State standards set the bar high for CTE

In the fast-evolving world of career technical education, much has changed since 2005, when the California Department of Education assembled a group of educators, business leaders, association and government representatives, and parents to hammer out the first-ever guidelines for CTE.

It was a knotty challenge.
Frank Pugh, CSBA Region 3 director, recalls the perplexity he and others felt in beginning the complex task of determining standards.

“The initial committee was sorting through a lot of confusion about career technical education two years ago,” Pugh says. “Some of the committee members were just looking at it from their own point of view. They were missing the broad, global perspective of where districts needed to be.”

Up to that point, curricula long had been in place for English, mathematics and science, but occupational training programs—where they did exist—subsisted in a kind of backwater where every district succeeded or failed on its own.

“Historically, people had never given [career technical education] the recognition it should have had,” Pugh continues. “It was often a place to put kids that didn’t fit in somewhere else.”

What unified the group, however, were two goals that emerged: to increase academic rigor and to make courses more relevant.
“We wanted to demonstrate to the world—to anybody who was interested—that CTE courses would have rigorous standards—statewide, absolutely,” says Al Tweltridge, formerly of CDE and now a consultant to the department.

Both men acknowledged that achieving these goals would take time, but they are pleased with the direction career technical education is going and the progress it is making.

“These standards have been disseminated nationwide,” Tweltridge says. “Other states have been copying them: Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Michigan, Delaware, Minnesota, Louisiana and Alabama. Some of these are using substantial portions of the California CTE standards; others are using them as a reference. They are world-class.”

Both educators also extol the virtues of Pat Ainsworth, CDE’s state director and “guru” of career technical education.

“Pat—everybody should tip their hat to him,” Pugh says. “Through legislation and his participation, equity was established between academic and career technical education standards.

“We should also recognize that courses offered in CTE are every bit as rigorous and important as other courses at [schools],” Pugh adds. “The standards stress that academic skills and communications skills are important. There are crossovers in science and other technology courses. This. works to the benefit of every student, to recognize that it’s not just woodshop; there’s also English and science in there. That’s a big difference from the past, where the woodshop was way out on the fringe of the campus.”

Every goal needs a plan to make it work, Pugh says. For districts, knowing what the standards are helps them plan for and develop good programs they can be proud of.

Tweltridge, too, is proud of what the guidelines have accomplished. To any district, he says, “If you want a rigorous program, here are the standards. Here’s what you should be following to be successful.”