Franklin Special District (FSD) is the only district in Tennessee to offer aerospace as a high school credit course to 8th graders. It has no entry requirements, making this CTE opportunity attainable for every student.

“We were hopeful that the students would connect with the subject and find it interesting, but they've really taken to it beyond my wildest dreams,” says Mary Decker, Associate Director of Schools for Teaching & Learning at FSD, who developed and leads the district’s aerospace program. “We have quite a few students who are now pursuing a career in aerospace. Many of them really weren't familiar with aviation before they took this class.”

A Tennessee Department of Education Innovative School Models (ISM) grant provided the district with $1 million to pursue college and career technical education (CTE) programming. Through this grant program, Decker reimagined modes of time, space, and learning in partnerships between middle and high schools, post-secondary, and the aerospace industry.

“It definitely gives them that real-world, hands-on learning that the students are craving,” Decker says. “There are some students who struggle with learning in traditional ways, but when you factor in the simulator time, it's really speaking their language. We've seen them become more open to the academic, book learning side of the class.”

For this and other efforts, Decker was recently recognized with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award. She shares details about her popular aerospace program implementation and tips for those interested in creating a similar program in their district.

‘Flying Before Driving’

Middle school might sound ambitious for such a program, but Decker says that’s not the case.

“I've had some people say to me, ‘Aren't they too young? Can they really appreciate the time on the flight simulators? Isn't this too much for them?’” she says. “They have absolutely risen to the occasion. They have excelled. Students rise to the level of our expectations, and I think this program has really demonstrated that.”

The program has created opportunities for in-demand and lucrative careers, such as future pilots, air traffic controllers, aircraft maintenance technicians, and aeronautical engineers. Some students will be poised to earn their private pilot license before they are old enough to drive.

“They are just finishing their freshman year of high school and already have aerospace in mind as a career,” Decker says. “They are thinking, ‘How can I start building up my flying hours? How can I start taking flight lessons? What other courses should I be taking? How should I be building my high school schedule so that it fits in with what I'm planning to do?’ Just seeing that sense of direction already in ninth graders is amazing.”

The program also offers other benefits to students.

“Getting the correct education and licenses for an aviation career is expensive and can be complicated,” Decker says. “If there are financial obstacles in the way, or students are intimidated by the process to get where they want to go, we wanted to take all of that away and just say, ‘If you're interested, we are going to do everything we can to take you as far as possible with aerospace.’”

Sims for the Win

Simulators aren’t just about sliding into a machine for a video game session. It involves navigation, management of emergencies, instrument awareness, taxi and hangar skills in a variety of aircraft.

Each FSD aerospace program classroom has at least five Redbird Jay Velocity Flight Simulators that students use daily, and at least one Redbird TD flight simulator, which is FAA-certified as a Basic Aviation Training Device (BATD) and a Redbird LD simulator.

“They can practice radio calls. They can simulate emergency scenarios. It continually gets more complicated and more realistic,” says Decker. “If they are working with a certified flight instructor, these are simulators that pilots can use to actually log flight time. They're authorized Federal Aviation Administration training devices. We offer students the best learning experience and the most realistic simulation of flight.”

The Redbird simulators allow different aircraft to be programmed for different scenarios in whatever type of flight the teacher wants them to learn for the day,

All this exposure sets students up for success regardless of which aerospace track they pursue.

“If they do go on to earn their pilot certificate, they've already banked some of that experience. If they are interested in becoming an air traffic controller, they have experience with radio calls. If they're going into aircraft maintenance, they have a better understanding of flight characteristics in different airplanes they've been introduced to through the simulators. It’s really just a win-win with the sims.”

Find a Teacher With Their Head in the Clouds

The first step in launching an aviation-aimed program is to find the right educators for the job. FSD has one dedicated aerospace teacher, who walks back and forth between adjacent middle schools.

“Not only is he a licensed teacher, he has a private pilot certificate and owns his own airplane,” Decker says. “We just got very fortunate that we have such a great teacher and he obviously knows the content exceptionally well. He has forged really fantastic relationships with the students.”

Don’t be discouraged if you haven’t hit the aerospace-superstar lottery in your district.

“I have talked to other districts where they've had a teacher come in who wasn’t necessarily knowledgeable about aerospace, but was very enthusiastic,” Decker says. “They were still able to use the curriculum, learn about the simulators and teach the class very successfully. We’ve had other STEM teachers attend professional learning around aerospace so that we have a team who are knowledgeable and are able to provide support, but our aerospace teacher handles all of the classes at this point.”

If there is one wish Decker had for the future of the program, it is simply to have more of it.

“I'd love to expand the program someday,” she says. “The way our master scheduling works, this class is an elective. It currently works very well for us to have the two classes at each middle school, so one teacher is able to handle it.”

FSD uses the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) High School Aviation STEM Curriculum, which provides a solid foundation.

“The AOPA sets the standard for a comprehensive aerospace curriculum,” Decker says. “They work closely with Redbird to incorporate the simulator instruction so the teacher knows the best lessons to integrate for a specific scenario in the simulator. The two definitely work hand-in-hand. It includes aerospace history, aerodynamics, engineering, flight characteristics of different aircraft, even a section on unmanned aerial systems.”

A Winning Pilot Program

Part of launching an education program based on the art of aviation is letting students’ ambitions and imaginations take flight.

“We're about three hours away from Memphis, where FedEx is based so a lot of FedEx pilots live in the area,” says Decker. “They have been very generous in coming in and talking to the kids, letting them know what their careers and path to flying looked like. We had a Southwest Airlines representative come in to tour the classes and meet with the students.”

Getting a pilot’s perspective on the industry is great, but seeing them in action is inspiring. Students get to attend the Great Tennessee Air Show in nearby Smyrna to see multiple types of aircraft, and interact with the pilots and various support personnel.

The flight and aerospace industry is broad and varied in the area. For example, pilots from a hot air balloon company have done demonstrations and students have visited the aviation program at nearby Middle Tennessee State University.

“We're definitely trying to involve the community, and specifically the aviation community, to show our students all the paths they can take to achieve their aviation dreams,” Decker says.

Taking the wheel isn’t the only option for interested students.

“We definitely wanted to develop pilots, but there are so many opportunities and jobs available in aerospace careers — air traffic controller, aircraft maintenance, aeronautical engineer, airport manager . . . .” Decker says. “Whatever their interest is, we are here to encourage it.”

3 Tips to Helping an Aerospace Program Take Off

Decker offers advice for others looking to launch a career pathway in aerospace.

1. Build Your Team — “If somebody's looking to start an aerospace program, think beyond finding a great teacher,” she says. “It really has to be a team effort to make it as high quality as possible for the students. Our instructional technology specialists, curriculum supervisor and technology supervisor and members of his tech team have really thrown themself into supporting this program. I’m really fortunate that they saw the possibilities this would offer students and have been enthusiastic from day one.”

2. Give the Team Support and Information — “Make sure the teacher has everything they need with regard to curriculum, provide them with professional learning,” Decker says. “Have your technology team and instructional technology attend training and learn how to set up and troubleshoot the sims so that they are always running perfectly. Make sure school administrators have all the background and are kept well-informed because their support is really important as well.”

3. Find the Finances — “We were fortunate that we have this ISM grant, but I also applied and received a smaller grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation,” Decker says. “If you have money within your budget to allocate that’s great, but take the time to explore state grant funding sources. The AOPA curriculum is free, but plan funding to ensure simulators will be part of your program. They are not inexpensive, but they're worth it and really crucial.”

Tools They Use

• i-Ready
• aimswebPlus
• Discovery Education
• Learning.com
• Destiny
• Code HS
• Quaver Music
• QuaverReady
• Clever
• Skyward
• GoGuardian
• Parsec
• Curriculum-specific tech resources include: McGraw Hill Wonders (K-4); Savvas Realize Science (K-8); Studies Weekly (K-2); Gallopade (3-8); Open Up Reading (5); Savvas My Perspectives Reading (6); McGraw Hill StudySync Reading (7-8); Actively Learn ; McGraw Hill Math (5-6); Big Ideas Math (7-8, Algebra 1, Geometry)

The high school tech department of RSU 22, located along the Penobscot River near Bangor, Maine, offers traditional programming, such as woodworking and shop, as well as a bringing variety of engineering tech tools and an extremely well-equipped makerspace secured through grant funds. However, through a series of community partnerships and funding opportunities, it was able to launch its Higher Vision Drone Program.

“One of the things that appealed to me is that we already have nine community partners, which represent a range of businesses and organizations,” says Jennifer Nickerson, the district’s Director of Curriculum, who saw an opportunity to add drones to its career pathways. “A little local blueberry farmer in one of our four towns uses the drone to inspect her crops and plan what she needs to do for work that day. The Maine Forest Service visited, sharing stories about their advanced, expensive drones. But they use the same skills our kids are learning to use the drones to find missing people or protect forests and Maine’s natural beauty.”

ESSER funds enabled the school to create an esports lab, tech which served perfectly to accommodate the drone program’s flight simulators. Nickerson worked with Charlie Huff, a technology teacher at Hampden Academy and the department head, Todd Moore, to implement the Higher Vision Drone Program. Title II funds secured out-of-state training for the pair to get certified to teach the young prospective pilots.

“Each certified instructor can have eight kids fly under their license,” says Nickerson. “The first year, they co-taught the intro class together with 16 kids in the program for the fall semester. Of the 16, 14 continued on to take the Commercial Drone course for the spring semester. We have 11 students scheduled for their FAA Part 107 tests, with two passing this week.”

And from there, the program has taken flight.

“Now other students are seeing all this hard work pay off and next year's course enrollments have jumped up,” says Nickerson. “To be fair, some of it is probably because when you are sitting on the second floor in your English class and you see a drone fly by outside, it’s pretty good advertisement."

For this and other efforts, Nickerson was recently honored with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award. She shares her “Higher Vision Drone Program” implementation successes and tips for those interested in creating a similar program in their district.

Enrollment, Enlistment, Employment

RSU 22 dates back to 1803, and Nickerson’s family has long been a part of it.

“We like to say, ‘We’re rooted in tradition, but focused on the future,’” says Nickerson. “My kiddos are fifth-generation Broncos, I joke that I bleed purple. The success of RSU 22 is really personal to me and my family and to the four towns in our district. One of which is more affluent than the other three, which can cause issues with programming. However, it was also an inspiration to seek out the Teach with Tech grant from the Maine DOE, which includes a requirement to support underserved students.”

Nickerson saw it as a real way to level opportunities within her district.

”We have tons of AP classes in our high school, Hampden Academy, and we add to them every year,” she says. “But we wanted exciting opportunities for kids who don't fit in that AP niche. I went to a conference which leaned heavily on the concept of three paths for kids, all being equally valuable. Enrollment, enlistment, employment — we need to honor those kids by supporting them with a clear path to success. This was a great motivation to create our drone program.

One very exciting opportunity has presented itself from Cianbro, a nationwide construction company.

“They learned about our program and told me, ‘If you get kids to take and pass the FAA Part 107 test to earn their drone license, we will hire them the day of graduation,’” says Nickerson. “We want those opportunities for our students, because not everyone is going to go to college.”

The Importance of Community Partnerships

A distinctive feature of Hampden Academy’s drone program is its collaboration with nine community partners who share their expertise directly with students. These partnerships include:

• Hampden Public Safety: Demonstrating emergency response applications and public safety uses for drone technology.
• Cianbro: Showcasing industrial applications in construction and infrastructure development.
• News Center 2: Illustrating journalistic and media applications of drone photography and videography.
• Haley Ward Civil Engineering: Providing insights on surveying, mapping, and engineering applications.
• American Forestry Management: Highlighting environmental monitoring and forestry management techniques.
• Matt Thomas Media Productions: Sharing expertise in commercial drone photography and cinematography.
• Allan Gordon Jr Surveying: Demonstrating precision mapping and land surveying applications.
• United States Military: Offering perspectives on drone operations and career opportunities in defense.
• Maine Forest Service: Showcasing thermal imaging and precision aerial surveillance in public safety and natural resource management.

These partnerships provide students with real-world context for their learning and exposure to potential career pathways within their own communities.

“You can't just do it alone,” says Nickerson. “When your community gets behind you to share their expertise and open kids’ eyes to possibility, that culture can be one of your greatest resources even in small, rural, less affluent parts of the world. That’s one way this drone program will be sustainable for the future.”

Ultimately, Nickerson’s goal is just to do the right things for her students by securing the best tools for success.

“No one wants to build a house with a hammer that doesn't have a handle,” Nickerson says. “We need to have the best tools to do the best by our kids. Fortunately, this district has always put technology at the top of their priorities. We have a really supportive superintendent and assistant superintendent who believe in thinking outside the box. It’s just really great, because we need to prepare them. They are going to leave us one day, so we need to help them learn how to fly.”

4 Tips When Starting a New Tech Initiative

Nickerson offers advice to others who might be interested in launching a similar initiative:

• Don’t let lack of funds stop you. Think outside of the box and be creative and you will find the support.
• When securing grants, read the fine print. Some funds require specific choices in tech, such as drones that need to be made in the USA.
• Find your North Star and stay true to it. Think about what is most valuable to you and persevere. Don’t let setbacks stop you.
• Lean on your community. Resources don't have to be financial, expertise is invaluable.

Tools They Use

• Parrot ANAFI Drones
• Claude
• MagicSchool
• Google Suite
• Kibo Robots (Kinderlab)
• zSpace
• edWeb
• Chalk
• Smore
• SWIS/PBIS Apps
• Canva

In traditional American education, there has long been a "middle school mandate" for workforce readiness. The prevailing logic suggests that once students reach the cusp of adolescence, we should begin equipping them with the skills necessary for the professional world.

Waiting until middle school to focus on these abilities is a mistake, says Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute and author of The Breakthrough Years and Mind in the Making.

Galinsky’s extensive research in this area has proven that to prepare students for an unknown, rapidly evolving workforce, parents and educators need to shift their focus to include the early development of executive functioning skills—the neurocognitive processes that allow us to manage ourselves and our resources to achieve goals.

Developing these skills in early childhood isn't just about better classroom behavior, but builds the foundation for lifelong career success.

What is “Executive Functioning”?

Executive function is a suite of four core cognitive processes or what she called the New Basics:

• Working Memory: The ability to hold information in mind and mentally work with it.
• Cognitive Flexibility: The ability to switch perspectives or focus and adjust to changed demands or priorities.
• Inhibitory Control (Self-Control): The ability to resist impulses and stay focused on a task despite distractions.
• Reflection: This capacity involves pausing, stepping back and considering alternatives before acting.

"These are attention-regulation skills," Galinsky explains. "What we pay attention to, what we focus on, is what we learn. They are the skills that underlie all intentional learning and well-being. These are the skills that underlie learning to read and to do math as well as the skills that you use to handle challenges when something gets tough."

The Early Start Advantage

The push to start executive functioning development in preschool and early elementary years is rooted in biology, Galinsky says. This is a sensitive period during which the neural connections for executive functions are being wired.

“If you really want children to have these skills, you have to start in the early years," she says. "Two, three, four, five… these are the ages of huge brain plasticity when the connections among various parts of the brain are being formed and the skills learned can be more lasting."

By the time a student reaches middle school, their cognitive habits are becoming more ingrained. While Galinsky emphasizes adolescence is another sensitive period for strengthening these skills and that it is “never too late” to learn them, building the foundation early ensures that when students face the high-pressure environments of modern careers, they aren't struggling to build the engine while already driving the car.

Translating Classroom Skills to the Boardroom

Galinsky notes that in the modern workforce, technical knowledge has a shorter shelf life than ever. The ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn is the ultimate competitive advantage.

“I know from years of working with companies and surveys are increasingly showing that employers look for kids who can communicate, solve problems, and work in teams much more than they look at grade point averages,” Galinsky says. Executive functioning skills are the cognitive building blocks for the real skills that power high-level professional competencies. Some examples:

• Perspective Taking: Built on cognitive flexibility, this allows a salesperson to understand a client's needs or a manager to resolve a conflict.
• Critical Thinking: Built on working memory and reflection, this allows an analyst to see patterns in data rather than just repeating facts.
• Collaboration: Built on inhibitory control, this allows a team member to listen to others' ideas instead of just “blurting out the first thing in their mind.”

The Power of Reflection: “The Active Ingredient”

One of the most practical takeaways from Galinsky’s research is the role of reflection. In a rapid-paced society, we often prioritize checking boxes over meaningful integration. Galinsky sees reflection as the “active ingredient that makes all of the skills work together.”

For a math teacher, this might mean moving away from “right vs. wrong” and asking a student, “How did you remember that formula?” or “Why did you make that error and what can you learn from this mistake?”

This metacognition—thinking about one's own thinking—is what separates a worker who follows instructions from a worker who innovates.

Real Skills for Real Life

The AASA (The School Superintendents Association) has recognized the importance of focusing on executive functioning by making “Real Skills for Real Life” one of its five Public Education Promise pillars for transforming public education. Galinsky is currently working with the organization to launch a curriculum for educators that spans from birth through age 18, ensuring that these neurocognitive muscles are exercised throughout a student's entire journey.

“Executive functioning is the most important asset we have,” Galinsky says. "It has to be reinforced throughout our lifetimes. Nothing is a vaccine forever, but starting in the early years will make a significant difference to kids’ academic success and to their positive mental health”.

Quakertown Community School District is a diverse suburban district of 5,000 students 40 miles north of Philadelphia.

“We find that many generations of families have gone through our district,” says Superintendent Matthew Friedman. “As a long-time professional in education, that’s always a good sign that people like the school system. When I arrived, I listened to all the internal and external stakeholders to learn the strengths, the pain points, where we needed to grow. What I really wanted to focus on was life beyond the walls of the schools.”

For Friedman, who was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award at the Northeast Pre-NYSCATE Summit in Verona, NY, there was one important question to answer: What are kids going to do when they graduate?

“We have a mix of white-collar and blue-collar families and a separate technical high school with about 1,000 kids that feed in from three different districts,” he says. “A lot of our kids go into trades. We support two-year paths, four-year paths, trade school, workforce, military — all the different options. But we really had no dedicated exposure to STEM education at that elementary level.”

To start, Friedman helped design and implement an elementary computational thinking and design thinking course for K through 5.

“It gave the students an opportunity to be hands-on in their learning, to understand the computational thinking process and have exposure to STEM education at the younger level,” he says. “I always use the analogy from a leadership position of building a house. You can build the biggest house in the world, but if you don't have a strong foundation that house is going to collapse."

Friedman saw a lot of schools try to implement things from the top down. He wanted to try to do things from the bottom up, starting conversations in kindergarten to set kids up for success in high school by having K-8 CTE exposure. To do that, he wanted to have career conversations with a common career language K-12 and to take a dialogic approach using the RIASEC taxonomy of career interests.

Far from a one-off concept, RIASEC is now used by many universities such as U of Hawaii, Purdue, FSU, and Michigan State to help students determine prospective majors that speak to their true talents, interest and abilities.

“If you put in your RIASEC results, it will show you what majors align with your letters and what courses you could potentially take,” Friedman says. “It takes a lot of the guessing out and really helps to frame it for students.”

The 6 RIASEC Types to Guide Students

Friedman explains the RIASEC taxonomy:

• Realistic (The Doers): These people are often good at mechanical or athletic jobs (e.g., mechanics, engineers, farmers).
• Investigative (The Thinkers): These people like to watch, learn, analyze and solve problems (e.g., scientists, researchers, data analysts).
• Artistic (The Creators): These people like to work in unstructured situations where they can use their creativity (e.g., artists, musicians, writers, designers).
• Social (The Helpers): These people like to work with other people, rather than things (e.g., teachers, nurses, counselors).
• Enterprising (The Persuaders): These people like to work with others and enjoy persuading and performing.(e.g., managers, salespeople, entrepreneurs).
• Conventional (The Organizers): These people are very detail oriented, organized, and like to work with data (e.g., accountants, clerks, administrative assistants).

Some schools use simple questionnaires to ask students to consider their strengths, dislikes, talents and interests — making it clear there are no wrong answers, as seen here.

Deeper Conversations and Deeper Culture

Friedman has seen a positive change not only in the classroom but the greater school culture.

“We were talking about Martin Luther King Jr's birthday coming up and instead of very low-level factual information, we can integrate career conversations such as, ‘What letters do you think Dr. King would be? What letters are you? Find two or three in the room to have a conversation. What are the similarities between you and Dr. King? What are the differences? Why do you think he would be these letters? Does that align with your strengths and your interests, could you do something similar to what Dr. King did one day?’ It takes the conversation to a whole other level,” Friedman says.

Friedman explains how a third-grade Veterans Day classroom conversation he overheard discussing RIASEC letters in regard to an Army Ranger visitor in the classroom might have affected a student’s career path.

“Students really have to understand all six letters in order to understand where they fit in the framework,” he says. “Their letters could change daily, weekly, yearly. The letters you have in kindergarten are probably not the letters you have in 7th or 12th grade. But if you continue to think about your strengths and your interests, teachers can flexibly group students in classrooms based off of their dominant letter.”

The success stories that are most satisfying to Friedman are those involving helping a student find their own right future path. For example, one strong student admitted he was considering dropping out of school because he didn’t see a fit with what was happening in the classroom. Now an engineering major at a top school, he shared that after being introduced to RIASEC and career conversations using a common language, he realized that his strengths and interests actually had a pathway beyond K-12.

From a leadership perspective, Friedman always wants growth and achievement from his students. A common language is changing the culture of the program.

“We’ve had the kids say, ‘I'm having conversations with people I never thought I would talk to in school,’” he says. “That’s so great. It shifts the paradigm.”

The use of RIASEC also helped in a recent career and jobs fair.

“We’ve created different types of pathways students can take,” Friedman says. “They can take courses and get externships and job shadows and internships throughout high school with local businesses. Integrating Riasec into their decision-making process was invaluable at a recent college and career fair in our high school. We had 96 colleges, universities, businesses, military and trades. Six weeks before the fair, our college and career counselor contacted all 96 attendees. ‘This is the Riasec framework. We want you to list your top 10 majors or job roles with appropriate letters.’"

When students arrived at the fair, rather than wandering aimlessly, they could instantly target the best fit and have productive conversations about their future.

“It’s just such a helpful tool, at any age,” Friedman says. “When we introduced this to parents, a number of adults came up to me afterward and said, ‘I might rethink where I am in my life and my career.’"

The Tools They Use

• Google Gemini
• Google Gems
• Notebook LM
• Streamable Learning
• ClickView

Watch the video above or listen to/download the audio below.

In a Houston-area district serving 60,000 students, career and technical education (CTE) has evolved far beyond the traditional "vocational ed" model. Executive director Brooke Martin oversees programs serving 19,000 students across multiple career pathways, focusing on preparing them for high-paying, high-demand jobs rather than just minimum wage opportunities.

The district's approach relies heavily on data analytics through platforms such as Eduthings, which helps administrators track labor market demands, enrollment patterns, and program completion rates. This data-driven strategy ensures students aren't being trained for outdated or oversaturated fields.

Of course, the cliche holds true—they always do things bigger in Texas. When analysis revealed overwhelming demand for healthcare programs across all five high schools, the district partnered with the Memorial Hermann hospital system to open a $32 million healthcare high school offering five unique pathways not available elsewhere in the district.

Beyond traditional metrics, the district tracks comprehensive work-based learning experiences, including internship hours, job shadowing, and mentoring sessions. The goal is for every student to leave with a detailed resume that tells their complete story — not just grades and certifications, but documented real-world experience that demonstrates coachability and readiness to employers.

Looking ahead, the district aims to ensure every student graduates with an industry credential aligned to their interests — meaningful certifications that open doors, not watered-down credentials that lack market value.

To see and hear more about Aldine’s strategies, click here.

• Tech & Learning Conversations with Kevin Hogan

With 40% of its 850 students at Upper Bucks County Technical School (UBCTS) in Pennsylvania having an IEP, and 50% overall being economically disadvantaged, school leaders realized that their instructional staff might need more professional support than many traditional schools.

“I just wanted to make sure all of our CTE educators and staff had the materials, resources, and knowledge to support all learners,” says Michael Herrera, Executive Director of UBCTS. “Many of our instructors are technical experts who have to come into career tech ed and then learn how to become teachers.”

While looking for help, Herrera discovered Amanda Bastoni, Director of Career Technical & Adult Education for CAST, and realized that the organization's Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which offers learning principles to support diverse and special populations, might be the solution he was looking for to bridge that gap. Bastoni was eager to offer support.

