AIRSS is dedicated to advancing education for rural students, and supporting Career and Technical Education (CTE) has become a main focus in that goal; our work surrounding CTE programming has grown significantly over the past two years through our Rural IL CTE Project. As well, we are adamant about finding solutions to the rural teacher shortage in our state. Now, through a new grant, we are proud to partner with other Illinois organizations to enhance career pathways for rural students wanting to become educators.
The CTE Education Career Pathway Grant is a collaborative effort between the Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools, the Western Area Career System, the Regional Office of Education #26, and the Illinois State Board of Education. The project has two main goals, which include assisting rural high schools in creating their education career pathway and creating a regional student group.
We will be working together to design a model education career pathway program and help schools implement their version of that program. We intend to differentiate the model to build upon each high school’s unique characteristics and programming that is already in place. In addition, we will be forming a regional Rural Teacher Cadet Program that will bring together high school students from the area who are interested in pursuing careers in education and training.
We look forward to growing this program over the next few years. For any questions about this work, please contact Program Director Lisa Litchfield.