Office of Career & Technical Education - SD Department of Education

South Dakota’s Crosswalk Project is a process for improving and enhancing the technical and academic content of career and technical education programs. The Crosswalk Project is designed to improve career and technical programs and to help the state and local programs meet Perkins III accountability requirements. The main components of the Crosswalk Process are contained in the project’s four pillars:

career and technical education program standards development or updating;
crosswalk matrices in mathematics, language arts, science and transferable work skills (SCANS);
core course standards; and
standards-based course syllabi including projects, scenarios, case studies, inquiry-based assignments and assessment/evaluation plans.

Through the Crosswalk Project, career and technical education programs identify program standards, competencies and skills that align with national and/or state-accepted standards for the program.

The next step of the project identifies where mathematics, language arts, science and transferable work skills (SCANS) are taught, enhanced and reinforced within career and technical education programs and courses. The Crosswalk Project helps teachers ensure that career and technical students are taught the same challenging academic content as all other students.

The Division uses the Crosswalk Project as a tool to monitor the level of technical and academic content in career and technical courses. To be eligible for Perkins III funding and state program approval, career and technical education programs must complete the Crosswalk Project and demonstrate that they meet the core course standards.

The Crosswalk Project is integrated into the Program Improvement Process (PIP). In the PIP Self-Assessment, career and technical education programs describe how they use the Crosswalk to develop and improve curriculum by upgrading technical, academic and work skill competencies.

Program representatives from the Office of Career and Technical Education (DWCP) review the standards-based course syllabi during the PIP to ensure that they are current. As part of the PIP, technical review committees also examine syllabi to determine if standards and competencies need to be upgraded and updated.