“We first asked how we could build self-efficacy in the teachers, how we could help them see that they could be successful and give them the skills they needed,” says Bastoni. “Many CTE teachers are already using the strategies in universal design for learning but they haven't been told or identified that these are best practices in education. So part of it is just saying, ‘Look this is what you're already doing really well. Keep it up.’”

As a result of the partnership, UBCTS has developed a specialized credential for educators designed to enhance understanding and application of UDL. It also includes a professional badge from NOCTI, the leading provider of industry credentials and resources for CTE.

Herrera says embedding this type of professional development has become sustainable, provided a common language, and built trust, all of which has validated the process. “We saw that it could be the most effective way to change the paradigm and help our teacher support all learners,” he adds.

Now, more than 45 UBCTS staff members have been trained in UDL.

Building Supports

Implementing UDL throughout the program has helped to create a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), says Daniel Cullen, UBCTS Assistant Director of Student Services.

“Tier One core instruction is going to be founded upon our UDL principles and the tenants of instruction that are associated with each principle,” Cullen says. “And in that system, our Tier Two interventions’ common language is really going to be influenced and informed by UDL because it takes the wonderful instructional pedagogy methods and it qualifies them. It creates a common language amongst the staff, so you see a little bit of fidelity start to take root across programs, which increases that teacher sense of efficacy.”

Building that efficacy is accomplished by the systemic approach that UDL provides, for both educators and schools. Learning to make data-informed decisions is part of that process, and doing so helps teachers build belief in their own skills, says Cullen. If that isn't there, when a student with cognitive, emotional, or language barriers comes in, they’re not going to succeed.

Herrera says that implementing UDL has increased engagement from nontraditional students and special populations, which has freed instructors to focus on delivering content. “It has helped empower the students to own their own learning,” he says.

Bastoni agrees. “The goal of UDL is to create expert learners, or learners who know what they need to learn,” she says, “And so I tried to reinforce that with the teachers. We're trying to create learners who can go out in the world. You don't have to have students who can walk away doing everything perfectly.”

“When you connect UDL to the power of career connected learning, that's when the real magic happens,” adds Cullen.

5 Tips For Implementing UDL In Your CTE Instruction

Bastoni offers advice for those considering UDL.

1. Create A Baseline Understanding - Ensure all teachers have a foundational understanding of best practices, with UDL as the common language. “And then you can build off of that with all these awesome programs,” Bastoni says. “It's much easier to expand when everyone's on the same page originally.”
2. Get Administrative Buy-In - Strong leadership with a clear vision, consistent support (funding, attendance, collaboration time), and integration of UDL training with school goals are crucial.
3. Teacher-Centered PD - Professional development should be designed based on teachers' needs and feedback, modeling UDL principles in its delivery (e.g., multiple modalities, former CTE educators as trainers).
4. Focus on Problem-Solving - UDL implementation is most successful when it addresses specific problems or barriers faced by educators and students.
5. Build Authenticity and Trust - Genuinely listening to teacher feedback and building trust are key to successful adoption. “When administrators have a vision and they force it on their staff, it's not going to be well-received,” Bastoni says. “If you want UDL to be implemented and loved, and to have it really work and be accepted, you have to demonstrate that it's valuable and authentic.”

Helping All Students Find Their Own Way

Ultimately, empowering the teachers with UDL certification has trickled down to success for students.

In particular, Cullen touts the success of the UBCTS ELL population, many of whom leave the school with workplace skills, an industry certification, and a credential in their native language, thanks to UDL pillars that allow them to select different tasks based on level of skill complexity, represent how they're learning, and build autonomy. “It's like a triple threat in the workplace,” he says.

“Over the last two years, 277 students had the opportunity to make $1.8 million just during the school day,” says Herrera. “It's a wonderful opportunity for our students once those barriers are removed and we focus on skills from a strength-based approach. It really helps students find their way.”

• What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?
• CTE Showcase: From Early Exposure to Earlier Exposure

Farming has always been a high-tech endeavor, says Scott Stump, CEO of The National FFA Organization, formerly Future Farmers of America.

“Agricultural education really was STEM before STEM was an ubiquitous icon for all things science, technology, engineering, and math,” Stump says. “FFA was formed in 1928, and all of it has been about really building the science, business, and technology skills within the next generation of those who are going to be producers, either in the form of a farmer or rancher, that are going to be the veterinarians, the chemists, and the food safety experts that are ensuring that this country can continue to provide the world's most abundant, safest, and most economical food supply across the globe.”

Stump, a former classroom agricultural educator, is passionate about how integrating farming education into existing STEM and CTE curricula can help build engaging lessons that not only help students understand the importance of STEM concepts and the real-world applications but also expose them to important career opportunities in the agricultural industry.

Farming-Related STEM and CTE Resources

FFA is a school-based leadership organization with chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization works with educators throughout the country, looking to incorporate farming and agricultural lessons, and provides additional tools for teachers via its website.

“We have a whole educator resources section,” Stump says. “If teachers want to take biology and really make it practical for students, if they want to take chemistry and make it practical, we have a wide variety of quick resources to kind of integrate AG as the application.”

He adds, “Over the past two years we released a full suite of resources on sustainability in agriculture that walks through all of the practices that farmers and ranchers and everybody across the food value chain are taking and implementing to ensure that we have the smallest carbon footprint that we can have and actually be a part of the solution.”

One example of this is how large-scale farming can sometimes create carbon sinks, a system in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, Stump says. “The Midwest, with all the corn growing in the summer, actually pulls in a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere. How do we do that better?”

Answering this question, “Is one of the solutions we're continuing to work forward and connect students to,” he says.

Farming Education and Career Opportunities

Stump says some schools have large outdoor farms that act as living labs for students in various science classes. Even schools that don’t have those resources can still get students outside and working with plants.

Back when he was working as a teacher, Stump says he would take his students outside to the school farm with the biology teacher. “We would actually section off a certain area, and our job was to specify all of the life forms that were in that space, both plant and insect, and really try and identify what the healthiness of that ecosystem is,” he says. These types of activities truly become a way of bringing that learning to life in a way that sparks innovation, he adds.

Many students who move from these farming-centered classes go into providing innovation in the industry. For example, one recent FFA alum is developing a company that has designed an early warning system for blight by using a plant’s natural ability to change color when it becomes distressed, Stump explains.

The FFA maintains a resource of more than 300 career opportunities related to agriculture. These include science and biology roles as well as production roles and engineering and design roles related to equipment that supports the industry.

AI and Agriculture

Beyond chemistry and biology, data science and AI are also playing an increasing role in agriculture and agricultural education. The FFA is working with many schools to integrate precision farming into the curricula, which uses smart sensors, data science, and AI.

Recently, the organization partnered with Microsoft to bring FarmBeats, a precision agricultural program, to more than 185 middle and high schools. The program provides schools with a curriculum and kits that include a ready-to-use agricultural sensor system.

“Schools get basically a small motherboard that connects to sensor systems,” Stump says. These monitor plant environments for temperature, moisture, sunlight, and more. The info is then stored on the cloud, and AI is used to interpret that data and suggest ways to facilitate better growing environments.

“It's exciting to introduce students to that kind of technology, because we know that as they continue moving forward, most jobs are going to have an AI component to it,” Stump says. "The earlier we can start equipping them and getting them to be AI aware and AI competent, it will equip them to be better in the marketplace as future employees, inventors, and/or entrepreneurs."

Stump adds, “We've got to get more students thinking about how to solve these big problems in the world by using tech and AI, and leaning into the STEM components, because that's where a lot of solutions are going to come from.”

• Design Principles for Outdoor Teaching
• Using the U.S. National Parks to Support STEM Learning
• Best Free Earth Day Lessons and Activities

Nine in 10 elementary students surveyed were aware of their interests, skills, abilities, personality traits, and strengths—considered a key step in career prep—in a 2022 study on career development needs. Nearly the same percentage of these students, in grades 3, 4, and 5, could name two or three careers that might be of interest. But more than half didn’t know, or were not sure, who could help them develop college and career readiness plans.

What should elementary educators do?

North Carolina is one state encouraging school districts to start career awareness activities with students in grade 5. A 2024 report found 64 districts had planned career fairs that welcomed nearly 250,000 fifth-graders in 2023-24, compared to 61 the year prior and 50 the year before that. More than 200,000 fifth-graders across the state had been exposed to some form of career and technical education (CTE) in 2023-24.

Cumberland County Schools, based in Fayetteville, is one district answering the call. Inviting grade 5 classes to the established annual CTE Career Pathway Fair meant potentially 4,000 additional individuals at the event, which had until this year just allowed middle and high schoolers to engage with local employers, educational institutions, and agencies to get a look at potential career paths.

Building A CTE Foundation

The 86-school district won a state grant a few years ago to fund a new position focused on expanding career exploration and exposure to the lower grades, says Chip Lucas, executive director of CCS Career and Technical Education. Initially that meant pushing in to the 50 elementary schools—helping with their own career fairs and bringing career exploration manipulatives to classrooms, for example.

Additional grants brought two more middle-grades career development coordinators into the fold, which has created opportunities for fifth-grade field trips to see the district’s career pathways programs in action.

The state support for earlier career exploration also allowed Cumberland administrators to purchase MajorClarity by Paper, their career development platform, for fifth graders rather than just older grades.

“We want students to start exploring early, but how can they do that? Career assessments and inventories, so they can decide their interests before they explore [careers],” says Lucas.

Every middle schooler also must have a Career Development Plan to be promoted to high school.

Meanwhile, district business partners expressed a need to reach students earlier, says Lucas. “We said, ‘Why don’t we just take on the big elephant and invite the fifth-graders to our career fair?”

Planning the Big(ger) Event

This April, nearly 3,000 students in grades 5 to 12 spent time at the 2025 CTE Career Pathway Fair at the county’s agri-expo center, participating in hands-on demos and one-on-one conversations with professionals representing the healthcare, public safety, agriculture, business, education, engineering, and technology industries, plus the trades. One popular high-tech display was the Beta Box mobile technology lab, where kids could fly drones and experiment with coding software, according to Lucas.

Forecasting a bigger event for up to 4,000 students with the addition of fifth grade began prior to holiday break, when Lucas’ team surveyed elementary principals to gauge interest, and ultimately opened the invitation to all, including any school that originally planned to stick with their own career exploration fair. In the end, nearly 1,600 fifth-graders attended.

The first hour after the ribbon-cutting was exclusively for these youngest students, who got some extra motivation and direction with a scavenger hunt challenge. Among the 10 activities:

• Shake hands with a professional.
• Find a career that uses teamwork.
• Talk to someone who works with technology.
• Ask someone about their favorite part of the job.

Lucas got handshake requests and saw how seriously students took the activity. He also had students take note of his clothing: While he was wearing a CTE t-shirt for the event, he had a jacket on hand that day for more professional moments, such as the ribbon-cutting.

Middle school students (also scavenger hunters) had the fair to themselves for the next two hours, and then vendors got a lunch break before spending the final 90 minutes with high schoolers.

“Typically, we’d be over and done by lunch hour,” Lucas says, adding that the longer day was necessary to accommodate the extra students. “We needed to balance the numbers.”

Reflecting and Evolving

Vendor feedback on the fair included praise for the youngest attendees. “They thought they had the best questions,” Lucas says. “It was very, very energetic with all those children in there. I think they set the tone for a really energetic day.”

A survey of principals confirmed the positive experience, and they’ve gotten save-the-date notices for 2026.

The planning for that may involve suggesting to vendors that they stagger tabletop freebies. “In some sense, [the fifth-graders] did wipe out all their swag,” Lucas says. And perhaps high school attendees need more opportunities for one-on-one talks with employers, or separate specific events for that.

Career development coordinators will push into elementary classrooms next year for focused career exploration. And on the high school side, apprenticeship programs and workforce development efforts will get more attention. As Lucas says, “It’s all part of the career development continuum, and we’re working that from both ends.”

• Using Technology To Teach CTE To Incarcerated Students
• KnoPro: How to Use It to Support CTE

Building CTE skills are often requires hands-on experiences. It takes practice to learn a skill such as welding or woodworking, which can make learning a challenge for any student, particularly those who are incarcerated and trying to develop marketable skills while in prison.

However, technology can help, say Michelle Beasley, coordinator of curriculum, instruction, and programs, and Amy Lloyd, assistant principal, at the Placer School for Adults in California, which offers education for inmates.

