This CALDER study examined the extent to which students obtained postsecondary credentials in the career and technical education (CTE) fields of focus they chose in high school. Using school fixed effects models, the paper finds that focusing on a particular CTE field in high school is associated with an increased probability of enrolling in and obtaining a postsecondary credential in that field. However, across all fields of focus, most students still pursued postsecondary study in a different field from their CTE focus in high school.

This is an updated version of a paper released in July 2022.