The Tennessee Department of Education has awarded more than $2.6 million in Perkins Reserve Grant (PRG) grant funds to 55 school districts to support career and technical education (CTE) programming in the 2024-25 school year.

The TDOE is looking to update how it reviews and classifies CTE programs in the state to determine that they align with the needs of employers across industries.

Dyersburg Middle School agriculture teacher Melissa Lowry told members of the House K-12 Subcommittee Tuesday that it’s important for her to be able to watch the kids in her class.This is so she can monitor them when handling dangerous equipment such as a table saw.“I have one set of eyes and right now they’re responsible for watching 25 kids. If that number goes to 35, my eyes can’t watch that many kids and so all of those opportunities are then taken away from them,” said Lowry.

In 2021, Lewis County Schools’ career and technical education (CTE) department utilized a $124 thousand state grant to give its rural Middle Tennessee students a head start on getting the skills they need for a job after high school.The district spent the money to create a mock hospital and purchase healthcare training simulators to replicate clinical scenarios for students. That grant additionally helped purchase equipment enabling students to produce live-streamed school events and construction equipment to help them create a school-based enterprise that produces various products.“The district expects the purchases to promote student experiences with various industries and move them faster and further in dual enrollment and postsecondary programs and eventually to high-demand, high-wage jobs,” wrote Tennessee Comptroller Research Analysts Kim Potts and Allison Pams.

Students who take part in career and technical education (CTE) programs are seeing more success graduating high school.That’s among the finding in a new report by the Tennessee Comptroller. According to the report, the four-year graduation rates of CTE students in school year 2020/2021 was eight percent higher than all Tennessee students.“Over the past several years, Tennessee has introduced multiple initiatives to promote career and technical education (CTE) for students across the state. In order to measure the success of CTE programs, data is collected at the state level and federal level through narrative reports, financial records, and performance data,” wrote Comptroller Research Analyst Allison Pams.

A new report by the Tennessee Comptroller found Tennessee students are showing a strong interest in Health Science careers.The Health Science cluster is the most popular choice for students taking career and technical education (CTE) courses in both high school and in college and trade schools according to the Comptroller.Out of more than 74,000 high school students participating in CTE, more than 22 percent are taking health science classes. That’s more than 16,000 students.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office announced a major undertaking this month to help inform Tennesseans about career and technical education (CTE) .CTE used to be known as vocational and technical education and its courses are designed to help students build specific skills needed for the jobs in their communities.This week the Comptroller plans to release new data on how many students in Tennessee are taking CTE courses and what areas have the highest participation. In the coming weeks the Comptroller plans to launch an interactive dashboard and funding data.

Governor Bill Lee told Middle Tennessee’s business leaders his proposed investments in education are needed to keep Tennessee moving forward.Those comments came Thursday morning as Governor Lee provided his annual address to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

A new survey finds Tennessee teachers support the key academic initiatives the state has launched to recover learning and accelerate student achievement.That was one finding of the results of its 2022 Tennessee Educator Survey (TES) shared by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Friday

Wednesday the Tennessee Department of Education announced over $800,000 in grant funding to 34 school districts throughout the state. These dollars will be used for middle school career and technical education (CTE), school-based enterprise projects at the high school level and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.The department awarded  Middle School STEM Start-Up & Expansion Grants to 52 schools and 29 are receiving Middle School CTE Start-Up and Expansion grants. Seven schools will receive High School School-Based Enterprise grant funding.