69ý

College & Workforce Readiness

Can the AP Model Work for CTE? How the College Board Is Embracing Career Prep

It’s deploying CTE courses using the Advanced Placement model and highlighting career options for SAT test takers
By Ileana Najarro — October 22, 2024 5 min read
David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, speaks at the organization's annual conference in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 21, 2024.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Whether it’s through student surveys, higher rates of chronic absenteeism, or declining college enrollment, more and more evidence—especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—points to students’ growing disengagement with traditional high school and fundamentally questioning of the four-year college pathway as the norm.

It’s a reality ever apparent to David Coleman, the chief executive of the nonprofit College Board, which runs two core institutions of the college-going world: the Advanced Placement program and the SAT assessment—both programs historically aimed at high schoolers with plans to attend college.

While most students say they need post-secondary education, and enrollment in AP courses and the number of SAT test takers continues to grow, Coleman recognizes a large subset of students are disengaged from high school and aren’t proactively making post-secondary plans. At the same time, students say they want more opportunities to learn about career options and prepare directly for those possibilities.

It’s why the College Board recently has taken a decisive turn into the career exploration and preparation space. The AP program, long dominated by traditional, core academic subjects, is expanding into career and technical education classes by piloting two such courses this year that could help students earn both college credit and industry credentials. And now, after students take the SAT, they’re learning about potential career options that could be a match for them when they receive their score reports.

“For many students, they see high school life as middle school—once more with feeling,” Coleman said on Oct. 21 at the opening session of the College Board’s annual forum here in Austin. “If we are going to be relevant, if we’re going to work together for a new level of relevance, the College Board has to change fundamentally.”

See Also

Image of students on different future paths.
<b>Katie Thomas for Education Week</b>

New program offers high school and college credit and industry credentials

While the percentage of high school students enrolling in college has generally declined over the last few years, the number of students in undergraduate certificate programs, which train students in industry-specific skills, has grown.

As a result, more high schools have been investing in helping students explore career pathways.

One such career exploration tool has been career and technical education, or CTE.

See Also

Student hanging on a tearing graduate cap tassel
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty

An EdWeek Research Center survey from June found that 66 percent of school and district leaders say their districts offer students access to CTE pathways that lead to industry-recognized credentials as a way to introduce students to career options.

And 62 percent of educators said their district offers more career and technical education courses now than 10 years ago.

In line with this national trend, the College Board’s AP program is piloting the that extends the AP model to CTE.

The goal is to offer courses that satisfy high school credit requirements while also allowing students to earn college credit and an industry-recognized certification, said Clare Bertrand, executive director of career strategy for the College Board.

The CTE courses follow much of the format of traditional AP courses. The College Board sets a framework, teachers receive specialized training, and students can potentially earn college credit if they score well enough on an end-of-course exam.

The College Board is piloting two CTE courses this school year. AP Networking Fundamentals and AP Cybersecurity Fundamentals are that some schools across the country are trying out. They feature hands-on, problem-solving activities that cover fundamentals in the field and prepare students to tackle the current—and quickly evolving—cybersecurity landscape.

69ý enrolled in the pilot this year can earn high school credit and, based on their AP exam scores, are eligible to earn a voucher to cover the cost of test prep and and the exam for the related CompTIA industry-recognized certification.

“Does that student need to go into work right away? No, not at all. They may choose an internship, they may choose an apprenticeship, they may use that credential to actually get a higher-paying, part-time job while they go into a post-secondary program,” Bertrand said. “There’s a lot of flexibility in terms of how that credential will be used.”

See Also

A George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School student participates in a butchery class at Essex Kitchen in New York, Tuesday, May 21, 2024.
A student at George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School tries her hand in a butchery class at Essex Kitchen in New York on May 21, 2024. Most high school students think they need more education after graduation, but they're less likely than previous generations to think it needs to be at a four-year college.
James Pollard/AP

The College Board is working to secure college-credit eligibility for the courses, in large part through partnerships with community colleges, Bertrand said.

While a CTE program by design, the College Board encourages schools to offer the Career Kickstart courses alongside existing AP courses, such as AP Computer Science Principles.

“We must end in high school and in college the unproductive divide between career education and general education,” Coleman said.

SAT becomes career conversation-starter

69ý taking the College Board’s SAT last year may have noticed another way the organization is encouraging students to explore potential careers.

As the College Board prepared to turn the SAT digital, leaders heard from educators who were fielding questions from their communities about how the SAT’s assessment of student’s math and reading skills applied to careers and whether students should take the exam if they weren’t planning on a two- or four-year college pathway, said Priscilla Rodriguez, the senior vice president for college readiness assessments at the College Board.

In response, the College Board deployed a new tool with an eye toward highlighting potential careers for students.

The organization partnered with HumRRO, the Human Resources Research Organization, which matched skills tested on the SAT with skills needed in 1,000 careers in a U.S. Department of Labor database.

For the first time this past year, students could access a career insights tool in their SAT score report—a chart that maps out six different career interest areas based on students’ SAT scores. It includes information about the career paths, what post-secondary education the careers require, and how in demand these careers are in students’ home states.

102224 College Board Conf 3 in BS

The College Board doesn’t want students to think these are the only six careers the SAT recommends they pursue, Rodriguez said. Instead, the new tool is meant to serve as a conversation starter for students so they can explore a variety of careers.

“The fact of the matter is that all students are going into different places after high school,” Bertrand said. “So how do we make sure they have all the information about all of those different pathways? But again, college is a career pathway. It’s part of the multiple-pathways options for students.”

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69ý
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness The Way 69ý Offer CTE Classes Is About to Change. Here's How
The revision could lead to significant shifts in the types of jobs schools highlight, and the courses students are able to take.
4 min read
Photo of student working with surveying equipment.
E+
College & Workforce Readiness Even in Academic Classes, 69ý Focus on Building 69ý' Workforce Skills
69ý work on meeting academic standards. What happens when they focus on different sets of skills?
11 min read
69ý participate in reflections after a day of learning in Julia Kromenacker’s 3rd grade classroom at Old Mill Elementary School in Mt. Washington, Ky. on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.
69ý participate in reflections after a day of learning in Julia Kromenacker’s 3rd grade classroom at Old Mill Elementary School in Mt. Washington, Ky., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. The Bullitt County district that includes Old Mill Elementary has incorporated a focus on building more general life skills, like collaboration, problem-solving, and communication, that community members and employers consistently say they want from students coming out of high school.
Sam Mallon/Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness Preparing for the Workforce Can Start as Early as 1st Grade. What It Looks Like
Preparing students for college and career success starts well before high school—and it doesn’t only involve occupation-specific training.
5 min read
Jenna Bray, a 1st grade teacher at Old Mill Elementary School in Mt. Washington, Ky., helps her student Lucas Joiner on an online learning assignment on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.
Jenna Bray, a 1st grade teacher at Old Mill Elementary School in Mt. Washington, Ky., helps student Lucas Joiner on an online learning assignment on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. The Bullitt County district, which includes Old Mill Elementary, has incorporated a focus on equipping students with more general life skills—like communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving—that employers and community members consistently say they want from students coming out of high school.
Sam Mallon/Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness What the Research Says How Well Do Dual-Credit 69ý Do in College? A Look in Charts
New data show some students get more access—and more leverage—from taking postsecondary classes in high school.
3 min read
Illustration of students
Muhamad Chabib alwi/iStock/Getty