Career and Technical Education Alongside STEM Endorsement in the Houston Area | Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Preparing students for higher education and the workforce is an important goal of school districts. In Texas, this takes many forms, with two of the most common programs being Career and Technical Education (CTE) and High School Endorsements. Both programs offer rigorous academic content in particular areas of specialization that are relevant to postsecondary education and the job market.

In 2023, the Kinder Institute’s Houston Education Research Consortium conducted an in-depth study on Houston area high school graduates’ participation in CTE career groups which found that CTE graduates had lower postsecondary enrollment rates, formal employment rates and higher earnings after high school. A separate HERC study of high school endorsements showed a positive association between endorsements and academic achievement.

This article expands HERC’s research by exploring the connection between CTE and endorsements, particularly STEM endorsements, with a focus on the overlap between student participation in these programs.

Main findings

• Although the sequence of courses required to obtain approvals is shorter and broader than that required to complete a CTE degree program, there is significant overlap in coursework.
• Some endorsements can be earned by taking a combination of courses in different areas. For this reason, many graduates in the sample earned multiple endorsements, with the 44,901 graduates receiving a total of 70,553 endorsements.
• More than a quarter of graduates received a STEM endorsement and most of them did not participate in the STEM CTE career hub.
• Students are interested in pursuing interdisciplinary academic pathways. Only 15% of students who earned a STEM honors also participated in a STEM CTE program. Graduates in the health sciences CTE career group (20%) and non-CTE graduates (21%) represented the largest proportions of recognized STEM graduates.
• There are clear geographic differences in STEM engagement in the Houston area. Districts on the west side of the Houston region had higher concentrations of STEM engagement than others, likely due to the region’s geographic proximity to the Energy Corridor with its high concentration of job opportunities based on STEM. “STEM deserts” – areas where schools provide limited access to STEM pathways or validation courses – are more common in the south and east parts of Houston ISD.

This research was funded in part by Chevron.