We know it is a big decision for a parent to consider letting their student apply for a Career & Technical Education (CTE) program at one of our Advanced Career Education (ACE) Centers. With 30 different programs that cover over 100 different career fields a parent can have a lot to think about. ACE is for students preparing for college and readying themselves for work before college, during their college years, once they have finished college and even those looking to enter the world of work after high school. ACE Centers are ready to prepare all their students to be college and career ready. Henrico ACE Centers work because our results have proven that our students, compared to students who have not participated in an CTE/ACE Center program, are better prepared to enter college and better prepared to start their careers. Here’s some information every parent should know.

• CTE reduces dropout and increases on-time graduation, particularly CTE courses taken in 11th and 12th grades. (Gottfried and Plasman, “Linking the Timing of CTE Coursetaking With High School Dropout and College-going Behavior,” American Educational Research Journal, 2017)
• The more students participate in career and technical student organizations, the higher their academic motivation, academic engagement, grades, career self-efficacy, college aspirations and employability skills. (Alfeld et al., Looking Inside the Black Box: The Value Added by Career and Technical Student Organizations to Students’ High School Experience, National Research Center for CTE, 2007)
• Students attending CTE high schools have demonstrated higher rates of on-time graduation and credit accumulation and a greater likelihood of successfully finishing a college preparatory mathematics sequence. (Neild et al., The Academic Impacts of Career and Technical Schools: A Case Study of a Large Urban School District, 2013)
• Eighty percent of students taking a college preparatory academic curriculum with rigorous CTE met college and career readiness goals, compared to only 63 percent of students taking the same academic core who did not experience rigorous CTE. (Southern Regional Education Board, High Schools That Work 2012 Assessment)
• CTE students were significantly more likely than their non-CTE counterparts to report developing problem solving, project completion, research, math, college application, work-related, communication, time management and critical-thinking skills during high school. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has identified employer demand for many of these skills. (Lekes et al., CTE Pathway Programs, Academic Performance and the Transition to College and Career, National Research Center for CTE, 2007; SHRM and WSJ.com/Careers, Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Workforce, 2008)
• The average high school graduation rate in 2012 for CTE concentrators was 93 percent, compared to the national adjusted cohort graduation rate of 80 percent. (Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education data; Civic Enterprises et al., Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic: Annual Update, 2014)
• Work-based learning helps students apply and extend classroom learning, gain motivation and understanding, explore careers and develop critical understanding of the work environment. (Alfeld et al., Work-Based Learning Opportunities for High School Students, National Research Center for CTE, 2013)
• Students who take advanced CTE courses in high school see higher earnings, including a 3.2 percent wage increase for CTE concentrators. (Kreisman and Stange, Vocational and Career Tech Education in American High Schools: The Value of Depth Over Breadth, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017)

An ACE Center program is not much different than an elective class your student may have already taken in middle or high school. If your student took a computer, marketing, business, or any one of our over 100 other CTE elective classes then the only difference is instead of that program lasting one class period an ACE Center program lasts three periods. That allows for a more in-depth education in that subject. All our ACE Center programs offer either college credits, industry certifications or state licenses. The programs are also located in one of two ACE Centers where each class has a large working lab for hands on education in each of our subjects. All transportation is provided to one of our ACE Centers from your student’s home school including their return. Class time is during the regular school day and your students’ traditional academics, band, sports and other activities will still occur at their home school. Your student’s future is too important to not consider all their options. Consider ACE. If you have more questions please feel free to explore our website and even contact us so we can help you to decide if an ACE Center program is right for your student.