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NEASC Committee on Technical and Career Institutions

NEASC Committee on Technical and Career Institutions

Welcome!

The NEASC Committee on Technical and Career Institutions, a subgroup of the NEASC Commission on Public Schools, accredits a wide range of comprehensive technical high schools and career centers throughout New England. Career and Technical Education (CTE) in New England is delivered through a variety of models, including but not limited to: comprehensive technical high schools, technical career centers, vocational and agricultural high schools, agricultural high schools, Job Corps Centers, and vocational aquaculture centers. A common pedagogy unites all CTE approaches: a belief that students are most engaged when teaching is personalized, inquiry-based, applied to real world situations, and problem/project-based.  A key feature of CTE is on-the-job experiential learning. CTE programs are STEAM based (science, technology, engineering, arts, math), aligned with career pathways, and combine rigorous academic and technical curriculums that lead students to earn stackable credentials, licensure, and hours toward state apprenticeships.

Working in CTE is a lot of fun because of the variety of programs offered and the high level of student engagement and enthusiasm about their chosen fields. Kids are out and about applying their academic and technical skills and concepts in the real world. I’m fortunate to work with schools and centers on their improvement plans and always eager to share the students’ accomplishments.

Bruce Sievers, Associate Director for Accreditation and School Improvement
The CTCI Story

In 1968, the then Executive Committee of NEASC appointed an ad hoc committee to survey vocational, technical education in the six New England states to determine if the need existed for an accreditation process to serve that community of institutions. Following an intensive two-year study, the ad hoc committee in 1970 recommended to the Executive Committee that a Commission on Vocational, Technical Institutions be created. 

The Executive Committee favorably acted upon the recommendation, and the Commission was established effective December 2, 1970. The Executive Committee, in consultation with the ad hoc committee and the [former] Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, determined that the purview of the new Commission would be secondary (9-12 and 9-PG) and postsecondary institutions (non-degree and associate degree). The name of the Commission was officially changed to add the word "Career" on December 7, 1975. A further name change was approved in 1992 when it became the Commission on Technical and Career Institutions. In 1994, the Commission was granted baccalaureate degree jurisdiction for institutions that offer a baccalaureate degree and whose mission remains career and technical in nature. In 2002 it was determined that all degree granting postsecondary institutions would move to the [former] Commission on Institutions of Higher Education over a five-year transition period. That process was completed in December 2008.