Fifteen Years of Change in High-Quality CTE Participation

In many states, including Massachusetts, demand for high-quality career and technical education (CTE) has grown faster than program supply, raising concerns about equitable access. Using 15 cohorts of administrative data, this brief examines how participation in high-quality CTE has changed across students’ demographic groups. While overall participation and concentration have increased, these gains are unbalanced: Female students have become better represented, while Hispanic/Latino students and English language learners (ELLs) have not. Our findings suggest that underrepresentation among Hispanic/Latino students appears tied to their school access and choice, whereas ELLs face persistent within-school barriers to concentrating in high-quality CTE pathways.