Sherman ISD Building Bearcats Magazine October 2016 Inaugural Issue | Page 6

Sherman ISD Shines in Career and Tech Education CTE gives students access to rigorous, relevant skills, prepares students for a variety of job opportunities. Schools across the state are providing career and technical education (CTE) designed to prep students for a wide range of high-wage, high-skill, high-demand careers, but Sherman ISD has committed to taking its offerings one step further: putting students directly into those careers before they even graduate high school.   “In Sherman ISD, we work hand in hand with local employers and local workforce organizations to base our programs on local employment needs,” SISD Career & Technical Education Coordinator Todd Gruhn said. “Our programs are rigorous and challenging, and because of our partnerships, our local employers know that. Just coming out of our program helps our students rise to the top.” 6 SISD’s CTE program consists of rigorous coursework in more than a dozen career clusters, along with industry-standard certification offerings and Career & Technical Student Organizations. Students have opportunities in all clusters to do work-based or projectbased learning and showcase technical skills to the community. While CTE is common and required in high schools across the state, Sherman ISD has gone above and beyond to ensure students have access to resources, partners, and opportunities you don’t find everywhere. “The CTE program at SISD has certainly come a long way in the last year,” Texoma Workforce Solutions Director Janie Bates said. “We’ve developed a unique program that has several employers and Grayson College at the table to help develop the curriculum.” Beyond providing students with a wealth of