AchieveTexas College and Career Initiative is an education initiative designed to prepare students for a lifetime of success. It allows students to achieve excellence by preparing them for secondary and postsecondary opportunities, career preparation and advancement, meaningful work, and active citizenship.

AchieveTexas is designed to help students (and their parents) make wise education choices. It is based on the belief that the curricula of the 21st century should combine rigorous academics with relevant career education. When schools integrate academic and technical education, students can see the “usefulness” of what they are learning. The system also facilitates a seamless transition from secondary to postsecondary opportunities.

This initiative uses the National Career Clusters™ Framework, which is based upon sixteen federally defined career clusters (http://www.careertech.org), as the foundation for restructuring how schools arrange their instructional programs. A career cluster is a grouping of occupations and broad industries based on commonalities. The sixteen career clusters provide an organizing tool for schools, small learning communities, academies, and magnet schools. Programs of Study (POS) have been developed for each of the career clusters. The POS represent a recommended sequence of coursework based on a student’s interest and career goal.