CTE and Digital Curriculum Access

Over the years, the digital offerings the Placer School can provide incarcerated students have increased.

“There used to be just a few random desktops that we would put in a cabinet when we weren't using them. Now we use Chromebooks in the classroom daily,” Beasley says.

Once a class ends, incarcerated students can’t use their Chromebooks, but they have access to an online curriculum through a Nucleos tablet, which provides access to approved education sites but not the internet at large. The sites incarcerated students are able to access include iCEV’s CTE curriculum, trainings, and certificate resources.

Lloyd and Beasley say this increased digital access allows students to continue practicing what they learned in class during the week.

“It’s really removing an access barrier for continuous progress and keeping momentum going, and keeping a student engaged. Because if you don't see you are progressing, then you tend to give up,” Lloyd says.

Support For Hands-On CTE Training

Students learning a skill such as welding still need practice actually welding, and the Placer School provides opportunities for that while using digital tools to help students maximize hands-on sessions.

“Even in welding, there's a ton of classroom time,” Beasley says. “In woodworking, there is classroom time.” Having the ability to study these various skills ahead of time gives students a head start on class.

Another area technology helps with is the soft skills. Many incarcerated students struggle with digital literacy overall. Increased access to digital platforms can help them learn how to craft professional resumes and cover letters.

Beyond just learning, the certificates earned give incarcerated students a better chance of achieving employment when they are released.

“There's already a bias against hiring someone who has had a conviction,” Lloyd says. “[This] legitimately improves their resume to give them a better chance to be able to find employment.” This is important, Lloyd adds, because helping newly released individuals find employment can reduce recidivism.

A Unique Teaching Opportunity

Beyond CTE education in particular, both Lloyd and Beasley say teaching incarcerated students is a wonderful opportunity for educators.

“Inmate education is one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had,” Beasley says. “We are non-compulsory. So people come because they want to come, and there are people inside who genuinely want to change and are tired of the way that they’ve been living. It's very satisfying when you are able to give someone the tools and the resources that they need, and the self-confidence that they can be successful when they get out.”

Lloyd has worked in a variety of settings in K-12, including teaching middle school and high school and working as a high school administrator, but says she’s never enjoyed teaching as much as working with this population of students.

“This is one of the purest forms of education I've been able to experience because, again, it’s noncompulsory,” she says. “Students vote with their feet. They do not have to get out of their bed and come see you if they don't want to. If they don't feel that there’s any relevancy or that there’s a ‘why,’ they'll be like, ‘I'm out.’ There's a magic in that.’”

• What Model CTE Looks Like in The Age of AI
• The Disruption of AI in CTE Is Real

Having a fundamental understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming essential in today’s world, where technology is rapidly reshaping every aspect of our lives. From the algorithms that curate social media feeds to sophisticated autonomous driving systems, AI is increasingly integrated into our daily routines and professional endeavors. Students who understand this will not only be able to navigate this evolving landscape with confidence, but they’ll also be prepared to critically evaluate the ethical and societal implications of AI's influence.

I started teaching back in 1995—long before AI became the household acronym that it is today—after earning my engineering degree and a master’s degree in technology. I learned about VHS Learning through a College Board forum about five years ago. Since joining the company, I’ve revised and expanded our computer science program to provide critical opportunities for computer science education to students around the world. I’ve developed courses including AP Computer Science A, AP Computer Science Principles, Discrete Mathematics, Cybersecurity, Data Science, and our newest course piloting this spring, Artificial Intelligence.

5 Ways Schools Can Prepare Students for AI

Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but now that it is an integral part of all our lives, we must support our students in developing the skills to be informed users of it.

At VHS Learning, our target audience for our Artificial Intelligence course is the high school student who is curious about AI and the impact it has on their life. In our work to develop this exciting new course we identified five important goals that may be helpful for any school that is considering how to teach students about AI:

1. Expose students to a wide variety of applications of AI: While most students are aware of AI, they may have a very limited knowledge based on fictional representations and social media influence. In our AI course, students are constantly exploring the use of AI across many different fields. For example, students may not realize that AI-driven medical cancer screening programs—approved by the FDA a couple years ago—can now detect cancer earlier because the programs are trained to detect abnormalities beyond what the human eye can detect. Prompting students to explore how AI is used in various fields and contexts is a great way to get them interested in learning more about how artificial intelligence works.

2. Present the big picture of AI: Most students assume a technology degree will in some way involve computer coding, but do not understand how AI is truly the intersection of programming, machine learning, neural networks, and deep learning. Students do not need extensive programming experience to have a basic understanding of how AI works. In our course, for example, students can explore how AI is based on computer code without any prior programming knowledge. They are provided with friendly versions of code that allows an app to function and are then prompted to explore how making changes in the code affects the functionality of the app. Students then shift their focus to explore the general concepts of machine learning, neural networks and deep learning in later units of the course.

3. Provide opportunities for hands-on experience: In the beginning of our AI course we use Google’s Teachable Machine to allow students to create an AI model that is trained to distinguish between two animals. They upload photos of their favorite animals and then input data to train their model to identify the different types of animals by key characteristics. Students explore how processing more images with their model allows the AI app to get smarter by helping to identify where further training is needed. This is a very simple yet effective model to teach students the power of AI, how machine learning works and why limitations or biases may exist.

4. Explore the impact of AI on careers: We ask our students to try and identify an industry that’s not going to be impacted by AI in some way. As high school students consider their future and potential career fields, we want to ensure they consider how AI will impact those fields. This is yet another reason why schools should be embedding AI learning into their curricula across disciplines. No matter what career students choose, they will need to have a general understanding of AI, how it works, and how it’s being used -- as well as how it shouldn’t be used.

5. Engage students in critical thinking about the ethical implications of AI: We recognize that AI can be a scary topic for students and set out to make the ethics of AI a central theme in our course. Each week students discuss applications of it and consider both the benefits and potential harm of those applications. In our final module, Living in an AI World, students spend time exploring human centered design and the responsible use of AI, including ethical frameworks, privacy and empathy maps, and consider the future of AI. When developing this course, we were intentional about looking at AI through different lenses, to allow students to understand the complex nature of the technology and its applications, to empower them to make educated decisions about their use of AI, and to be informed decision makers that will help shape future AI policies.

The Responsibility and Challenge of Teaching Students about AI

Instead of shying away from AI tools, we should be integrating them into curriculum from day one. Students need to learn not just how to use these tools, but also how to critically evaluate their output. We've seen students attempt to use AI to cheat, demonstrating a troubling lack of understanding of AI’s limitations, such as its propensity to "hallucinate" or generate inaccurate information. With school-appropriate AI platforms, we can teach students how to use AI responsibly, analyze generated content, and delve into the source of the information to investigate limitations and bias—all while preparing them for success in a wide variety of careers and industries.

Finally, there’s a perception that today’s students are very highly technically trained -- this is simply not the case for many. While there is good progress being made in expanding access to computer science education, the bottom line is that many schools still don’t have access to qualified teachers who can teach subjects such as AI. By using a high-quality online learning program such as VHS Learning, which features many highly qualified computer science teachers who bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion to our program, schools can equip their students with the essential knowledge and understanding of technological advancements shaping their future, regardless of their prior exposure to computer science.

During their time in school, developing the ability to think critically and problem solve can help students immensely. This can also result in establishing a sense of confidence and leadership, giving them the agency to handle challenges in their future careers and life in general.

Brianna Pride, Supervisor of Instructional Technology Programs for Buffalo Schools, discusses her Student Technology Leadership Program in which students provide mentoring and level one tech support, as well as her ongoing work to offer practical career-building opportunities and why it’s important for students to develop real-world skills.

The Student Technology Leadership Program

While students need to learn the basic fundamentals of education (math, language arts, history, etc.), it’s also critical for them to be prepared for a future that will be full of technology. A well-organized, hands-on student technology leadership program can support that.

“Our Student Technology Leadership Program is our oldest program,” says Pride, adding it was originally piloted in 2017 in an elementary school with middle school students. “The purpose of the program is to hone and leverage the students’ leadership, innovation, and problem-solving skills so that they can support technology integrations in their schools.”

How did this program help teachers in regard to acclimating to new technology being introduced into the classroom?

“When the program was developed, our district was first beginning with one-to-one devices,” says Pride. “A lot of the teachers were really overwhelmed and intimidated. I said, ‘Why don’t we use our students to help us make the shift?’”

In the program, students provide mentoring and level one tech support to teachers and school staff, and even co-teach on occasion. “They might go in and work with students on mentoring them on how to use the different technologies that we have available in our district,” says Pride. “It also includes [students] creating and delivering content to support student learning.”

All the tasks the students participate in mimic real-world scenarios, such as teaching digital literacy or planning technology PD for a teacher.

“You might not [end up being] a teacher, but let's say you have to host a meeting and you work for a Fortune 500 company,” says Pride. “You’ll go through those same steps to provide training to your colleagues.”

Implementing Your Own Student Technology Leadership Program

Districts big or small can put together a program that helps to educate students on the different aspects of technology while also creating a more engaging environment.

“I truly believe in student voice,” says Pride. “The very first thing I do, before I even present [an idea] to decision-makers, is I pull a focus group of students.”

Asking students how they envision an idea you have can help get them more involved, and builds a sense of ownership within students. Once you have a concept for what the program could be like, getting input and buy-in from teachers and principals is next. Ask what their needs are at building or district level, as well as what skills students and teachers may be lacking.

In addition to prioritizing student voice, Pride also reiterates the importance of making the process as close to a real-world experience as possible.

“I think that exposing our kids to as much as we can while we have them is huge, and I think [it is] the responsibility of all educators,” she says. “If we can expose our kids to as many experiences, careers, opportunities, and individuals as possible, that’s huge, and that is what our programs try to do, whether kids are interested in going into a technology-related field or not.”

• What Model CTE Looks Like in The Age of AI
• 10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have

As educators, our ultimate goal is to prepare students for success beyond high school. We aim to equip them with the skills, knowledge, and experiences they need to make informed career decisions and thrive in their chosen paths. At Commack School District, we are deeply committed to fostering career readiness by designing innovative, real-world learning environments that inspire and empower our students.

One of our proudest achievements is the Bloomberg Financial Literacy Lab, which plays a pivotal role in preparing students to manage their financial lives. This state-of-the-art lab provides students with the tools to make informed financial decisions and become responsible stewards of their own futures. Recognizing the critical importance of financial literacy, we’ve made it a graduation requirement for our seniors.

Additionally, our Career in Financial Management course introduces ninth graders to the Bloomberg Lab, where they explore investments, credit, and other essential financial topics. In creating these career-focused spaces, we’ve worked to transform the traditional look and feel of a school. What once were institutional cement walls are now warm, inviting spaces with sheetrock walls, modern flooring, modern lighting, and contemporary furnishings.

Here are five strategies we’ve used to create career-ready spaces that align with our vision for preparing students for life after high school:

1. Design for Functionality, Comfort, and Collaboration

We partnered with MiEN to ensure our furnishings were not only modern but also functional and conducive to collaboration. For instance, the Bloomberg Lab includes mobile seating, sleek couches, and a layout that encourages group interaction. These design choices create an environment that feels like the professional world, helping students envision themselves in future career settings.

2. Incorporate School Spirit

While our career-focused spaces embrace a modern aesthetic, they also reflect our school’s identity. For example, in the Bloomberg Lab, white computer tabletops are paired with contoured couches in Commack High School’s colors. This thoughtful design ties school pride into our innovative learning spaces.

3. Offer Diverse Seating Options

Our redesigned cafeteria features a variety of seating arrangements, including cushioned chairs, high-top and low-top tables, and diner-style booths. This diversity allows students to choose a space that suits their needs, creating a welcoming and dynamic dining environment. Watching students enjoy and take pride in these spaces is incredibly rewarding.

4. Collaborate with the Right Design Partner

Transforming a school into a modern, inspiring space is a significant undertaking. Partnering with a design team that shares your vision can make the process more efficient and effective. Our collaboration with MiEN allowed us to narrow down options and create spaces that align with our goals for career readiness and student engagement.

5. Think Beyond Traditional Concepts

Our newly designed library is a lively, interactive space where students come to collaborate, work, and connect. It features quiet study rooms for focused work and larger classroom spaces for group activities. This balance ensures the library serves as both a vibrant hub and a supportive learning environment.

