The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) recently announced that 32 school districts across the state have been awarded funds from the Perkins Reserve Grant (PRG) to support career and technical education (CTE) for the 2023-24 school year.
Today, we're excited to announce $2.6M in 2023-24 Perkins Reserve Grants have been awarded to 32 districts to support innovative CTE expansion across Tennessee. Read more here: https://t.co/od4oBSMHv9 pic.twitter.com/5tKys0yded
— TN Dept of Education (@TNedu) July 3, 2023
Tennessee’s CTE consists of “16 nationally recognized career clusters with the ultimate goal of preparing students for success at the postsecondary level and in their chosen careers.”
The distributed grant funds ranged from $50,000-$200,000, totaling $2,606,450.
The PRG is a competitive grant opportunity through the state for “fostering local innovation through the identification and promotion of CTE, and to support implementation of programs and career pathways aligned with regionally identified high-skill, high-wage, and/or in-demand occupations or industries.”
The funded school districts this year submitted grant applications for secondary and/or regional career pathways that included “action steps to support the department’s strategic initiative, Innovative School Models, by aligning at least one of the innovative practice areas: time, space, modes of learning, and partnerships,” according to TDOE.
The regional career pathways applications, TDOE notes, also included an area-focused secondary and postsecondary or workforce partnership.
Five school districts were awarded the top amount of $200,000 in the Regional Career Pathway category: Bristol City Schools, Cannon County Schools, Cumberland County Schools, McNairy County Schools, and Polk County Schools.
The grant program, according to the state’s education department, is designed to serve local education agencies (LEAs) and postsecondary institutions in rural areas.
“In Tennessee, the PRG opportunity will leverage funding to support CTE programs, practices, and strategies which prepare individuals from traditionally underrepresented student groups, including those individuals who are economically disadvantaged, and those geographic areas which are identified as economically distressed or at-risk, for high-skill, high-wage, and/or in-demand occupations,” TDOE explains.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Technical School” by Mikhail Nilov.
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