Education is changing. Our country’s roles in the global economy and the recent years of recession have focused our country on evaluating systems that we have in place, including our education system. The paradox of high unemployment and high numbers of unfilled, high-skill jobs has let us to evaluate many aspects of our education system. Some of the national initiatives include developing common academic standards for students; raising the requirements for STEM teachers; engaging industry in all aspects of education; providing career awareness information to students; and implementing more effective, 21st century teaching methods. One such national effort has been to develop national standards for career and technical education.

This national effort to define common technical core skills and knowledge for Career and Technical Education (CTE) will be finalized in all of the 16 Department of Labor career clusters later this summer for implementation in the fall of 2012. The “Common Career Technical Core” (CCTC) effort began in the spring of 2011 with subject matter experts, industry validation and reviews. Currently, 42 states are participating in the effort that should better define student outcomes that meet industry expectations of our high school students. (See www.careertech.org for more on the CCTC).
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