Unique, Hands-On Educational Experiences

The transformation of our high school spaces has not only redefined the student experience but also brought learning to life in ways that are tangible and impactful. For example, the Bloomberg Lab’s stock ticker and wall-mounted monitors mirror the energy of the New York Stock Exchange. Students arrive well before school begins to set up their real-world trades (using simulated money) before the stock market opens, fully embracing this opportunity for hands-on, real-world learning.

These modernized spaces reflect our commitment to preparing students for the future while fostering a sense of pride and engagement within our school community. At Commack Public Schools, we believe that innovative environments and unique learning experiences are essential to shaping the leaders of tomorrow.

KnoPro is powered by NAF, which is a national education non-profit. While KnoPro itself is a CTE platform built to give students in-demand skills, it also offers companies solutions thanks to those student ideas.

Essentially, this is a place where companies with problems can set tasks for students to work on and solve -- getting valuable work experience in the process. In that way, it should be a win-win scenario and is likely why more than 120,000 U.S. high schools work with this system.

Businesses have real problems identified, while students gain real-world experience that's great for both college and work applications in the future.

This guide lays out all you need to know about KnoPro to see how it could work for your class.

What is KnoPro?

KnoPro is a CTE-friendly platform developed to help students work on real-world skills by solving problems of businesses that could use their help. By using a points-and-prizes system, it allows kids to feel invested in this way of learning and developing.

Thanks to partners working with the platform that include American Express, Fleischer Scholars, Lenovo, Merck, and others, it allows students to connect with real businesses. The result is that a student or group could come up with a solution to a problem that is genuinely used by actual companies -- a great line to add to the resume.

The system works using challenges to give it a competition feel but also to help break down sections on which for students to work. This can include setting tasks to individuals or groups as a way to help develop specific skills based on each task's demands.

How does KnoPro work?

KnoPro can be signed up for by individual students as long as they go to high school. They are then met with a selection of challenge topics to pick from where they can choose to work solo or in teams.

Teachers can also sign-up and search through the projects as well as monitor student progress and feedback as they go.

The system uses virtual mentors to provide feedback so students can work independently of teacher assistance, largely. They are then able to submit their work to earn points and potentially win cash prizes.

Non-major entry options are also available through which students can try out the Daily Skillbuilders, as these are called. These are designed to help build skills and also win prizes but on a smaller scale, generally only taking about 10-minutes or less to complete.

What are the best KnoPro features?

KnoPro is about as real-world as it gets. So despite being safely digital and accessible, students are able to affect change in actual business scenarios. This is a tremendously empowering experience for the students in and of itself.

The monitors who offer feedback are recruited from the major companies working with the platform. This means students are getting direct feedback as they might do in a future job, providing invaluable experience and skills.

The gamification of all this makes it super accessible in a non-frightening way -- which a straight-work task might otherwise mean. Students get points and have the potential to win those cash prizes, incentivizing it perfectly.

This is getting internship-style experience for students without costing them anything or requiring them to have to go anywhere. And thanks to the Daily Skillsbuilder challenges, there are prizes and points up for grabs on a regular basis.

KnoPro is for students age 13 and up only, so while teachers could work through problems with a younger class, they won't be able to sign up for their own working accounts.

How much does KnoPro cost?

KnoPro was created by NAF, the nonprofit, as a way to get work experience to more kids and as such it has done this for free. Students can win prize money but taking part does not cost them anything aside from their time and effort.

KnoPro best tips and tricks

Do daily
Get students into the habit of taking part by encouraging those daily challenges, for in class and on their own time.

Team up
Set groups so students can encourage and support each other while learning to get to grips with the process of how this all works.

Give prizes
Give your own class based prizes to help students feel like winners even if they don't win overall on the task.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Tools for Teachers

nXu is a nonprofit provider of research-based and purpose-driven social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum experiences for youth through adult learners. nXu helps educators lead students through a unique set of lessons to explore what they enjoy, as well as shape their strength and values to help them find their purpose.

nXu: Getting Started

nXu’s programs are very comprehensive, with a curriculum designed to help both students and instructors gain the best possible outcomes.

Once you partner with nXu, you will start a three-step onboarding process, which consists of selection of use cases, guidance on how to best implement their curriculum, decisions of the scope and sequence, and logistics and scheduling. These steps will guide deeper conversations aimed at having the best chances of success.

Below are examples of the scope nXu offers. Lessons range from 25 minutes to 50-60 minutes. Mini lessons that can be included at the beginning or other times of the school year are also available.

Middle School Curriculum Scope

Theme 1 - Forming Community

A: Building Healthy Relationships

B: Listening to Ourselves

Theme 2 - Valuing Diversity

C: Exploring Who We Are

D: Celebrating our Differences

Theme 3 - Envisioning the Future

E: Understanding Purpose

F: Shaping My Path

High School Curriculum Scope

Theme 1 - Navigating New Communities

1: Connecting with Others

2: Investing in Myself

Theme 2 - Finding My Voice

3: My Role in the Community

4: Investing in My Community

Theme 3 - Charting a Post-Secondary Path

5: From Purpose to Career

6: Investing in My Career

Theme 4 - Preparing for What’s Next

7: Sharing My Purpose

8: Investing in My Future

nXu: Best Features

• I enjoyed the holistic approach nXu takes using the five key developmental areas—purpose, identity, social-emotional wellness, social capital, and career exploration. This approach provides the tools to receive a well-rounded learning experience.
• The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) aligned curriculum covers sense of belonging, purpose exploration, social-emotional skills, and career pathways.
• nXu provides quality in-person or virtual training for new users that consist of two five-hour sessions. It also offers ongoing guidance, via the optional Impact Coaching or professional development workshops, for me to continue to deliver content effectively after the initial training.
• I like their research-based assessment system survey that captures progress in key areas during the program and provides teachers with valuable data feedback in a variety of key indicators.

nXu: Pricing

Educators interested in the costs of implementing the curriculum need to reach out to nXu directly for details.

nXu: Key Takeaways

nXu addresses the needs of students at different stages of development who have an evolving sense of self. Through their research and partnerships they do a very comprehensive job of providing content and strategies to address this evolution.

They help both young students and adults find and connect with purpose and growth in order to strive in their personal lives. They concentrate on an integrative approach to find this purpose and a career path while developing socially and emotionally,

nXu’s CASEL-aligned SEL solution would fit into any school’s curricular and extracurricular goals because it is both comprehensive and flexible. The nXu team provides teachers with the support and guidance they need to succeed and an assessment system that gives them the data they need to track student progress.

• Educator Edtech Reviews
• I Took CASEL’s Online SEL Course. Here’s What I Learned

In a perfect world, CTE education would embrace AI. Educators help CTE students use AI coding assistants, AI tutors, and more. But before any of this can happen, teachers need to stop being afraid of AI, Tera Brooks says. 

“I think we see it as something that the students can use to cheat on, we don’t see it as something that the students can use to be a feedback tool,” says Brooks, principal of Prescott South Middle School in Tennessee, which has a robust CTE program as a STEM Platform School.

Being less fearful of AI technology is just one way Brooks and other CTE educators believe CTE can thrive. Brooks and her district colleague, Jackie Vester, CTE program supervisor for Putnam County Schools in Tennessee, both led panels on CTE during Tech & Learning’s recent Regional Leadership Summit in Atlanta. 

They share some thoughts on effective CTE in the current AI age. 

Career Readiness for AI and Beyond  

While CTE educators need to help prepare students for the impact AI will continue to have across industries as diverse as engineering and fashion, doing that just means continuing to do what CTE educators have always done by helping students learn to learn. 

“Jobs in five years are not going to be what jobs are today. So we have to give them those transferable skills that they can use when these new jobs become available,” says Vester. 

From conversations with business owners in her region, Vester knows that more than even industry-specific skills, employers want students advanced in soft skills. 

“Can a student make a connection? Can a student communicate with others? Can a student problem solve?” Vester asks. “A lot of what we see too with the engineering design process is can the [employer] put them on a team? Can they manage that team? Work with a team and accomplish a task?”

Starting CTE Training Young

Middle school students today know a lot about the world, more than many adults did at the same age, Brooks says, but they still don’t know a lot about how things work or the different careers and skills that they can learn. Part of good CTE education is helping to fill those gaps. 

“I feel like our job is not necessarily to steer them down one path, but it's to help them to see the different paths so that they can have a better understanding when they do get a little bit older in high school and can make better decisions about what they are interested in,” she says. 

To do that requires giving middle schoolers hands-on experiences in various fields. For instance, one class at Prescott South Middle School requires students to start a T-shirt business and manage every step of the process from sales pitches to design and manufacturing. 

“In the last few years it has really flourished and because of that the students are excited about being a part of it,” Brooks says.  

Virtual Reality and Simulators  

“CTE has really adopted the VR world, and using those virtual training tools for students because we can't always get students in real-world scenarios,” Vester says. “Of course, the real-world scenario is where we want them to be, we want that hands-on learning. But if we can't provide that, we have the technology to provide a virtual experience.” 

She adds that virtual training can help students prepare for real-world experiences. For instance, Putnam County Schools does not have the resources to have all students practice with real welding tools every day. “But right now, we're fortunate that we're able to use things like welding simulators for students to get that experience until they get the opportunity to be on our actual welders, and that way, we're not wasting as much money on young welders that aren't as skilled yet — they can practice virtually.” 

This technology is only improving as time goes on and can be enhanced with built-in AI tutors and potentially more real-life simulations designed with the help of AI. 

Vester is excited by the potential for these advancements as well as the opportunity to provide more students with access to existing tech tools. 

“We're seeing improvements continually,” she says. “We're also seeing as new technology becomes more common, that brings the cost down, which allows us to provide more access for our students.”

• The Disruption of AI in CTE Is Real
• Building CTE Pathways Between Schools and Local Businesses

After graduating college and trying to get a job, many recent students encounter what Debra Lam calls “the chicken and egg” problem. 

“It's very hard to get your first job if you don't have work experience. You can't get work experience if you don't have a first job,” says Lam, the founding executive director of Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN). “So that starts a terrible cycle, and we want to break through that vicious cycle and provide opportunities for students to learn about what they like, what they don't like, and where they want to spend their time and pursue their expertise and talents.” 

Lam believes one of the best ways to disrupt this paradigm and for students to get valuable early career insight is through internships. However, not all students have the opportunity to participate. According to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 62% of seniors graduating college in 2023 participated in an internship. Female students, students of color, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant recipients were less likely to have obtained internships while in college. 

Lam runs a successful internship program through PIN, which is based in Georgia. She shares thoughts on why equitable internships are vital, and how educators can help support these programs. 

Increasing Internship Equity: Supporting Paid Internships 

Many internships remain unpaid and this impacts the types of students who can participate in these. 

“If you are able to do an unpaid internship, that's great, it means that you are financially able to do that,” Lam says. “But not everyone can afford an unpaid internship.” 

This situation creates inequity as there are earnings gaps between those who take on unpaid internships and those who cannot afford to do so, Lam says. That’s why it’s important for educators to try and steer their students toward paid opportunities and for education leaders to work with organizations and businesses that offer financial compensation for student work. 

“All our internships and fellowships are paid because we value the work that the students do,” Lam says. 

Democratizing the Application Process 

Educators should support a fair and equitable application process for internships in their communities. 

“How you used to get internships, like how you used to get most jobs, was if you knew somebody who then talked to somebody else, you got an interview,” Lam says. 

To make internships less about social connections and more about merit, the application process for the internship program Lam oversees is transparent and accessible. “The students have to submit a resume and application, they have to do an interview,” Lam says. This helps ensure that the students selected for internships do quality work for the organizations with which they are paired. 

On the other side, organizations also have to apply to host an internship with PIN, which helps ensure an experience that is beneficial for everyone. “We want to make sure there's meaningful work and that the students are actually going to be helping,” she says. “You’re not just babysitting students. They’re young professionals, and they're doing really important work in the community that could benefit people.” 

A Cohort Model and More Internships Needed 

Last summer more than 100 students applied to PIN for 60 internships. PIN uses a cohort model, which helps students track their learning through the 12-week internships and also lets them begin to network with one another, an important part of the job application process after college. 

“I have so many more students who want to do this work. It's just I don't have enough places to put them in or funding,” Lam says. This is why she believes educational leaders and other stakeholders should work with organizations such as hers or others in their communities to help ensure all students have the opportunity to explore different career options.  

