Wylie ISD school board upgrades advanced CTE classes to honors

Lani Sneed, Abilene Reporter-News

The Wylie ISD School Board approved to upgrade select Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes to honors level status at their January 2024 meeting.

Wylie High School Principal Reagan Berry presented a proposal to make six higher-level CTE courses into honors courses with a weight of five points when calculating GPA.

Wylie ISD School District approved Jan. 8 to update six CTE classes to honors level courses with a weight of five points when calculating GPA. This decision follows district scores of CTE program involvement.
Wylie ISD School District approved Jan. 8 to update six CTE classes to honors level courses with a weight of five points when calculating GPA. This decision follows district scores of CTE program involvement.

According to the Texas Education Agency, CTE programs and courses are designed to offer a series of courses “aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers.”

The purpose of CTE programs encourages students to follow pathways to earn certifications in their field of study, gain technical skills and experience and prepare learners for college or other educational opportunities for career advancement.

Currently, Wylie ISD offers 10 programs of study in fields like agriculture, construction, business, education, health science, culinary arts, technology, engineering and transportation.

Berry stated the district's highly academic students have a record of dropping out of CTE pathways, hurting the district’s CTE assessment score and state funding for CTE programs.

“We’ve come across students dropping out of some of these programs as they get older because it starts to hurt their GPA,” Berry said. “Even if they made ‘100’ in a regular weighted class that can drag the GPA down because they're typically making ‘105’ and ‘110.’”

At the start of the school year, Berry and her team looked at the school’s available Level 3 and Level 4 CTE classes. Courses considered “rigorous” with advanced learning opportunities and had seen a significant drop in student enrollment were selected.

She presented six courses to the school board for consideration of becoming honors level classes.

  • Veterinary Medicine (Animal Science program)

  • Instructional Practice (Teaching and Training program)

  • Health Science Theory (Healthcare Therapeutic program)

  • Practicum in Health Science (Healthcare Therapeutic program)

  • Scientific Research and Design (Engineering program)

  • Securities and Investments (Accounting and Financial Services program)

The board approved this change, and the No Pass No Play exemption policy for honors classes will be implemented in the 2024-2025 school year.

Wylie High School offers 10 CTE programs of study in various career fields including arts, audio/video technology, health science, engineering and more. Through CTE courses, students can be hands-on in the classroom and have opportunities to learn technical skills. High school student Tim Hudson uses his knowledge of lighting equipment for the December 2023 musical.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Wylie ISD school board upgrades advanced CTE classes to honors

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