Career Technical Education (CTE)

CTE practitioners and experts agree that the discipline of  CTE provides relevance and real world content for academic studies while promoting teamwork and cooperative learning. It builds teacher, counselor, parent, business, and community engagement.

At SLCUSD we have a robust Career Technical Education program of study that involves a multiyear sequence of courses that integrates core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with a pathway to postsecondary education and careers.CTE is a critical component of a broad and deep school curriculum that helps prepare all students to be career and college ready.

The CTE pathway program encourages students to see a high school diploma and readiness for college or other postsecondary study as a foundation for the future rather than as an end in and of itself.

• CTE provides students with real world 21st century skills that make them career and college ready.
• All SLCUSD CTE courses that meet a-g requirements necessary for entrance into the UC college system.
• CTE provides students with not only career and academic skills, but soft skills that are needed for the modern workplace, such as: critical thinking; communication; team work; citizenship, integrity, and ethical leadership; research tools; creativity; and innovation.
• All CTE programs are prepared in line with CTE Model Curriculum Standards and cross aligned with Common Core State Standards requirements.
• CTE courses offer dual enrollment options for schools to partner with Cuesta Community College so students have an early awareness that college is a possibility and can gain college credit.
• CTE brings specialized instructors into class, and offers industry-specific courses so students get an intimate understanding of what it is like to work in that industry sector.

• Parents are an important part of each LEA’s CTE advisory committee and their active involvement is required per US Education Code.
• Each CPA must have an advisory committee made up of all stakeholder groups, including parents.

• CTE increases engagement in school by involving students as decision-makers and “owners” of their education process.
• CTE significantly increases not only the high school graduation rate, but also results in a higher percentage of students going to college and persisting through graduation.
• Students taking both academic and technical courses have lower dropout rates and better achievement gains than other students.
• Students of Regional Occupational Centers and Programs were typically from lower achieving and lower socioeconomic status than peers, but were just as likely to enroll in postsecondary education and eventually earn higher wages.
• Students have a decreased risk of dropping out of high school as they add CTE courses to their curriculum.
• High-risk students are 8 to 10 times less likely to drop out in grades ten and eleven if they enroll in a CTE program instead of a general program.
• The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network states quality CTE and related guidance programs are “essential for all students” and coupled with other strategies have the most impact on the dropout rate.

CTE has been found to increase school connectedness, reduce behavioral problems related to suspensions and expulsions, and reduce dropout rates among all student groups — especially among students most at risk of dropping out.