National Board Publishes New Standards for CTE

The new CTE Standards are here! The National Board has published revised standards for accomplished teaching in the rapidly evolving field of Career and Technical Education (CTE). Created by educators—Board-certified teachers and researchers with distinguished expertise in CTE—the standards were written to reflect recent advances in research and practice and address the increasing focus on preparing all students for postsecondary success.

National Board Certification in CTE will be organized around eight pathways or specialty areas established by the standards, from Decorative Arts and Design to Natural Resources. They also boost the content knowledge requirements for CTE certification and the expectation that teachers are able to tailor their instruction and programs to students of diverse needs, developmental levels and abilities.

Support from Stakeholders

The new standards coincide with a decision by the National Board to enable teachers without a bachelor’s degree to pursue CTE certification, unless it is a requirement of their state teaching license. They also come at a time when new policy developments are shaping the future of the field once known as vocational training, including a series of reports from the U.S. Department of Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the American Institutes of Research’s Center on Great Teachers and Leaders, Achieve and others that underscore the critical importance of teacher quality within CTE. To date, more than 4,000 teachers have achieved National Board Certification in CTE.

“The National Board standards recognize and respect the fact that CTE is not a homogenous field, but a field of many distinct specialties with diverse requirements for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do to advance student learning.” – LeAnn Wilson, executive director at the Association for Career and Technical Education

“The new standards and eligibility guidelines for National Board Certification in CTE will help states and systems recruit and support many more teachers from diverse and non-traditional education and industry backgrounds to become accomplished CTE teachers.” – Kimberly Green, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc)

Specialty Areas

Candidates for certification in CTE must select one of eight specialty areas:

1. Business, Marketing, and Financial Services: Business, management, and administration; finance; and marketing, sales and services.
2. Community Services: Government services, health services, human services, and law and public safety.
3. Decorative Arts and Design: Apparel design and clothing construction, ceramics and pottery, floral arrangement, interior design and decorating, jewelry making and textile design.
4. Engineering, Design, and Fabrication: Architecture and construction, design and development, engineering, manufacturing, and robotics and automation.
5. Information Systems and Technology, Communications, and the Arts: Communications and journalism, fine and performing arts, information systems and technology and media arts.
6. Leisure and Recreation Services: Culinary arts, entertainment management, event marketing, food and beverage service, hospitality and tourism, and sports management.
7. Natural Resources: Agribusiness systems; animal systems; energy systems; food products and processing systems; natural resource systems; plant systems; and power, structural and technical systems.
8. Transportation Systems and Services: Automotive maintenance and repair, automotive technology, aviation maintenance and flight, collision repair, diesel technology, health and safety management, heavy equipment operation, logistics, risk management, transportation operations and infrastructure management, transportation regulations, and warehousing and distribution.