Overall, CTE credits represented 

10 percent of credits earned across all 

curricular areas in 2013 (not shown 

in figures; see https://nces.ed.gov/

surveys/ctes/tables/H185.asp).

Another measure of CTE participation 

is the average number of CTE credits 

graduates earn. Graduates in 2013 

earned an average of 2.60 CTE credits, 

which was lower than the average 

earned in each of the four core 

academic subject areas (FIGURE 1). 

By contrast, the average number

of CTE credits earned was higher 

than that earned in fine arts and in 

foreign languages. 

Public high school graduates earned 

more credits in some CTE subject 

areas than in others. Graduates 

earned a higher average number 

of credits in business, finance, and 

marketing (0.56 credits) than in any 

other CTE area and a lower average 

number of credits in mechanical 

repair and operation (0.11) than in 

any other CTE area (FIGURE 2).

Career and Technical 

Education Participation 

Over Time

Based on several measures, 

participation in CTE declined 

from 1992 to 2013. The percentage 

of graduates earning CTE credits 

declined from 95 percent in 1992 to 

88 percent in 2013 (FIGURE 3). The 

percentage of graduates who were 

2-credit concentrators decreased 

from 51 percent in 1992 to 38 percent 

in 2013, and the percentage of 

graduates who were 3-credit 

concentrators decreased from 

27 percent in 1992 to 20 percent in 

2013 (FIGURE 3).8

FIGURE 1. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned, 

by subject area: 2013 

 

NOTE: CTE = career and technical education. Public high school graduates are defined as 

students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (2013). CTE credits are credits in these 

10 subject areas: agriculture and natural resources; business, finance, and marketing; 

communications and communication technologies; computer and information sciences; 

construction; consumer services; engineering, design, and production; healthcare; 

mechanical repair and operation; and public services. Enrichment credits are credits in 

family and consumer sciences education, career exploration, religious education, physical 

and health education, military sciences, computer literacy, and miscellaneous other 

courses. Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/

tables/h185.asp.

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

for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 

2013 Update, and High School Transcript File. 7 In past NCES reports, CTE included credit 

earning in the two CTE-related subject areas of 

family and consumer sciences education and 

career exploration. Among 2013 graduates, 

45 percent earned credits in these CTE-related 

areas. Taken together, 92 percent of graduates in 

2013 earned credits in either CTE or CTE-related 

areas. The remainder of this report focuses 

exclusively on credits in CTE. More information on 

CTE-related credits is available in the secondarylevel tables on the CTE Statistics website at 

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

8 Information on the percentage of graduates 

who concentrated in each CTE subject area is 

available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/

tables/h178.asp.
 5 

FIGURE 2. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned, by career and technical education (CTE) 

subject area: 2013

 

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (2013). Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h185.asp. 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study 

of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File. 

The average number of credits 

earned in CTE also decreased, from 

3.13 credits in 1992 to 2.60 credits in 

2013 (FIGURE 4). By contrast, the 

average number of credits earned 

increased in each of the six academic 

subject areas and the enrichment 

curriculum. For example, the 

average number of credits earned 

in mathematics increased from 3.27 

credits in 1992 to 3.89 credits in 2013. 

Patterns of change differed across 

CTE subject areas, with participation 

increasing in five CTE areas and 

decreasing in three (FIGURE 5). 

Note that because the average 

number of credits earned in each 

CTE area is relatively small—ranging 

from 0.11 credits to 0.56 credits (see 

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

tables/H175.asp)—small changes in 

credits earned were statistically 

significant. The average number of 

credits earned increased in public 

services, healthcare, agriculture 

and natural resources, computer 

and information science, and 

communication and communication 

technologies. By contrast, the 

average number of credits earned 

decreased in mechanical repair and 

operation; engineering, design, and 

production; and business, finance, 

FIGURE 3. Percentage of public high school graduates who earned any 

career and technical education (CTE) credits and who concentrated in 

CTE: 1992, 2004, and 2013

 

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public 

high school with an honors or standard diploma by August 31 of their scheduled 

graduation year (1992, 2004, or 2013). CTE credits are credits in these 10 subject areas: 

agriculture and natural resources; business, finance, and marketing; communication and 

communication technologies; computer and information sciences; construction; consumer 

services; engineering, design, and production; healthcare; mechanical repair and 

operation; and public services. The 2- and 3-credit CTE concentrators are students who 

earned at least 2 or at least 3 credits, respectively, in one of these 10 CTE fields. Estimates 

and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h176.asp and 

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h177.asp.

