This summer Congress passed the long-awaited reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which governs the federal investment in career and technical education (CTE). In recent years policymakers and educators have grown even more interested in CTE as a way to help people build the skills necessary to succeed in a technologically advanced economy and meet employers’ demand for workers. 

But what do CTE programs actually do? And how have they evolved over time? Join Katie Beal as she talks to Mary Visher, a senior research associate at MDRC, about the characteristics and the development of CTE programs — as well as the challenges of implementing successful models. They also discuss MDRC’s two-decade history of constructing and evaluating CTE programs, including our landmark study of Career Academies, and the other CTE programs MDRC is currently partnering with to build evidence and inform policy and practice.