Rate My Professor Oscar Aliaga

Oscar Aliaga, Ph.D., serves as an associate professor in the Career and Technical/Workforce Education Program within the Department of Leadership, Policy and Lifelong Learning at the University of South Florida College of Education. He researches student participation and outcomes in career and technical education, drawing on extensive experience in national and state-level workforce initiatives. Aliaga joined the University of South Florida in 2020. Prior to this appointment, he held positions as a Research Associate and Program Director with the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Minnesota and the University of Louisville, respectively. He also served as the career pathways coordinator for the Agency of Education in Vermont.

Aliaga’s research interests encompass student participation in career and technical education and associated student outcomes. He has conducted extensive research on policy and systems in career and technical education and their impact on student achievement at both the secondary and higher education levels. His work includes the development of creative analytical approaches to understand the participation of career and technical education among high school students and its effects on their postsecondary trajectories. Aliaga has analyzed the impact of components of the career and technical education system, such as school counseling, work-based learning, and the use of technology, as well as the intra-institutional links between high school career and technical education and postsecondary programs through enrollment in certificates and associate degrees. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Minnesota (2005) and an M.A. in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota (1997). Aliaga is a member of the American Educational Research Association and the Association for Career and Technical Education Research.