Career and Technical Education as a Conduit for Skilled Technical Careers: A Targeted Research Review and Framework for Future Research

Funding text 1: CTE has attracted national attention in recent years as an educational pathway with great potential to help both workers and employers. This awareness has led to an increasing pace of reforms and innovations. Encouraged by federal programs such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Trade Adjustment Act for Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, and the addition of a CTE topic line in the Institute for Education Sciences' (IES) Education Research Grants Program, policymakers and schools have developed increasingly sophisticated models of CTE delivery, which increasingly occur in both secondary and postsecondary institutions. However, the diversity of program offerings and outcomes is a great challenge for research, as practices are evolving more quickly than CTE research (Alfeld, 2016 ).; Funding text 2: This work was facilitated by many of our colleagues in the ETS Center for Education and Career Development, to whom we are grateful, particularly Gernissia Cherfrere, Vinetha Belur, and Jennifer Bochenek, who offered important research support. James Jacobs, Harrison Kell, Margarita Olivera-Aguilar, Lydia Liu, Don Powers, Katrina Roohr, and Richard Tannenbaum offered thoughtful commentary that enriched our final report.