LSI Leading Florida Department of Education Career and Technical Education Project

Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida State’s Learning Systems Institute (LSI) is leading the integration of career and technical education (CTE) into Florida’s classrooms.

CTE programs prepare students for occupations important to Florida’s economic development and are geared toward middle school, high school, district technical college and Florida College System students throughout the state. LSI’s Florida Center for Research in STEM (FCR-STEM) has been working on CTE projects with the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) since 2023.

The CPALMS team at FCR-STEM is designing and migrating a complex process and a massive dataset to modern, efficient and usable tools and resources for all educators. By the end of the project, CPALMS will have a CTE application to help the state manage all the programs, courses and standards data, along with software tools and educational resources for teachers across the state.

“This project will lay the foundation to build support for students to explore CTE programs, careers, college degrees and much more,” said LSI Director and project PI Rabieh Razzouk. “At the same time, it will create a one-stop shop for CTE teachers across the state to access resources for teaching and learning.”

In just two years, educators have created more than 650 resources that integrate CTE benchmarks with general education benchmarks for CTE courses. Additionally, instructional resources were developed for programs that have high enrollment or lead to occupations or industries with high wages, high demand, or high growth. These resources underwent the CPALMS review process to ensure accurate content and research-based pedagogy.

“We are extremely proud of the quality and volume of the work done by our staff in such a short period,” said Razzouk. “Last year, we exceeded our resource development goal and created more CTE resources than were expected, and by the end of this project, we will have also exceeded all the goals we had and accomplished additional enhancements.”

Over the past year, the LSI team has worked with the FLDOE to enhance the CPALMS online platform for CTE. The platform serves the needs of students, parents, and educators by providing CTE information and vetted instructional resources. It enhances the system's efficiency in managing and sharing CTE-related information, making it easier for all users, especially students, to make informed decisions about their career choices and educational opportunities in Florida.

Among the enhancements made to the CTE tools were integrations of CTE courses, textbooks, and resources, a new tool to allow users to view Florida graduation requirements for a selected diploma pathway, downloadable reports for CTE programs and courses and a system to collect and consolidate public feedback for each CTE program and course to guide future revisions.

“The number of resources now available to Florida’s educators and students focusing on CTE is really astonishing,” said Razzouk. “I think what we are doing with the tools is going to be very impactful. Showing students and teachers career pathways, putting all the course frameworks online in an interactive system, transforming the CTE program and course review process to enable high-quality collaboration and rigorous programs that are well aligned to industry needs.”

The FCR-STEM staff has also conducted resource development workshops, training more than 200 Florida educators. The workshops were focused on integrating CTE and general education content. Educators have produced instructional resources that emphasize career connections, and these resources underwent iterative review and mentoring. They are now available on LSI’s CPALMS platform for all Florida educators to use.

LSI strives to lead the way in creating innovative educational solutions that seamlessly connect theory with practice. Through advanced research, we develop industry-leading methods and implementation strategies to enhance systematic learning at all levels and in all environments. For more than five decades, LSI has been committed to driving measurable improvements in the performance of both individuals and organizations.