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Business and Marketing FAQ
This document is intended to provide answers to some frequently asked questions regarding business and marketing education. If you have any additional questions or need clarification on any of this content, please contact the associate for business and marketing education.
General Questions
Business and marketing education is the teaching of general business and professional skills to allow all students to be ready to be successful in the 21st century workplace. This includes, but is not limited to, instruction in the career clusters of business management and administration, finance, and marketing.
Business and marketing education teaches the skills and competencies that prepare all students for future success in college, careers, and civic activities regardless of their chosen profession. Business courses teach important skills such as personal management, career development, financial literacy, consumer skills, entrepreneurship, and professional communication skills. Nearly one in five college students major in business and in all jobs, there is a business function. Understanding that business function is essential to career mobility and flexibility.
Please view the standards page for business education.
New York is not a curriculum state. As such, there is no set curriculum for business and marketing education in New York. It is a local decision as to which resources and/or curricula are used in order to deliver various business education courses. Please contact the associate for business and marketing education if you have any questions or would like additional guidance.
Yes. CTE (career and technical education) is defined in section 100.1 of Commissioner’s Regulations as agricultural education, business and marketing education, family and consumer science education, health sciences education, technical education, technology education, and trade/industrial education.
Yes. The professional association for business teachers in New York is the Business Teachers’ Association of New York State (BTANYS). In addition, there are several regional business teacher organizations as well.
Meeting Graduation Requirements
Certain career and technical education courses (referred to as interdisciplinary specialized courses) can, with local approval, be used to count for academic credit as long as the Regents requirement has been met. In the case of a math course, an interdisciplinary specialized course (such as accounting or business math) can only count as a third or fourth unit of math. Section 100.5(b)(7)(iv) of Commissioner's Regulations allows for this.
It is a local decision as to whether or not a course can count for math credit with the above regulations. In order to justify that a course meets “commencement-level standards as established by the commissioner”, you must be able to demonstrate that at least one unit’s worth of commencement-level standards in mathematics is met in the course.
There is a course code for business economics which can be used, at local discretion, to count for the high school half-unit of economics requirement. This is allowed by section 100.5(b)(7)(iv). In order for it to count for graduation credit, it must meet the social studies standards for economics.
New York no longer has specified course sequences that must be used in order to meet this requirement (100.5(b)(7)(v)(c )). Five units of any CTE course in any CTE area taught by a certified CTE teacher (agriculture, business, FACS, health science, technology, and trade/technical education) may be used. Most business courses will count, but courses taught out of primary certification may not count. Please contact the associate for business education with any school-specific questions.
No. Schools must provide opportunities to allow students to pursue a CTE program and/or sequence, but this may be done in any CTE area.
Yes. Option 1 requires that 216 hours (equivalent to two high school units) of career and technical education is required to taught by a certified CTE teacher. At least 54 of those hours must be work-based learning.
Teacher Certification
A business teacher may only coordinate the four registered work-based learning programs (CEIP, Co-op, GEWEP, and WECEP) if they hold the extension of work-based learning coordinator. Business certification alone does not allow someone to coordinate registered work-based learning programs. Two courses must be taken to obtain the extension. They are offered through Oswego State, Buffalo State, CUNY City College of Technology, and Hofstra University among other locations. In order to coordinate CEIP and Co-op, you must hold the extension of Coordinator of Work-Based Learning for Career Development. There is also an extension for Career Awareness that is designed for general education teachers and does not allow for coordination of CEIP or Co-op programs. Non-registered experiences such as job shadowing, school-based projects, community service/volunteering, and school-based enterprises do not need to be supervised by a certified coordinator, but it is recommended. More information can be found on the work-based learning home page.
No. The business education associate can assist you in understanding what some of the requirements mean, but the associate does not review teacher certification applications or set policy for teacher certification. Teacher certification questions are best answered by the Office of Teaching Initiatives.
No. A business teacher may only teach business courses in the business content area (accounting/finance, business administration and management, marketing, and related business computer systems courses). A business teacher may not teach courses in family and consumer sciences, technology, or any other content area unless the teacher holds certification in those areas.
Yes. In 2017, section 100.4(c) of Commissioner’s Regulations were amended to allow greater flexibility as to who can teach the middle level CTE requirement. Prior to the 2018-19 school year, the middle level requirement had to be fulfilled by 40 weeks of technology education and 30 weeks of family and consumer sciences. Instruction may start as early as grade 5 provided that the CTE teacher has proper certification or extension to teach fifth and sixth grade students (100.4(c)(3)). Beginning with the 2018-19 school year 100.4(c)(xii) was added to allow for any CTE teacher (defined as agriculture, business, family and consumer sciences, health sciences, technology, and trade and technical subjects) to teach the 1 ¾ unit requirement. More information and resources on the new middle-level CTE framework can be found at this link.
There are several colleges throughout New York State that offer teacher preparation programs in business and marketing education. You can also search the teacher certification requirements to determine which of the multiple pathways to teacher certification may be the best for you.
