The AIRSS team is proud to present the third issue of our new digital publication, The Prairie Career Advocate. This storytelling effort is part of the Rural IL CTE Project that AIRSS and the Illinois State Board of Education began in 2023.
We encourage you to read the issue below, featuring Flora CUSD #35, to learn more about the successes of their CTE programming and how your district could potentially start a similar program in your community. The links in the document will work if it is downloaded to a computer; otherwise you can find them at the bottom of this page. You may download the PDF by clicking the three dots on the bottom right of the menu, then clicking “Download.”
If you have any questions or comments about the Advocate, please contact Program Director John Glasgow at john@airssedu.org.
Schools push career ed classes ‘for all,’ even kids heading to college
Part of the struggle with CTE is that it suffers under historical biases as less rigorous, impactful, or profitable than college-readiness. The reality is the goal of education should be the empowerment and exposure of all students to knowledge and skills that enable their future fulfillment. This article illustrates nicely how all students need application of their knowledge through a career experience.
Career and Technical Education at a Crossroads: Opportunity or Exploitation?
This report offers a good overview on the historic and present challenges with CTE. Career programming is incredibly popular at this moment, so it is even more imperative that we act with prudence and careful planning with all the opportunities sprouting up purporting to offer career learning and exploration experiences. Rural education in general also suffers from this limelight, and there is a lot of interest, both benign and malign, vying to “get into the rural market.” The Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools stands as a trusted buffer absorbing this push, and we all need to do this for CTE as well.
This California high school includes sustainability and green jobs in its curriculum
When we think about CTE, often agriculture, mechanical trades, healthcare, and education come to mind. We underinvest in “non-traditional” offerings that might directly serve serious vulnerabilities in rural communities. One of these is clean energy and climate change. Rural areas globally are both more vulnerable to changes in climate and yet are the prime zone for development of clean energy infrastructure. Rural schools and students have an opportunity to step forward as global leaders in this space by offering more clean energy, green development, and climate change-related CTE programs. This story offers one example of doing just this.
Empowering Rural Student Innovation with the CEO Program
The Rural IL CTE Project recently hosted a webinar with the CEO Program to showcase how this innovative entrepreneurship initiative can spur student success and community prosperity. The CEO Program is a work-based learning program by the Midland Institute for Entrepreneurship that allows students to develop their own community business, engage and visit hundreds of local businesses and industries, and gain key employability skills. We encourage all rural schools to check out the recording to see how a CEO Program might benefit your area.
Powering Up Rural America: Education & Industry Unite
AIRSS Executive Director Dave Ardrey and Rural IL CTE Project Director John Glasgow recently sat down with Mariah Presley, Education & Industry Programs Team Lead at Trane, Inc. to discuss the power and potential of rural schools and CTE. Trane is a nation-leader in collaborating with local school districts to build data-driven CTE courses, and Mariah has served on the Rural IL CTE Advisory Council since its formation. Check out the podcast to hear what Dave and John had to say about the state of rural education, the hope for CTE in rural spaces, and how AIRSS and Trane are working together to support rural CTE.
FarmBeats for Students: Hands-On Precision Agriculture with micro:bit
The Rural IL CTE Project has teamed up with the Illinois Learning Technology Centers (LTC) and Facilitating Coordination in Agricultural Education (FCAE) to offer a summer professional development during FCAE’s July Local Program Support event. For this event, LTC will show ag teachers how to use Microsoft FarmBeats to incorporate data gathering, data analysis, and computer science into ag courses.
Rural IL CTE Project Portal
Visit the Rural IL CTE Project Portal for the latest tools, tips, guides, and resources your rural CTE program needs! From research, case studies, an asset map, and more, we’re working to provide you with everything you need to grow and sustain an exemplary program for students. The Portal is updated regularly with new content, and any suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
The links on this page, and throughout the Advocate, are active and clickable when viewed in the original PDF format.