Factors Influencing High School Students' Career and Technical Education Enrollment Patterns

Career and technical education (CTE) has gone through major transformations in the United States with important benefits for all students seeking postsecondary and career success. Research analyzing students' CTE enrollment patterns is important to understand which students are taking CTE courses and why in order to inform future research and practice. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:2009), this study investigated CTE enrollment patterns using Aliaga, Kotamraju, and Stone's (2014) typology and literature-based individual and social factors. Results from descriptive and multinomial logistic regression indicated that the majority of students were enrolling in some level of CTE credits and that individual and social factors were influential but varied by specific enrollment patterns.