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Blueprint for Career Technical Education Highlights Rigor, Relevance, Relationships

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced that the framework for instruction of career technical education has been approved by the State Board of Education.

"Career technical education can make learning come alive for students by making what they learn at school relevant to the real world," O'Connell said. "California's standards for career technical education are widely admired for their rigor and quality. Now we are giving schools an excellent blueprint for how to integrate those rigorous standards into the classroom and develop the relationships to make career technical education successful for 21st century learning."     

In 2005, California adopted groundbreaking Career Technical Education (CTE) standards that specify procedures and skills students will learn through the lens of conceptual understanding. The standards, written for grades seven through twelve, specify learning goals in 58 career pathways organized around 15 industry sectors. The CTE Framework structure and contents are designed to assist the field in planning and delivering a rigorous and relevant career technical education curriculum that increases student achievement. An inclusive framework development process was followed in order to meet this design goal. The framework is a guide to implementing the groundbreaking CTE Standards at the local level in rigorous and relevant ways.

It draws on all 15 of California's CTE industry sectors to provide strong examples of best practices and research-based guidance for implementing the CTE Model Curriculum Standards.

The CTE Framework received input from stakeholders around the state. At multiple points throughout the framework development process, the following stakeholders reviewed drafts and provided feedback: business and industry, labor, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the California State University, classroom teachers, school administrators, pupils, parents and guardians, representatives of the Legislature, the State Department of Education, and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The framework incorporates the core elements of all California curriculum frameworks while representing its unique context and subject matter. It has undergone rigorous review and editing at every stage of the development process, ensuring that its information is accurate, relevant to the field, and up-to-date.

The CTE Framework is also focused on local relationships. It describes for middle school and high school educators who are putting CTE Standards into practice:

the relationship between technical standards and their academic underpinnings specified in state academic standards. It also describes the relationships with business and community partners required to ensure that students are able to apply academic, technical, and employability standards in real-world settings such as labs, workshops, work-based learning environments, and preparation for postsecondary education.

The State Board of Education today voted unanimously to adopt the CTE framework.