One in four American students does not graduate from high school on time, if at all. Many of these young people blame schoolwork that failed to challenge them and assignments that meant nothing in their lives. More surprising are the large numbers of students who graduate from high school and enter college but do not receive a degree. They drop out even though tremendous efforts have been made in recent years to enroll students in more rigorous academic courses in high school. A key strategy for improving these trends is joining academic and technical studies together to create a program of study that helps students see a connection between education and careers and prepares them for success in further education and the workplace. This happens in too few high schools. States seeking to improve student achievement, raise high school graduation rates and prepare more students for college and a career are encouraging high schools to blend rigorous academic studies with intellectually demanding career and technical education (CTE) studies. In this article, the author discusses the major contributions that CTE can make to high school reform and describes the challenges for states in realizing the contributions of CTE to high school reform.