“The work is out there, students want to do it,” she says. “We identify, promote, hire, mentor, and manage them. We do a lot of work on the backend to make sure that the experience is meaningful, both for the whole site and for the students.” 

• Building CTE Pathways Between Schools and Local Businesses
• How Refocusing CTE Programs Can Help Boost Students and Communities

During ACTE’s recent CareerTech VISION event for career and technical education (CTE) professionals, panelists presented overwhelming evidence that educators have to embrace AI in education—particularly in career and technical education. The tone of the panel was urgent and unequivocal: If CTE educators have not yet tested or used generative AI, they are well behind.

Any CTE program needs to focus on preparing students for the workforce in which AI will be essential. This is the biggest technological shift since the creation of the internet, and educators must be significantly involved. It is the responsibility of CTE educators to ensure that students have the tools and ethics to use AI responsibly, which can be done by guiding their exploration of AI tools and platforms, showing them the discrepancies, and helping them to be ready to manage AI competencies.

According to the panel, banning the use of AI in schools is short-sighted. AI is already embedded in the workplace, and by not teaching students how to use it, CTE educators are taking away an opportunity to be ready for work and careers.

10 Best Practices for AI and CTE 

1. Embrace AI and use it first for simple tasks to create efficiencies. Then use it to individualize instruction and for formative assessment tools aligned to standards. 
2. Be creative and conscious of internal bias and ethics. Focus on DEI and access. 
3. Encourage students to use apps and tools to start moving toward an integrated curriculum using AI. 
4. Prepare students for jobs of the future by partnering with industry to solve real problems. 
5. Invest in prompt engineering—automate when you can and save human intelligence for complex challenges. 
6. Remember that AI cannot replicate human emotion. Use it to help students learn foundational AI skills. On assessments, ask reflective questions so students can analyze the situation. If the assignment can simply be completed by AI, it’s the wrong assignment. Teachers need to use their own creativity and critical thinking to assess the use of AI. 
7. Given how quickly ChatGPT and Jasper are improving their tools, help students develop their own unique voice with these tools. Have students document how they use AI, so they understand accountability while demonstrating their authentic writing. 
8. Be mindful of ethics and shared data. 
9. Think of ChatGPT as an assistant for both teachers and students. It can do projects outside teachers’ core competencies to enrich students’ learning experiences. 
10. Look five years ahead to try and determine what are the professional skills AI will NOT replace? Emphasize the development of those skills. 

If used properly, AI won’t replace anyone. It is a tool that will provide opportunities to devote human creativity to more complex tasks.

The ACTE panelists included: Katelyn Boudreau, Director of Technology at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, Massachusetts; Rachael Mann, CEO, EdFuture.org; Cory Ortiz, Dean of School of Career Education, University of Alaska Southeast; Gabriella Rosu, Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona; and Angel Pineiro, Jr., VP of Strategic Academic Relationships, CompTIA.

• Building CTE Pathways Between Schools and Local Businesses
• 5 Things AI Can and Can Not Do For Students

Shortly after Tom Burton was hired as superintendent of Princeton City Schools in Ohio, the district hosted a business partnership breakfast. Only 38 people showed up, a number that left Burton embarrassed given the many opportunities for partnerships with businesses in the community. 

“Literally mid-script I stopped and apologized and said, ‘Listen we’ve been doing this wrong for a long time,'” he recalls. “'We’ve been asking the businesses to support us and help, and give us things, instead of that, what do you need?’ So I changed the question and that changed everything.” 

Today the district has more than 500 business partners and qualified graduates are guaranteed interviews with any of them. For leading these and other efforts to connect his district to the larger community, Burton was honored with the Innovative Superintendent Award at a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit in Maryland. 

Burton shares tips for fostering deeper connections and productive relationships between students and local businesses. 

Create A Pathway For Success  

Princeton City Schools runs a Work Ethic Certificate program. Students who complete that program are automatically granted interviews for any position they qualify for at any of the 500-plus local businesses with which the district partners. The program prioritizes the skills that are needed in today’s world, including collaboration, flexible thinking, and creativity. 

In addition, students have to be actively involved in the business breakfasts and maintain professionalism in their scholastic careers. “Obviously, they're not getting suspended or not tardy all the time,” Burton says. “Punctuality matters in the world of work, right?”  

To date, the program has helped place more than 500 high school graduates directly into the workforce. 

Focus On Skills Students Need  

Students who are involved in the Work Ethic Certificate program learn basic skills that any employer is seeking in a worker. “People get fired because of their inability to work with others. They get fired because they're not on time. They get fired because they're not creative and innovative and self-starters,” Burton says. “So the new worker needs to be all those things and not be afraid to take calculated risks.” 

Business leaders also value quick learners and flexible thinkers, Burton adds. And that’s all in addition to the specific skills needed for each individual field. 

Keep Assessing  

Despite the district’s successes so far, its work readiness programs continue to evolve. 

The district also has a Work Ethic Advisory committee that consists of students, business leaders, and district staff members. The group regularly meets to evaluate and discuss what the program is doing well and how it can improve. This process includes assessments to make sure the program is meeting its goal of helping kids prepare to enter the workforce with durable and desirable skills. 

Be Open to Different Paths Post High School 

After graduation students can go to college, join the military, or enter the workforce, Burton says. At Princeton City Schools, educators work hard to support students no matter which pathway they choose. 

When Burton presents to other school districts, he says he sometimes sees reluctance from school leaders to talk about students going directly into the workforce. He believes thinking should change and educators need to do whatever they can for students regardless of their intended post-high school career. 

“You have to have an unrelenting dedication to make sure that we're going to get kids on those pathways,” he says. “Know the pathways, know the kids, not only just by name, but their story and their strengths and interests, and make sure you can get them on the right pathway for them to be able to be successful.” 

• Using Virtual Reality for Career Training
• The Future of CTE: What Educators Need to Know

As technology is now a part of everyday life, it has become necessary for students to learn basic technology skills and digital literacy. And although many of them have been born with a digital device in hand, it’s still important to make sure they know how to use it properly to succeed in their education and ensuing careers.

1. Tech Skills Every Student Should Have: Internet Search 

Students need to know how to do a proper internet search, using search terms and modifiers. This skill is needed for school, work, and life in general, and extends beyond simply “Googling” it or asking Alexa/Siri.

These resources can help students to learn to find what they’re looking for.

• Free Fact-Checking Sites for Students and Teachers 
• Common Sense Smart Online Search Tips 
• Snopes.com 
• Top Research Websites, Search Engines, and a Research Choice Menu for K-12 Students 

2. Digital Citizenship 

Students need to understand their digital footprint, how to effectively communicate, the tools they can use, how to find information, strategies for when they feel unsafe online, and what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior. 

Here are some resources to get started.

• Best Free Digital Citizenship Sites, Lessons & Activities
• Common Sense Digital Citizenship Toolkits  
• Spunout: What is Digital Citizenship 

3. Online & Education Collaboration Skills  

As we saw over the past few years, learning how to create, edit, and modify digital documents, presentations, and spreadsheets has become an essential life skill for everyone. 

Many businesses still use MS Office, however, Google Docs and other communication and collaboration platforms have become equally as popular. These all work similarly so the learning curve when switching isn't that big. Google Classroom is already embedded in most schools. 

• Google Education Tools & Apps 
• How Do I Use Google Classroom? 
• Microsoft Teams: What is it and How Does it Work for Students and Teachers? 
• What Is Microsoft PowerPoint for Education? 
• Zoom/Video Conferencing Best Practices Revealed in New Research 

4. Navigating Social Media 

How to responsibly use social media, both inside of and outside of school and work, is critical. Students need to know how to protect and promote themselves, make positive social connections, and how to use it to connect and collaborate with others. 

• Best Free Social Networks/Media Sites for Education 
• Keeping Your Students (and Yourself) Safe on Social Media: A Checklist
• When Students Use Social Media As a Source 
• 5 Tips for Talking To Social Media-Addicted Teens  
• How to Teach with Social Media 

5. Cybersecurity and Safety 

Computer literacy and security are not merely elective topics for today’s students. Instead, these have become an essential part of elementary education, starting at the earliest levels— because even preschoolers have access to internet-enabled devices. 

• Best Cybersecurity Lessons & Activities for K-12 
• Cyber.org Cyber Safety Videos 
• Google Family Safety Center 
• Common Craft Video on Secure Passwords 
• Code.org Cybersecurity - Simple Encryption 
• Creating Strong Passwords 

6. Troubleshooting Tech and How to Find Help 

Learning how to search a help menu for software or hardware, where to go to find user forums to solve problems, and how to find other technology tips is always useful. In addition, being able to identify different tech terms and devices, how to make minor fixes, and how to do basic troubleshooting for WiFi, networks, etc., are all now required life skills.

Obviously most of these solutions start with a Google search, however, platforms such as YouTube often have plenty of How To options.

• How to Help Students Troubleshoot Technology Problems 
• Basic IT Troubleshooting 
• Best YouTube Sites & Channels for Education 

7. Typing & Keyboarding  

Yes, basic typing beyond using thumbs to navigate a phone – it's a skill that is necessary for any kind of communication as well as integral for careers involving tech and coding. 

• 15 Sites for Typing & Keyboarding 
• Learn Typing 

8. Understanding Data Privacy & Cloud Storage 

Students need to understand why it is important to protect their data as well as how to do so properly. The U.S. Department of Education protects student privacy as part of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

With all of the data that students create for school and work, it is also important to store it securely and have access to it at any time. Dozens of sites offer free data storage, with limits and pricing kicking in after certain amounts are saved.

• FERPA General Guidance for Students 
• How to Educate Students About Safe Data Storage 
• How Does Cloud Storage Work? 
• Google Workspace for Education Storage 
• Microsoft OneDrive 
• Cloudwards: Best Storage for Students 

9. Finding Safe Apps & Software 

Given the proliferation of options regarding any task, being able to find, evaluate, and use apps for school and work is critical. 

• Common Sense Best Apps & Sites for Learning 
• Evaluating Educational Apps 
• Education Applications Reviewed 
• 6 Ways to Check if an Android App is Safe to Download 

10. Copyright and Citing Sources   

With ease of access to content, students need to understand copyright laws and rules, how to cite a resource, and how to integrate someone else's work into their own work properly. They need to know that just because they can copy and paste something into a document, it does not mean it’s free for anyone to use. 

• Library of Congress: Getting Started with Copyright and Primary Sources 
• 6 Google Scholar Tips From Its Co-Creator 

For about as long as he can remember eighth grader Tra Gaston has had a passion for fixing tech devices.

“My dad used to fix phones and he taught me how to hard reset them and stuff like that,” Gaston says. 

As he got older he began experimenting more and more with fixing old devices. Now he does this in an official capacity with a student tech team at Crawford W. Long Middle School.

“He's one of my tinkers,” says Renee Dawson an education technology specialist who oversees Tra’s student tech team. “If I have something that's just not quite working, right, he'll tinker with it until he gets it to work. Sometimes better than it did before.” 

The student tech team is part of the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Program, which is a collaboration between Verizon and Digital Promise that seeks to equip every student and teacher at select middle and high schools across America with a device and internet access. The program also requires students to be involved in providing tech support. This is a win-win for districts because it helps tech staff while also providing students an opportunity for on-the-job training, says Michael Mades, technical project director at Digital Promise.

“It really decreases the burden on the district IT, and the school IT, to have a student provide that tier one troubleshooting,” says Mades, who helps oversee the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program. “Once [districts] identify the students who can really take this and go with it, then they can advance their skills into more of the higher level troubleshooting and support.” 

 Student Tech Teams: Learning Leadership  

Part of the mission of these tech teams is to recruit a diverse group of students. “We have students from all walks of our campus,” says William Page, Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Instructional Coach at Thomas Starr King School in Los Angeles.  “We have students who are in our special ed program. We have students who are identified as gifted. We have students who have had discipline issues in the past. I was very purposeful in targeting a very diverse group of students, and also students who aren't necessarily tech-inclined but who have an interest in growing as leaders.” 

Part of what makes teams successful are the ways in which students work together and learn from one another as they make video and slideshow tutorials and engage in other outreach efforts around technology in their school, Dawson says. “It's students working with students, which is really empowering for all of them because it's not just an adult telling them what to do; it's one of their peers.” 