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

for Education Statistics, National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), Second 

Follow-up and High School Transcript File; Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 

(ELS:2002), First Follow-up and High School Transcript File; and High School Longitudinal 

Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File. 
 6 

and marketing. As figure 5 shows, 

business, finance, and marketing 

had the greatest decline. In the SSCT, 

this broad subject area includes 

four sub-areas—business support, 

business management, finance, and 

marketing. Among these four subareas, business support accounted for 

most of the decrease (0.60 of the 0.79 

credit decrease; not shown in figures; 

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

ctes/tables/H175.asp). There was no 

statistically significant change in the 

average number of credits earned 

in the two CTE subject areas of 

consumer services and construction.

FIGURE 4. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned, by subject area: 1992, 2004, and 2013

 

NOTE: CTE = career and technical education. Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with 

an honors or standard diploma by August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (1992, 2004, or 2013). CTE credits are credits in these 10 subject 

areas: agriculture and natural resources; business, finance, and marketing; communications and communication technologies; computer and 

information sciences; construction; consumer services; engineering, design, and production; healthcare; mechanical repair and operation; and 

public services. Enrichment credits are credits in family and consumer sciences education, career exploration, religious education, physical and 

health education, military sciences, computer literacy, and miscellaneous other courses. Estimates and standard errors are available at https://

nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h175.asp.

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

Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), Second Follow-up and High School Transcript File; Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), First 

Follow-up and High School Transcript File; and High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School 

Transcript File.
 7 

FIGURE 5. Change in the average number of credits public high school graduates earned in each career and technical 

education (CTE) subject area: 1992 to 2013

 

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (1992 or 2013). Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/

tables/h175.asp.

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

Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), First Follow-up and High School Transcript File; and High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), 

Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File.
 8 

2 Does participation in CTE vary by characteristics of 

public high school graduates, and have gender gaps in 

CTE subject areas changed over time?

Career and Technical 

Education Participation 

by Student Characteristics 

in 2013

As past studies have found (Arbeit, 

Leu, and Dalton 2017; Levesque et 

al. 2008), student participation in 

CTE varied by student sex, race/

ethnicity, and whether English was 

the student’s first language. 

In general, male public high school 

graduates participated in CTE to a 

greater extent than females. Male 

graduates earned an average of 

2.88 CTE credits compared with 

2.34 CTE credits for female graduates 

(FIGURE 6). However, in contrast 

to earning fewer CTE credits, female 

graduates earned more credits

in the academic curriculum than

did male graduates (20.38 versus 

19.10, respectively).

Participation in CTE also varied by 

race and ethnicity. White and Black 

graduates earned more CTE credits 

on average than their Asian/Pacific 

Islander peers (2.78 and 2.55 versus 

1.95, respectively), but there was 

no measurable difference between 

the average numbers of CTE credits 

earned by Hispanic and Asian/

Pacific Islander graduates (2.36 

and 1.95, respectively). Although 

Asian/Pacific Islanders earned 

fewer CTE credits than their White 

and Black peers, they earned more 

academic credits than those peers 

(21.02 versus 19.80 and 20.07, 

respectively).9

There also was a significant 

difference in CTE participation 

between high school graduates 

who did and who did not speak 

English as a first language. 

Graduates whose first language was 

English earned more CTE credits 

on average than those whose first 

language was not English (2.67 

versus 2.30 credits, respectively). 

FIGURE 6. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned in career and technical education (CTE), by 

student sex, race/ethnicity, and whether English was first language: 2013

 

1

 Black includes African American, Hispanic includes Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander includes Native Hawaiian. Race categories exclude 

persons of Hispanic origin.

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (2013). CTE credits are credits in these 10 subject areas: agriculture and natural resources; 

business, finance, and marketing; communications and communication technologies; computer and information sciences; construction; 

consumer services; engineering, design, and production; healthcare; mechanical repair and operation; and public services. Estimates and 

standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h196.asp and https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h197.asp.

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

Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File.

9 Statistics for academic coursetaking are 

not shown in figures; see https://nces.ed.gov/

surveys/ctes/tables/h186.asp and https://nces.

ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h188.asp.
 9 

The average number of CTE credits 

earned also varied by the highest 

level of education of high school 

graduates’ parents (FIGURE 7). 

Graduates whose parents had no 

more than a high school education 

and those whose parents completed 

some college earned more CTE 

credits than graduates whose 

parents had at least a bachelor’s 

degree (2.77 and 2.75 versus 

2.31 credits, respectively). 

Finally, graduates who had an 

Individualized Education Program 

(IEP) in grade 9 earned more CTE 

credits than those who did not have 

an IEP (2.91 versus 2.40 credits).10

Gender Gap in Career and 

Technical Education

Participation by Subject Area

Increasing the participation of 

male and female students in 

nontraditional (for their sex) CTE 

areas has long been of policy 

interest. For example, current 

federal CTE legislation defines 

students enrolled in classes in 

nontraditional CTE areas as a 

“special population,” one of the 

student groups designated to be 

served by the Act.

In line with this federal interest, 

this section examines the size and 

direction of gender gaps in each 

CTE subject area among 1992 and 

2013 graduates. A gender gap is 

defined as the difference between 

the average number of credits 

earned by male graduates and 

those earned by female graduates. 

A positive value for a gender gap 

indicates males earned more 

credits than females, whereas a 

negative value indicates females 

earned more credits than males. 

In 2013, male graduates tended to 

earn more credits in CTE subject 

areas aligned with traditionally 

male-dominated occupations, 

while female graduates tended to 

earn more credits in CTE subject 

areas aligned with traditionally 

female-dominated occupations (U.S. 

Department of Labor, Bureau of 

Labor Statistics 2019). Among the 

2013 cohort, males earned more 

credits than females in the five CTE 

subject areas of engineering, design, 

and production; construction; 

mechanical repair and operation; 

computer and information sciences; 

and agriculture and natural 

resources (FIGURE 8).

Females earned more credits 

than males in the four CTE subject 

areas of consumer services, 

healthcare, communication and 

communication technologies, and 

public services. In 2013 there was no 

statistically significant gender gap in 

credit earning in business, finance, 

and marketing.

These coursetaking patterns reflect 

gender gaps that were sometimes 

larger in 2013 than in 1992, 

sometimes smaller, and sometimes 

not measurably different. 

Gender gaps were larger in 2013 

than in 1992 in four subject areas. 

First, in healthcare, a gender gap 

favoring females (that is, females 

earned more credits than males) 

existed in both years, but the size 

of the gap was significantly larger in 

2013 than in 1992. In communication 

and communication technologies 

and in public services, a gender 

gap favoring females existed in 

2013 although there had not been 

a gender gap in 1992. Likewise, in 

computer and information sciences, 

a gender gap favoring males existed 

in 2013, but there had not been a 

gender gap in 1992. 

Gender gaps were smaller in 2013 

than in 1992 in four other subject 

areas. There was no gender gap 

favoring females in business, 

finance, and marketing in 2013, 

although there had been one in 1992. 

And while gender gaps favoring 

males existed in both 2013 and 

1992 in the three subject areas of 

agriculture and natural resources; 

engineering, design and production; 

and mechanical repair and 

10 The Individuals with Disabilities Education 

Act requires that every student who receives 

special education services under the Act have a 

written IEP.

FIGURE 7. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned 

in career and technical education (CTE), by individualized education 

program (IEP) status in ninth grade and parents’ highest level of 

education: 2013

 

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public 

high school with an honors or standard diploma by August 31 of their graduating year 

(2013). CTE credits are credits in these 10 subject areas: agriculture and natural resources; 

business, finance, and marketing; communications and communication technologies; 

computer and information sciences; construction; consumer services; engineering, 

design, and production; healthcare; mechanical repair and operation; and public services. 

Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/

h197.asp and https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h198.asp.

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

for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 

2013 Update, and High School Transcript File.
 10 

operation, the gap was significantly 

smaller in each subject area in 2013 

than in 1992.

Finally, there was no measurable 

difference in the size of the gender 

gap favoring females in consumer 

services in 2013 versus 1992, nor in 

the size of the gender gap favoring 

males in construction.

FIGURE 8. Male-female gap in average credits public high school graduates earned in each career and technical 

education (CTE) subject area: 1992 to 2013

 

# Rounds to zero.

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (1992 or 2013). Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/

tables/h181.asp.

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

Study of 1988 (NELS:88), First Follow-up and High School Transcript File; and High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 

Update, and High School Transcript File.
 11 

3 Does the participation of public high school graduates 

in CTE vary by their academic achievement at the start of 

high school?

This section compares CTE 

coursetaking of public high school 

graduates who started high school 

with different levels of academic 

achievement, based on (1) the 

highest level mathematics course 

they took in grade 9 and (2) their 

scores on a mathematics assessment 

administered as part of the HSLS:09 

base-year survey in grade 9. 

