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Mesa Public Schools highlights Career and Technical Education goals, data and partnerships
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Summary
District CTE leaders briefed the board on program regulation, performance measures and employer/college partnerships, outlining efforts to boost industry certifications, second‑year course persistence and work‑based learning.
Mesa Public Schools staff told the governing board on Sept. 11 that the district is expanding career and technical education (CTE) efforts and working with regional partners to increase certification attainment, year‑two course persistence and employer‑driven work‑based learning opportunities.
"CTE is about preparing students beyond just the vocation — academic knowledge, technical skills and employability skills so that our kids can graduate in alignment with our promise to be prepared for college, career and community," said Marla Loria, the district’s Director of Career and Technical Education.
Why it matters: CTE courses can lead to postsecondary credit, industry certifications and paid employment. State and federal funding formulas and performance measures — including the Perkins Act and East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT) quality metrics — tie funding and program approval to measurable outcomes such as certification rates and persistence from first‑ to second‑year CTE courses.
What staff presented - Regulatory framework: Loria said CTE in Arizona operates under the federal Perkins (Carl D. Perkins) requirements and state CTED rules; programs must meet multiple operational and data standards to retain funding and capture an additional quarter‑ADM (average daily membership) for enrolled students.
- Performance data and challenges: District data presented to the board show high graduation rates for CTE participants but variability in persistence (students returning for a second year in a program) and in industry certification attainment. Loria said EVIT’s new quality metrics set a 30% persistence target, while Mesa’s cleaned baseline persistence rate is nearer to 21% for some programs. Certification reporting is complex because programs work with many different certification vendors; staff are working to validate and standardize those counts.
- Work‑based learning and partnerships: Mesa collects work‑based learning interactions through ElevateEd AZ (Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation); staff reported several thousand career awareness interactions but noted some duplication in external reports. Loria said the district wants an in‑house dashboard tied to Research & Evaluation so leaders can see real‑time work‑based learning and employer engagement data and better support program improvement.
- EVIT IGA and funding: Loria and other administrators discussed the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the East Valley Institute of Technology. They said Mesa’s IGA is signed and positions the district to receive agreed funding formulas tied to quality metrics; staff described the IGA as an important protective step for maintaining CTE funding and program access for students.
Board questions and responses Trustees asked about 'non‑traditional participation' (gender representation in programs such as females in welding or males in nursing), elementary and middle‑school career awareness activities that feed high‑school academies, and whether CTE programs integrate literacy and math instruction. Loria described the district’s College, Career and Community Readiness framework and said academies have opened opportunities to build interdisciplinary teams that integrate academic skills (for example, literacy supports embedded with career coursework).
Board Member Hutchinson asked about non‑traditional participation; Loria replied the state sets the categories and goals and the district sometimes exceeds them in certain programs. Board Member Benson asked whether CTE work increases reading and math proficiency; staff said teachers and academic teams are collaborating to weave academic supports into career pathways but cautioned that some state targets increased sharply in the most recent year and that district staff are focused on targeted interventions.
Ending: District leaders said they are working on data architecture and partnerships to provide clearer, campus‑level dashboards of CTE outcomes by next academic year. "We're working to get this done by June 2026," Superintendent Strom said in the meeting, calling data transparency a priority.
