Return on Investment: Career and Technical Education
As the discussions of Perkins reauthorization move forward, given current trends related to the country’s economic condition matched with growing concern about U.S. economic competitiveness, attention is now being focused on educating the 21st-century workforce. In this regard, CTE is being seen as an increasingly major contributor to the White House’s agenda-but with a caveat. CTE must convincingly make the case that it adds value to federal education and workforce development efforts. In short, does the federal investment in CTE pay off? Answering this question requires the development of a research agenda focusing on return on investment (ROI) that will analyze the benefits of investment in CTE programs from the perspective of both the individual and society.
Kotamraju, P. (2011, October). Return on investment: Career and technical education. Presentation made at the Fall 2011 meeting of the National Association of State Directors of Career-Technical Education Consortium, Baltimore, MD.