State Profile For Massachusetts

Data sources used in this profile (MSWord,54Kb)

State Director

Mr. Jeffrey Wheeler,
State Director of CTE, Massachusetts Department of Education
350 Main Street
Malden, MA 02148

CTE Web Site(s) as Applicable

Secondary: http://www.doe.mass.edu/cte/

Mission

The mission of career/vocational technical education in Massachusetts is to improve the quality of the public education system so that students are well prepared for further education, rewarding employment and responsible citizenship.

CTE Statistics

Number of Public High Schools:	280
Number of Public High Schools Offering Solely (or primarily) CTE courses:	71
Number of Students in Public High Schools:	271,700
Number of Secondary Students Enrolled in CTE:	60,874
Number of Public Community Colleges:	17
Number of Students at Public Community Colleges:	87,955
Number of Postsecondary Students Enrolled in CTE:	41,882
Perkins Funds Received:	$20,387,350

CTE Governance Structure

Perkins Eligible Agency:	Department of Education
Agency Administering Secondary CTE:	Department of Education
Agency Administering Postsecondary CTE:	Department of Education
Programmatic Control For Secondary CTE:	State Board of Education
Programmatic Control For Postsecondary CTE:	State Board of Education and the State Board of Higher Education

CTE Funding

State Secondary Funding:
State Postsecondary Funding:
Local Secondary Funding:
Local Postsecondary Funding:

State Director Roles and Responsibilities

The State Director of Career/Vocational Technical Education administers the state law governing vocational technical education programs in public school districts and collaboratives. The State Director also administers the federal Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act that provides support to school districts, collaboratives and the state’s public two-year colleges.

CTE Connections to Secondary Education and High School Reform

Massachusetts is developing Vocational Technical Education Curriculum Frameworks that will form the basis for developing the assessment system for the award of the Massachusetts Certificate of Occupational Proficiency.
The Education Reform Act established the Certificate of Occupational Proficiency. The statute – M.G.L.c.69 section 1D (iii) states: “The certificate of occupational proficiency shall be awarded to students who successfully complete a comprehensive education and training program in a particular trade or professional skill area and shall reflect a determination that the recipient has demonstrated mastery of a core of skills, competencies and knowledge comparable to that possessed by students of equivalent age entering the particular trade or profession from the most educationally advanced education systems in the world. No student may receive said certificate of occupational proficiency without also having acquired a competency determination. Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit a student from beginning a program of vocational education before achieving a determination of competency. Such vocational education may begin at grade nine, ten or eleven. No provision of law shall prohibit concurrent pursuit of a competency determination and vocational learning. There shall be no cause of action for a parent, guardian or student who fails to obtain a competency determination, a certificate of mastery or a certificate of occupational proficiency.”

Implementation of Career Clusters

Massachusetts Vocational Technical Education Curriculum Frameworks have been developed for ten career clusters. Visit http://www.mccte.org/frameworks/.

Indicators

The data for 2003-2004 in the above chart was taken directly from the Consolidated Annual Reports (CAR Report 2003-04). The CAR is a mandatory fiscal and accountability report submitted by each state to the U.S. Department of Education. It provides performance information on 14 Perkins indicators. A red X means a state did not meet its adjusted level of performance and a green checkmark means that the state did meet its goal.A blue bar in the Secondary Indicators table means that the state does not offer students the opportunity to earn both a high school diploma and other credential (e.g., a skill certificate) or that the data was not otherwise provided by the state. A blue bar in the Postsecondary Indicators table indicates that the state did not provide data.

The data for 2004-2005 was taken from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998, Report to Congress on State Performance, Program Year 2004-05, Washington, D.C., 2007.

Last updated on 02/20/2008