The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents approved the merger of the Office of the State Director for Career and Technical Education (OSDCTE) with Hawaiʻi P–20 Partnerships for Education. The change was effective July 1, 2021.
Under this merger, Hawaiʻi P–20 will provide overall management and direction of the OSDCTE’s Perkins V grant as well as provide leadership, direction, and coordination for all career and technical education in the state. Hawaiʻi P–20 will also continue to provide strategic direction for the statewide career pathways work, which has evolved to have the same mission, goals, partnerships, stakeholders, and much of the same accountability as OSDCTE.
“Merging the Hawaiʻi CTE Office with Hawaiʻi P–20 is an effective solution to create synergy and clarity for the education ecosystem in Hawaiʻi”, said David Lassner, president, UH System. “Hawaiʻi P–20 has been successful in facilitating collaboration, managing large grants, strengthening pathways and effecting change, they are clearly ready to help us innovate, scale and sustain our career pathway programs across the state.”
“We’re excited to have the OSDCTE join our Hawaiʻi P–20 team as we work with our partners across the State to develop high‐quality career pathways,” said Stephen Schatz, executive director, Hawaiʻi P–20. “This merger allows us to focus on ensuring that our efforts are coordinated and aligned to prepare our students for in‐demand careers with living-wage jobs- in Hawaiʻi”
This reorganization brings together the work of OSDCTE with Hawaiʻi P–20 for the purpose of enhancing cohesive communication and collaboration among state- and local-level secondary, postsecondary, and business and industry partners to promote a true statewide career pathways vision. It will also utilize Hawaiʻi P–20’s capacity for data use through its management of the Hawaiʻi Data eXchange partnership to monitor, evaluate and provide analysis to CTE stakeholders regarding implementation progress, effectiveness of improvement efforts, and quality of the CTE system and programs from the perspective of graduates and employers.
“The evaluation and analysis of our CTE programs will help to ensure that students are effectively building the skills they need, and accessing the experiences they need to prepare for successful careers in high-skill, high-wage, in-demand emerging sectors in our economy,” said Keith Hayashi, interim superintendent, Hawaiʻi State Department of Education. “This insight will be extremely valuable as our schools continue to focus on and evolve college and career readiness efforts.”
Currently more than 26,000 Hawaiʻi public high school students participate in CTE programs statewide.
