York County outlines CTE expansion and shifts to state credentialing and work-based criteria

Director of curriculum and instruction Dr. Karen Cagle told the board the division awarded 3,642 industry credentials last year, up from 2,224, a gain she attributed to requiring previously optional credentials in courses such as marketing.

"If you look at the first number on the top left, the 3,642 credentials earned, that was the number of industry credentials our students earned last year," Cagle said, noting the data are available on a public dashboard on the York County School Division website that can be filtered by school and demographics.

Cagle described significant state policy changes the division must apply: Virginia moved from a College, Career and Civic Readiness (CCCRI) model to a '3E' framework emphasizing employment, and the state tightened what qualifies as high-quality work-based learning. Under the new criteria, experiences must be connected to a CTE course, rely on partnerships with businesses or postsecondary experts, demonstrate the 5 C's (critical thinking, collaboration, citizenship, communication and creativity), and include at least 90 hours of participation. She warned many previously counted activities no longer qualify and that the division must apply for state recognition of each experience.

"The WISE financial literacy exam after this year will no longer meet the graduation requirement," she said, adding that the state provided a working list of approved credentials to the Virginia Board of Education for potential approval in March but cautioned the list might change.

Cagle highlighted local CTE expansions: dual-enrollment unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) courses at multiple schools offering VPCC college credit and an FAA pathway (growth from 12 to 39 students), Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow courses that enable students to take the para pro exam, and an EMT course through VPCC. She also described a $50,000 K-12 innovation grant to buy a mobile school-based enterprise trailer to support marketing and entrepreneurship instruction across high schools and community events.

The division is partnering with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council and the Institute of Advanced Learning and Research to place a GoTech lab at Grafton Middle School, providing precision machining, electrical engineering, welding and metrology modules and teacher training funded partly through external grants.

Cagle said other high-quality work-based learning categories the state still recognizes include clinical experiences, entrepreneurship, internships and apprenticeships; the division is investigating registered apprenticeships and supervised agricultural experiences but has not yet implemented them.

Board members commended the work and asked for further student-level breakdowns; Cagle said the dashboard reports total credentials by school and credential but does not currently produce an average-per-student metric, and she offered to return with additional disaggregation if available.

Next steps include aligning program naming (marine science to oceanography in response to new SOL mapping), continuing curriculum writing to meet state standards, and returning to the board with progress on high-quality, state-recognized work-based learning experiences.