Quentin Suffren is the Senior Advisor of Innovation Policy for ExcelinEd.
States can—and should—graduate students from high school prepared for the challenges of college and careers. Many states are working toward this goal by improving the quality of career and technical education (CTE) programs and have looked to industry-recognized credentials as one component of this improvement. However, there is limited research on education and labor market outcomes associated with earning an industry credential in high school.
A new report from ExcelinEd and Burning Glass Technologies, Where Credentials Meet the Market: State Case Studies on the Effect of High School Industry Credentials on Educational and Labor Market Outcomes, addresses that gap.
Where Credentials Meet the Market builds on the foundation laid in Credentials Matter: A National Landscape to examine the impact of credential attainment on long-term student outcomes. This second report analyzes the credentials students earn in high school and their impact on students’ secondary completion, postsecondary enrollment and completion as well as wage earnings. It provides insights into the return on investment of earning a credential in Florida, Indiana and Kentucky—three states that collect rich, student-level data that includes credential attainment at the student level.
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Overall, the report finds that earning a credential is associated with positive outcomes related to high school completion, community college enrollment and completion, and wages.
*Postsecondary outcomes need additional research to determine if rigor of study or cost of higher education for credential earners has an impact on bachelor’s degree attainment.
Based on these findings, Where Credentials Meet the Market has identified five specific recommendations for states to consider as they design education-to-career pathways for students.
Visit CredentialsMatter.org to explore interactive maps and data tables and to learn more.
View the Credentials Matter report to examine the analysis’s approach, findings and recommendations.
Credentials Matter is an ongoing research partnership between ExcelinEd and Burning Glass Technologies designed to shed light on the landscape of industry credential data collection and alignment across the country. The project provides insight into how industry credentials earned by high school students align with workforce demand in each state to inform education system improvements and state data collection practices. Visit ExcelinEd.org/CredentialsMatter for more information.