By

One strategy for improving high school outcomes involves combining college-preparatory coursework with career-technical education (CTE) in the high school curriculum. The aim is to make high school more meaningful and motivating for more students, to increase graduation rates, and to prepare graduates for a range of postsecondary options. Preparation for college and career can be combined in various ways. Some high school students manage to complete the academic coursework required for college along with a career-technical sequence. Another approach is to enhance the academic content of CTE classes. A third approach is through “career academies ” within comprehensive high schools that organize a multi-year curriculum around a career-related theme, with students at each grade level taking a set of core academic classes together, along with a technical class related to the career theme. This paper reviews the evidence on effects of these approaches for students. Despite the challenges of implementation and the incompleteness of the evidence that these strategies produce the desired effects, the necessity of reconciling universal college aspirations with the realities of labor markets implies that programs combining academic and career-technical curriculum will—and should—continue to develop.