On June 11, 2012 Governor Steve Beshear signed Senate Bill 38, a measure aimed to provide a career pathway process for secondary education in Kentucky that was to create a more rigorous academic focus on career and technical education (CTE). The intent of the bill provides for a career-based program of study to make students’ high school years more relevant to their futures as working adults. (Commonwealth) SB 38 requires the Kentucky Department of Education to issue core content standards for career and technical education, assess student progress and develop new courses relevant to college and career readiness. It provides a process to assess at-risk students and provide evidence-based programs to help students learn, stay in school, and be successful in their transition to postsecondary education or the workplace. (Kentucky) This was supposed to be a …show more content…
However, what was intended to be an invaluable tool to encourage students to graduate from high school prepared to enter postsecondary school or the workforce with the skills necessary for success has made the process of creating new pathways tedious and nearly impossible.
“Career and technical education is truly the linchpin in workforce preparation initiatives creating the talent pipeline Kentucky employers need and want,” said Education and Workforce Development Secretary Joseph U. Meyer. “Capitalizing on the strengths of CTE will be vital to preparing our students to compete and our workforce to succeed in the future.” (Commonwealth) A top priority for the Beshear administration has always been to create a unified vision of what schools need to offer in order to better serve students today and tomorrow. (Commonwealth) A changing economy requires schools to prepare students for a more complex and competitive workplace but the current process of creating and adapting CTE educational offerings and pathways bogs down our ability to keep up with changes in the job market in a timely manner.