School board reviews plan to boost CTE concentrators as part of 90% graduation goal

The Anchorage School District School Board reviewed a monitoring report Jan. 21 on the district's College, Career and Life Readiness goal, including an interim target to expand CTE concentrators as a route to higher graduation rates.

Superintendent Dr. Bryant told the board that "ASD has a goal to increase the percent of graduates to 90 percent by 2028." The superintendent and CTE leaders described CTE concentrators as students who have completed at least two credits in a coordinated program of study.

The nut graf: district staff said research and district data link CTE concentration with better graduation outcomes, and the board discussed how the district's new Freshman Academy (FACE) can identify and steer interested students into CTE pathways earlier.

District CTE director Devin Roberts explained program structure and measurement. "A CTE concentrator means that you've earned at least 2 credits within a specific career and technical education program of study," Roberts said, outlining how CTE pathways are organized into career clusters and nationally recognized program sequences that include technical skills and, when available, recognized postsecondary credentials.

District staff cited national and peer-reviewed studies and local metrics to justify the focus. The administration gave examples, including a comparison the district described as: concentrators graduating at roughly 96% compared with about 82% for nonconcentrators in recent cohort data; district staff characterized that as a correlation, not proof of causation.

Board members asked for more detail about several implementation and equity issues. Member Lessons pressed the administration on literacy and academic preparedness among freshmen, noting that hundreds of freshmen failed the FACE course in the fall semester and asking whether underlying reading or numeracy gaps could blunt the benefit of CTE pathways. "I'm concerned that a number of the kids... can they read? Can they navigate?" Lessons said.

Dr. Bryant and staff replied that Freshman Academy is designed to be a proactive intervention: the school-level model includes teams monitoring freshmen, targeted interventions (learning labs, counseling), and efforts to align FACE with a half-credit social-studies/personal-finance strand so students receive early exposure to career and economic concepts. The administration also described a plan to cross-list certain CTE courses for academic credit (for example, engineering for physical science credit) to reduce scheduling and graduation-credit conflicts.

Board members also discussed capacity constraints (course seats, King Tech scheduling), staffing pressures tied to possible pupil-to-teacher ratio changes, and the timeline for seeing measurable growth: the administration said the policy goal is intentionally ambitious and that the Academies of Anchorage rollout means measurable gains may be gradual as cohorts progress through high school.

The discussion closed with the board asking for supplemental data and district responses to written questions submitted in advance. Staff said more detailed cohort- and subgroup-level breakdowns, dual-credit and credential attainment rates, and follow-up data with the state labor and higher-education partners will be supplied to board members for future monitoring.

The monitoring conversation did not include a formal board action; it was a review and Q&A on progress toward the board's college, career and life readiness objectives.