The 2018 Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) quality framework is the latest step in ACTE's ongoing High-quality Career and Technical Education (CTE) Initiative--an initiative designed to answer the question "What is high-quality CTE?" The framework is designed to apply to individual, local CTE programs of study spanning secondary and postsecondary education, although it may be adapted to other units of analysis. This voluntary tool can be used for program self-evaluation, program improvement and to encourage secondary-postsecondary collaboration. The framework's 12 elements and 92 criteria are designed to be as mutually exclusive as possible.