Landscape of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Los Angeles Unified School District - Report

Oct 3, 2026

Landscape of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Los Angeles Unified School District provides a research-based overview of CTE and Linked Learning offerings across LAUSD. The report documents district context, high school choice, access pathways, student awareness, pathway selection, participation in CTE courses and pathways, completion patterns, and related student outcomes. It also synthesizes student perceptions and outlines the analytic methods, data sources, and outcome measures used.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages61

Reading Time2 h 34 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

District Context

High school choice

CTE Programming in LAUSD

CTE and Linked Learning offerings across LAUSD

Access

Participation in CTE Courses and Pathways

Outcomes

Conclusion

References

Appendix A: Data Sources and Methods

Appendix B: Supplementary Tables

Landscape of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Los Angeles Unified School District April 2026 Prepared by: SRI Miya Warner, Kyra Caspary, Thomas Kelley-Kemple, Lauren Cassidy, and Jenna Rush April 2026 Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the Los Angeles Unified School District for partnering in this work. In particular, we appreciate former LAUSD Linked Learning Director Susan Canjura for initiating the study and supporting our early data collection efforts, Esther Dabagyan and Ben Gertner in the Linked Learning Office and John Vladovic, Executive Director of Secondary Instruction, for their engagement and feedback on our analysis, and Emma Hall for sharing her extensive knowledge of the district’s Linked Learning data. We thank the LAUSD staff and students who made this a richer study by sharing their experiences with CTE and Linked Learning. In the LAUSD Office of Data and Accountability, we thank Jesus Ponce and Kevon Tucker-Seely for their support providing data for this study. We would also like to thank Dr. Marisa Saunders for her valuable insights into the history and current context of Linked Learning in LAUSD. Finally, this report would not have been possible without the support of many SRI staff, including support for data analysis and display from Sunny Cao, Dominique Baeta, and Maricela Moralesand the exceptional editing of Charles Harding and report production from Leilani Lopez. Funding Acknowledgement: The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305N240054 to SRI International. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. Suggested citation: Warner, M., Caspary, K., Kelley-Kemple, T., Cassidy, L., & Rush, J. (2026) . Landscape of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Los Angeles Unified School District. SRI. Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 District Context ............................................................................................................................... 3 High school choice ...................................................................................................................... 3 CTE Programming in LAUSD ..........................................................................................................5 CTE and Linked Learning offerings across LAUSD.................................................................... 8 Offerings by school characteristics .......................................................................................... 9 Offerings by industry sector ...................................................................................................10 Access ............................................................................................................................................. 11 Students’ high school options .................................................................................................... 11 Student awareness of their options ............................................................................................ 13 Pathway choice ........................................................................................................................... 14 Participation in CTE Courses and Pathways ................................................................................. 16 CTE participation ....................................................................................................................... 16 Pathway completion ................................................................................................................... 21 Outcomes ..........................................................................................

FAQs

What topics does the report cover about CTE and Linked Learning in LAUSD?

It covers district context, high school choice, CTE programming, offerings by school characteristics and industry sector, student access and awareness, pathway choice, participation and completion, and student perceptions and outcomes.

How does the report examine student access to CTE options?

It analyzes students’ high school options, their awareness of available options, pathway choice, and participation in CTE courses and pathways, including access and participation patterns.

What methodology and data inputs are referenced in the report?

Appendix A describes data sources and methods, including qualitative data collection and analysis, extant data collection and analysis, an analysis sample, and specific outcome measures and analytic approach.

Oct 3, 2026

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