Many boys aren’t interested in school. Can building more career-focused high schools help?

“DANIELSON, Conn. — Inside the carpentry classroom at Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School in eastern Connecticut, three dozen sophomores and juniors are building cabinets and framing walls. Saws buzz, hammers clank and sandpaper scratches. It’s hard to converse without yelling. But Julian Lawrence, 16, doesn’t mind the noise. A mediocre student in middle school, he’s now earning straight A’s and says he’s excited to come to class each day. “In middle school, I hated sitting at a desk every day,” Lawrence said. “This gets my mind moving more.” Only two of the 36 students in the classroom are girls, a ratio that mirrors the carpentry workforce. While a couple of the other trades taught at Ellis Tech skew female — hairdressing and health care technology, in particular — its overall enrollment is 70 percent male. Statewide, more than 60 percent of the roughly 11,000 students attending technical high schools are boys. Boys seem to be getting a bigger boost from the schools, too. In one frequently cited study , boys accepted into Connecticut’s technical schools were found to have better attendance and test scores, and higher graduation rates and earnings than peers who just missed the cutoff for admission. Girls who got into the schools did just fine — but were no better off than their rejected peers. Julian Lawrence,16, (center) eats lunch with his classmates at Harvard H. Ellis Technical School in Danielson, CT. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report Yet many boys who might thrive in a technical high school are missing out, due to a systemwide shortage of seats. This year, only 44 percent of the 7,850 applicants to the state’s 17 technical schools got in. Those schools enrolled 11,700 students this year. The popularity of the programs has led to fights in both Connecticut and neighboring Massachusetts over who gets into the schools. Both states recently switched from competitive admissions to a lottery, amid allegations that their systems were shutting out at-risk students. Others say the solution lies not in reassigning the limited seats, but in adding more of them. Nationally, boys lag behind girls on multiple measures of educational achievement, from kindergarten readiness to college completion . If technical high schools can help narrow that gap, advocates reason, why not build more of them? “We could add 1,000 more and it would be good for boys, not bad for girls, and give parents more choices,” said Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, a nonprofit research and policy group. (Rise Together, a fund established by Reeves, is one of the many donors to The Hechinger Report and Big Local News, which together produced this story.) Noah Pillsbury, 17, (left) wheels a cart to move cinderblocks while working on a block pier in his masonry shop at Harvard H. Ellis Technical School in Danielson, CT on April 7, 2026. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report There were 400 vocational or career and technical high schools in the 2024-2025 school year that, like Ellis High, enrolled significant numbers of students as their primary institution, according to a Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis of U.S. Department of Education data. That was an increase from 225 a decade ago. Counting all vocational high schools, regardless of whether they enroll students full- or part-time, the figure was higher, some 1,400. The data is also complicated: While many states focus on part-time vocational programs, others appear to operate full-time programs like Connecticut’s but don’t classify them as such in federal data sets. Reeves’ proposal isn’t cheap. He puts the cost of running the new schools at an estimated $4 billion annually, a figure he based on Connecticut’s $5,000 per-student supplement for technical school students. And that doesn’t include construction costs. Considering the financial challenges many districts are facing, skeptics question whether there are less expensive ways of expanding technical education to more boys. That might include renting space so existing programs can expand, or opening up vocational classrooms to students who attend traditional schools at night or on the weekends. Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education. Once treated as a dumping ground for students who were failing in traditional schools, career and technical education is now viewed by many students and families as a debt-free pathway into family-sustaining careers. Policymakers and business leaders tout the programs as a way to grow the skilled workforce and increase the nation’s economic competitiveness, especially at a time when artificial intelligence is automating some white-collar jobs. Jeff Flagg, 17, cuts wood for a house he is building with his carpentry classmates at Harvard H. Ellis Technical School in Danielson, CT on April 7, 2026. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report While stand-alone, full-time vocational schools are less common than other career and technical models, such as “school within a school” programs or classes at local colleges, they have been been studied the most, largely because they allow researchers to create matched control groups of similar students who didn’t get in, says Shaun Dougherty, a professor of education and policy at Boston College and one of the authors of the Connecticut study. It’s harder to compare students who choose to take technical courses in comprehensive high schools with their peers because the groups may differ in important ways. Still, the case for constructing more technical schools is hardly airtight. There have only been a handful of rigorous studies of the schools, and none has followed students long term. And there is little to no research comparing outcomes for students in different models of career education, so it’s difficult to say whether spending millions on new schools is worth the cost. Yet Reeves and other advocates argue that the existing evidence for technical schools is encouraging. They point to the Connecticut research, as well as a recent evaluation