Topic: Career and Technical Education

Overview

Career Pathways and CTE

SREB’s leadership in career and technical education spans decades and includes a K-12 school improvement process that supports CTE programs in high schools and career and technology centers, turnkey curricula like SREB’s Advanced Career courses, original research, state policy recommendations and decision-making guidance.

Career pathways have the power to close critical credential attainment and skills gaps.

Our career pathway reviews help districts complete Perkins V comprehensive local needs assessments and make critical decisions about adopting or improving pathways to the workforce by assessing the alignment of existing CTE programs with postsecondary credentials and labor market demand.

We also prepare new and early-career CTE teachers for classroom success and provide professional development and coaching on powerful CTE and project-based learning instructional practices.

Publication February 2022 | 11 pages
publication cover

Improving Secondary and Postsecondary Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

How can states, schools and colleges help students with disabilities to improve high school graduation rates, postsecondary success, and career and technical education participation?

This piece, produced for a request from a state department of education, includes actions to consider, examples from SREB states and a review of current research on professional development, educational technology and individualized instruction.

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Publication October 202036 pages

Partnerships to Align Education and Careers
Report of the Commission on Strategic Partnerships for Work-Ready Students

This commission report offers a vision of education connected to local careers and shows how to make it a reality through partnerships and policy. With 11 recommendations to help states build strategic industry sector partnerships, the report covers policies, funding and building the capacity of educators. It also spotlights innovative solutions from around the nation. 

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Publication May 202020 pages

Designing a Ready Workforce
Opportunities for state leaders to align ESSA, Perkins V and WIOA funds

To support states as they finalize their new Perkins V and WIOA plans and consider updates to their ESSA plans, SREB reviewed a sample of states’ existing plans and identified six ways states have missed opportunities in the past to align work funded by the three federal statutes.  For each missed opportunity, SREB provides questions for policymakers to consider and gives examples from states of well-aligned plans.  

Publication September 2019 | 20 pages
Shared-Time Technology Centers: A Study of Six State Funding Systems. Special Report for the Kentucky Career and Technical Education Task Force Southern Regional Education Board.  SREB.org. September 2019

Shared-Time Technology Centers
A Study of Six State Funding Systems

Students need learning experiences connected with the world of work to equip them to enter the workforce and secure good jobs. This report provides an overview of funding for career and technical education and a detailed look at CTE funding models in Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia. Produced by SREB for the Kentucky Career and Technical Education Task Force, it also offers considerations for actions to improve CTE.

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Publication November 2016 | 48 pages | (16V22)

Bridging the Computer Science Education Gap
Five actions states can take

The Report of the SREB Commission on Computer Science and Information Technology

SREB’s Commission on Computer Science and Information Technology offers five actions for states and schools to help more young people — especially girls, black and Hispanic students, and students from low-income families — learn computer science and explore and choose careers in computing fields.

Publication Gene Bottoms October 201712 pages(17V18)
This image is the cover of the Valuing Both Cs in College- and Career-Readiness Accountability Systems publication.

Valuing Both Cs in College- and Career-Readiness Accountability Systems
How states can use career pathways to close credential attainment and skills gaps.

This publication explores how state accountability systems currently address college readiness and academic and technical career readiness and offers recommendations and examples of policies and practices that incentivize and reward districts and schools for preparing more students to earn credentials and degrees in high-demand career fields.

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Publication Tim Shaughnessy May 201717 pages(17V12)
Beginning the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in High School - Report Cover

Beginning the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in High School
How Kentucky Created a 120-Credit Hour Nursing Career Pathway

Beginning the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in High School: How Kentucky Created a 120-Credit Hour Nursing Career Pathway describes how SREB spent a year working with a coalition of Kentucky educators and health-care employers to develop a seamless sequence of courses and credentials that help students transition from high school to community and technical college programs, the BSN and employment as nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and registered nurses (RNs).

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Blog post
Career map

Valuing Both Cs in State Accountability Systems
SREB helps states set and meet bold goals for student achievement and credential attainment

SREB has long held that high-quality career and technical education transforms how students learn by connecting the classroom with the real world of work. Our nine Advanced Career curricula exemplify the power of CTE. Each four-course AC career pathway is built around hands-on, project-based assignments that challenge students to apply academic knowledge, technical know-how and teamwork skills to solve the same problems faced by industry professionals.

Blog post Gene BottomsSenior Vice President, SREB
Photo of a female CTE student operating a drill press.

West Virginia: Leading-Edge Career-Tech Showcased in The New York Times
State's partnerships with SREB go far beyond adoption of Advanced Career Energy and Power pathway.

A recent article in The New York Times describes how West Virginia’s career and technical education programs are preparing students for degrees and careers in the state’s high-tech, high-demand industries. “Far from being strictly a job training program for teenagers, classes like Advanced Career Energy and Power require math and physics instruction as rigorous as in the College Board’s Advanced Placement track.”

Here are six ways the state partners with SREB in CTE and readiness.

Publication July 9, 2016 | 7 pages | (16V18)Gene Bottoms and Kirsten Sundell

Career Pathways
Accelerating Access to the Middle Class

More and more jobs require some education past high school, yet we are not preparing enough students for college, careers or both. Career pathways from middle and high school through college and into the workplace can accelerate access to the middle class.

Publication February 201545 pages(15C02)
Report cover: Community Colleges in the South

Community Colleges in the South: Strengthening Readiness and Pathways
Report of the SREB Commission on Community Colleges

The full report of SREB’s Community College Commission offers 21 recommendations for states and community colleges. It presents findings on readiness, placement, math standards and structurally guided pathways to help students clearly see entry, exit and re-entry points to continue their education. Recommendations ask states to commit increased funding and hold colleges accountable for improving student services and completion. The goal: increase college access and success so more students earn postsecondary credentials and enter careers in demand in their communities.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY