Ten career and technical education centers in Pennsylvania had graduating cohorts of at least 50 students in 2024. Together, they graduated 97.9% of their 1,768 students. Columbia-Montour AVTS led at 99.3%, followed by Bucks County Technical High School at 99.0%; York County School of Technology rounded to 99.0%.

The state directory classifies each of the 10 institutions as a career and technical center. The graduation file shows the outcomes, but it does not show why students enrolled or which features of the programs contributed to their results.

The numbers

The 10 CTE centers with graduating cohorts of at least 50 students posted rates ranging from 93.9% (West Side CTC) to 99.3% (Columbia-Montour AVTS). Combined, they served 1,768 graduating seniors.

Dauphin County Technical School graduated 98.5% of 262 students. Lenape Tech reached 97.5%, Lawrence County CTC reached 96.9%, and Connellsville Area Career & Technical Center and Jefferson County-DuBois AVTS both rounded to 95.8%.

Every one of these centers exceeded both the state rate of 88.0% and the weighted non-CTE district rate of 88.0%. The lowest-rate CTE center still outperformed 63.2% of non-CTE districts.

What the comparison can show

The 10-center result is descriptive. It shows that each qualifying CTE center exceeded the statewide rate in 2024, and that their combined rate was 9.9 percentage points higher.

The available file does not provide a matched comparison between students who did and did not choose CTE programs. It therefore cannot separate student selection from program effects or establish that the CTE model caused the higher rates.

The scale limitation

The 1,768 students in these 10 CTE cohorts represented 1.3% of Pennsylvania's statewide cohort of 137,548. The data do not show whether the same rates would hold if CTE enrollment expanded.

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