Career and technical education must be integrated with academic coursework
Gary Hoachlander, Continued president
Young people growing upward in California will face strong competition for jobs when they enter the workforce. Lasting success in the rapidly changing world of piece of work requires always increasing levels of proficiency with technical knowledge and skills. And the future prosperity of our state depends on a highly skilled workforce able to compete with the rest of the world.
Fortunately, career and technical education – one time called vocational teaching – is enjoying a resurgence of interest and back up in California, with an additional $900 million included in this year'due south land budget. Just two weeks ago, the superintendent of public teaching gave school districts until November. 30, 2022 to utilize for grants to develop and enhance high-quality career technical didactics programs.
This is good news. Simply this infusion of funds into CTE also presents united states with an important choice. Will we perpetuate old approaches to CTE – programs largely focused on acquiring narrow, entry-level occupational skills isolated from the rest of students' educational experience? Or will we commit to making CTE integral to the larger secondary and postsecondary education systems in California – connecting CTE courses to cadre academic courses in math, scientific discipline, English, social studies, the arts and globe languages, and stressing real-world application and trouble-solving throughout the curriculum?
Chris Steinhauser, Long Beach Unified superintendent
The case for a narrow approach to CTE, split up from an academic curriculum, is frequently based on the premise that "non anybody goes to college." Therefore, the argument goes, nosotros need an educational alternative for the students who, by desire or by necessity, go directly to work after loftier schoolhouse graduation. But advocating for CTE as an alternative to bookish courses targeted only for the non-college bound does a grave disservice to those who don't go to college, equally well equally to those who do.
Lasting success in today's evolving economy increasingly depends on higher levels of bookish proficiency, regardless of whether one intends to pursue education afterwards high school. The ability to problem-solve, think critically, communicate, collaborate, pattern and introduce is essential in our globalized economy. Neither CTE nor traditional bookish coursework solitary can deliver these outcomes.
We need a new approach that joins together CTE and core academics. That arroyo would encourage teachers of career and technical courses and those teaching academic courses to piece of work together to align their coursework and jointly teach cross-disciplinary projects that tackle real-world problems. Both CTE and academic teachers would cover workplace learning opportunities in partnership with employers, to help young people understand the breadth and depth of career opportunities in California's economic system. Students would learn what working professionals actually practice, and how they utilize their noesis and skills every day.
Ane of the most promising approaches to achieving this integration is Linked Learning, an approach being used in more than 40 communities throughout California. Linked Learning engages students by making pedagogy relevant and rigorous. Information technology brings together strong academics, career-based classroom learning, existent-earth workplace feel and personalized student support. Linked Learning connects coursework and technical training to career pathways such every bit digital media arts, engineering, green energy, health sciences, and constabulary and justice.
Linked Learning recognizes that whatever students' postsecondary and career aspirations happen to be, they will do good from a program of study that promotes academic proficiency, mastery of technical knowledge and skill, and opportunities to connect and apply the ii. An aspiring architect will be a better designer with exposure to carpentry and electrical systems; an aspiring carpenter or contractor will exist a better architect with some agreement of applied science and principles of blueprint.
Californians can create a new vision for learning and pedagogy in California'due south schools and postsecondary institutions. We can cull to end the isolation of CTE from academics and create a new approach that integrates the ii, leveraging the best of both worlds and making each mutually reinforcing of the other.
Unfortunately, the new money bachelor for CTE neither encourages nor requires integration. District superintendents need to make sure that their applications for Career Technical Education Incentive Grants maximize the integration of CTE and bookish courses. Never earlier has it been more important that our schools deliver the knowledge and skills needed for career success. Our young people deserve from united states the same kind of innovation and critical thinking that we enquire of them.
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Gary Hoachlander is President of ConnectEd: The California Middle for College and Career, based in Berkeley. Christopher J. Steinhauser is Superintendent of Long Embankment Unified Schoolhouse District.
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Source: https://edsource.org/2015/career-and-technical-education-must-be-integrated-with-academic-coursework/91122
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