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MiMfg Magazine
December 2017
Key
Conversations
A
Q
&
Interview with State Superintendent Brian Whiston
Q: You have been working closely with
collaboration between educators and
employers, and added resources for
students to discover and prepare for
potential opportunities.
TED Director Roger Curtis on career
and technical training in the K-12
system. There seems to have been a
shift in policy over time from sending
everyone to college to a recognition
of the need for career tech training.
Why are you advocating for the
career tech pathway?
Q: You are currently pushing MMA-
supported CTE legislation. Tell us
what is in that package and why
you are pushing for the changes?
Whiston: The series of recommendations
Whiston: It’s not as much a shifting as it
is expanding the view of how Michigan
prepares students for success. We are
advocating for multiple pathways for
students, not primarily one or the other.
Some students want to pursue careers
that require four-year college degrees,
while other students want to pursue
careers that are in the professional trades.
Our focus is to make all of these options
available to students and to give them
the opportunity to explore and learn
more about those options, then giving
them the most direct and student-
centered path to become successful.
Every educator wants to see students
reach their potential, and we’re working
to give them new tools to help. Some of
these changes present a different way of
approaching these challenges, and we’re
looking to have Michigan lead the
nation in developing talent at all levels.
Career and college readiness is vitally
important for our students, and for our
communities and state as a whole.
Q: To support this effort, you have
helped create the Career Pathways
Alliance, what is that all about?
Whiston: At Governor Snyder’s direction,
Talent and Economic Development
Director Roger Curtis and I worked
with stakeholders and gathered valuable
feedback on the challenges and concerns
surrounding career exploration and job
readiness, and then built recommendations
Brian Whiston,
State Superintendent
1 1 Has set a priority to make Michigan a Top
10 education state in 10 years, working
collaboratively with educators, students,
parents, businesses and policy leaders
1 1 Previously served as Superintendent of
Dearborn (MI) Public Schools – the state’s
third largest school district — where his
innovation efforts were recognized by the
Michigan Association of School Administrators
when it awarded him Superintendent of
the Year honors in 2014
1 1 Served 11 years as Director of Government
and Community Services for the Oakland
County ISD, during which time he was
named Top Ten Lobbyist of the Year (2007)
to help Michigan residents, educators
and job providers. We called this effort
the Michigan Career Pathways Alliance,
bringing together economic developers,
employers and educators, as well as K-12
districts and higher education institutions
with union leaders and businesses.
Proposals include expanding and
strengthening career technical education
statewide through a series of approaches,
including curriculum changes, increased
from the Career Pathways Alliance were
developed to make professional trades
programs a pathway to a career, higher
education, and lifelong learning. Some
of those recommendations can be done
administratively by the Michigan Depart-
ment of Education, and in June, I issued
an Executive Directive to administratively
implement those recommendations. Other
recommendations in the report need to
done through a change in state law. Those
are included in the set of bills now being
moved through the Michigan Legislature.
The legislation, if adopted, would
require a model program for career
exploration and job readiness to be
incorporated into lessons, establish
career development instruction, and
provide students with extensive career
exploration and essential job skills
needed to land one of the many good
jobs available in Michigan. School
boards would be able to address a critical
shortage of CTE instructors by having
the ability to hire licensed professionals
to teach in career-tech courses in their
field of expertise. The bills also call for
educators to be able to use time spent
engaging with local employers or tech
centers to count toward professional
teaching certificate renewal.
We want to provide all students
with the opportunity to be successful
during school and after graduation. We
want Michigan to lead the nation in
developing talent. These bills build
upon work we have underway to
address all of these goals.
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