Federal Report Explores Key Indicators of Education, Including Career and Technical Education, School Enrollment Throughout the Pandemic

The American Institutes for Research supports the congressionally mandated Condition of Education report, making it more accessible and engaging

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) this week released the annual Condition of Education report, a congressionally mandated compendium of multiple data points about all levels of education. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) provided technical and editorial support for the report, including improvements that make the data more accessible and easier for policymakers, researchers, and the public to use.

NCES, part of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education, publishes the report, which includes key indicators on education, from Pre-K to postsecondary; labor force outcomes; and international comparisons. The Condition of Education is compiled from several data collections and studies that NCES conducts. In partnership with NCES staff, AIR made key contributions to the 2024 Condition of Education, including:

• Authoring the “spotlight” that explores career and technical education (CTE) in the United States;
• Developing new contents related to public school finances, English learners’ participation in services, and enrollment of young children in private education; and
• Expanding the use of interactive graphics, which make the data more engaging and easier to understand for the public.
   

Highlights

Career and Technical Education in the United States: This spotlight uses data from four surveys to explore various topics related to CTE, including the hiring for and qualifications of CTE teachers, high school students’ CTE course taking, postsecondary degree completion in CTE fields, and the transition from secondary to postsecondary education among high school CTE concentrators. Among the findings:

• In 2020–21, among public school teachers of grades 9–12, a higher percentage of CTE teachers than of those in many other fields were among the newest to the profession, meaning they had less than 3 years of experience, according to the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS)
• Business and marketing was among the most common CTE fields of study at the high school and subbaccalaureate levels, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS); and
• In the Postsecondary Education Administrative Records Collection (PEAR) of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), students are categorized into CTE concentrators versus nonconcentrators, depending on whether they earned at least 2 credits in the same CTE area during high school. 
  • Among 2013 public high school graduates ever enrolled in postsecondary education by June 2021, a higher percentage of CTE concentrators than of nonconcentrators had received an associate’s degree as their highest postsecondary degree (14% vs. 9%).
  • A lower percentage of CTE concentrators than of nonconcentrators had received a bachelor’s or higher degree (48% vs. 54%). 
  • Among those who earned an associate’s degree, a higher percentage of CTE concentrators earned their degree in a CTE field (58% vs. 45%). 

Other key findings from the 2024 report include: 

• In 2022, about 59% of 3- to 5-year-olds were enrolled in school overall, including 39% enrolled in public schools and 20% who were receiving a private education. The 2022 school enrollment rate (59%) was higher than the rate in 2021 (53%), but it remained lower than in 2019 (61%), before the coronavirus pandemic.
• For K–12 enrollment in private and public schools showed different patterns during the pandemic. Private K–12 enrollment was 4.7 million students in both fall 2019 and fall 2021. In comparison, public K–12 enrollment was 2% lower in fall 2021 than in fall 2019 (48 million vs. 49.2 million). 
• Among 12th-graders who were enrolled in private schools in fall 2020, about 96% graduated in the school year (2020–21). In comparison, the adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) for public school students was 87% in 2021–22. 

AIR provides support to this and other NCES projects through various contracts.