Resetting More Than Just Devices 

The student tech teams can also provide an opportunity for those who have not found their niche in other areas of the school. One student on Williams' team has been identified as on the autism spectrum while others struggle with being shy. "We're trying to make sure that we are normalizing as much as possible, and being as inclusive as we possibly can, so that students see brilliance in in all," he says. 

Students regularly go to Dawson’s office to talk and relax, away from the pressures and stressors they might encounter elsewhere. “I actually become their safe space in the building,” Dawson says. 

Tra is among those students who regularly stops by even when he’s not fixing any tech. “There's always the days that he comes to me just because he needs to reset himself, and we talk and get reset in a better headspace,” she says. 

Starting A Student Tech Team at Your School 

Educators interested in learning more about starting their own tech team can find more tips here and learn more about the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Program here. 

Tra says participating in the program as a student has been rewarding. “Every time we work on stuff, I learn something new,” he says. His advice for those thinking about starting a program or joining a team is short and to the point: “If they're interested, come on!” 

• Student Tech Teams: 5 Tips for Having Students Work and Learn on the Job
• How A Director of Technology Keeps Students Connected

Virtual reality can help boost CTE programs and teach students about potential careers in fields they may know nothing about, says Lana Taylor from the Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. 

Traditionally Boys & Girls Clubs in Indiana have offered only limited career education opportunities. 

“We'd always kind of done a little bit of career training, but it'd been mostly having a guest speaker come in and talk, or maybe doing a field trip and going somewhere. It really wasn't in-depth skill development,” Taylor says.  “What we've tried to do over the past couple of years is to find other resources that can provide kids with that more detailed experience.” 

One of those other resources has been a partnership with Transfer VR to provide students access to headsets to participate in career simulations that can give them a tactile sense of what working in certain careers might be like. 

Virtual Reality Career Training: An Immersive Experience 

Through VR, the Indiana students now have the opportunity to participate in a variety of job-related simulations. 

For example, in one simulation students learn about aviation by trying to land a plane. Another has them try to repair an electric wire that is atop a tower high above the ground. “They had to climb up the pole with the power line, if they dropped their tool, they had to figure out how to pick up their tools,” Taylor says. 

That simulation, like others, has helped students understand a job that may sound boring on paper, such as repairing power lines, might actually be exciting in reality. “They were so into it,” she says of those participating in the simulation. 

The VR technology also allows for the simulation to be displayed on a big screen, which can build excitement and engagement. “Even if one kid has the headset on, all 20 in that room can watch what he's doing because they'll be able to see it up on the screen, which is really neat because then kids are like, ‘I want to try that!'” she says. 

Supporting CTE 

“Not all kids are meant to go to college, not all kids want to do it,” Taylor says. “So it’s important to give them some exposure to different careers and workforce paths that maybe they hadn't thought of before.” 

Obviously, there are many lucrative and rewarding careers that don’t require a college degree, yet many kids don’t always know much about these opportunities. “So many kids started school and never finished, but have these horrible student loans,” Taylor says. 

Students are more focused on doing something that they find fulfilling than ever before, Taylor says. She hopes VR career simulations can help support CTE efforts and shed light on popular careers today, such as those in health care and the culinary world. “The majority of our kids, they want to do something that they love, they don't want to sit and be bored,” she says. “Kids are really engaged in knowing what they want more.” 

Educators interested in letting their students experience similar career simulations can reach out to a local Boys & Girls Club to see if they have similar programs. 

In Indiana, Taylor says educators can view the virtual reality career simulators in action at a local club meeting. She’s also looking to team up with schools or other organizations. “We always love to partner with our schools and find ways that we can do that and expand more services to more kids,” Taylor says. 

• Best VR Headsets for Schools
• The Future of CTE: What Educators Need to Know
• Using Virtual Reality To Enhance Existing Lessons

Career and technical education (CTE) instructors frequently incorporate principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) without necessarily realizing it. 

That’s because coming from the industry sector, these educators inherently value practicality and students with different skill sets, say Dr. Amanda Bastoni and Dr. Luis Pérez. Bastoni is a research scientist and Pérez is a technical assistance specialist at CAST, the nonprofit education research and development organization that created the Universal Design for Learning framework and UDL Guidelines.

“CTE teachers are structuring their classrooms differently, and they're naturally using UDL, and they're naturally using strategies that research tells us are our best practices in learning,” Bastoni says. 

As such, CTE teachers can frequently provide examples that teachers of any subject can learn from and use themselves.

1. CTE Classes Are Hands-On  

In CTE classes ranging from STEM courses to cooking and cosmetology, you don’t learn skills in the abstract. “You practice the skill to create a product to then use the product to achieve something, and it's sort of an apprenticeship model,” Bastoni says. “We have these teachers coming from industry and teaching in this really unique way that we don't necessarily teach if we've gone from kindergarten to high school to college to be a teacher. In UDL, we say, ‘Bring relevance to the learning.’ They bring authenticity, they bring some really key components of engagement. They're giving the students more autonomy. Students are working on the car themselves, not just watching someone else work on the car.” 

2. CTE Teachers Are Often Compelling Role Models  

CTE teachers frequently come from non-academic backgrounds and, as such, can serve as successful case studies for students who don’t necessarily connect with traditional academic subjects. “Often, the traditional schooling model didn't work for them, but they found a different path, and that worked for them,” Pérez says of CTE teachers. “Now they're going back and giving back to education.” 

These mechanics, chefs, welders, etc. help diversify the teaching profession and inspire students to apply themselves to various topics outside of academic classes, and continue their education. “The more people from industry, people with disabilities, people from other historically marginalized communities, can come back and serve as role models, then the more that we increase the chances that students will stick with it,” Pérez says. 

3. CTE Classes Don’t Rely on Writing Alone  

CTE classes often feature assignments and assessments that are more varied than a non-CTE classroom, which is another tenet of UDL. “You should be able to demonstrate your knowledge in a variety of ways,” Pérez says. “It doesn't always have to be by writing, you can demonstrate that you can develop a circuit, or create a circuit by taking a picture of it, and uploading it, or record a video that shows you actually putting a practice in action.” 

These more flexible assignments encourage student success. “There are different ways of knowing and demonstrating knowledge,” Pérez says. “That's really validating for learners. Whereas the message from most of education is, ‘If you can't do it this way, you're a failure.’ You're not a failure, it's just that you need to do it a different way.” 

4. CTE Classes Have Goal-Aligned Assessments  

The tasks behind CTE course assessments are often closely aligned around professional expectations that are clear to students. 

“I'm not just asking you to learn to do this because it's in this textbook. We're setting this goal because you want to go out and become a mechanic or you want to go out and become a chef,” Bastoni says. “Assessments in CTE are really skill-based, which is nice for a lot of kids.” 

Once again, this opens the door to different kinds of success for students. “You can be a struggling reader and be a great chef,” Bastoni says. “You can struggle with math and be a really excellent plumber and make more money than an accountant. It offers validity to different people's different modalities for showing what they know and for engaging with the learning.” 

5. CTE Classes Teach Students How to Learn 

CTE programs have advisory boards with experts from various fields who help keep the programs up to date. Since CTE teachers often come from rapidly evolving tech industries, they frequently embrace the concept of teaching students how to learn. 

“In UDL the goal is to develop expert learners who are good at learning, not good at knowing,” Pérez says. “If we're going to have a well-prepared workforce not for the 21st century but for all centuries coming up, then we definitely want to focus on developing expert learners, that's our goal.” 

This taps into developing a growth mindset, as well as critical thinking and flexibility. “Going through a program and coming out of it with a solid knowledge base is not enough,” says Pérez. “It's knowing how to learn, and being a good learner. That's what's going to keep you being successful in a career that's evolving all the time.” 

• The Future of Career Technical Education (CTE): What Educators Need to Know
• Esports in the CTE Classroom: Discord Bot Development

Did you know there were 10.9 million open jobs across the U.S. at the beginning of this school year? The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported a record-breaking 4 million Americans quit their jobs by the end of July. This exodus from the job market has affected almost every field and will no doubt have an impact on local economies in the coming months. In Nashville, a local hot dog restaurant known for its delectable dogs and as a tourist attraction closed because the owner couldn’t find anyone wanting to work. 

In spite of this shift in employment status being referred to as the ‘great resignation,’ some economists are calling this movement the ‘great renunciation’ because workers are ultimately leaving for more flexible options that allow for a better work-life balance. This news could be a silver lining for school districts across the country as they review their programs preparing for the post-COVID era, and career and technical programs can really benefit from a program review on the heels of the Carl D. Perkins Act reauthorization effective July 2019. 

Unless you are a high school teacher and perhaps even a career and technical education (CTE) teacher, you may not be familiar with the Carl D. Perkins Act. CTE was first acknowledged in 1963 when vocational education was identified as a program by federal law. The only problem with that recognition was the fact that it was unfunded. In the 1980s, a politician from Kentucky, who was a former teacher and lawyer, fought to fund vocational programs in schools in what became the Carl D. Perkins Act of 1984. The lack of funding prior to this legislation meant inequities in who would have access to vocational education, leaving high-poverty students out of the running for these programs. 

CTE programs can impact local economies. For example, the challenges of the housing market are not just a result of material and supply shortages but also a lack of talented labor. A trillion dollars is being invested into construction across our nation yet projects are slowed because of the lack of labor. As a nation, we are not producing the workers we need to support local economies. Small towns are becoming extinct because of this overwhelming challenge.  

Refocusing CTE Programs 

When ESEA was reauthorized, the focus was college and career but many read this as college only. A college degree is certainly a great option for many students but it may not be the best option for all students. And, there is nothing that says you can have the technical knowledge and pursue a college degree as well. 

CTE programs are offered in 16 career clusters designed to meet the needs of high-demand fields. These clusters are: 

• Health science
• Business
• Sales
• Finance
• Information technology (IT)
• Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
• Manufacturing
• Logistics
• Hospitality
• Government
• Law
• Agriculture
• Human services
• Construction
• Arts, audio/visual technology, and communications 

Schools overhauling their CTE programs are focusing on aligning their programs with the needs of the workforce in their areas, which could help the construction industry and other industries challenged to recruit employees. 

The focus on careers is beyond school districts. National Career Day was on September 24 and it promoted companies from around the nation in support of recruiting efforts. There are other days that will focus on different careers throughout the year and the entire month of November will focus on career development. 

Many jobs in our economy are designed for high schoolers and college students to take advantage of while they are going to school, while some are good fits for students who choose not to attend college. But it seems the great resignation didn’t just affect career folks, it has also affected pre-career folks, such as high schoolers and college students, and their desire to work. Introducing students to CTE opportunities in school not only offers them skill building but also gives them opportunities to put those skills to work through internships or externships. It should not be an ‘either’ choice when considering college or career, it should be yin and yang. 

Career exploration is something we have all but eliminated in our middle school programs but now may be the time to consider reintroducing it and helping students move into a pathway that prepares them for both college and career. A recent report from the Center for American Progress suggests that introducing CTE programs in middle school actually prepares students for more rigorous pathways in high school. 

A national model for this is the National Career Academies Coalition model, which develops career pathways within high schools for students to explore and are integrated with the academic requirements so that the learning is relevant and rigorous. The secret sauce to this model is partnerships with local industries to develop curriculum as well as offer internships and externships. Leveling the playing field is critical to give opportunities to students who are interested in CTE and boost economies because schools are graduating students who have viable employment skills. 

When the Carl D. Perkins Act was reauthorized, it put into place CTE requirements for states beginning in July 2019. Students who graduate from high school now must take a certain number of CTE courses in order to meet graduation requirements. This isn’t just an asset to a community, but the students benefit financially. Research indicates that 8 years after graduating from high school, students who earned CTE credits made more money than those who did not. And, a recent article from ETS suggests that CTE may be the very program to improve our economy post COVID. The power of CTE programs has also been shown to impact unemployment, which is a big win for any local economy. 

Upgrading Your CTE Program 

Now, are you ready to rethink CTE in your district? If so, here are some great sites to explore: 

Workforce GPS

CTE Research Network

National Career Academies Coalition

Perkins Collaborative Resources - USDE

Association for Career and Technical Education

Advance CTE

Get started by...

