Leveraging Career Technical Education to Build Equity

What is equity? Who is leading the charge in shaping educational equity? How can I get involved in the movement for educational equity? The Equity Everywhere podcast answers these questions and more. Made for educators, this podcast will give you vital resources through conversations with equity leaders across the educational industry.

In this episode, Thom Jackson, President and Chief Executive Officer of EdisonLearning, chats with Alex Madrigal, the principal of C.G Bethel High School in Miami Dade County. Alex has been an educator for over 25 years and is in his 10th year at the helm of C.G Bethel. The partnership he has created with EdisonLearning has been extremely successful and brought a blended learning approach to a community that needed an equitable approach to education.

The conversation focuses on community-focused career technical education. Thom and Alex discuss the connection between CTE, community engagement, and equity. As the conversation shows, to create equitable career technical education opportunities, you must balance the needs you see in your community, student interest, and how you present career opportunities to both. “The first thing you have to do is gauge the community and what’s needed in the community. We have done extensive work in identifying the programs that would be assigned to our school. We also did inventory with our students. What are the likes and dislikes of our students? What is the intrinsic motivation our students have to pursue these certifications?” says Alex on how to start introducing CTE. Thom and Alex share stories of how students from certain socioeconomic backgrounds can find great career success using effective CTE programs with hands-on engagement from educators and community partnerships.

In their conversation, Thom and Alex bring to light solutions such as a full-time community engagement liaison, entrepreneurship, community partnerships with local business leaders, and leveraging the online resources through EdisonLearning to meet the needs of students to become gainfully employed in the modern job market.

Equity Everywhere is an eight-part series hosted by MindRocket Media Group and EdisonLearning President & CEO Thom Jackson. Joined weekly by a variety of K-12 practitioners and experts, they engage in critical, meaningful, comprehensive conversations about equity in education ― what are the key factors, variables, objectives, and considerations for the education system to acknowledge and address? Together, podcast participants will highlight, amplify, and refine best practices and solutions for ensuring education equity everywhere.

Learn more about EdisonLearning and its commitment to Equity Everywhere.

Listen to more episodes of Equity Everywhere on edCircuit.