Raising academic standards and vocational concentrators: Are they better off or worse off?

In this paper we measure the impacts of tougher graduation requirements on course‐taking patterns, college attendance and completion, and post‐high school labor market outcomes for vocational concentrators and non‐concentrators. Our main goal was to assess whether vocational education students were specifically affected (positively or negatively) by the policies’ heavy emphasis on the academic part of the high school curriculum. Our results show how requiring higher number of academic credits to graduate and introducing a Minimum Competency Examination help high school graduates to be more successful in the labor market, but reduce their chances of obtaining a college degree. Vocational concentrators are better off in Minimum Competency Examination states. The positive signal they send to employers reinforces the occupational skills that vocational concentrators possess.