Postsecondary CTE Awards by High School CTE Status shows the count and percentage of how many high school graduates earned a postsecondary CTE award and whether they participated in high school CTE.

The data help us understand the continuity of career and technical education between secondary and postsecondary education. This report offers a clickable legend where you can focus the graph on specific postsecondary completion status.

Exploring the Postsecondary CTE Awards by High School CTE Status report can answer questions like:

How many high school graduates participated in any capacity of high school CTE and earned a postsecondary award? How many awards were in a postsecondary CTE program?

Using the data table, observe the Any High School CTE row and note the award counts for Postsecondary Non-CTE Award and Postsecondary CTE Award out of the Total Student Count.

To calculate Postsecondary CTE Awards by High School CTE Status, the report uses a single high school graduating class as the base population. Next, the process determines the high school CTE status – none through high school CTE completion. Students must have graduated from a Michigan public high school to be included. Students may have earned their college certificate or degree from an out-of-state college or university. Students who are continuing in education are excluded from the report.

Then, the high school records are combined with the postsecondary records to determine if these high school graduates earned any postsecondary awards and if any of those awards were in postsecondary CTE programs.

Report Labels

Postsecondary CTE: These are both state approved and non state-approved programs that result in a degree below the bachelor’s degree that have a direct career relationship, and upon the completion the student has the qualifications, knowledge and skills necessary to directly enter the workforce within the chosen field of study. Also known as occupational programs. 

High School CTE Status: Indicator of whether a high school student has participated in a state approved secondary CTE program. Values include No High School CTE, Enrolled, Concentrator and Completer.

High School Graduating Class: A cohort of students defined by the year in which they have earned a high school diploma or certificate.

No High School CTE: CTE status for a student who has not had any enrollment in any course sections of a state approved CTE program.

Enrolled: CTE status for a student who has completed course sections covering less than half of the content standards of a state approved CTE program and therefore will not be identified as a Concentrator or Completer. Sometimes referred to as a “Participant.”

Concentrator: CTE status for a student who has completed courses that cover more than half the content standards in a state approved secondary CTE program with a grade of 2.0 or better.

Completer: CTE status for a student who has completed, with a grade of 2.0 or better, course sections covering all standards of a CTE program and has taken the CTE technical skill assessment, if applicable.

Any High School CTE: Subtotal comprised of Enrolled, Concentrator or Completer of a state approved high school CTE program.

Postsecondary Award: Certificate, degree or other award granted by a college or university.

No Postsecondary Award: Postsecondary Award status that indicates a high school graduate has not earned any postsecondary award.

Postsecondary Non-CTE Award: Postsecondary Award status that indicates a high school graduate has earned at least one postsecondary award and none were in a postsecondary CTE program.

Postsecondary CTE Award: Postsecondary Award status that indicates a high school graduate has earned at least one postsecondary award and at least one was in a postsecondary CTE program.

Data Collection

The Center for Educational Performance and Information, National Student Clearinghouse, the Michigan Office of Career and Technical Education and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity - Workforce Development collected the data used to complete this report:

• Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository to locate enrollment in a Michigan public community college or university. For details on the data definitions and how the data are collected, refer to the STARR Data Collection Manual
• The NSC StudentTracker database to locate enrollment from out-of-state or non-STARR participating colleges or universities. For a list of all colleges and universities that CEPI has available in its postsecondary data system, refer to the Postsecondary Entity List.
• The Career and Technical Education Information System collects high school enrollment information for state-approved CTE programs including expenditures, enrollment, and follow-up. The data helps determine 61a(1) fund distribution and is required for federal Perkins reporting including Core Performance Indicators and the Consolidated Annual Report.
• The Program Inventory Database contains program information submitted by community colleges, including whether a program is occupational in nature.