SDP Fellowship for Postsecondary CTE
Program Components
The Strategic Data Project for Career and Technical Education is a one-year fellowship program for postsecondary institutions that want to strengthen their support of their CTE programs through the use of student outcomes data.
Strategic Project
Two SDP ECMCF Fellows per institution carry out a strategic data project related to postsecondary career and technical education that will be used to advance student success and program decision-making.
Practical Skills
SDP ECMCF Fellows attend four workshops. SDP trains fellows in: methodology and statistical programming, communication and influence skills, problem solving, and updates on research findings.
Network Mentorship
SDP ECMCF Fellows receive world-class faculty and mentor support on their strategic data projects. They also benefit from a cohort of thoughtful, data-driven colleagues and staff.
Stipend
SDP ECMCF Fellows will receive a $3,000 professional development stipend.
Why Career and Technical Education?
In 2017-18 alone, nearly 3 million postsecondary students participated in CTE programs, which provide practical pathways into careers by training students in technical skills and employability. Yet institutions of higher education often lack the capacity to track each student’s journey through a program and into the workforce. There is an urgent need to collect and use this data to uncover what happens to students participating in CTE programs and to keep them on track for long-term success.
"With the addition of federal laws like Perkins V, which encourage the use of data and evidence to determine the effectiveness of CTE programs, federal, state, and local leaders have more leverage than ever before to implement programs that will help students find post-graduation success in college and a career. It is time for leaders to take advantage of these evidence-based tools and use them to structure CTE programs that will help students get further faster." - Results for America
SDP-CTE will do exactly that.
Fellow Spotlight: Generating Workforce Insights

SDP Fellow Sue Mukherjee is merging student data with employment data in order to shed light on how postsecondary institutions can best respond to students and regional workforce needs.
Read More
Working with Us
SDP will partner with postsecondary institutions committed to using data and evidence for improving their CTE programs. Participation is free of charge. Ideal partners are:
Committed to using evidence for change • Committed to the use of data to inform CTE-related decisions and policy • Able to access the data needed to complete their proposed analytic projects
Fellows should bring strong quantitative knowledge, leadership skills, and a commitment to improve student success.