State Profile For South Carolina

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

State Director

Dr. James Couch, Director
Office of Career & Technology Education, South Carolina Department of Education
1429 Senate Street/ 912A Rutledge Bldg.
Columbia, SC 29201

CTE Web Site(s) as Applicable

Secondary: http://www.ed.sc.gov/agency/standards-and-learning/career-and-technology-education/index.html

Mission

To develop an integrated learning system that enables students to be successful in a global economy.

CTE Statistics

Number of Public High Schools:	208
Number of Public High Schools Offering Solely (or primarily) CTE courses:	38
Number of Students in Public High Schools:	199,909
Number of Secondary Students Enrolled in CTE:	204,969
Number of Public Community Colleges:	16
Number of Students at Public Community Colleges:	75,628
Number of Postsecondary Students Enrolled in CTE:	64,832
Perkins Funds Received:	$20,637,674

*The number of students enrolled in CTE cover grades 7-12

CTE Governance Structure

Perkins Eligible Agency:	Department of Education
Agency Administering Secondary CTE:	Department of Education
Agency Administering Postsecondary CTE:	State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education
Programmatic Control For Secondary CTE:	The State Board of Education
Programmatic Control For Postsecondary CTE:	State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education.

CTE Funding

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

State Director Roles and Responsibilities

The State Director has the title of Director of Career and Technology Education. The Director is a career position that reports to the State Superintendent. The Director’s primary areas of responsibility are all secondary career technical education programs.

CTE Connections to Secondary Education and High School Reform

CTE plays a significant role in high school reform efforts. The South Carolina legislature passed the Education and Economic Development Act in 2005 which requires career clusters and majors for all high school students.

Implementation of Career Clusters

South Carolina believes that Career Clusters offer many benefits. They see Career Clusters as the basis for high school reform and a way to provide infrastructure for a seamless educational transition between all learner levels. South Carolina believes Career Clusters are a tool for career guidance, a method to improve the quality of CTE and a means to organize course sequences.
In order to effectively implement Career Clusters, South Carolina has passed legislation that supports Career Clusters. The state has also adopted a strategic vision paper that supports Career Clusters and integrated them into the state plan. In addition, South Carolina has sponsored pilot sites to support the direct implementation of Career Clusters.
Several delivery methods are being used to implement and deliver Career Clusters, including career academies, Charter Schools, High Schools That Work, high school reform efforts and Tech Prep.

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 07/01/2008