Background:

Career and Technical Education.

As defined in statute, "career and technical education" (CTE) is a planned program of courses and learning experiences that begins with an exploration of career options and supports basic academic and life skills. This same statute specifies that CTE enables the achievement of high academic standards, leadership, options for high skill, high wage employment preparation, and advanced and continuing education.

Career and technical education instruction is provided in two general course classifications - exploratory and preparatory - both of which must comply with numerous standards established by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Career and technical education instruction is delivered through programs at middle and high schools, through approved online courses, and at skill centers, regional CTE instructional venues established and operated by a host school district.

Career and Technical Education Credits and Graduation Requirements.

Credits awarded through a CTE course apply to core academic and graduation requirements if equivalency requirements are met. High schools or school districts must have course equivalencies for CTE courses offered to students in high schools and skill centers. As part of this requirement, each school district board of directors must develop a course equivalency approval procedure, and an equivalency may be for whole or partial credit. Career and technical education courses determined to be equivalent to academic core courses, in full or in part, by the high school or school district must be accepted as meeting core academic requirements, including graduation requirements, if the courses are recorded on the student's transcript using the equivalent academic high school department designation and title.

Beginning with the class of 2019, students must each earn one CTE credit as a graduation prerequisite, but the State Board of Education (SBE) will allow students to meet this requirement through an occupational education course that meets the definition of a CTE exploratory course.

Selected Career and Technical Education Duties of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The OSPI is required to support school district efforts to adopt course equivalencies by, in part, recommending CTE curriculum that is suitable for equivalencies, publicizing best practices of districts in developing and adopting equivalencies, and providing related technical assistance and guidance to school districts.

The OSPI, in consultation with technical work groups convened for this purpose, is also required to develop curriculum frameworks for selected CTE courses whose content in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is considered equivalent in full or part to science or mathematics courses that meet graduation requirements. The content of these courses must be aligned with the state's essential academic learning requirements in mathematics and science and industry standards.

There are several state funded CTE grant programs. Examples of CTE grant programs that are administered by the OSPI, include programs offering grants to:

eligible students meeting financial and other requirements to offset the costs of required examination or testing fees associated with obtaining state or industry certification in the student's CTE program;
high schools to implement a training program to prepare students for employment as entry-level aerospace assemblers; and
school districts to increase the integration and rigor of academic instruction in CTE courses. Recipients of these grants are encouraged to use grant funds to support teams of academic and technical teachers using a research-based professional development model supported by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education.

Summary of Bill:

Provisions governing CTE course equivalency requirements are modified to allow the OSPI to develop expanded curriculum frameworks that would enable students who earn credits from CTE courses to apply those credits toward graduation requirements in a broader array of academic subject areas.

The curriculum frameworks developed by the OSPI for a list of CTE courses that may be offered by high schools or skill centers must have an academic standards content (rather than content in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) that is considered equivalent in full or in part to the academic courses that meet high school graduation requirements. These courses may include equivalency to English language arts, mathematics, science, technology, engineering, social studies, arts, world languages, or health and physical education. The content of these courses must also align with the most current Washington kindergarten through twelfth grade learning standards in English language arts, mathematics, science, arts, world languages, health and physical education, social studies, and required industry standards.

Provisions governing grant funds that may be awarded by the OSPI to school districts to increase the integration and rigor of academic instruction in CTE courses are modified. Grant recipients are encouraged to use grant funds to support teams of academic and technical teachers, but a provision encouraging the use of a research-based professional development model supported by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, is deleted.