The Texas Education Agency website contains a wealth of information related to public education in Texas. The following are a few navigation tips.

TEA Home Page

TEA's home page features agency news updates and links to popular topics and divisions. As you browse the website, you will notice that the navigation menus on the top of the page remain constant. Use the Search Tool in the upper right corner to search for information by key words. The CTE hompage is listed under Academics/College, Career and Military Preparation. If you find yourself in unfamiliar territory, simply click on the TEA logo to return to the main page or click on the A-Z index to find links to specific topics.

As you learned in Lesson 2, Career and Technical Education staff within Texas Education Agency's College, Career and Military Preparation Department provide assistance to individuals and entities across the state to ensure that Texas has the highest quality Career and Technical Education programs possible. They work directly with school districts, state CTSOs and ESCs to clarify state rules and regulations. TEA's Career and Technical Education staff also work with school districts to negotiate Perkins allocations. You will find a list of TEA's CTE staff with their contact information on the Career and Technical Education page on TEA's website.

The CTE Division of the Texas Education Agency has developed an online Open Educational Resources (OER) site to serve as central portal for CTE resources, including curriculum, instructional materials, and professional development.  

On this site, there are thousands of resources for CTE professional development, instructional materials, and program information. Teachers will find an abundance of additional resources and support to help them create success in their classrooms.  Professional development opportunities even allow participants to earn CPE credit.

With the multiple search options available, resources can be found quickly and easily.  Teachers, counselors and administrators will all find valuable information on this site. 

   www.txcte.org

Project Lead The Way, Inc., (PLTW^®) is a national nonprofit organization that was established to help schools give students the knowledge they need to excel in high-tech fields. Texas became a Project Lead the Way^® affiliate partner in 2001 through the University of Houston, Center for Technology Literacy. The PLTW^® National Affiliate Training Center transferred to The University of Texas at Tyler, Ingenuity Center in September 2005.

As the affiliate partner for Texas, The University of Texas at Tyler supports Project Lead the Way:

• providing professional development training to PLTW^® teachers;
• helping schools with the implementation process;
• conducting the PLTW^® high school certification visits; and
• serving as a general resource for schools and administrators with questions regarding Texas Project Lead The Way^®.

The Texas Education Agency recognizes and supports Project Lead The Way^® as a beneficial pre-engineering program for schools.

The Texas Education Agency contracts with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to offer professional development programs for new CTE teachers, counselors and administrators.

The following professional development opportunities are traditionally held at the beginning of each school year for educators who are new to Career and Technical Education or to CTE administration:

New Career and Technical Education Teacher Conference
An annual statewide conference held in Austin to provide new Career and Technical Education teachers with proven strategies and resources for success in the CTE classroom.

Career and Technical Education Leadership Academy
A nine-month professional development program for new Career and Technical Education administrators, directors, and counselors. Activities include two statewide conferences and an individual leadership project.

Cluster-specific professional development opportunities are offered by most CTE professional associations.

As you learned in Lesson 7, Career and Technical Education professional associations provide resources, professional development and advocacy for new and experienced CTE educators. Below are links to the CTE professional associations recognized by TEA.

CTAT Technology & Engineering Instructional Council

Advanced Technical Credit (ATC) is a statewide system of articulated courses that high school students can take to earn postsecondary credit. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) worked cooperatively to  develop a system of statewide procedures that streamline and standardize the articulation process for a variety of technical courses while reducing associated paperwork.

The articulation agreements for ATC courses occur at the state level rather than the local level. A statewide committee of secondary school and college representatives, with input from state staff, developed the ATC Standard Articulation Agreement and Statewide Articulation Guide. The ATC Leadership Committee continues to meet on a regular basis to review course offerings and alignment.

The ATC Program gives high school students a chance to receive credit at participating community colleges across Texas for successfully completing certain enhanced technical courses during high school. The statewide articulated courses and their equivalent college courses are listed in the ATC Course Crosswalk.

When used with a six-year Program of Study, the statewide articulation program enables students to complete an associate degree in less time, especially if students also take dual-credit or Advanced Placement academic courses while in high school.

For additional information about ATC courses, teacher requirements, and how to participate, visit the ATC Texas website at www.ATCTexas.org. The ATC Program is administered through a contract with the Texas Education Agency. ATC is funded though the use of State Leadership funds allocated under the Carl Perkins CTE Act.

Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the state government agency charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services in Texas to both employers and job seekers as well. TWC also provides information and services for youth to encourage career exploration, proactive career planning and life-long learning. One of TWC's most popular and eye-opening tools for students is Reality Check, an online planning tool that lets students find out how much money they will need to cover their living expenses and needs when they are on their own and which careers will best pay for those needs.

Labor Market and Career Information (LMCI) is a department of the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) that works in cooperation with the Texas Education Agency to improve the way Texans make career and educational decisions. LMCI provides useful and reliable information about careers, educational training options, and jobs. They also provide products for students, counselors, researchers, and job seekers in a variety of mediums, including books, brochures, videos, software and magazines. Popular tools for students and educators include:

	Career Investigation Electronic Tabloid
	Career Success Electronic Tabloid
	Texas Career Check

All CTE educators and counselors should be familiar with the O*NET Resource Center. O*NET stands for the Occupational Information Network. It is the nation's primary source of occupational information. The O*NET database contains information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. Information from this database forms the heart of O*NET OnLine, an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations. The database also provides the basis for O*NET's Career Exploration Tools, a set of valuable assessment instruments for workers and students looking to find or change careers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principle fact-finding agency for the federal government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. BLS is a unit of the U.S. Department of Labor. It is an excellent source for occupation and industry information.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook, which is revised every two years, includes the following information on hundreds of different types of jobs:

• Training and education needed
• Earnings
• Expected job prospects
• What workers do on the job
• Working conditions

The Occupational Handbook also includes the following information for dozens of industries:

• Occupations within the industry
• Training and advancement potential
• Earnings
• Expected job prospects
• Working conditions

Throughout this course you have encountered numerous abbreviations and acronyms. As a Texas educator, you probably are familiar with many of the terms already. However, if you are new to CTE, there might be some that are unfamiliar. Click here to find an online CTE glossary to help you quickly locate the meanings of CTE acronyms, terms, and phrases. The Texas Education Agency also provides a glossary of educational terms on its website.

And remember: When speaking or writing about Career and Technical Education to parents, business partners, and other community members avoid using acronyms and other educational terms that might be new to them. As educators, our goal is not to show how smart we are but to help others discover how smart they can be!