Perkins V has led to a renewed emphasis on work-based learning (WBL) as a key component of career and technical education (CTE) programs. In this report from the CTE Policy Exchange (CTEx), Thomas Goldring and Carly Urban describe how five states (Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Texas, and Washington) are implementing WBL under Perkins V as well as how the states are collecting WBL data, what data they are collecting, and how they are using the data. 

The authors find that the states view WBL as important but have limited (or at best evolving) data to describe or evaluate their WBL programs. The report concludes that states could and should be doing more to improve measurement and encourage robust data collection in this area, and that the federal government also has a significant role to play in aligning definitions and encouraging more consistent WBL data collection methods across the states.