“Next-Generation Career and Technical Education in New York City: Final Report and Recommendations of the Mayoral Task Force on Career and Technical Education Innovation”
New York City should strengthen and better align its K-12 career and technical education to the needs of employers, higher education, and the global marketplace, according to a report by a task force of educators and others appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
The report cites information from task force member Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the city’s 1.1 million-student public school system, showing a decline in the number of students choosing career and technical education, or CTE, despite the continuing high demand for highly skilled employees.
Among its recommendations, the report urges that the city’s 21 stand-alone CTE schools and other city CTE programs, which enrolled about 110,000 students last year, define needed skills, reform seat-time-based requirements, and reorient curricula toward growth industries.
The report also calls for a seamless pathway from secondary CTE education to studies at City University of New York, expanded opportunities for work-based learning, and the development of rigorous alternatives to some of the Regents exams, as New York’s state tests are known.