Equity in Career-Technical Education

A primary focus of the Ohio Perkins V State Plan is improving access, enrollment, engagement and performance for all students, with an intentional focus on students in special populations and subgroups. To support the educational community in ensuring students have meaningful access and are engaged in high-quality career-technical education programs, the Office of Career-Technical Education has made ensuring an equitable education for each student a priority.

Perkins V Special Populations

  • Students from economically disadvantaged families
  • Students with disabilities
  • Students preparing for nontraditional fields
  • English learners
  • Students experiencing homelessness
  • Youth who are in, or have aged out of, the foster care system
  • Youth with a parent in the armed forces and on active duty
  • Single parents, including single pregnant women
  • Out-of-workforce individuals (postsecondary only)

Equity for Each Competitive Grant Information & Application

The Office of Career-Technical Education uses the Perkins V reserve fund for the Equity for Each competitive grant. This competitive grant assists recipients and the Department in identifying and promoting promising practices for improving equity in career-technical education delivery for students in special population groups and subgroups. 

The grant prioritizes applications that:

  • emphasize collaboration between secondary and postsecondary schools, with,
  • employed strategies that focus promotion or expansion of programs of study aligned with state-identified high-skill, high-wage or in-demand occupations, and/or,
  • implement strategies to attract and retain culturally competent teachers and promote policies to ensure inclusion of program staff who reflect the diversity of the school or district.

Grants range from $25,000 to $200,000 and must be used towards improving data-identified “equity gaps” in local enrollment, engagement, performance and outcomes for students in special populations as defined in Perkins V legislation.

Awards from previous grants have been used towards:

  • establishing support positions for transitioning economically disadvantaged pathway students from secondary to postsecondary education. 
  • adding aide positions to support students with disabilities in career-technical education.
  • new support staff and equipment for increasing enrollment of students with disabilities into a workforce development pathway;
  • development of new supports and resources as a bridge to postsecondary education to increase engagement of English learner students;
  • establishing recruitment and enrollment supports to increase enrollment and participation from nontraditional students in an engineering pathway and industry-recognized credential program; and,
  • expansion of lab capacity and providing additional supports to increase enrollment of economically disadvantaged students into a health care pathway.

Recruiting Special Populations into CTE Toolkit

To achieve a more diverse career-technical landscape, students representing special population groups must have access to additional supports that could increase the enrollment and success in CTE programs. This toolkit supports the education community in implementing strategies that recruit and support special populations into programs that lead to high-wage, in-demand jobs. 

The Ohio Department of Education and Ohio Department of Higher Education are pleased to announce awards for the Equity for Each competitive grant for School Year 2024:

  • Polaris JVSD CTPD
  • Columbus City Schools - OTC Adult Education
  • Brookfield Local
  • Stow-Munroe Falls High School
  • Cincinnati Public Schools
  • Ashtabula County Technical and Career Center
  • West Branch Local
  • South-Western Career Academy
  • Horizon Science Academy
  • Washington County Career Center District
  • Northwestern Local

The awards were made available in the Continuous Comprehensive Improvement Plan (CCIP) the second week of July with the substantially approved date of July 1, 2023. Thank you to all schools that applied for funding.

Equity Ambassador Program

To support the educational community in ensuring all students have equitable access and meaningful engagement in high-quality career-technical education programs, the Ohio Department of Education, Office of Career-Technical Education is introducing the Equity Ambassador Program. Participants in the Equity Ambassador Program will collaborate with the state of Ohio in its commitment toward improving equity in career-technical education for special populations and subgroups. Equity Ambassadors will be provided access to professional development and invited to participate in equity activities facilitated by the Department. Equity Ambassadors will act as local equity experts for their Career-Technical Planning District.

2023 Equity Labs

The Ohio Career-Technical Education Equity Labs are an in-person workshop that aims to guide Perkins-recipients on a journey of continuous improvement through an equity lens. These six workshops take place regionally throughout the state of Ohio from November 15 - December 15, 2023.

The Office of Career-Technical Education will facilitate an all day Equity Lab workshop for Perkins recipient teams. In the morning, teams will be guided through a case-study scenario featuring a fictional secondary comprehensive district and one high school in the district. Teams will role-play stakeholder engagement meetings and do a deep-dive into using qualitative and quantitative data in efforts to uncover the root causes of disproportionalities. Teams will be guided to make a plan for the school to continuously improve by implementing equitable supports and removing barriers for all students to access career-technical education.

After lunch, teams will choose either a secondary Quality Program Review scenario or a Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment scenario. This will be followed by a team planning session.

Participants will be provided all needed tools, data, and materials. Districts and postsecondary institutions are asked to bring a team of 2-5 for full benefit of this workshop.

2022 Resources

2021 RESOURCES

2020 resources

Equitable Supports 

Articles for Deeper Reading

Last Modified: 3/18/2024 1:38:23 PM