Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Tennessee
July 2023
Over the past several years, Tennessee has increased financial investments in the state’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs across the K-12 and postsecondary education systems with the primary goal of increasing the skilled workforce available to high-demand industries in the state. Another goal is to help students learn about, experience, and consider potential careers and the education pathways that are needed to reach them. This webpage includes six resources about career and technical education in Tennessee.
Author: Kim Potts
The brief provides an overview of CTE in Tennessee, including the goals of CTE and how it connects to the state’s workforce development system. The brief includes information about the 16 nationally recognized career clusters that represent career pathways that middle and high school students can follow to postsecondary and the workforce. A sample career pathway is included.
Author: Allison Pams
This infographic is an overview of CTE enrollment for secondary and postsecondary students in Tennessee. The career clusters with the highest rates of participation are highlighted and commonly used CTE terms like concentrator and participant are defined.
Author: Cassie Stinson
The interactive dashboard includes information on CTE participants, concentrators, and performance indicators. The data is available for secondary and postsecondary CTE education.
Author: Cassie Stinson
The infographic provides a side-by-side comparison of how CTE state funding was calculated under the Basic Education Program (BEP) and how it is now calculated under Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA). CTE funding under the BEP required a local district match, but CTE funding under TISA is 100 percent state-funded. The TISA CTE funding calculations will not be used for the 2023-24 school year, however. For the 2023-24 school year, direct allocations for all CTE students have been set at $5,000.
Author: Allison Pams
To measure the success of CTE programs, data is collected at the state level and federal level through narrative reports, financial records, and performance data. The brief highlights the data sources available to evaluate CTE programs in Tennessee and provides the latest public information on students who participate in CTE programs in secondary and postsecondary institutions.
Authors: Kim Potts and Allison Pams
The primary focus of CTE is to increase the skilled workforce available to high-demand industries in the state. Another goal is to help students learn about, experience, and consider potential careers and the education pathways that are needed to reach them.
Accomplishing this requires building strong connections and partnerships across education systems, local businesses, and industries throughout the state. This brief highlights two Tennessee initiatives that support districts and schools in building these partnerships: the Supporting Postsecondary Access in Rural Communities (SPARC) grant and the Innovative School Models (ISM) grant.