Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Following up with our CTE concentrators* at least six months after graduation to learn what they are doing can help CTE departments make curriculum decisions that affect local economies. This information also provides insight into the level of preparation that students need to be college- and career-ready. Each year, district CTE staff try to reach CTE concentrator graduates to ask about their current educational or employment status.
The CTE concentrator follow-up is part of Perkins V legislation, which requires districts that receive Perkins funds to report findings on eight quality performance indicators. One of the indicators is post-program placement, which reports what CTE concentrators are doing a minimum of six months after they graduate.
Results of the 2020-21 reporting year are now available. Statewide, 88 percent of Wisconsin districts receive Perkins funding, and these districts graduated 29,678 CTE concentrators. Responses were received from 15,821 CTE concentrator graduates (53 percent). Of those, 14,769 (93 percent) responded with a positive outcome (see table).
2020-21 Post-Program Placement of CTE Concentrator Graduates
| Placement | Percent of respondents |
|---|---|
| Postsecondary education | 67.43% |
| Employment | 29.12% |
| Military service | 2.95% |
| Advanced training | 0.43% |
| Advanced training | 0.07% |
To get a sense of which career pathways respondents were originally in, see the tables below:
As with all the quality performance indicators, the Wisconsin Perkins V State Plan outlines a yearly improvement in results. The positive outcomes on post-program placements for CTE concentrator graduates from reporting year 2020-21 was set at 87.1 percent. Based on the respondents only, Wisconsin Perkins districts exceeded the 87.1 percent target. However, just over half of our CTE concentrator graduates responded. Naturally, to get even more helpful results, the response rate would need to improve.
Districts can review their fiscal agent’s Post-Program Placement outcomes (Indicator 3S1) by visiting Perkins V Accountability Reports.
*A CTE concentrator is a student who took two or more CTE courses in a career pathway during 11th and 12th grades.
–Jessica Sloan, CTE Data Education Consultant, CTE Team, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction