Career and Technical Education in Rural Areas

Introduction

A Deeper Look at CTE in Montana

Strategies for Successful Rural CTE

Future Research on Rural CTE

Endnotes

Urban, C., & Goldring, T. (2025). Career and Technical Education in rural areas. Georgia Policy Labs.

In the United States, a significant portion of students—between one in five and one in seven, depending on the definition—attends school in rural areas.¹ Graduates from rural schools often encounter fewer local job opportunities compared to their peers in more-connected regions. This disparity highlights the need for educational strategies that can effectively prepare students for the workforce. Career and Technical Education (CTE) presents a promising solution to engage high school students in rural communities by providing clear pathways for future careers, whether locally or in broader labor markets.

Rural schools face several challenges in implementing high-quality CTE programs. Schools are often geographically isolated and have limited access to qualified teachers for specialized courses that CTE programs often require. There may be fewer local employers and industries to partner with for work-based learning experiences. Moreover, with only 16% of two-year colleges in rural locations, there is a lack of nearby postsecondary institutions.² Rural schools may also face unique financial constraints and limited resources to support CTE programs—some of which are costly.

What are recent trends for CTE students in rural areas? The Career & Technical Education Policy Exchange (CTEx) used administrative data from Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Tennessee, and Washington to study concentration in a CTE program in rural and non-rural (i.e., urban or suburban) schools.³ Concentration is an important measure of student progress through a CTE program.⁴ Figure 1 displays the difference in CTE concentration rates between students in rural schools and students in urban and suburban schools. The bar colors show different Grade 9 cohorts over time, starting with the cohort of first-time ninth graders during school year (SY) 2014-15 and ending with the cohort in SY 2017-18. Grade 9 students in SY 2014-15, for example, were expected to graduate on-time in SY 2017-18, and the graph shows whether the fraction of students in rural schools concentrated in a CTE program at a higher or lower rate than students in non-rural schools.

The blue and orange bars show the CTE concentration rate difference between rural and non-rural schools for students whose on-time graduation year was in 2018 and 2019, respectively, before the COVID-19 pandemic. For these cohorts of students in Michigan, Montana, and Tennessee, the CTE concentration rate was between 5 and 15 percentage points higher for rural students compared to students in urban or suburban schools. By contrast, students in Washington were equally likely to concentrate in a CTE program regardless of their school’s rurality. In Massachusetts, students in rural areas were about 5 percentage points less likely to concentrate than students in urban or suburban areas. State context makes a difference for the relative prevalence of CTE concentration across rural and non-rural areas.

The green bar shows the CTE concentration rate for students whose on-time graduation year was in 2020. For these students, if they graduated on-time, their last semester of high school in spring 2020 was affected by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁵ Figure 1 also displays two red bars for students whose on-time graduation year was 2021. This cohort of students would have had their junior year disrupted by the pandemic, and a portion of their senior year was likely spent in remote learning. The CTE concentration rate difference for both cohorts affected by the pandemic follows a similar pattern to the pre-pandemic cohorts. In Tennessee, rural students were even more likely to concentrate in CTE relative to non-rural students for the first cohort affected by the pandemic. In both Michigan and Montana, the gap in favor of rural students concentrating in a CTE program decreased for the cohort of students whose on-time graduation year was 2021. The trends in Figure 1 provide early evidence that the pandemic may have had different effects on CTE concentration for schools in rural areas compared to schools in urban and suburban areas.

Montana is a highly rural state and provides a case study for recent trends in CTE in rural areas.⁶ Montana has 187 public high schools, and the median number of students at those schools is only 681 students. Just four schools are categorized as being in urban or suburban areas, and only one city in Montana has a population greater than 100,000 people. Every high school student must complete at least one credit in vocational or technical education. Because most schools are small and remotely located—roughly two-thirds of high schools are more than 25 miles from an urban area—the availability of CTE courses can vary year-to-year, particularly when teachers are in short supply

Finding 1: CTE Concentration Rate was Flat

The CTE concentration rate remained relatively flat in Montana for eight consecutive cohorts of high school students. Around half of Grade 9 students in each cohort from 2009 to 2016 ended up concentrating in at least one CTE program. The consistent concentration rate over time suggests that outside factors over this period did not generate big swings in the demand for or supply of CTE.

Finding 2: Additional CTE Progression in More Remote Areas

Students in more remote areas of Montana—who attended schools outside of the top six most-populated areas of the state—had consistently higher concentrator rates (closer to 55%) than students in more densely populated areas. There is robust demand for CTE in more remote areas of the state.

Finding 3: Career Cluster Varied by Geography

The likelihood that students concentrated in a program within a particular career cluster varied by geography.⁷ Students in rural and remote areas were more likely to concentrate in career clusters related to agriculture and business than students in more-populated areas. Family and consumer science and health sciences career clusters were more common concentrations in areas with higher populations than more rural areas, although whether this was because of supply constraints (e.g., differing availability of courses) or student demand (e.g., different preferences for particular programs) was unclear without further data on course availability.⁸ Consistent with other work using data from CTEx states, these descriptive findings provide evidence for local alignment of CTE clusters and labor markets within the highly rural state.⁹

Finding 4: CTE Kept Rural Students Engaged

Students who concentrated in a CTE program status in Montana were more likely to graduate high school than non-concentrators. This high school graduation advantage is particularly pronounced for students in the more rural and remote areas of the state.

Rural CTE programs employ a variety of innovative strategies to overcome geographic and resource constraints. These include developing regional CTE centers that serve multiple districts, implementing career academies within schools, and using online and virtual learning options to expand access to specialized courses.¹⁰ Partnerships with local industries, postsecondary institutions, and community organizations are critical for providing work-based learning experiences and aligning programs with regional workforce needs.¹¹ Rural schools also focus on integrating academic and technical skills in rigorous, relevant curricula and using data to ensure programs meet labor market demands.

Some states have launched targeted initiatives to help rural districts evaluate and improve their CTE offerings. For example, Nebraska’s reVISION program provides a data-driven process and dedicated funding to enhance rural CTE programs.¹² Successful rural CTE also leverages technology, such as online microcredentialing, to minimize the impact of challenges related to limited course offerings.¹³ By employing these creative approaches, rural CTE programs can overcome barriers and leverage local assets to prepare students for both college and careers, while supporting economic development in their communities.

Future research on rural CTE could address several critical gaps. Longitudinal studies examining long-term outcomes of rural CTE graduates can provide insights into career trajectories and community impact. Examining the effectiveness of innovative delivery models, such as mobile CTE labs and online learning, would help identify best practices.¹⁴ Research on strategies for developing sustainable industry partnerships in rural areas, as well as recruiting and retaining qualified CTE teachers, could address persistent challenges.¹⁵ Two possible policies for overcoming staffing barriers in rural schools are reducing teacher credentialing requirements or expanding remote learning options.

Research on ensuring equitable access to high-quality CTE for all rural students, developing sustainable funding models, and fostering effective cross-sector collaborations could inform policy and practice. Studies on aligning CTE programs with evolving rural economies and effectively integrating technology would also be valuable.¹⁶ Understanding whether expanding access to CTE clusters changes the clusters rural and remote students choose is an area ripe for additional research. Finally, examining how CTE impacts student engagement and motivation in rural settings could provide insights into improving overall academic performance and graduation rates. By addressing these research gaps, future studies could significantly contribute to strengthening rural CTE programs and their impact on students.