|
Over the past four years, a number of teachers and interested parties have been working to review and update the Minnesota Trade & Industry (T&I) Frameworks. They are now posted on the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) website on the Trade and Industry page.
Standards vs Frameworks
Minnesota does not set statewide standards for Career and Technical Education (CTE). Each district is required to formulate their own CTE standards. For all CTE areas, MDE provides frameworks to guide educators and administrators around curriculum development, assessments, and program development. These frameworks are typically based on national standards developed for that program area. You can find more general information at the MDE website.
Minnesota Trade and Industry Frameworks
Frameworks provide teachers in these career fields with high-quality, rigorous indicators and benchmarks to identify what students should know and be able to do after completing study in any of the Trade & Industry pathways.
Program Area Frameworks
Frameworks have been developed for each of the separate program areas in Trade and Industry: Construction, Manufacturing, Transportation (including Aviation), and Communications Technology (including Computer Science/Information Technology.) An additional Foundation Framework was developed for the foundational disciplines of STEM, Engineering, and Industrial Technology that underlie all Trade and Industry programs areas.
Support Documents
There are also a number of support documents that have been developed to assist teachers with the Frameworks. One document is an introductory guide for using all of the Trade and Industry frameworks in developing local district CTE standards. In addition, there two lesson planning tools to assist teachers with embedding employability and safety skills along with assessments into their courses.
National Industry Standards
On the Trade and Industry page, there are also links to different national standards concerning various Trade and Industry program areas. Many of these are tied to credentials that students can obtain or at least start learning on their way to certification.
Embedding Standards Into a Program
MDE recommends that all Trade and Industry teachers consider embedding specific standard/performance indicators (and perhaps benchmarks) directly into their syllabi. This is not only good information to share with the state as part of the program approval process, but also functions as best practice in sharing information with students and their parents, the school administration, and the programs’ industry partners about how standards are addressed in the program.
Contact Tim Barrett, MDE Trade and Industry Specialist, if you have any questions.
|
