Eric.ed.gov – Academic Standards in Career and Technical Education

All public schools are required to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in order to avoid stiff penalties, per the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This presents a unique challenge for comprehensive career and technical (CTE) schools. While there is an emphasis on the CTE path that students are interested in pursuing, academic areas must be mastered with proficiency in order for a school to be successful (in this case, as defined by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or (PSSA)). In addition, graduation in select districts is dependent upon proficiency. For a comprehensive CTE school to survive, it must have a sustainable teaching model that aligns and integrates career and technical skills with math and reading anchors. Central Tech, a comprehensive career and technical school in Erie, Pennsylvania, has developed a working model for achieving this integration. This model developed as some of the school’s academic teachers pushed into the career and technical programs and co-taught with the instructors. Appropriately, this has come to be referred to as the “push-in” model.