Yesterday, the Education Commission of the States wrapped up its national forum on education policy in Washington, DC, and I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days attending sessions and meeting educators and administrators from all over the country.
While there, I met Debra McDonald, the Ohio Teacher of the Year, who teaches CTE at the Wayne County Schools Career Center. She told me about graduating from the same career center’s early childhood education program and how happy she was to be able to come back as a teacher.
Despite the increasing momentum driving Career Technical Education nationally, this year’s forum only featured one session dedicated to CTE and another on dual enrollment that touched on aspects of the field.  Both sessions, however, were heavily attended.
Another standout from this year’s forum was the plenary session, “Public Perception and Education Policymaking” with Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education. His presentation was filled with results from the myriad surveys Gallup has conducted in recent years, and made an effective case for the value of education – in particular, CTE. It’s worth revisiting those surveys as we go out into our communities to make the case for CTE.
All presentations from the forum, including Brandon’s, can be found here.