Career Technical Education (CTE) is gaining national recognition as a vital connector among learners, careers, institutions, and the workforce. Creating and sustaining connections that have a lasting impact on learners and the workforce, however, doesn’t just happen by chance. It takes a roadmap.
During Advance CTE’s 2026 Spring Meeting, a panel of CTE leaders from across the country gathered to explore exactly that: how two national frameworks—The Connected Path: A Shared Vision for Opportunity and Empowerment Through Career Technical Education (CTE Connects), and the National Career Clusters® Framework (the Framework)— can serve as a roadmap to advance statewide priorities, strengthen partnerships, and improve outcomes for learners.
Start Where You Are
The panel was clear: CTE Connects and the Framework meet states where they are, prompting them to evaluate why they do the work they do and how they do it. The principles within CTE Connects and the tenets of the Framework reflect work that states are already doing, while offering a coherent structure for systems-level change that connects that work to a shared direction.
Our three panelists—Roger Ivey, Program Manager, Office of Career Technical and Agricultural Education program delivery in Georgia; Jacque Treaster, Director of Dual Enrollment and Career & Technical Education in Montana; and Trey Michael, Senior Director for the Office of Career and Technical Education at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction— discussed how they are applying CTE Connects and the Framework in their own states as strategic guides toward their CTE ‘north star’.
Three States, Three Different Approaches
For Montana, Treaster sees the launch of CTE Connects and the Framework as an opportunity to pause, reassess, and elevate the work the state is already doing. She is taking a collaborative approach, bringing partners to the table to review every Career Cluster and pathway, using CTE Connects and the Framework as a shared roadmap to improve program delivery.
In North Carolina, Michael is leveraging CTE Connects to help the state achieve its goal of every learner graduating “life-ready,” and is focused on determining how best to support educators and reviewing the support learners need for career development and future decision-making.
In Georgia, Ivey sees CTE Connects as a way to advance their “Top State for Talent” strategy, grow industries, and meet the evolving needs of the workforce. Ivey plans to dive deeper into Principle 1 (Co-Designed Systems) by bringing together partners across industries and reinforcing the connection between education and employer relationships through current legislation.
A Roadmap, Not a Mandate // National Frameworks, State Expertise
Opportunity is knocking, and CTE Connects and the Framework offer promising strategies for states ready to seize the moment. Neither guide is meant to be prescriptive, as states are the experts of their own contexts. The “dynamic duo” of CTE Connects and the Framework, as one panelist described it, are complementary tools that help states build on work they have already done. When states connect their statewide priorities to the vision and Framework, they create a theory of action that can positively impact classrooms and learners’ future career trajectories.
Advance CTE will continue to serve as a collaborative partner with states in their visioning, planning, and implementation. What this panel made clear is that these national frameworks are most powerful when states connect them to their own goals and priorities. Both frameworks invite states to consider how they can deliver on the promise that CTE makes to every learner.
