Due to the change of USBE’s competency-based systems and at the direction of USBE leadership, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Fine Arts teams were tasked with identifying natural alignments between CTE arts-based courses and the Fine Arts courses, endorsements, and core standards.
A multi-month alignment review identified significant overlap between the CTE arts-based standards and the Fine Art state core standards. Based on these findings, the following CTE courses may now grant Fine Arts Credit on a case-by-case basis, depending on student needs:
- Commercial Art 1/2/3
- Commercial Photo 1/2/3
- Digital Illustration, Digital Media 1/2/Advanced
- Digital Media Capstone
- Graphic Print Design 1/2/3
CTE educator requirements: to grant this credit, CTE educators must have a secondary license and one of the following CTE endorsements:
CTE endorsements will be updated on July 1, 2025. CTE will offer different options to fulfill the requirements for the Associate Level of each endorsement. Fine arts teachers cannot be scheduled to teach these courses until they have the appropriate endorsements.
Resulting changes for students: this change provides our students with greater flexibility in fulfilling their
graduation requirements and allows them to explore their interests in both Fine Arts and Career and Technical Education – for these courses, credit can be granted depending on the student’s needs.
No other CTE courses are eligible for Fine Arts graduation credit.
Questions? Laura deShazo, CTE Director
