Virginia High School Graduates CTE Credentials: Top Credentials Over Time and Across Student Groups

Starting in 2017, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) began requiring students graduating with the Standard diploma to earn a career and technical education (CTE) credential to encourage them to pursue opportunities that enhance their career readiness. To help Virginia stakeholders examine patterns in the types of CTE credentials students earned over time as well as differences by diploma type and among student groups, the study focused on the most commonly earned credentials. Specifically, this study addressed the following research questions:

1. For the 2011–2017 graduates, what were the top five CTE credentials earned and how did they change over time?
2. For the 2017 graduates, what were the top 10 most commonly earned CTE credentials earned overall and by diploma type?
3. For 2017 Standard diploma earners, how did the top 10 CTE credentials vary across different student characteristics (such as demographics and federal program participation) and by region?

The top 10 most commonly earned CTE credentials were:

1. W!se Financial Literacy Certification
2. Workplace Readiness Skills
3. MOS PowerPoint, Word, Excel
4. College and Work Readiness Assessment
5. National Career Readiness Certificate
6. Customer Service and Sales Certification
7. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
8. National Nurse Aide Program
9. Cosmetology Licensure
10. ServSafe Manager Certification

This study is descriptive in nature and cannot establish the reasons for the increase in the percentage of students earning CTE credentials over the seven-year span included in the study. The percentage of graduates earning CTE credentials increased in the years before and after policy implementation. The increases may have been, in part, a response to other factors, such as the regular legislative updates related to credentials which increased the perceived importance of credentials for graduates’ long-term success, changes in the labor market, a shift in students’ or school staff’s understanding of postsecondary readiness, or the addition of the Economics and Personal Finance course (which is tied to the W!se Financial Literacy Certification) to graduation requirements.

The current report is the first of a two-report series. This report focuses on the most commonly earned credentials. The second report will answer additional questions about credential-earning rates as a whole and examine their correlation with postsecondary enrollment.

This study looked at 2017 graduates across a variety of student subgroups, including English learner students, economically disadvantaged students, students with disabilities, and racial/ethnic subgroups and found the following:

1. The five most commonly earned CTE credentials in Virginia remained the same from 2011 to 2017, but the percentage of students earning the WRS and W!se Financial Literacy Certification credentials increased by more than 30-fold while the percentage of students earning the other credentials remained relatively stable.
2. The study found that regardless of diploma type, 9 of the top 10 credentials were broad credentials that were not narrowly aligned to a specific occupation or industry.
3. There were few differences between the top 10 CTE credentials by diploma type.
4. English learner students and students with disabilities earned the top 10 credentials at lower rates than other Standard diploma graduates.
5. Black and Hispanic students were less likely than White and Asian students to earn the broad WRS and W!se Financial Literacy credentials.
6. Numerous differences existed in the top 10 credentials by region.

This study highlights the need for additional analyses to help CTE stakeholders and policymakers understand the value of different types of CTE credentials. In particular, Virginia and other states might explore the relative value of broad CTE credentials that apply to a wide range of jobs and have become increasingly prevalent in Virginia compared with CTE credentials that are more narrowly aligned with a specific occupation or industry. The report highlights several strategies that Virginia’s CTE stakeholders and policymakers can use to identify high-value credentials, and they can use this information to update CTE instructional programs and policies as needed. The suggested strategies are to:

1. Gather data on labor-market demand for credentials, identifying credentials that confer credit toward post-secondary education and training, and building an agreed-upon list of credentials that spans the education and workforce systems.
2. Work with local communities, employers, and post-secondary institutions to identify valuable credentials.
3. Examine employment and post-secondary outcomes across schools where students earn different types of credentials to gain a better understanding of the value of various credentials.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): J.C. Harris, D.L Jonas, and R.A. Schmidt
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Education
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies