How do we ensure grades in Career and Technical Education truly reflect skill mastery, workplace readiness, and student growth? This session highlights how Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center and New Market Skills Center are transitioning from traditional grading to competency-based grading (CBG) systems designed to improve clarity, consistency, and equity across programs. Partnering with SREB, both centers defined shared employability skills, performance levels, and descriptors applicable across pathways while preserving flexibility for program-specific competencies. Through teacher leadership teams and full-staff collaboration, each center developed its own employability rubric, building shared ownership, stronger expectations, and alignment with industry standards. Participants will engage in an interactive learning experience that includes analyzing sample rubrics, participating in calibration conversations, and applying guiding questions to their own schools or districts. Attendees will leave with practical tools, implementation strategies, and a professional learning framework to support the transition to competency-based grading in their own CTE programs.
Bring your classroom to life through the Simulated Workplace Model. In this engaging session, learn how CTE programs are transforming instruction by embedding authentic workplace expectations, student leadership, and industry-aligned practices into everyday learning. Participants will explore practical implementation strategies, hear real classroom examples, and leave with tools to strengthen student engagement, expand equitable access to work-based learning experiences, and improve career readiness outcomes across programs.
