Monday, July 25, 2022
Have you taken the career and technical education (CTE) standards survey yet? If not, this article is for you! 2013 was the most recent year that the CTE standards were updated. It is now time to take another look at these standards to determine if they should be revised. You can find all CTE standards surveys here.
Academic standards establish grade-band expectations for students across a given subject area. Standards across grade bands guide connections and enrichment, ensuring that students gain a deeper level of learning in the subject area as they progress through school.
As part of the standards review and revision process, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) opened surveys on July 11, 2022, for stakeholders to provide input on the existing standards in CTE academic areas. The subject-specific areas include:
- Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources
- Business and Information Technology
- Family and Consumer Sciences
- Health Science
- Marketing, Management, and Entrepreneurship
- Technology and Engineering
A portion of the subject-specific surveys includes questions on Wisconsin’s Common Career Technical Standards (WCCTS). The WCCTS provide a foundation on which the subject-specific standards are built. These employability or “future-ready” skills are founded on social-emotional learning, global competence, STEM skills, and digital literacy skills and include the following:
- Creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration
- Career development
- Environment, health, and safety
- Global and cultural awareness
- Information, media, and technology
- Leadership
We are now asking all CTE stakeholders—educators, school counselors, administrators, higher education partners, employers, parents, and other community members—to take at least one of the surveys that will be open until the end of the day on Thursday, August 11, 2022.
All seven career and technical education areas are in the first stage of the review and revision process. A notice of intent to review and a public-input survey for each content area can be found on the Standards webpage. Those completing a subject-specific survey do not need to complete the WCCTS survey; otherwise, if not taking a subject-specific survey, stakeholders are welcome to take the WCCTS survey.
The State Superintendent’s Standards Review Council will examine those comments and recommend whether to revise or develop standards in specific academic areas. The state superintendent will authorize a formal rewrite of the state’s CTE standards based on the recommendation of the State Superintendent's Standards Review Council. For each set of standards, a panel of Wisconsin experts — representing classroom educators, school leaders, and higher education, with input from business owners and community groups — will be convened to develop new standards.
To learn more about the standards review process, go to DPI’s academic standards website.