of New York City’s P-TECH schools that found that males who attended the vocationally oriented schools were 10 percentage points more likely to have completed an associate degree seven years after enrolling than peers who weren’t admitted to the schools. That study, like the Connecticut one, found no significant gains for females. A Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis of overall graduation rates found that students graduated from CTE high schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts at higher rates than regular high schools, regardless of their gender. But the differences were bigger for boys than they are for girls. Credit: Source: Big Local News/Hechinger Report analysis Researchers aren’t sure why boys get a bigger boost from attending technical high schools, but they have some theories. A prominent one is that boys simply have more room to grow than girls, who tend to do pretty well in traditional high schools, Dougherty says. As to why boys at technical schools outperform their peers at traditional high schools, one possibility is that boys find the work-based learning that takes place at technical high schools to be more relevant than traditional classroom instruction and are more motivated to excel in such a setting. “They see the purpose in what they’re doing,” said Michael Crocco, superintendent of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System. “They can take what they learn in the classroom and put it into practice immediately.” Smaller class sizes and more time with teachers may also play a role. When students spend all day with a single trade instructor, “that teacher gets to know you on a different level,” Crocco noted. Eric Brunner, a professor of economics and policy at the University of Connecticut and Doherty’s co-author on the Connecticut study, suspects that peers matter, too. At technical high schools, students are surrounded by classmates who are interested in the same thing they are and excited to learn. “I can’t imagine that not helping,” he said. James Gallow, the head of the carpentry department at Ellis Tech, said he’s seen both boys and girls thrive in his school. Success, he said, “really comes down to the individual student’s motivation and willingness to learn.” James Gallow, (left) the head of the carpentry department at Harvard H. Ellis Technical School, works with students on the house the carpentry class is building in Danielson, CT on April 7, 2026. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report “Where vocational education can be particularly powerful — perhaps for some boys — is in its hands-on, applied approach,” Gallow said. “Students who may not feel as engaged in a traditional academic setting often respond well to learning by doing.” Related: How career and technical education shuts out Black and Latino students from high-paying professions Calls to build more technical high schools come against a backdrop of long-standing — and only modestly successful — efforts to convince more girls to enter high-wage, male-dominated trades, like plumbing, electrical work and HVAC. Though more girls are pursuing nontraditional trades today than a decade or two ago, a majority still choose lower-paying jobs in education and health care — a decision driven by a mixture of societal expectations, personal preference and fears of harassment in male-dominated professions, surveys show. Federal law requires states to devote a portion of their career and technical funds to tackling such gender imbalances. At the same time, many vocational schools have tried to attract more girls by adding programs outside the traditional trades. In both Connecticut and Massachusetts, girls make up a larger share of the student body than they used to, with Massachusetts approaching gender parity in enrollment. Ivy Wentzel, 15, one of two girls in her carpentry class, takes measurements for a cabinet project with Trevin Rowland, 17, in their carpentry shop at Harvard H. Ellis Technical School in Danielson, CT on April 7, 2026. While a couple of the other trades taught at Ellis Tech skew female — hairdressing and health care technology, in particular — Ellis Tech’s overall enrollment is 70 percent male. Statewide, more than 60 percent of the roughly 11,000 students attending technical high schools are boys. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report But Reeves argues it may be time to stop chasing gender balance in technical education. Given the fact that boys perform worse in traditional schools than girls do and given the evidence that vocational education benefits boys more than girls, perhaps it’s a good thing that the schools skew male, he suggests. While Reeves wouldn’t exclude females from the new schools he envisions, he would market them primarily to males. The biggest barrier to that vision, of course, is money. Technical schools are costly to build and maintain, requiring expensive equipment and low student-faculty ratios, said Alisha Hyslop, chief policy, research and content officer at the Association for Career and Technical Education. Though the Trump administration has voiced support for vocational education, and recently committed funds to expand apprenticeship, it has also canceled grants for career-oriented high schools, arguing they were “not in the best interest of the federal government.” Teacher shortages are another hurdle. In one federal survey , nearly a third of public schools hiring for at least one CTE position said it was difficult or impossible to fill the role. Thirty-five states report critical teacher shortages in high-demand fields like manufacturing, IT and health sciences. There’s no national data on how many vocational schools have waitlists. But in southern New England, where many schools are oversubscribed, the competition for seats has spurred heated arguments over how they should be allocated. At the heart of those fights are questions about the mission of vocational schools: Should they admit only the highest-performing students — or prioritize those less likely to be college-bound? Until very recently, both Connecticut and Massachusetts ranked applicants using selective criteria such as grades, attendance