On February 28, ACTE, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) hosted a school visit in celebration of CTE Month 2023 at Jackson-Reed High School in Northwest Washington, DC.
Representatives from the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), DC State Superintendent of Education, DCPS leadership, local and national organizations, media, and congressional staff joined the event. At the beginning of the morning, attendees were welcomed with remarks from Jackson-Reed Principal Sah Brown, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee, DC State Superintendent of Education Christina Grant, OCTAE Deputy Assistant Secretary Luke Rhine and ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Curry after breakfast served by the hospitality and tourism academy. The student-led academy fair hosted above the main room featured students from each of Jackson-Reed’s seven CTE academies.
Jackson-Reed CTE students then participated in a panel discussion, where they shared their reasons for choosing CTE courses and how their CTE programs were preparing them for their future careers. Several of the students said that the availability of work-based learning opportunities has been instrumental in preparing them for their chosen career pathways and postsecondary education. Students took questions from the gathered attendees, and many of them expressed that they would make the decision to pursue CTE programs over again if they were given the choice.
Attendees were also able to get a closer look at several of the NAF Academy programs at Jackson-Reed, including tours of the graphic design, finance, engineering and biomedical science academies. In the finance academy, teacher Dee Ward shared that she planned to continue earning certifications to better serve her students, including a few upcoming Saturdays that she plans to spend learning Quickbooks software. Biomedical science students were honing in on the various flavor receptors of the body, while engineering students soldered and programmed circuits. Graphic design students demonstrated examples of the mixed mediums they were using in their productions.
You can view several Tweets and videos from the event here.
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