Illinois - Illinois ACTE is gearing up for its 94th Annual Illinois Association of Career and Technical Education Conference on Feb. 15–16, 2024 held at the President Abraham Lincoln — a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and BOS Conference Center in Springfield, Illinois. This year’s conference theme is Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce Today. The upcoming conference will have so much to offer from featured speakers, breakout sessions for each of the CTE-related disciplines and more, vendors showcasing the latest curriculum and equipment, delicious catered meals, and a networking session along with multiple networking opportunities. Last year, over 400 CTE professionals attended the conference! This year’s conference is focused on highlighting excellence in CTE and making connections. In place of a keynote speaker during our luncheons, we will host our Annual Awards Ceremony and allow opportunities for attendees to network with their colleagues and connect with IACTE affiliates.

After many years of extraordinary service and dedication, Cindy Stover has retired as the executive director of IACTE. Cindy’s passion for CTE helped steer the organization through several changes and has prepared it for success and growth for years to come. While we are thankful for Cindy’s service, we are equally excited to welcome our new executive director, Dr. Chris Merrill. Merrill is a long-time CTE educator and works with Illinois State University to prepare the next generation of CTE educators. Merrill brings a new perspective to the role and is prepared to help shepherd IACTE to a new and exciting future.

Indiana - Indiana just completed the pre-conference New and Newer Teacher Workshop and Indiana ACTE Fall Conference. Over 400 attendees engaged in over 50 breakout sessions and a huge vendor fair. Steve DeWitt attended representing ACTE. Indiana ACTE is gearing up for the Fall Session of the state legislature and awaiting the bills that may impact Indiana CTE. In coordination with the CTSOs and CTE Month^®, the association is planning a State Policy Seminar in February 2024. Planning is also underway for the Region III Conference hosted in Indiana this year on June 12–14 at the downtown Crowne Plaza Hotel in beautiful Indianapolis. Mark your calendars and look forward to more information in the coming months.

Iowa – Iowa ACTE had 149 registered attendees at the Iowa ACTE Best Practices Conference on Sept. 19 at the FFA Enrichment Center adjoining the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), Ankeny Campus, in Ankeny, Iowa. Other upcoming professional learning events include the Iowa School Counselors Association (ISCA) Conference on Nov. 6–7, the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) conference on Nov. 15–16, and ACTE’s National Policy Seminar in Arlington, VA on March 17–20, 2024. Association leaders hope to take a CTSO student and an advisor from each of the groups up for rotation this year: FCS, Ag, Industrial Tech, and Health Sciences. In other news, Iowa has 69 nominations for the CTE Component Presidential Scholar this year. Iowa has had under 20 in past years.

Missouri – Missouri State University will be hosting a CTE Educator Day to encourage more individuals to become CTE teachers. Missouri had another Grand Prize winner of the Harbor Freight Tools For Schools Teaching Excellence award, as MVATA (Agriculture Education division) president-elect Rylyn Small received the $100,000 prize for him and his school. The annual MCCTA/MOASSP fall conference was held recently. This conference is a partnership between CTE administrators and secondary school administrators. The MoACTE Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for Oct. 16 in Jefferson City, Missouri. Members are also looking forward to the annual legislative day in February 2024.

Minnesota - On Sept. 17–18, over 85 new teachers gathered in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for the second annual Career and Technical Educators Teacher Induction Program (CTE TIP). Our newest CTE educators were offered access to a wealth of professional development on topics including; Foundations of CTE, Pedagogy and Teaching Methods, Classroom Management, Licensing Information, and Building Relationships with Partners. New teachers were also introduced to their MDE content specialist, assigned a content mentor, as well as meeting nearly 25 strategic partners. The conference was just the start of the yearlong CTE TIP program, which hopes to train and retain our talented CTE educators. It has been a very successful program with great teacher retention.

This year, Minnesota has decided not to have a statewide CTE conference. Instead focusing on regional conferences and a state conference for Perkins leaders. The southern region of the state will be holding its daylong gathering on Oct. 27, while the Perkins leaders will be gathering on Oct. 30–31. Many updates will be reviewed including the development of the new four-year state plan and overhauls to the systems and processes to make them more clear and effective.

Finally, the third year of the Minnesota fellowship is underway. It has grown from 10 participants in the initial year to 15 last year to 20 this program year. We intended to cap registration at 15 but the demand was too great. What a problem to have. The MACTA CTE Policy & Leadership Fellowship is a year-long leadership program focusing on state and federal education policy through the lens of career and technical education. The 2023–2024 academic year will be the third year of the fellowship. The goal of the fellowship is to build long-term capacity planning across Minnesota for CTE leaders who have a greater understanding of CTE policy and how to navigate the structures of state and federal government. A secondary goal is to have a broader network of highly knowledgeable CTE champions across the state to ensure a strong career and technical educational foundation, a strong workforce, and a strong voice well into the future.