Administrators this month accepted a Pacesetter Award at SREB’s Making Schools Work Conference.

GRAPEVINE, Texas | The Southern Regional Education Board this month named Lehigh Career & Technical Institute the winner of a 2022 Gene Bottoms Pacesetter School Award.

The school was honored on July 19, 2022 at SREB’s Making Schools Work Conference in Grapevine, Texas. Pacesetter School Awards recognize schools that are implementing one of SREB’s Making Schools Work school improvement frameworks and are achieving success in meeting bold goals related to graduation rates, readiness for college and careers, and credential attainment.

LCTI implements Technology Centers That Work, SREB’s school improvement design for technology centers. LCTI administrators believe that student achievement is realized through a strong curriculum, sound instructional practices and connections with business and industry. The institute has addressed these factors by evaluating its curriculum, offering professional development on instructional integration and adopting learning management systems that support quality instruction.

An internal audit highlighted a need to improve the school’s process for reviewing and aligning its curriculum. LCTI used SREB’s TCTW design to develop a revised curriculum framework that modernized its approach to competency-based education and increased opportunities to integrate career and technical education with academic content.

LCTI’s curriculum and instruction teams streamlined curricula into one framework model for both academic and CTE courses. Teachers also aligned their curriculum with industry certifications, digital badges or micro-credentials, and postsecondary courses of study to increase opportunities for students to earn dual enrollment and articulated credits.

LCTI also transitioned to a new platform to manage curriculum, instructional materials, learning activities and assessments, course and standard alignment and task tracking. This created equitable access to materials for all teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the 2020-21 school year, LCTI students earned 1,022 industry certifications. Students also benefit from a new flexibly scheduled cooperative education capstone program that allowed students to work during the pandemic, gain work-based educational experiences or earn apprenticeship hours.

SREB’s Making Schools Work Conference is held annually and provides educators with opportunities to participate in professional development, network with colleagues from across the country and build school and district leadership capacity.

The Southern Regional Education Board works with states and educators to improve education at every level, from early childhood through postsecondary education. Learn more about SREB at sreb.org. SREB media contact: Alan.Richard@SREB.org, (404) 879-5528.

Media Contact: Precious Petty, Public Relations Coordinator, 610-799-1450, pettyp@lcti.org