Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth

Daniel Kreisman and Kevin Stange

No 23851, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Vocational education is a large part of the high school curriculum, yet we have little understanding of what drives vocational enrollment or whether these courses help or harm early careers. To address this we develop a framework for curriculum choice, taking into account ability and preferences for academic and vocational work. We test model predictions using detailed transcript and earnings information from the NLSY97. Our results are two-fold. First, students positively sort into vocational courses, suggesting the belief that low ability students are funneled into vocational coursework is unlikely true. Second, we find higher earnings among students taking more upper-level vocational courses – a nearly 2% wage premium for each additional year, yet we find no gain from introductory vocational courses. These results suggest (a) policies limiting students’ ability to take vocational courses may not be welfare enhancing, and (b) the benefits of vocational coursework accrue to those who focus on depth over breadth.

JEL-codes: I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lma and nep-ure
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Published as Daniel Kreisman & Kevin Stange, 2020. "Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth," Education Finance and Policy, vol 15(1), pages 11-44.

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Journal Article: Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth (2020)
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