A study examined the relationship between: (1) the balance struck between career and technical education (CTE) and academic course-taking during the high school years; and (2) academic achievement, persistence in high school, and postsecondary destinations. Data for the study were drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. The surveys, cognitive tests, and high school transcript information used in the analyses were collected between 1988, when sample members were eighth graders, and 1994, when most sample members were 2 years beyond high school graduation. Some of the results of the analyses are the following: (1) academic concentrators show the highest 1992 achievement, followed by dual (academic and vocational) concentrators, then by students who fulfilled neither concentration, and then by CTE concentrators; (2) after controlling for prior achievement, grades, and student background characteristics, the risk of dropping out is lowest near the point at which a student completes three Carnegie units of CTE for every four Carnegie units of academic subjects (ratios above or below that point are associated with higher drop-out rates); and (3) almost all students were either in postsecondary education or working, or both, in 1994, with academic concentrators most likely to be in full-time school and CTE concentrators most likely to be in full-time employment. The study concluded that further research is needed to determine what characteristics of a high school experience that focuses too exclusively on CTE or academic education increase the risk of dropping out, and what types of integration of academic and vocational education are most successful. (Contains 27 references.) (KC)