Tag: USBE

Say the phrase, “Clusters, Pathways, Concentrators, and Completers,” and your students will look at you with a sort of dazed look. The words mean nothing to them. And yet, if they understand the meaning of this phrase, it can give them a powerful tool to take charge of their education throughout high school. The objectives for this lesson, based on the Utah State standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Exploration are as follows:

• I can identify the 6 Family and Consumer Science career pathways and the associated clusters. (Strand 1)
• I can define the difference between career pathways and career clusters and how they are related. (Strand 1, Standard 1)
• I can define a CTE pathway concentrator and a CTE pathway completer. (Strand 1, Standard 1)

There could be multiple ways to introduce the vocabulary and meet the standards for this lesson, but I find that it is most meaningful to personalize, which means going a little beyond the standards. To start, I explain clusters and pathways. I talk about how clusters are groups of things that go together, just like all the cereals go on the same aisle at the grocery store, even though Grape Nuts and Cap’n Crunch are quite different. For CTE, clusters are groups of jobs or fields that go together, even though they may not seem closely connected.

Then we go to the Utah Clusters and Pathways page so the students can see what I’m talking about. Here’s the link for the USBE website: https://www.schools.utah.gov/cte/pathways

Once students are on the USBE website, it’s important to click on the current school year. Otherwise, they won’t be able to find the information they need. This is January 2022, so the correct school year to pick for this year would be 2021-2022.

After clicking on the correct school year, students will find the “Utah CTE Career Pathways” page. Below is a screen shot of the current year page for illustration, but when you are on the current year page on the actual website, each line is a live link. All the headings in blue are clusters. The pathways are listed in black.

I ask the students to find a pathway they are interested in, and invariably, I have students ask why there is no pathway for pro football. I have learned not to argue about whether they are going to become pro football players. Instead, I point out that this list is a list of career and technical pathways, and they can all choose a pathway from this list, even though their pathway may not be connected to sports. For those who tell me they want to be famous game designers or famous YouTubers, I point out the Broadcasting and Digital Media pathway. Just about every student can find a pathway they are interested in, and from there we can look at the classes in their pathways and learn about concentrators and completers.

Pathways represent lists of courses available in high school for students interested in that field. Generally, concentrators complete 1.5 high school credits in the pathway, and completers finish 3 credits. To find out for certain how to become a concentrator or a completer in a given pathway, students click on the pathway. A page will appear that shows all high-school classes in the pathway and gives specific requirements for concentrator or completer status in that pathway.

What’s the advantage of becoming a completer? Students who complete a pathway get a special cord to wear with their robes at graduation. But more importantly, students who complete a pathway can include their completion status in their resumes. There are some businesses that will hire completers straight out of high school. In fact, some career and technical fields have such high demand that companies will not only hire completers in entry-level positions but will also help pay for college so that students can move up into positions with higher demand and responsibility.

Now that students understand clusters, pathways, concentrators, and completers, the fun part begins. I tell students how much I love Disneyland.

That sounds like it’s way off topic, but there’s a purpose behind it. I absolutely love Disneyland, but I suffer from motion sickness and rides make me sick. What I love in the “Happiest Place on Earth” is the set design—the Imagineering that turns an ordinary spot of ground into a whole new world—that makes something so banal as garbage cans disappear into the background and brings the textures, smells, sights, and sounds of distant and even imaginary places to the forefront.

My students relate to the idea of a favorite vacation spot, and they relate to the idea of having a souvenir that helps you remember something important to you. Once I’ve planted that idea into their minds, I ask them to make a souvenir, somehow connected to a theme park or a favorite vacation, and I ask them to put their pathway on their souvenir. They need to include the classes necessary to become a completer in their pathway. For each student, the chosen list of classes could be different, even if they choose the same pathway. I tell them that I hope they will use their creativity with their souvenir, and I hope they will keep it, so that as they register for 9^th, 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grades, they can let their counselor know what classes they need to take to finish their chosen pathway. We talk about course options in their high school and in our local technical colleges. Technical colleges, such as Davis Technical College, provide excellent opportunities during high school for moving forward with career and technical education.

My students make all kinds of souvenirs—maps, signs, menus, t-shirt and mug designs, stuffed-animal and bobble-head doll designs. I even got an impressive song! With permission from the student who created it, I’ll include the song here, along with some of the other fun souvenirs I’ve seen.