If you are unable to find a certified business teacher to fill a position, you are able to hire a person for what is called a Transitional A certification. This allows a person in a high need area (such as career and technical education) to work on their certification while they are teaching. The Transitional A certification lasts for three years at which point teachers must have met the requirements to apply for initial certification.
If you go to the teacher certification requirements lookup page, and search for, under area of interest “Career and Technical Teacher”, the subject will be “Business Management and Administration,” the grade will be adolescent 7-12, you will find a listing of multiple pathways that a prospective teacher can use in order to get Transitional A certification in CTE Business based on their educational background and experience. This will allow someone with business background or experience to get into the classroom.
CTE Program Approval
As of 2018, the process for approving CTE programs and assessments have been merged into one process. As such, there is no longer a state-approved list of technical assessments for business programs. Our office has compiled a list of exams that have been approved or are approvable for NYSED-approved CTE programs. If you are looking to use an exam that is not on the list, or have questions about any of the assessments, please contact the associate for business and marketing education.
Cut scores for NOCTI and Precision Exams by YouScience are posted on the NYSED CTE Home Page. For other exams, please contact the appropriate vendor directly.
Since the Virtual Enterprise test is a partner exam, meaning that NOCTI contracts with Virtual Enterprises to create the test, it does not appear on the New York cut score form. The cut score can be found at this link.
In order to get started, please check out the information located on the program approval page. If you have any questions, please contact the associate for business and marketing education.
Having a NYSED-approved CTE program allows students to obtain a technical endorsement on their diploma which recognizes achievement beyond attainment of a Regents diploma. A NYSED-approved CTE program also offers students a 4+1 pathway option graduation. Students who complete a NYSED-approved CTE program also help their school earn a higher score in the ESSA college, career, and civic readiness index.
A NYSED-approved CTE program needs to have at least one-half unit of Career and Financial Management content, three units of business content arranged in a sequence that increases in specificity, work-based learning, and the technical assessment. It is recommended that students have the option to take up to five units so that the requirements for an advanced regents diploma (replacing the LOTE requirement) can be met (100.5(7)(v)(c )).
New York does not have set sequences of courses that must be used for an approved CTE program of study. Schools are allowed to customize their programs as long as there is no-fewer than three content units in business (excluding Career and Financial Management). A program must contain no fewer than two units of courses clearly focused in the appropriate content area (example: a marketing program needs to have at least two units of marketing). Some suggested (non-regulatory) guidance can be found on the business and marketing education program approval page. Feel free to contact the associate in business and marketing education with any specific questions.
- Integrated course "An integrated career and technical education course shall mean a course that combines career and technical education and academic commencement level learning standards and may be jointly developed and taught by an academic subject teacher and/or a career and technical education teacher. Successful completion of one unit of study in an integrated career and technical education course may be awarded only one unit of credit but may be used to meet the distribution requirements in more than one subject. For students who have not successfully completed the Regents examination(s) in the academic subject areas, the course(s) must be taught by a teacher certified in that subject" (Commissioner's Regulations, Section 100.5).
- An integrated course would be a commencement-level academic course that is inherent for knowing the content of a program (example: learning physics as part of an electrical technology program).
- Specialized course: A specialized course is a course that meets the requirements of a unit of credit as defined in section 100.1(a) and the New York State commencement-level learning standards as established by the commissioner. A specialized course develops the subject in greater depth and/or breadth and/or may be interdisciplinary. For example: If math is not part of a commercial art program, a specialized course can be developed (e.g., Geometry for Artists) that can meet a third unit of math.
No. To clarify, as a rule, integrated and specialized credits are not required as part of a CTE-approved program. As a matter of fact, very few school districts (which we refer to as local education agencies or LEAs) offer integrated or specialized credits. Most BOCES CTE programs do so that 1. They can bolster the content of a program and 2. they can be used to satisfy some of the graduation requirements that may be difficult for a school to schedule with a student being out of the building for half a day. In a typical LEA structure of blocks or 40-minute periods, it is very difficult to truly integrate a full unit of non-CTE instruction within a program.
There are no specific parameters as to how many hours that would count as that is decided by the school. For NYSED-approved programs, our office highly recommends that students complete at least 54 hours of work-based learning experiences throughout their time enrolled. According to the Work-Based Learning Manual, a school-based enterprise (such as a school store) should have the following: It is highly recommended that all unregistered WBL experiences, such as job shadowing, community service/volunteering, career-focused research project, school-based enterprise, entrepreneurship, and community-based work program, include the following components:
- Certified teacher or guidance counselor with the proper WBL extension
- Advisory committee
- Appropriate worksite placement
- Supervised on-the-job training
- Related in-school instruction
- Coordination of in-school and worksite components
- Student training plan
- Emergency medical form
- Employer evaluation
- Copy of student working papers where appropriate
- Memorandum of agreement where appropriate
Records of hours worked and tasks performed should also be kept as part of both the work-based learning component of the program as well as the local portfolio component of the technical assessment. More information can be found in the work-based learning manual.