and disciplinary records, accepting those with the highest scores. For years, critics of that approach complained that it discriminated against low-income students, students of color and students with disabilities. In 2023, an advocacy organization filed a civil rights complaint against Massachusetts over its vocational school admission policy. An analysis by The Boston Globe found that students from low-income schools were more likely to apply to the state’s technical schools, but 30 percent less likely to be accepted. In Connecticut, a state investigation launched in 2024 found that “safety review panels” used in vocational school admissions were disproportionately shutting out students with disabilities, sometimes for minor infractions. The state eliminated the panels and switched to a lottery-based system last year; Massachusetts followed suit this year. Some research suggests that vocational schools keep boys on track to graduation, but there may be cheaper, simpler ways to get the same results. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report Not everyone is a fan of the changes. Elliott Hayden, the head of the masonry department at Ellis Tech, said he preferred the old system, which judged applicants, in part, on their response to a question asking why they wanted to attend a trade school. While that question didn’t carry as much weight as quantitative factors, like grades, Hayden believes it helped schools screen for students who were committed to pursuing a trade. Switching to a lottery, he said, has “led to many great prospective trade school kids not getting a chance, while allowing lots of students that don’t really fit the mold to get in. It does not seem fair.” (While applicants still submit a statement of interest, it’s no longer a factor in admissions.) Meanwhile, the shifts didn’t do anything to increase the schools’ capacity, leaving both Connecticut and Massachusetts searching for new ways to bring technical education to more of their students. Related: Trump’s attacks on DEI may hurt men in college admission One potential solution can be seen in a renovated warehouse in Fitchburg, a former mill town in central Massachusetts. A few years ago, this building was vacant, a 16,000-square-foot shell with cinder block walls that had most recently been used as storage space for a local brewery. But Katy Whitaker, development coordinator for Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School — or Monty Tech, as it’s known here — saw its potential. The school, which had a waitlist of several hundred students, leased the building in early 2023, and began dividing it into three shops with space for 126 carpentry, electrical and plumbing students. Carpentry students at work in their shop. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report The satellite campus, dubbed MVP Academy, cost considerably less to construct than a new building, and is providing a second chance to juniors and seniors like Noah Couillard, who didn’t get in as eighth graders. Couillard, who was practicing setting up a fire alarm system on a recent school day, divides his time between the comprehensive high school where he remains enrolled and MVP, where he spends every other week learning the fundamentals of electrical work. The arrangement ensures that comprehensive high schools can keep their per-student assessment, while Monty Tech gets the supplement that the state pays schools for educating vocational students. Couillard, who says he has ADHD and has always been a hands-on learner, appreciates the change of environment. “It’s a lot better than sitting in class all day, doing paperwork,” he said. When he graduates this spring, he plans to continue his training in night school and become an electrician, earning $70,000 to $80,000 a year. In Connecticut, more than 60 percent of the roughly 11,000 students attending technical high schools are boys. Credit: Sophie Park for The Hechinger Report While MVP can’t accommodate every waitlisted student, it may be a more scalable approach than new school construction, says state Sen. John Cronin, whose district includes Monty Tech. He helped secure $15 million in a recent state spending bill for the creation of similar “annexes” in other communities. “We don’t need more cafeterias and gyms,” said Cronin. “We need more shops where kids can get relevant workforce training.” Massachusetts has also invested millions over the past few years in programs that allow students enrolled in traditional high schools to take classes at technical high schools after regular school hours, and on weekends. In Connecticut, a nonprofit organization, The Justice Education Center , runs after-school and summer programs at the state’s technical schools, offering pre-apprenticeship training and certification to hundreds of at-risk young adults each year. Ultimately, though, the answer to gender gaps in education may lie less in expanding access to technical schools, and more in bringing elements of the schools — like career exploration and hands-on, project-based learning — into traditional classrooms. After all, even if Reeves realizes his dream of building 1,000 more schools, the vast majority of boys will still attend traditional high schools. That might mean expanding programs like Massachusetts’ Innovation Career Pathways , which offer students in comprehensive high schools 100 hours or more of work experience in a high demand field, or programs in New Haven and Bridgeport , Connecticut, that provide technical training during the school day through union partnerships. “I don’t think we necessarily have to build brand new technical high schools,” said Hyslop, of the Association for Career and Technical Education. “But how can we increase opportunities for these types of in-depth career experiences?” Rosie Cima, senior data journalist with Big Local News, contributed reporting. Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965 or preston@hechingerreport.org. This story about vocational schools was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and Big Local News . Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter . 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