RD224 - Virginia’s Integration of Standards of Learning and Career and Technical Education Programs


Executive Summary:
Virginia’s K-12 educational system is built on rigorous standards in academic courses and performance-based competencies in career and technical education. Standards of Learning, which outline what students should know and be able to do upon successfully completing the grade or course, exist for every grade and content area, whether or not there are associated Standards of Learning tests. Additionally, all career and technical education courses in the Commonwealth are designed to reflect challenging competencies that outline expected outcomes for students who successfully complete the courses. These courses, standards, competencies, and assessments complement each other to provide a wide range of rigorous options to meet the needs of a variety of students as we strive to prepare them for a future that has yet to be defined. Rather than inhibiting students from pursuing career and technical education programs and seeking industry certifications, there is an intensive effort to integrate academic and career and technical education in learning and applying knowledge and skills.

Since the implementation of the Standards of Learning in 1995, the Office of Career and Technical Education, with the assistance of the Office of Middle and High School Instruction, correlates all career and technical education (CTE) courses and competencies with Standards of Learning in English, mathematics, science, and social sciences to help teachers in both programs understand how their curricula support each other in theory and in practical applications. The Standards of Learning and the CTE competencies complement each other rather than compete with each other.

Additionally, the reauthorization of the federal Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV) contains new language that aligns CTE programs more closely with academic programs. The new Act also strengthens the connections between secondary and postsecondary education and increases state and local accountability. For example, rather than reporting academic achievement of CTE students, recipients of funds report on the graduation rate of CTE students using the same graduation rate that is required for No Child Left Behind. Another important change is that funding from Perkins IV may be used to help states and localities develop further alignment between academic and career and technical curricula.

This increased emphasis on collaboration between career and technical education programs and academic programs has supported a growth in career and technical education enrollments. The following table shows the enrollments in career and technical education programs for the last ten years. The enrollments began to increase significantly when state funding began to be provided in 2004-2005 to support the cost of industry credentialing for high school students. The number of career and technical education completers has also increased in recent years.