Advanced Placement® (AP) and Career Technical Education (CTE) courses can and should work in tandem to support career readiness by encouraging the development of the academic knowledge and technical skills that are, together, increasingly important to students’ overall employability. For too long, “college-ready” and “career-ready” coursework and experiences have been viewed as separate in schools. With an estimated 65 percent of jobs in the economy requiring postsecondary education and training beyond high school by 2020, schools should promote college and career readiness.
To help state, district and school leaders think through how to place students on pathways that prepare them for college and career, Advance CTE and the College Board partnered to examine how AP® courses can be integrated into CTE programs of study in Advanced Placement® and Career and Technical Education: Working Together. This guide examines how specific AP courses can be embedded into or used to augment programs of study by Career Cluster®. To help leaders with this work, this resource provides guiding questions for leaders to consider and examines how Maryland and Tennessee integrate AP courses into CTE programs of study.
Brianna McCain, Policy Associate