Making the Case for Career and Technical Education
WIB Should Embrace Career and Technical Ed
By David Jason Fischer, Project Director, Center for an Urban Future
The promise of career and technical education (CTE) has fired much of the recent
energy around education reform in New York City, as indicated by a high profile
task force Mayor Bloomberg convened earlier this year to develop recommendations
for the field. My organization, the Center for an Urban Future,
recently released a report looking at CTE, titled Schools That Work. The study
presented two major findings. The first is that CTE seems to produce better
educational outcomes—higher graduation rates, fewer dropouts—than academics-
only secondary schooling, despite serving students who are poorer,
lower-skilled and otherwise at greater risk of failing to complete high school.
But the second finding carries even greater potential significance for New York
City’s economy. Simply put, CTE prepares young people for jobs in vital high growth
sectors like health care, construction, and information technology. CTE
programs are responsive to industry trends and informed by business leaders
who take an active role in shaping curriculum, donating equipment and
supplies, and providing internships and other work experiences to students
interested in exploring a career in the field. And CTE programs lead to higher
education as well as the workplace: to earn state approval, they must reach
agreements with colleges for advanced placement in the relevant field, and
culminate in attainment of a nationally recognized industry certification.
In other words, CTE bears a striking resemblance to the vision many in the research
and advocacy world hold for workforce development programming:
career orientation, close ties to industry, multiple pathways to employment
and higher education. Yet until very recently, CTE and workforce development
have proceeded along separate tracks, with virtually no connection between
the two systems.
Happily, this trend has begun to shift. Workforce Investment Board staff members
have been in attendance at recent meetings of the CTE Advisory Council,
a collection of educators, advocates and business leaders who meet quarterly
to support CTE programs. As a next step toward stronger ties between the two
systems, the mayor could appoint a prominent CTE official—perhaps Advisory
Council chair Stanley Schair, or Gregg Betheil, Senior Executive for CTE within
the Department of Education—to join the WIB.
The workforce development and CTE communities share common goals: to
help New Yorkers meet their career objectives, and to address the workforce
needs of city employers. Both will benefit from greater communication and
coordination. With short-term and long-term challenges to the city economy
in view, the time to act is now.