1. Checking the guidelines of your state for CTE completers on your state department of education website. 
2. Learn about academy programs accredited by the National Career Academy Coalition and schedule visits. 
3. Reach out to your local chamber of commerce to schedule a meeting about partnerships with the industry leaders in your area. 
4. Schedule a meeting with the local community college to discuss bridge programs and articulation agreements. 
5. Check in with university continuing education and adult education programs to recruit people who are looking for a second career. 

Career and technical education is definitely a pathway every student should take advantage of to build skills that will not only benefit them personally for the rest of their lives but will also help local communities thrive. 

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Truly authentic learning can be difficult to find in mainstream education. Teachers have spent countless hours trying to apply content from the core curriculum to that ‘real world’ we’ve all heard so much about. Sometimes we throw math into a playful story that students supposedly might run into one day. “Jaleel has 4 popsicles. If Sally has 3 less than 2 times as many popsicles as Jaleel, how many popsicles does Sally have?”

However, within our schools there is already an oasis of authentic learning in our career and technical education programs (CTE), sometimes with an added ‘agricultural’ focus to make CTAE. The CTE world includes countless programs, from culinary to auto tech, turf maintenance to cybersecurity, and many more. 

While CTE was once viewed as an alternate path through high school, it is now interwoven into the fabric of learning and even acts as the crown jewel for some schools. These programs can be a huge draw for students looking to build more applicable job skills while they are in school or those looking for an engaging program that lets them get hands-on. 

So what happens when these hands-on, equipment- and experience-heavy courses need to move hybrid or virtual? I sat down (virtually) with CTE leaders to hear about their successes and challenges from the last year.

Dr. Dwionne Freeman 

Director of Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education, Atlanta Public Schools, GA 

CTE courses, especially those such as carpentry, healthcare, and culinary, are often heavy on supplies and equipment. Atlanta Public Schools started in their professional learning communities (PLCs) to identify the most important learning goals and milestones for each course, then planned backward from there to create supply kits that were appropriate for each of the programs that they support. The district worked to provide items that might be available in some households, but not something they could count on to be equitable for all.

During virtual learning, everyone pitched in to find ways to make these hands-on experiences effective in the virtual environment, from purchasing ready-made kits to cutting thousands of pieces of PVC pipe and pool noodles. “It was very, very hard,” says Dr. Dwionne Freeman. “But an incredible amount of innovation has also come from that.” 

Lana Barros 

Coordinator of College and Career Readiness, Martin County School District, FL 

In Florida, where most school districts were operating with face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual options for the whole year, some districts found interesting ways forward. In Martin County School District, the CTE Department worked with Risk Management to identify how the real-life industries were being impacted and then brought that knowledge into the schools. This allowed the learning to be as authentic as possible while still providing the unique teaching and learning opportunities that are a cornerstone of CTE programs.

For Shaun Southwick, a culinary teacher at Martin County High School, this meant modeling their work on both the food delivery subscription service model and the industry shift to meal pick-up by creating a school pick-up for the ingredients and supplies so that culinary students were able to complete their learning at home. 

“These changes allowed students to get the hands-on experience that they need to be successful and still take and pass their certification exams,” says Barros. As an example, all students in the three sections of the district’s Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) earned their certification, a 100% pass rate. 

Mandy Johnson 

Executive Director of College and Career Programs, Douglas County School District, GA 

While transitioning to virtual or hybrid instruction moved many of us beyond our comfort zone, some districts are planning to adapt their future practices to incorporate lessons learned. As Mandy Johnson, the Executive Director of College and Career Programs for Douglas County Schools in Georgia, shares, “It was a really hard year, but our teachers had grit and persevered. I’m very proud of them and what they accomplished.”

Two of their practices -- mock interviews and job shadowing -- took very different forms this year. Instead of having mock interviews conducted in-person as had been done in the past, Douglas County partnered with TalkHiring to enable virtual mock interviews. In the future, they will resume in-person mock interviews, but also keep the virtual option to augment the impact.

Pre-pandemic, the district held one job shadowing day on-site with many local businesses. This year, they were able to expand to a virtual job shadowing week. Many of the same benefits as from mock interviews were seen, especially the ability to shadow jobs or industries that might exist farther away from the schools and were previously unavailable to students. Johnson is optimistic that the changes they’ve made will positively impact their students. “The sun will rise again and things will be great,” she says. “We’ve had a lot of loss in our community and we want our students to know that they can still dream and have hope.”

Kyle Jones, Ed. D. 

Director of Academies and Career and Technical Education, Gwinnett County School District, GA 

For Gwinnett County’s CTE leaders, providing wraparound support for their teachers is the name of the game. As the pandemic began, they immediately built upon their existing support system of teacher leaders for each pathway to help create a sense of community in an area where many teachers are singletons in their schools. 

What started as informal check-ins became formalized monthly targeted community discussions around relevant topics such as pacing, certifications, and SEL strategies to help support students. "We want to make sure we provide our teachers with resources and support for their students’ well-being, including SEL strategies to help them be seen and heard," says Jones. 

To provide that full support, Gwinnett focused on four key areas:

1. More intentional collaboration among and between CTE pathways. 
2. Increased financial support for affiliate organizations, memberships, and competitions. 
3. Work-from-home technology for CTE teachers (i.e. the choice of an extra monitor or bluetooth headset). 
4. Appropriately powerful laptops or desktops available for home use for student programs that require machines with higher specifications. This allowed the teachers to utilize much of their well-developed curriculum and workflows. 

Jean-Paul Cadet, Ed. D. 

Director of Career and Technical Education, Prince George’s County Public Schools, MD 

While much of the conversation has surrounded the teachers, students, and the courses themselves, some districts reimagined their outreach programs, communication, and interaction with the community. For Dr. Jean-Paul Cadet, Director of CTE for Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, this meant revamping their messaging and social media presence.

Being remote required school system programs to be more active on digital platforms to continue to reach community, students, and parents in the virtual environment. To accomplish this, the team established a social media team within the CTE department with a primary focus to, “ensure [CTE] remains at the forefront of ongoing conversations about education,” says Cadet.

In addition, they leveraged the natural engagement of video content and created a library of 30-second “commercials” to promote CTE programs and linked those to current conversations and fluctuations in the fields. For example, as the County grappled with a nursing shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the CTE team highlighted its Certified Nursing Assistant program — and recent graduates who were serving as essential workers in the community. 

These digital channels for sharing the real-world impact of CTE programs will remain part of the team’s strategy going forward.

Doug Konopelko is a passionate educator, designer, writer, speaker, and leader. He focuses on acting as a connecting point between people and ideas. On his education journey, Doug has served in both urban and suburban school districts as a teacher, coach, high school assistant principal, school district administrator, and state education organization leader. You can follow his work on his blog, DesignedEdu, or on his web series and podcast, Focus on K-12: EdTech and the Education Experience, on YouTube and all popular podcast platforms.

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Career technical education (CTE) is currently receiving increased attention as it is expected to play a key role in the recovery from the pandemic. New skills, approaches, and funding introduced over the past year are helping to drive expansion of programs as many employers continue to struggle to find qualified workers.

Shortly after his confirmation, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona posted an open letter to U.S. students and their families in regard to his plan for education. In it, he suggests that a heavy focus on CTE will be an essential part of what’s next in education. 

Cardona is a product of a CTE, and has been a big proponent of these programs. He went to H.C. Wilcox Technical High School in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut, and initially studied to become an automotive mechanic. He eventually changed focus and decided to go to college instead, pursuing teaching. Cardona wants to make sure all students have similar flexibility in choosing their career paths. 

“One of the things I want to guard against is tracking or saying to an eighth grader, ‘You’re college-bound,’ ‘You’re not that’—that to me perpetuates inequities,” he told Central Connecticut State University graduates in 2019. “We have a lot of students sitting in our high schools today who need hands-on experiences, who want to build things, who want to develop things, who want to manufacture, who want to go into IT, go into business. And oftentimes, we have students who don’t take those opportunities, because they’re going to be less likely to be looked at by colleges.” 

College and Career Readiness 

CTE advocates welcome Cardona’s focus and commitment to getting students prepared for life beyond K-12.

“I think we've seen that there is this huge interest in CTE and we've heard CTE being talked about at the national level in a way that it really hasn't been before,” says Meredith Hills, Senior Policy Associate for Advance CTE. “And having Secretary Cardona -- he understands it, he gets it.”

“In regard to CTE, for a long time, we've talked about college or career ready -- we want it to be college and career ready,” says Kimberly A. Green, Executive Director of Advance CTE. “The Secretary of Education actually has lived that college and career, and I’m hoping that he will be able to use both his positioning as well as opportunities that are presented to the department to really solidify the college and career readiness, because that's what CTE is.” 

Green also anticipates the Cardona-led education department to focus on equity in regard to CTE, and to have a renewed emphasis on community colleges. “The recent [COVID relief measures] include a package of investment and infrastructure, this time on human capital,” she says. “That potentially includes a focus on opening up access to post-secondary education through free community colleges.” 

What's really important for CTE leaders is making sure they're at the table when decisions about that funding are being made, says Alisha Hyslop, Senior Director of Public Policy for the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). 

“We need to make sure that some of the resources coming down from the federal government actually get into building and expanding programs and support wrap-arounds,” Hyslop says. “For example, there's a huge number of laid-off workers from the hospitality industry who need to get back to work and how the role that community technical colleges can play in that is going to be critical.”

CTE Without Borders 

Part of boosting CTE is getting school districts to make a deeper commitment to programs, courses, and resources.

“CTE should be offered to students across their educational career, not as an add-on in the last semester of your senior year,” says Hyslop. “Work-based learning shouldn't be just a one-time, one day per year type of experience. You need a work-based learning continuum. It starts with light touch things, such as guest speakers or watching videos of real employers, and then maybe it progresses in intensity to job shadowing or mentoring, and then into more rigorous internships or long-term projects with employers.” 

“We have a vision of CTE without limits,” says Green. “That's really about making sure that any learner, every learner who wants to participate in CTE, has full access and support.”

For example, as a result of the pandemic, CTE opportunities and connections are now being forged in new ways. “You can be in Connecticut and talk to a professional in California, Montana, Hong Kong, Paris, wherever, and you can have virtual mentorship or do a virtual tour,” says Green. “No matter where they live, a student should be able to access the education program that connects to their talents, their passion, and their interests.’”

In rural regions that didn't have geographic access to hands-on learning opportunities on a daily basis, virtual CTE was a necessity before the pandemic, says Mills. “Continuing to create those opportunities, be it fully virtual or through some kind of hybrid model, will be vital in expanding access to high-quality CTE in a really equitable way,” she says.

Alignment with business and industry partners can also help students see pathways, which should be connected all through the education spectrum. “If you can get students a jumpstart on post-secondary education while they're in high school or, at minimum, connect a high school program with the post-secondary program so that students aren't having to start over when they get to post-secondary, that's definitely a best practice,” says Hyslop.

Work-based learning for students is also getting a lot of attention, as students try to balance financial and family challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

“If you are from a low-income family and you are working to contribute to your family's household, you're faced with this kind of false choice of connecting to free work-based learning experiences versus actually doing work that will help to contribute to your family,” says Green. CTE leaders need to connect the dots and help people get credentials that result in higher-paying jobs, whether that is in high school or in post-secondary education. 

Districts have also been investing stimulus funds into rapid re-skilling programs and short-term credentialing programs to support people to pivot when the economy changes. These types of programs are largely in use in the adult space right now, but could be considered to boost equitable opportunities for students, says Green.

CTE’s Current Path 

Going forward, making CTE a foundational piece to education and exposing learners to the world of options before them will be critical. “As is giving them those real-world experiences to decide and affirm, if this is the right choice for them,” says Green. “It's empowering.”

And as the U.S. and the world recovers from the pandemic, the CTE community is in a prime position to play an important role, says Hyslop. “It's hard to plan five years down the road, like you might have done a strategic plan, but we're encouraging educators to continue to do that long-term goal setting but also to be willing to make shifts and changes in the short term to meet students where they are and meet employers where they are, and be flexible in responding to the current dynamic.” 

Educators also need to overcome instincts to cut back on programs such as CTE when trying to marshal resources to deal with learning loss. “I've seen this happen in previous times we've that had disruptions -- although obviously nothing to this scale -- that there will be this kind of force hierarchy of like, ‘Oh, we've got to get the test scores up so we can only double down on the academics in the way that we've always taught them,’” says Green. “Subjects such as CTE are important complements that add relevance to the academics and actually help students improve.”

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