CCL: What is it & Why is it Important
What is Career Connected Learning? Why is it important?
Career Connected Learning (CCL) in Oregon has seen significant evolution, particularly with the authorization of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education (CTE) for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). This act allowed Oregon's CTE leaders and partners to develop a comprehensive CTE State Plan emphasizing Career Connected Learning. This plan serves as Oregon’s blueprint for building and prioritizing CTE programs and the use of associated funds, aligning efforts across state agencies and federal initiatives, including the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the Higher Education Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The CTE State Plan: A Vision for the Future
The CTE State Plan establishes a shared vision and actionable strategies for systemic alignment in CTE. It aims to ensure all Oregonians have access to meaningful careers that support them and their families while contributing to their communities. By creating clear pathways for successful transitions into high-wage, high-skill, in-demand careers, the plan supports Oregon's economic future and strives to remove barriers to high-quality learning, ensuring equitable access for all learners, regardless of race, gender, or geographic location.
Essential Components of the CTE State Plan
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE), in collaboration with its partners and stakeholders, has identified several essential components to transform student experiences and achieve the vision that all learners:
Outcome 1: Career connected learning that is systemically integrated with education and workforce development.
Outcome 2: Increased equitable participation in high-quality CTE and career connected learning.
Outcome 3: Expanded communication, transparency, and diversity of voices and contributors connected to education and workforce development partnerships.
Vision for Career Connected Learning
Oregon envisions a Career Connected Learning system that supports all learners and their families as they navigate multiple paths to success in both academic and career pursuits. These paths are individualized based on learners' unique experiences, skills, interests, learning styles, and life goals. Collaboration between educators, counselors, businesses, industries, and community leaders is essential to deliver equitable and high-quality CCL opportunities. The middle grades (sixth through eighth) serve as a crucial launching pad for a secondary and postsecondary system that equips learners with the academic, technical, and employability skills necessary for success in the 21st-century workplace.
Career connected learning is transformative because it broadens the scope of education by involving a diverse range of educators who support students and families through unique relationships. This approach enables the integration of work in various areas, such as Career and Technical Education (CTE), AVID programs, Social Emotional Learning, core academic classes, and employability skill training. It captures the entire spectrum of activities, from awareness and exploration to preparation and hands-on learning. By expanding the focus to include in-school, after-school, community, and classroom activities, career connected learning creates a more comprehensive and interconnected educational experience.
Related OARs
This course and the comprehensive school counseling course are designed to assist district teams in delivering to their students the services promised them in the following Oregon Administrative Rules.
Career Education 581-022-2055
Though this OAR was stated in its entirety in the Welcome to this site, we will do so again here. This is the Oregon Administrative Rule that subsumes each component of career connected learning: Career Education. Each school district shall implement plans for career education for grades K through 12, as required in OAR 581-022-2030, in conjunction with its Comprehensive School Counseling Program. Career education curriculum is part of the overall district curriculum, written to address Essential Skills, Education Plan and Education Profile, Career Connected Learning, and employability skills, and post-secondary options, and may include career and technical education.
Comprehensive School Counseling 581-022-2060
The Comprehensive School Counseling Program (CSCP) course helps districts develop and implement their CSCP to deliver the promises made to students in this OAR. This OAR and the Oregon Framework for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs address four domains: Academic, Career, Social Emotional, and Community Involvement. For purposes of this CCL course, you will focus naturally on the career domain as outlined in this American School Counselor Association Position Statement. This position statement about the role of the school counselor in the career domain captures many elements of the vision for career connected learning in Oregon.
Graduation Requirements (Education Plan & Profile, Extended Application, CRLEs) 581-022-2000
District Curriculum 581-022-2030
District teams are encouraged to evaluate annually their comprehensive school counseling and their career connected learning programs and communicate their evaluations to the district superintendent. (This is also a time to celebrate the growth in the development of these programs.) Each year, district superintendents are required to complete the Division 22 Compliance Checklist and then report to the community and to the Oregon Department of Education if the district is delivering the specified services.
Districts that are annually engaging in this cycle of continuous program improvement are over time able to fulfill the Vision of a Career Connected Learning system that supports all learners and their families as they navigate multiple paths to success in both academic and career pursuits. Annual progress toward the accomplishment of this Vision is to be celebrated and shared with partners in this endeavor.
Why Career Connected Learning
Much, if not most, of the extant research in the career field has focused on the positive learner outcomes associated with their enrollment in career and technical education (CTE). Though career and technical education and career connected learning are distinct constructs, we can often extrapolate from the CTE research to hypothesize that similar outcomes will be produced through your development and implementation of a comprehensive building and district career connected learning program as indicated in OAR 581-022-2055.
One example that we might share is the potential impact of Career Connected Learning on learners’ mental health issues:
The Power of Career Connected Learning report by Gallup completed in New Hampshire (8500 students surveyed in grades 5-12) reported that more learners indicated engagement in school - involvement and enthusiasm for school - and hope for the future particularly when they reported they had someone they considered as a mentor.
Now combine these results on career connected learning improving engagement and hope with the research reviewed in these four blog posts issued by Advanced CTE that hope and support can act as a protective factor for learners who are at risk for a variety of mental health concerns due to their adverse childhood experiences: