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Straight to the Workforce: An Early Exploration of Economic Outcomes of Youth with a Career-Focused High School Credential in Texas

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Across the globe, as countries implement policies and programs to increase college enrollment of youth to increase their workforce outcomes, a recently implemented education policy in Texas instead centers the student in selecting career pathways right out of high school. This paper explores the relationship between career-focused graduation plans and workforce outcomes of the 40% of Texas public school youth who do not continue into higher education. Through access to a statewide, individual-level data repository, this research produces a thorough descriptive analysis of the workforce outcomes of high school graduates who do not continue into higher education and estimates relationships between workforce outcomes and career-focused high school graduation plans. Our findings indicate that early in their implementation, career-focused graduation plans demonstrate no relationship to workforce outcomes for high school graduates who do not continue into higher education. We further found a declining trend in workforce participation for youth with only a high school credential. In conclusion, we recommend revising current graduation pathways to reinstate the requirement for higher-level mathematics courses across all graduation plans, while also ensuring that every student has access to these advanced math opportunities during high school.

Source: Youth

DOI: 10.3390/youth5040129

Authors: Toni Templeton, Sara Sands Francis, Fiza Mairaj, Matthew Farmer, Esmeralda Martinez-Maldonado

Institution: University of Houston

Language: English

Topic: Education and Labor Relations

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,207