The Utah State Board of Education's Standards and Assessment Committee voted to approve a package of CTE course standards and forward the amended draft to the full board for consideration.

Talia Longhurst, director of career and technical education, told the committee the package covers 39 courses that have been reviewed by pathway and are being recommended for board approval. Longhurst said the standards are designed so courses in a pathway can help students build coherent skills for career areas.

Committee members proposed several substantive edits during discussion. Member Leanne Wood said the committee should add a single separate strand on "responsible use" of artificial intelligence to any course where AI is recommended; Wood said she will work with staff on wording and bring it to the full board. "Rather than using the language that's in there right now," Wood said, "I move that an additional standard be added in any of our courses where AI is recommended that talk about responsible use." The committee did not adopt new language at the meeting but agreed to carry the proposal forward to the full board for drafting.

Members also approved targeted edits to business communications courses, including striking a phrasing about "use bias free language to develop responsible ways of thinking and acting" from Business Communications 1 after debate that it read as a subjective command. That amendment passed with three members voting in favor and two members absent. The committee adopted a separate amendment to Business Communications 2 that broadened evaluation language to require students to "check sources for credible and accurate information" and to "verify AI sources to ensure they do not produce hallucinations, misleading or incorrect results when using AI tools." That motion passed unanimously.

The committee directed staff to pull one revision proposed for Business Leadership 1 (a proposed Strand 7 rewrite) because the version distributed to members did not match the intended revision. Rachel Routt, business, finance and marketing specialist, recommended staff either resubmit a corrected version for full-board consideration next month or bring a corrected version back next year; the committee voted to pull the item and bring the corrected wording to the full board.

Construction Trades edits were debated at length. Committee members amended language to emphasize "sustainable design, development and construction," added a reference to "energy efficient certificates," and agreed to include coal and nuclear as energy sources to be considered in examples. Several discrete amendments were taken and voted on individually; some passed unanimously while others drew one dissent. Joseph Mitchell, specialist over construction and structural pathways, asked staff to limit how much financial life-cycle analysis is required in the introductory construction course; the committee settled on language directing students to "explore energy sources, including consideration of available resources and financial costs" and to discuss proven, energy-efficient building practices.

An amendment to the introduction-to-drones materials clarified the battery-disposal standard to require students to "explain proper methods of battery disposal," a wording change that the committee approved.

After working through the package and the individual amendments, Chair Jenny Earl called for a final motion. "I recommend that the committee approve the CTE course standards draft 1 as amended and send to the board for approval," Earl said. The committee voted to forward the amended CTE standards package to the full board.

What happens next: The full board will consider the amended package at its next meeting. The committee explicitly requested the separate AI-responsible-use strand be drafted and circulated to the full board before final action.


Speakers quoted in this article are drawn from the committee meeting transcript and were present at the Standards and Assessment Committee meeting.