Middle School Career and Technical Education

• Middle School 2023–2024 Grant Instructions
• Middle School CTE Experiences
• Life and Career Ready Standards — Middle School CTE Standards Crosswalk
• 2025 Fiscal Year Allotments
• Middle School CTE Standards (PDF)
• Middle School Enrollments by CTE Catchment

Title 20-A, §8301-A — Career and technical education: "Career and technical education" means a course or program of education designed to create or improve job-related skills that is part of a secondary school or middle school level curriculum and approved by the commissioner. A school administrative unit shall make career and technical education available to persons residing in the school administrative unit who are eligible to receive free public secondary and middle school level education. [2017, c. 171, §2 (AMD).]

§15672 — Middle School level: "Middle school level" means grade 6 to grade 8.

§15672 — Career & Technical Education Costs: "Career and technical education costs" means all costs incurred by CTE regions, centers, or satellites in providing approved programs, excluding transportation, capital costs, and debt service.

Each CTE school will partner with the sending middle schools in their catchment area and each middle school will participate in building the programs that serve them. The middle school catchment areas are determined by the same statute that governs the secondary CTE catchment areas found in Chapter 313 and State Board policy.

• Middle School Enrollments by CTE Catchment

Middle School CTE programs will be developed by the CTE center and region in collaboration with the middle schools in their catchment area. Programs will be flexible enough to accommodate the diversity of sending schools while following common, state-developed standards — enabling all students to participate in an equitable MS-CTE program.

Criteria for a MS-CTE program:

• CTE experience (not CTE promotion/recruitment), multiple program introduction, multi-hour introduction, and adherence to MS-CTE standards.
• Collaboration with CTE school and middle school per 20-A MRSA §15688-A, 8.
• Developmentally appropriate hands-on skill experience; safety training as needed; workplace skills and career exploration aligned to Life and Career Ready (LCR) standards; career pathway introduction; initial development of a career plan.
• More than a one-time experience — continuity increases participation and CTE selection; students need multiple exposures to make informed decisions.
• Multiple avenues of access — at the middle school, CTE school, and community.
• Flexible to serve all sending schools — models can differ per CTE school, per sending school, and per grade level.

Maine DOE has developed Middle School CTE standards with input from the field responsible for implementing them.

1. Career Experience (can be taught simultaneously):
   1. Technical Skill Experimentation (TSE) — applied learning and hands-on activities exploring career-related skills and interests.
   2. Safety Awareness (SA) — safety training to ensure objectives can be met safely.
   3. Career Workplace Skills (CWS) — exposure to workplace interpersonal and soft skills.
2. Career Discovery (can be taught simultaneously):
   1. Career Research (CR) — exploring the wide variety of career opportunities.
   2. Career Pathways (CP) — understanding the connection between educational programs and careers.

• Download Middle School CTE Standards (PDF)