There is emerging evidence that career and technical education programs that have beefed up their courses with rigorous academics are succeeding in raising student achievement, according to an education department official. Hans Meeder, the education department’s deputy assistant secretary for CTE, said that although traditional CTE has had little impact on students’ academic achievement, an increasing number of CTE programs are stressing core academics and offering students pathways to postsecondary education and training opportunities.

Meeder and Susan Sclafani, the acting assistant secretary for vocational and adult education, reiterated the administration’s stance that strong academics are necessary for all students, regardless of whether they will go onto college or enter the workforce.

“We’ve got to end the period of time where we’ve said, ‘Only this small group is going to college.’ What we’re trying to ensure is that there are sufficient transition paths for every child,” according to Sclafani.

Meeder and Sclafani were among the administration’s top education officials participating in the department of education’s high school leadership summit on Oct. 8 where officials discussed reforming the nation’s high schools. The summit was attended by 700 educators, policymakers and other officials from across the country. Meeder discussed high school reform implications for career and technical education, and touted the Bush administration’s Secondary and Technical Education Act (STEA) as necessary to infuse rigor and relevance in CTE programs. STEA, unveiled in February, would replace the federal Carl D. Perkins Act and would require Perkins funding be redirected to “secondary and technical” programs that have a strong link to postsecondary institutions. States and school districts would be required to focus more intensively on improving student outcomes such as academic achievement, and ensuring that students are being taught the necessary skills to make successful transitions from high school to college, and college to the workforce.

When the measure was initially proposed, there was a torrent of disapproval from the CTE community that resulted in ACTE members, among others, firing off thousands of letters and e-mails to legislators asking them to rethink the proposal. Much of what the entire Secondary and Technical Education Act will entail remains a mystery, but Meeder said that all will be revealed when specifics are released in the future. However, the proposal could include end-of-course exams to measure students’ mastery of technical skills, he said.

“The administration appears to be moving in a more moderate direction than the reauthorization proposal released last February,” said Christin Driscoll, ACTE’s senior director of public policy, who attended the summit. “We remain concerned, however, about some of the details the proposal may contain. We eagerly anticipate the president’s definitive plan for career and technical education.”

As part of the summit, Meeder moderated a panel of officials who discussed some promising CTE practices and programs as identified by the Department of Education. In New York, a plan was approved in 2001 enabling students to use CTE courses to fulfill academic and CTE requirements necessary for a Regents diploma. Jean Stevens, New York State’s assistant education commissioner, said that students must still pass the five Regents exams in order to get CTE endorsements on their diploma, but the new plan integrates credits in English, math, social studies and science into CTE courses. The plan stipulates that school districts can voluntarily revamp their CTE programs and apply for the state’s stamp of approval that their curriculum meets state standards. So far, 511 CTE programs have been approved to participate.

The panel also included officials from Northern Virginia Community College and Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, two institutions that Meeder said had model programs that should be replicated on a wide scale. Charlene Connolly, provost of the Medical Education Campus at Northern Virginia Community College highlighted the institution’s “transparent pathways” program which offers students a career in the health sciences. Eleventh-graders participate in a six-year program that is made possible through the college’s partnership with high schools, Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University.

At Kirkwood, which has campuses across the state, the Career Edge Academy emphasizes technical and academic coursework and offers students the opportunity to earn college credits, while in high school, through hands-on and long distance learning. Steve Ovel, the academy’s director, said the college links with high schools to offer technical programs in a number of areas including health sciences, engineering and automotive technology. Distance learning has made it possible for rural high schools to be able to participate in partnerships that would otherwise not have been possible, he said.

But some members of the CTE community expressed concern that the field was not getting enough recognition from the Bush administration for innovative practices widely being used.

“I was surprised that there wasn’t more credit given to the career and technical education community for leading the way in models of high school reform, said Dr. John Foster, director, Pennsylvania Career & Technical Education. “A variety of models were touted such as clusters, pathways, workplace mentoring, smaller classes and contextual learning – all of these are natural to CTE, yet during the summit there wasn’t much mention of that.”

The Bush administration has argued that employers often lament that high school graduates do not have the necessary reading, writing and math skills necessary for the workplace. Foster said that in the field of CTE, employers still place a premium on technical skills.

“A good way to get a feel for what the employers really want is to take a look at the want ads,” he said. “See if you see ‘higher literacy skills’ advertised by employers. You don’t see ‘soft skills wanted’, but you do see technical skills are in great demand.”