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Engaging Hands and Minds
Randi Weingarten
For six years during the 1990s, I taught social studies in Brooklyn, New York, at Clara Barton High School for Health Professionals, a career and technical education (CTE) school.
I remember thinking about how to approach teaching a bioethics course to seniors, including many practical...
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Many trends abound in education, and the virtual disappearance of vocational education is one of them.
As our economy dramatically changed during the last several decades, wood-shop, welding, and metalworking all but vanished from high school course offerings. Education experts and...
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The Case for High-Quality CTE
James R. Stone III
After years of languishing as the program for someone else’s child, career and technical education (CTE) has been rediscovered by federal, state, and local policymakers. This renewed interest comes at a time when federal policy, beginning with the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, has had...
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Bridging the Academic-Vocational Divide
Mike Rose
The frame of a very small house sits in the middle of the large electronics workshop. The frame is bare except for wires running across and through the beams, wires and receptacles, some wall switches, various light fixtures, and a power panel, door open. Students test their skills on this...
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A Toledo Public School Prepares Students for College and Career
Jennifer Dubin
“Why do I have to learn this?” It’s a question that crosses the minds of many high school students, but one that Ian Furstenberg doesn’t need to ask. Because of his classes in such technical fields as digital electronics and automation, he can see the immediate connection between his schoolwork...
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Combining Rigorous Academics with Career Training
Robert B. Schwartz
In February 2011, I, along with two colleagues, economist Ronald Ferguson and journalist William Symonds, released a report, Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century, which was published by Harvard University’s Graduate School of...
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Notes from New York City
Michael Mulgrew
In New York City, as in many places across the country, there is much discussion about strengthening career and technical education (CTE). I find this talk extremely heartening since my background has allowed me to bridge the long-standing divide between traditional academic classes and...
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Reframing, Reimagining, and Reinvesting in CTE
John H. Jackson, Jonathan Hasak
Over the last several years, government and philanthropic studies have been drawing attention to declining postsecondary attainment in the United States. Whether it’s President Obama’s 2020 college completion goal or the Lumina Foundation’s Goal 2025, the sad fact is that America’s higher...
