
The Coalition for a College- and Career-Ready America
Invites You to Attend a Webinar on
The Role of Career and Technical Education in Preparing Students
to Compete in the Twenty-First-Century Economy
VIDEO
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Panelists
Brenda Dann-Messier, EdD, Assistant Secretary, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education
Kimberly Green, Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium
Melissa Jaggers, Associate Executive Director, Alignment Nashville
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education
Today’s global economy demands a better-educated and more highly-skilled workforce. In communities across the country, career and technical education (CTE) programs are making a difference in meeting that demand by engaging students in authentic learning with real-world application, preparing them for further study and a career, and helping to fill jobs. Yet too many CTE programs are not results driven and lack the relevance and rigor students need to prepare for lifelong learning and a successful career.
In April 2012, the Obama administration released a blueprint for reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006, which is the largest federal program targeted to high schools. The proposal calls for a transformation of CTE around four core principles: effective alignment between CTE programs and labor market needs; collaboration among secondary schools, institutions of higher education, employers, and industry partners to improve the quality of programming; accountability for improving academic outcomes; and systemic reform of state policy to support innovation at the local level.
The Coalition for a College- and Career-Ready America held a webinar on May 31 featuring CTE and other education experts who discussed the proposed blueprint, the appropriate role of federal policy in supporting high-quality CTE and what it takes—at the local level—to create programs that expand opportunity for students to be successful in college and a career while also strengthening the nation’s economy. Webinar panelists also addressed questions submitted by viewers from across the country.
Supplemental Materials