Procedure for 2026 Equivalency Credit for Career and Technical Education Courses

Equivalency Credit For Career and Technical Education Courses Procedures

A. The Equivalency Committee

a. The Equivalency Committee will be responsible for evaluating and making decisions regarding course equivalencies for Career and Technical Education and core academic courses, and will be comprised of:

b. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning

c. Director of Career and Technical Education

d. A Building Administrator

e. High School Counselor

f. Content Specialist(s): Core Academic Teacher and Career & Technical Education Teacher (will vary according to content area)

B. The District Approved Equivalency List

a. Legislation passed in the 2014 session (E2SSB 6552) required the development of statewide course equivalencies in Mathematics and Science to enable districts to increase options for student choice in meeting graduation requirements. The Stanwood-Camano School District adopts these Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction CTE Course Frameworks and Course Equivalencies as approved by the Washington State Board of Education. Courses developed through this legislation and process need not to be approved through a local equivalency process or procedure.

b. The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) through its Equivalency Credit Toolkit, developed an implementation guide for local school districts. Within that document OSPI created a list of CTE courses that have been determined as having sufficient academic competencies to warrant the granting of core academic credit and are recommended for equivalency. The Stanwood-Camano School District will use this list in adopting its courses considered to be equivalent.

c. The Equivalency Committee will annually review and publish a district list of approved core academic and Career and Technical Education equivalencies, which may be used to satisfy Stanwood-Camano School District graduation requirements. This list will be published and made available to the high schools for inclusion in their course catalogs no later than February 15 of each school year.

d. Updates to the District Approved Equivalency list will be made in accordance with the Criteria and Procedures outlined below.

e. Deletions of course equivalencies from the equivalency list will apply only to the following year's freshman and sophomore students. Students who will be juniors and seniors the year following publishing of the deletions will be allowed to finish high school under previously published equivalencies.

f. Additions to the equivalency list will apply to all students for the following school year.

g. Beginning with the class of 2016, WAC-180-51-067 allows students who take CTE equivalent courses to satisfy two graduation requirements while earning one credit for a single course.

C. Criteria for Evaluating and Determining Course Equivalencies

The following criteria will be used to evaluate and determine course equivalencies for core

academic and Career and Technical Education courses:

a. Equivalency within a core academic area

i. Core academic areas include Visual and Performing Arts, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Health and Fitness

1. Visual Arts courses include and are not limited to sculpting, ceramics, glass, painting, calligraphy, drawing/sketching, photography, film, video, TV, animation, holography, graphic design, and printmaking.

2. Performing Arts courses include and are not limited to music, opera, dance, theatre, film, mime, comedy, puppets, and performed poetry.

3. Courses in economics, sociology, civics, political science, international relations, or related courses with an emphasis on current world problems may be accepted as equivalencies for contemporary world history, geography, and global issues.

ii. A course seeking equivalency with a core academic course must demonstrate alignment with the Washington State K-12 Learning Standards, Common Core State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards as adopted by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and taught and assessed within the core academic course for which the equivalency is sought.

iii. Alignment must be demonstrated through the Curriculum Map/Framework and Assessments of the course seeking the equivalency.

b. Equivalency within Career and Technical Education:

i. A course seeking equivalency with an approved Career and Technical Education course* must demonstrate alignment with the following:

1. Contextual application of Washington State K-12 Learning Standards, Common Core State Standards, and Next Generation Science Standards as adopted by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction within the approved Career and Technical Education course for which the equivalency is being sought.

2. Foundational and occupational industry skills taught and assessed within the approved Career and Technical Education course for which the equivalency is being sought.

3. CTE Core Leadership and Employability skills taught and assessed within the approved Career and Technical Education course for which the equivalency is being sought.

4. Depth of Career Exploration and Exposure within the approved Career and Technical Education course for which the equivalency is being sought.

*An approved Career and Technical Education course is one for which there is an existing CIP Code registered and approved with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Career and Technical Education office.

ii. Alignment must be demonstrated through the Curriculum Map/Framework and Assessments of the course seeking the equivalency.

D. Procedures and Timeline for Submitting an Initial Course Equivalency Request

a. Teacher(s) and department lead will submit the appropriate completed Equivalency Request Form from the OSPI Equivalency Toolkit along with their course Curriculum Framework, sample assessments, and other supporting documents to their building principal for signature and comments.

b. The building principal or CTE Director will submit the requests and required materials to the Equivalency Committee in either the fall or spring according to specified deadlines. The fall submission deadline is October 31st. The spring deadline is June 1st.

c. Teachers should submit their requests and required materials to their department heads and building principals at least one week prior to the specified deadlines to allow time for review prior to submission to the Equivalency Committee.

E. Procedures and Timeline for Evaluating Requests and Determining Course Equivalencies

a. The Equivalency Committee will convene during the month of November and the month of June to review submitted equivalency requests.

b. For all equivalency requests, the Equivalency Committee will:

i. Review the course curriculum framework to determine if required standards for equivalency from the appropriate Equivalency Request Form are evident throughout the course.

ii. Review the course assessments to determine if students are demonstrating the required standards for equivalency from the appropriate Equivalency Request Form.

c. The committee will make determinations on fall submissions by November 30th and June 30th for submissions made in the spring. The committee will make one of the following decisions during the Initial Evaluation regarding the equivalency request:

i. Meets Standard for Equivalency – the course meets the standards required for equivalency and will be listed as an equivalency in the course guide for the following school year.

ii. Does Not Meet Standard for Equivalency – the course does not adequately meet the standards required for equivalency. Feedback is given regarding gaps and areas that need to be addressed if an equivalency is to be requested again.

F. Procedures and Timeline for Resubmitting a denied Equivalency Request

a. If an equivalency request is denied upon initial review, a teacher may address identified gaps and resubmit their request for further review by the Equivalency Committee or resubmit it for the regularly scheduled biannual meeting of the committee– either October 31st or June 1st.

b. The resubmission of an equivalency request will follow the same procedural requirements as an initial equivalency request outlined in these procedures.

G. Highly Qualified Teacher status

a. Career and Technical Education teachers are not required to meet Elementary and Secondary Education Act Highly Qualified Status when teaching CTE courses. This is true even when those courses are considered equivalent to required academic subjects, so long as the following conditions are met:

i. The district provides required academic subject classes in addition to the CTE equivalency classes which can be used for the required academic credit; and,

ii. Students are not required to take the CTE equivalency class in order to receive credit in the required academic area.

CTE COURSE EQUIVALENCY PROCEDURES FLOWCHART

First enacted: 05.03.11

Stanwood-Camano School District

Revised: 05.05.16