CTAE director outlines expansion of career and technical education across Muscogee County schools

Victoria Thomas, senior director of CTAE, STEAM and Robotics for the Muscogee County School District, gave a detailed presentation Feb. 10 on the district's Career, Technical and Agricultural Education programs.

Thomas reported that the district now supports 124 middle and high school CTAE teachers, two career-focused elementary magnet schools, 10 middle-school CTA programs, 35 high-school pathways and an operating budget of $1,540,000 (the figure excludes personnel costs). She said CTAE has grown in staffing and reach since fiscal year 2017 and highlighted the district's efforts to integrate career awareness from early elementary through graduation.

Thomas outlined program elements including middle-school career-rotation pilots, an artificial-intelligence pilot at Veterans Middle School, career-technical student organizations (CTSOs) that can be integrated into school days, and a range of industry-recognized end-of-pathway assessments (for example, NOCTI, OSHA 10, CompTIA certifications and other credentials). She described the district's use of Perkins funds to pay for additional credentials teachers and employers recommend and said many credential exams carry college credit or industry certification value.

Thomas also described partnerships with local employers and organizations and noted a state-level development: Governor Kemp signed a bill in May 2024 creating a high-demand career list; the Georgia Department of Education will issue a state high-demand CTE pathway list in March, followed by regional lists at the state summer conference. Thomas said students who complete high-demand pathways may count at 1.5 in career-readiness denominators, which influences school performance metrics.

Why it matters: CTAE pathways can produce industry-recognized credentials, dual enrollment credit and work-based learning that position students for employment or postsecondary success. Thomas cited pathway completion and pass rates (for example, biomedical pathway completers and certification pass rates) to illustrate outcomes.

Next steps and requests: Thomas asked for additional administrative support to manage grants, travel and CTSO logistics and for one program manager and an administrative clerk to handle transactional workload; she identified youth-apprenticeship coordination and district-level work-based learning as previously reduced positions she would like restored or replaced.

Sources of data and examples were given in the presentation slides and Thomas answered questions about school-level participation, reimbursement rules for certain projects and integration of employer partners into elementary and middle-school programming.