February 07, 2025 – Want your high school student to have a prestigious education in a specialized field? Columbus City Schools' (CCS) very own Career Technical-Education (CTE) is an almost perfect 5-star program, according to the Ohio Career-Technical Planning District (CTPD) State Report Card.

Rocketing up from 3.5 to 4.5 stars this year, the CTE program is continuing to strive for excellence, while it continues to grow.

“CTE is valuable for students because they see the why of learning,” said Director of Career Technical-Education Jenny Meade. “Many times in classes students are disconnected. They don't understand when they are going to apply what they’ve learned in class.”

By providing real-world application, students not only learn the technical skill they are interested in, but they also learn how to apply other classroom skills.

Another perk? Students are meeting industry professionals through classes, facility tours, and career-technical student organizations. 

“As you can imagine, the application of learning happens pretty frequently and students  find it meaningful,” Meade said. “The graduation rate of any student who is a concentrator, meaning taking two courses or more, is significantly higher than any other student if they're not in a CTE program.”

According to the Ohio School Report Card, CCS had a 4-year graduation rate of 78.3% in 2024, while the CCS CTE program had a rate of 95.9%. 

“That data speaks for itself,” Meade said. “It really helps students graduate at a higher rate because they understand the why and the purpose of education.”

While taking CTE completer classes, students are also earning credit towards college.

“CTE is definitely moving in a different direction,” Meade said. “The theory of what CTE was years ago – was to graduate and go straight into the workforce. But the benefit now is it can do all kinds of things. You could go straight into the workforce, you could go straight to college, you could do both.”

It allows students more freedom to pursue their career in the best way that works for them upon graduating. That freedom is part of why more and more students are signing up for CTE.

So, how did the CTE program gain an entire star on the CTPD Report Card?

To start, they aligned their curriculum to the WebXam. According to the Ohio Department of Workforce Education the WebXam is a required career field pathway end-of-course test, and part of the report card is based on students successfully completing that test.

“We helped our teachers understand exactly what the exam looks like so they can be doing scenario-based activities in the classroom and really focusing on vocabulary,” Meade said. “I would say that was probably the biggest thing that we focused on that helped us make that movement.”

Meade states that there were a few other factors that led to 4.5 stars. 

• The amazing CTE staff who inspire students everyday and create an exceptional curriculum by bringing each program to life

• Staff was intentional about supports put in place for program growth

• CTE teachers came together on PD days to focus on creating a quality program

• Teachers were able to take the WebXam as a student and use that blueprint to align their curriculum and pacing 

To achieve a perfect 5-star rating in 2025, the CTE staff is focusing on the achievement category. 

“We need to focus on technical skill attainment and help students pass their WebXams and earn the 12-point credential of their field,” Meade said. “One of the things that we're doing with our advisory boards is creating more experiences that are aligned to the WebXam.”

For example, CCS students in construction and manufacturing pathways visited industry partners for Manufacturing Day. The students in the courses are currently working on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10 certification. At the industry partner’s facility, students learned OSHA 10 compliances that were easy at a manufacturing place and others that continually need to be reviewed and reminded about.

The hope is that these experiences will better help prepare students to pass the OSHA and the “Safety in the Workplace” section of the WebXam.

“Students not only will have learned about it, and have the OSHA 10, they'll see it live in different manufacturing places,” Meade said. “Then we also encourage them to walk their school facility to see what OSHA 10 looks like in our different buildings.”

Students interested in the 4.5 star CTE program have many opportunities to learn about it, such as the yearly CTE Showcase. Typically the showcase is only for students applying for CTE, but this year, it was open to students grades K-12 who can tour the schools and meet industry professionals.

“Maybe you have a fourth grader who wants to be a doctor,” Meade said. “Great! Come to the CTE showcase and your student will be able to talk with any of our industry partners who set up tables and have information.”

Another excellent way is to talk with someone who is in the program to see if it may be a good fit. 

Meade’s best advice? 

“I think sometimes we're so focused on what do you wanna do when you graduate? And the question really should be what do you like to do? And that is probably one of the most beneficial things. If you're a student thinking about CTE, the first question you could ask yourself is what do you like to do?”

To learn more about the CTE program visit our website.