Throughout this series we have looked at some of the changes shaping Career & Technical Education. We have talked about the continued development of CTE and the lifelong learning journey. We have also looked at the growing role of competencies and credentials. As we continue having conversations with our clients, partners, and team about where CTE is headed, collaboration continues to come up as an essential part of the conversation. The development of effective CTE does not

In our first blog in this series, The Future of Career & Technical Education: Five Trends Every Curriculum Leader Should Be Watching, we looked at some of the changes shaping CTE today. In our last blog, CTE Is Becoming a Lifelong Learning Journey, we more closely examined how that journey can begin with career awareness and continue through education and training, employment, career advancement, upskilling, reskilling, and even career changes. As we think about that larger j

Career & Technical Education has come a long way from what many of us traditionally thought of as vocational education. For years, CTE was often viewed as a collection of individual courses or programs designed to prepare learners for a particular occupation or teach a specific set of technical skills. While that is still an integral part of CTE, it has now become part of a much larger journey. Career awareness and exploration can start in middle school and grow into more foc

Career & Technical Education (CTE) has undergone dramatic changes over the last decade. What was once viewed primarily as vocational education has now become one of the most important conversations in education today, and schools, colleges, publishers, workforce organizations, employers, and content developers are all asking the same question: What is the best way to prepare learners for careers that will continually evolve throughout their working lives? The answer extends w

Congratulations on your new role Program Manager, CTE at Contentra. CTE has evolved significantly over the past several years. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in how organizations are approaching Career & Technical Education? One of the most significant shifts in my experience has been in how broadly people now understand who CTE serves. CTE is no longer just an alternate route for students deciding whether to attend college. It serves high school students as

Something we’ve enjoyed most about launching the Contentra blog is the opportunity to share the conversations we’re having every day with publishers, curriculum developers, and editorial teams. Over the past several months, we’ve explored a wide range of topics from academic alignment and assessment to literacy, science, social studies, and educational publishing. A few articles featured stories from our own team and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. While the Contentr

Inquiry Is More Than Asking Questions Inquiry has become one of the defining features of modern social studies instruction. Across the United States, standards increasingly emphasize skills such as asking questions, evaluating evidence, analyzing sources, and engaging in civic reasoning. This shift has helped move classrooms beyond memorizing dates and facts. Instead, students are expected to think like historians, geographers, economists, and informed citizens. But there is

Congratulations on becoming Contentra’s new CEO. What initially brought you to Contentra, and what excites you most about this next chapter? Education has been at the center of my career from the very beginning. Before moving into educational publishing and services, I was a teacher, and that experience continues to shape how I lead today. Teaching taught me that success is never about one individual. It comes from building relationships, listening carefully, solving probl