This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Kate Blosveren, Associate Executive Director, National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), Silver Spring, MD.

With the Common Core State Standards being implemented by nearly every state in the nation and the (common) Next Generation Science Standards recently released, there is increasingly broad understanding of the value in having consistent standards used across states to allow for the sharing of materials, best practices and even economies of scale. The Career Technical Education (CTE) community has long valued cross-state models of CTE expectations, largely driven by the National Career Clusters® Framework and national industry-developed standards and assessments.

Looking ahead, CTE is poised to enter its next stage of consistent expectations with the introduction of the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC). The CCTC are a set of end-of-program of study standards, developed for states by states, to anchor CTE teaching and learning across the country at both the secondary and postsecondary level.

The 2013 Career Clusters® Institute will offer a number of opportunities for participants to learn more about the development of the CCTC, their design, and what comes next, including state adoption and local implementation.

CTE & the Common Core State Standards

The Career Clusters® Institute will also feature a wide array of sessions on how Career Technical Education and the Common Core State Standards intersect, with sessions on instructional tools, professional development strategies, and statewide initiatives. (This session is Monday, June 10 from 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.)

I’m excited to lead two sessions on CTE and CCSS, the first of which exploring how many of the skills we often consider to be “career skills” or “employability skills” are carefully embedded in the CCSS and the implications of that blend. The other session will focus on a project done in partnership between the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium and Achieve to develop a protocol and set of tools to help mathematics and CTE educators come together to develop and modify instructional tasks. During this session, participants will learn about the process and model the process themselves. (Kate is referring to the session Common Core & CTE: Aligned Instructional Tasks, Wednesday, June 12 from 10 a.m.-11 a.m.)

I’m looking forward to seeing you all in Texas next week!

Kate’s session, Introduction to the Common Career Technical Core is Tuesday, June 11 from 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and repeated 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.; she also has a session called “Office Hours” meant to answer your questions about the Common Career Technical Core-a follow up to the earlier two sessions.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager