Dallas Assistant Superintendent: Career and Technical Education Can Be Tool for Equity
February 17, 2021
Though all students have lost ground due to school closures amid the pandemic, Dallas Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova says “there are bright spots illuminating a path to success for our high school students: giving them a genuine purpose for learning in high-quality career-technical education (CTE) programs.” Cordova, citing experience rolling out innovative CTE initiatives in Colorado and Texas, says learning can carry new purpose and relevance when students are actively engaged in the “reasons for learning” and have accessible opportunities to carry what they learn into a trade, certification, or post-high school opportunity. This opportunity to rethink school programs that engage, motivate, and lead students to success, Cordova says, could serve as a means to increase racial equity at a time when Black and Latino students are widely experiencing the harshest of impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures.