In Texas, that shift has gained momentum over the past decade, fueled by rapid technological change, persistent workforce shortages, and a growing demand for more direct alignment between education outcomes and real-world labor market needs. At the center of that effort is a growing coalition of education and business leaders working to build what they describe as a statewide framework for career readiness—one designed to move Texas from “pockets of excellence” to a consistent standard of excellence across regions, district sizes, and economic sectors. A COALITION FORMED TO CLOSE THE READINESS GAP For Dr. Brian Woods, Deputy Executive Director of Advocacy for the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), the mission is personal. Before stepping into his current advocacy role, Woods spent decades in public education—including 11 years as superintendent of a large district in the San Antonio area. The question that kept surfacing, he says, was not whether students were graduating—but whether they were truly prepared. “We struggled to feel good about the fact that when students left us at 18, they crossed the stage, they got their diploma, that they were all ready for what their next step was,” he explains. “And I’m not alone in that.” That concern helped catalyze the formation of the Workforce Education Collaborative, a roughly 45-member group of educators and business leaders working side-by-side to develop a scalable, statewide approach to career preparation. The ambition is not to replace existing local programs—many of which are highly effective—but to build a framework that supports districts across the spectrum, from rural communities to fast-growth urban systems. BALANCING COLLEGE PREP AND CAREER PREP Texas has long wrestled with a fundamental policy question: how much weight should schools place on advanced academic pathways versus career preparation? According to Woods, the state has moved toward a better balance over the last decade, including improved funding for career and technical education—an important shift given that many workforce-aligned courses are more expensive to deliver. STILL, THE DEBATE IS FAR FROM SETTLED. “There’s been quite a push-pull in Texas about what skills students ought to have when they graduate,” Woods says. “That push-pull continues in our state, but I think within the last decade, we’ve really moved more towards the opportunity for career preparation.” 399 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 07, ISSUE 01 WORKFORCE EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF TEXAS
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