State Profile For Mississippi

Data sources used in this profile (PDF,177Kb)

State Director

Mr. Mike Mulvihill, Interim Associate Superintendent
Vocational Education and Workforce Development, Mississippi Department of Education
359 N. West St, P.O. Box 771
Jackson, MS 39205

CTE Web Site(s) as Applicable

Secondary: http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/vocational/OVTE/

Mission

The Office of Vocational Education and Workforce Development will continue to prepare students to meet the needs of the 21st century workplace by: enhancing the performance of local vocational teachers/administrators; maintaining partnerships with business/industry and legislators to improve economic development; assessing/upgrading quality and success in student skills; working “outside of the box” with innovative strategies to improve programs; and communicating accomplishments to the citizens of Mississippi.

CTE Statistics

Number of Public High Schools: 248
Number of Public High Schools Offering Solely (or primarily) CTE courses: 0
Number of Students in Public High Schools: 134,475
Number of Secondary Students Enrolled in CTE: 28,335
Number of Public Community Colleges: 17
Number of Students at Public Community Colleges: 66,298
Number of Postsecondary Students Enrolled in CTE: 19,513
Perkins Funds Received: $14,753,419

CTE Governance Structure

Perkins Eligible Agency: State Department of Education
Agency Administering Secondary CTE: State Department of Education
Agency Administering Postsecondary CTE: Mississippi Board for Community and Junior Colleges
Programmatic Control For Secondary CTE: State Board of Education
Programmatic Control For Postsecondary CTE: Community Junior College Board, The State Board of Education, a Board of Regents, a Labor/Workforce Board, and the Associate State Superintendent of Education

CTE Funding: Non-Perkins

Key: Increased Funding  Small_green_arrow_up    Decreased Funding   Small_red_arrow_down    Funding Maintained   Small_blue_arrow_both
State Secondary Funding: Small_red_arrow_down
State Postsecondary Funding: Small_red_arrow_down
Local Secondary Funding: Small_blue_arrow_both
Local Postsecondary Funding: Small_red_arrow_down

State Director Roles and Responsibilities

The State Director has the title of Associate Superintendent of Vocational Education & Workforce Development. The Director position is a career position that reports to the State Superintendent. The Director’s primary areas of responsibility are all career technical education programs in secondary schools, including student organizations and Tech Prep, and all postsecondary funds that flow through the State Director’s Board.

CTE Connections to Secondary Education and High School Reform

Career technical education plays a significant role in high school reform efforts. In Mississippi, the Office of Vocational and Technical Education is part of a pilot to “Redesign” selected schools, three of which are directly related to CTE. OVTE is also providing funds for teacher contracts that relate directly to the economic impact of the OVTE. Finally, OVTE is partnered with the Constitution Education Foundation to provide certification to constitute students and help place them in positions with employees. The State Director is a member of the state’s high school reform leadership team.

Implementation of Career Clusters

Mississippi believes Career Clusters will improve the quality of CTE and provide a tool which students can use for career guidance. In order to support the implementation of Career Clusters, the state has integrated Career Clusters into the state plan and benchmarked existing program standards against Career Clusters knowledge and skill statements. Currently, Mississippi is using High Schools That Work as a delivery method to support the implementation of Career Clusters.


After reviewing economic outlook data, data collected by the Mississippi Department of Employment Securities (MDES), and the national States’ Career Clusters, Mississippi developed seven career clusters. These clusters, aligned with the national 16 Career Clusters, are designed to expand options and opportunities for all students. The seven clusters include the following:

Implementation levels of programs of study