As in past studies (e.g., Levesque 

et al. 2008), students who started 

high school at lower academic 

achievement levels were found to 

participate in CTE at higher levels 

than those who started at higher 

academic achievement levels 

(FIGURE 9). Specifically, graduates 

whose grade 9 mathematics 

course was either below algebra I 

or algebra I earned more CTE 

credits than their peers who took 

mathematics above algebra I in 

grade 9 (2.77 and 2.87 versus 2.28 

credits, respectively. 

Similarly, graduates who had lower 

grade 9 mathematics assessment 

scores completed more CTE credits 

than their peers who had higher 

scores. Graduates whose grade 9 

mathematics score was in the lowest 

25 percent of scores completed 

the most CTE credits, followed by 

graduates with scores in the middle 

50 percent, then graduates with 

scores in the highest 25 percent (3.03, 

2.68, and 2.18 credits, respectively).

Focusing on assessment scores, a 

negative relationship between initial 

academic achievement and CTE 

coursetaking was also found in most 

CTE subject areas (FIGURE 10). 

FIGURE 9. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned in career and technical education (CTE), 

by ninth-grade mathematics course level and ninth-grade mathematics assessment score: 2013

 

NOTE: Mathematics courses are ordered here in increasing level as basic mathematics, other (not advanced) mathematics, prealgebra, algebra I, 

geometry, algebra II, trigonometry, other advanced mathematics, probability and statistics, precalculus, and calculus. Public high school graduates 

are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by August 31 of their scheduled graduation 

year (2013). CTE credits are credits in these 10 subject areas: agriculture and natural resources; business, finance, and marketing; communications 

and communication technologies; computer and information sciences; construction; consumer services; engineering, design, and production; 

healthcare; mechanical repair and operation; and public services. The mathematics assessment was designed to measure student achievement in 

algebra. Estimates and standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h195.asp.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 

2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File. 
 12 

However, among graduates who 

scored at different levels on the 

grade 9 mathematics assessment, no 

statistically significant differences 

were found for credits earned in 

engineering, design, and production 

or in healthcare. And graduates 

whose assessment score was in the 

highest 25 percent earned more

credits in computer and information 

sciences than graduates whose score 

was in the lowest 25 percent (0.24 

versus 0.19 credits, respectively).11

FIGURE 10. Average number of credits public high school graduates earned in each career and technical education 

(CTE) subject area, by ninth-grade mathematics assessment score: 2013

 

NOTE: Public high school graduates are defined as students who graduated from a public high school with an honors or standard diploma by 

August 31 of their scheduled graduation year (2013). The mathematics assessment was designed to measure achievement in algebra. Estimates and 

standard errors are available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h195.asp.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, High School Longitudinal Study of 

2009 (HSLS:09), Base-Year, 2013 Update, and High School Transcript File. 

11 A similar pattern was found when looking at 

grade 9 mathematics coursetaking, except 

that there was no measurable relationship 

between that coursetakng and credits earned 

in computer and information sciences (see 

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/tables/h195.asp).
 13 

FIND OUT MORE

For questions about content, to download this Statistics in Brief, or to view it online, 

go to

https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2020010

More detailed information on CTE coursetaking

at the high school and postsecondary levels 

can be found on the CTE Statistics website at 

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes and in the 

following NCES publications:

Career and Technical Education Coursetaking in 2013, 

by Locale (NCES 2019-099). https://nces.ed.gov/

pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019099

Participation in High School Career and Technical 

Education and Postsecondary Enrollment

(NCES 2018-043). https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018043

Participants in Subbaccaulaureate Occupational 

Education: 2012 (NCES 2018-149). https://nces.

ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018149

Trends in Subbaccalaureate Occupational Awards: 

2003 to 2015 (NCES 2018-010). https://nces.

ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018010

Readers might also be interested in the following 

NCES products using HSLS:09, ELS:2002, and/or 

NELS:88:

Dual Enrollment: Participation and Characteristics

(NCES 2019-176). https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019176

Parent and Student Expectations of Highest Education 

Level (NCES 2019-015). https://nces.ed.gov/

pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019015

Factors That Influence Student College Choice 

(NCES 2019-119). https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2019119

High School Students’ Views on Who Influences 

Their Thinking About Education and Careers 

(NCES 2018-088). https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2018088

Public High School Students’ Use of Graduation, Career, 

or Education Plans (NCES 2017-111). https://nces.

ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2017111
 14 

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