Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Career Technical Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CTE director briefs committee on enrollment, concentrator outcomes and capital projects
Summary
Wade Sick, state director for Career and Technical Education, reported rising enrollment in CTE courses, high graduation rates among concentrators, work‑based learning expansion and a multi‑million dollar capital grants program for local and regional centers.
Wade Sick, state director for the North Dakota Department of Career and Technical Education, told the Joint Education Committee the agency is expanding access to career and technical education, reporting increasing participation and strong outcomes for students who complete career pathways.
Sick said more than 26,000 unique high‑school students took at least one CTE course in 2023–24 — about 74% of the state’s secondary students by his count — and that roughly 9,700 students met the agency’s federal definition of a CTE concentrator (two or more courses in the same pathway). At the postsecondary level, he said roughly 8,500 students took at least one community‑college CTE course and about 4,200 were considered postsecondary concentrators.
The director emphasized outcomes: the graduation rate for CTE concentrators was roughly 97.9% for 2023–24 compared with a statewide graduation rate of about 82%. He highlighted a persistent gap for Native American students — a statewide on‑time graduation rate near 63% — and said when Native American students are CTE concentrators their on‑time graduation rate rises to about 93%. Sick said that evidence is a key reason the agency is emphasizing concentrator pathways and rural access.
Sick summarized agency budget and grant programs: roughly $41.5 million in state grant funds supports secondary and postsecondary program operations and salaries; federal Perkins funds (roughly $12 million in authority) support local needs assessments and program priorities; and a capital investment program now totals about $121 million after supplemental allocations and ARPA‑era funds were layered into the initial legislative appropriation. He described grant preference criteria (cross‑district partnerships, postsecondary partnerships, workforce training components) and a set of capital projects that were awarded in recent rounds.
Work‑based learning is a key accountability and strategy area: Sick said nearly 45% of CTE students completed at least one work‑based learning experience and that a state appropriation of $1.5 million created grant funding for local work‑based learning coordinators. Those coordinators receive training and place students in supervised work experiences; Sick said 16 funded coordinators are placing more than 1,300 students into community‑based placements.
Sick also described several student organizations tied to CTE (FFA, DECA, SkillsUSA, FBLA, FCCLA, TSA) and the agency’s marketing and rebranding efforts to improve public recognition of CTE. He said the agency will continue targeted marketing to parents and students and work on career cluster updates to reflect cross‑cutting industry pathways.
