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2023 EDUCATION EDITION
course, Cooper said. Finally, a second welding program is being added and the auto tech program is being expanded due to growing wait- list numbers, Cooper said. While LISD o cials are constantly monitoring student interest and wait- lists at the career centers, unful lled demand numbers will not always be something that can be eliminated, Cooper said. “As programs continue to grow, ways that we can alleviate the wait- lists are by looking at opportunities to move programs to the main high school campuses, or to help students identify programs that may be sim- ilar to the programs [that are over capacity],” he said. CISD building a pipeline One of CISD’s goals is to get students involved in CTE at an early age, accord- ing to district o cials. “I want them to start to get excited already in elementary school about the opportunities they’ll have once they get to the high school level,” Howard said. A new science, technology, engi- neering, arts and math, or STEAM, curriculum will launch at all of its ele- mentary schools starting in the 2023-24 school year. The program will include coding, robotics and the engineering design process, according to a May news release. The program will be provided to students at all elementary schools as part of the weekly “specials” class rotation. “This initiative cohesively aligns with the current STEAM pathways in CISD middle and high schools,” Super- intendent Brad Hunt said in the news release. “It will allow CISD to continue its innovative approach to learning.” CTE is also set for upgrades after CISD voters passed a $321.5 million bond package in May. One of the bond’s propositions features technol- ogy upgrades. Coppell High School will have a new space for CTE and addi- tional equipment through the bond package. “I am excited about the trajectory and where we’re headed with CTE in Coppell,” Howard said. Don Munsch and Tim Glaze contrib- uted to this report.
PROGRAMS OF STUDY Coppell ISD o ers ve of the Texas Education Agency’s approved CTE programs. Lewisville ISD will o er all 14 starting this fall.
GROWING Coppell ISD’s career and technical enrollment continues to rise. Lewisville ISD’s CTE enrollment has declined in recent years, but more students are attending its career centers. ENROLLMENT
Agriculture, food and natural resources
Coppell ISD
Lewisville ISD
Architecture and construction Arts, audio/video technology and communications Business, marketing and nance Education and training Energy Health Science Hospitality and tourism Human services
13,994
12K 15K
10,628
5,839
3K 6K 9K
3,181
0
2018-19
2019-20 2020-21
2021-22 2022-23
SOURCES: COPPELL ISD, LEWISVILLE ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
Growing enrollment Coppell ISD reported an 83% CTE enrollment increase from 2018-19 to 2022-23. Overall CTE enrollment in Lewisville ISD has declined, but more students are attending its career centers—LISD reported a nearly 50% increase over the last ve years. Of CISD’s ve programs, business, marketing and nance as well as health science are most popular, according to district o cials. Health science is also in demand in LISD as well as its cosme- tology program. Waitlists for in-demand programs have grown over the years, accord- ing to LISD’s district data. For exam- ple, the waitlist for Welding I and II was the district’s largest last year with 120 students. “Nearly all of our career center pro- grams are at maximum capacity due to student interest and popularity of the programs,” Cooper said. Automotive technology saw the second-largest waitlist last year with 77 students. Meanwhile, the industry is experiencing a technician short- age, which could be attributed to the program’s absence in some school districts, said Kurt Vanous, Avondale Group’s talent acquisition manager. “Not everybody has been as forward thinking as, for example, Lewisville [ISD],” he said. “A lot of students that might have wanted to be exposed to this as a potential occupation, they just didn’t have the ability to try it out.” CTE courses have been widely dis- cussed within the last decade partly due to the TEA’s College, Career and
center. However, students can take CTE classes at Coppell High School or apply to enroll at nearby New Tech High School, which emphasizes a proj- ect-based learning model, CISD’s CTE Director Josh Howard said. Under this model, students use what they learn in class to create a nal product. LISD o ers 14 programs of study, including architecture, information technology and manufacturing. CISD’s ve programs include health science and arts, audio visual technology, and communications. Both districts o er industry-based certi cations that allow students to obtain work- force-ready skills by graduation. Local businesses collaborate with the districts to help students get hands-on experience, o cials said. For example, seniors enrolled in LISD’s automotive courses can shadow professionals at one of Avondale Group’s dealerships. By interning, students gain experience and determine their interest before investing in a trade school education, said Geo rey Fisher, service manager at Mercedes-Benz of Grapevine. “To really spark interest in these kids and show them what the business is like, I think it’s invaluable,” he said. CTE allows students to get real- world skills that are needed now, Howard said. “All students are going to go into a career regardless of what their post-secondary path looks like,” he said. “CTE classes help determine what their interests are.”
Information technology Law and public service Manufacturing Science, technology,
Military Readiness initiative, Cooper said. Its purpose is to ensure all Texas high school students are adequately prepared for life after graduation. “[It] has become more and more evi- dent within the last ve years of the need to train the next generation in the workforce,” he said. LISD accommodating demand LISD is in the process of expanding TECC East because of demand, accord- ing to district o cials. New programs are slated to launch in LISD as soon as this fall. LISD’s energy program will be avail- able in the 2023-24 school year—an addition making LISD one of few school districts to o er programs in all 14 TEA-approved programs of study, according to district o cials. A dental program and o -road die- sel program is anticipated to launch by fall 2025, according to district o cials. LISD o cials continue to monitor the demand and desire for an aviation pro- gram, and are looking into the possibil- ity of integrating a piloting or mechanic engineering and mathematics Transportation, distribution and logistics SOURCES: COPPELL ISD, LEWISVILLE ISD, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY COMMUNITY IMPACT
For more information, visit communityimpact.com .
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LEWISVILLE COPPELL EDITION • AUGUST 2023
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