Career and Technical Education standards have become increasingly popular in state standards, curriculum and instruction. While the standards are nothing new (NASDCTEc has been around since 1920), the way they are governed and organized has changed over the years.

In researching and working with these standards, we have learned that CTEs are unique in some ways, differing from K-12 academic standards or even national sets.

CTEs are voluminous. These standards are organized by Clusters and further refined by Pathways before finally spelling out standards in Courses. There are more courses than traditional K-12 courses and they are longer making CTEs, on average, significantly larger than other standards.

CTEs change more often. Because they are divided by clusters based on specialty skills, states retain experts in each of field to govern the clusters. This means that CTEs generally more susceptible to continual change.

Is your company working on CTE focused materials? Find out how AB can help you make sense of CTE Standards