Matthew Waynee’s classroom is alive.
Students squint and shift in their seats as they focus on crafting dynamic images on drawing tablets. They are learning on industry-standard tools used by professionals for 2D and 3D animation. The young artists add texture, lighting and shading. And soon, after weeks of working with animators at Nickelodeon and receiving direct feedback from experts in the field, the students will complete their capstone animation portfolios.
Waynee, who was recognized as ACTE’s 2026 Teacher of the Year, has taught animation and video production at Los Angeles Unified School District’s USC Media Arts and Engineering Magnet since 2013. Industry alignment has always been a pillar of his curriculum. But soon, Waynee began to realize that the standards he was using were out of touch with industry needs. And out of date.
The first set of California Arts, Media, and Entertainment Career and Technical Education standards were adopted in 2013. That was Waynee’s first year of teaching. A lot has changed since then.
Rapid advancements in technology and the content creator economy created a clear need for a standards rewrite. Waynee and teachers like him needed an industry-approved resource to prepare students for the evolving needs of the creative industries. A standards update is a huge undertaking, especially for a cluster so wide-ranging and fast-moving. But California was up to the challenge.
A Worthy Endeavor
A strong pipeline from public education to the creative industries has always been a priority in California. In 2025, the state’s creative economy employed more than 760,000 workers, accounting for about 5% of the state’s entire workforce. This is equivalent in size to California’s construction industry. Like construction, the creative economy is a foundational part of California’s economic landscape. An investment in creative pathway education makes sense in a state where these industries drive the state’s cultural identity, as well as its economy.
Allison Frenzel, career cluster lead for Arts, Entertainment and Design with the California Department of Education, first identified the need for a revision in 2021 and convened an industry advisory group of more than 180 industry partners, educators (including Matthew Waynee), and community organizations to review the existing standards and make changes. After two rounds of rewrites and thoughtful alignment with new apprenticeship initiatives, the California CTE Model Curriculum Standards for Arts, Entertainment and Design were adopted by the California Department of Education in November 2025.
The standards revision allowed California to align with the new National Career Clusters Framework developed by Advance CTE, noted Frenzel. AED pathways intersect now more than ever before — addressing the cross-cutting clusters present in the national framework.
“These new standards are designed to promote interdisciplinary learning and reinforce core concepts,” said Frenzel. “By encouraging students to draw connections between different fields, we’re supporting a more holistic and cohesive approach to CTE program design. It also gives educators a powerful tool for developing courses that can align with multiple pathways within a career cluster. That opens up tremendous flexibility and opportunity for both teachers and students.”
An Exciting Evolution
Lisa Vazquez, a member of the standards-writing committee, had this to say about the process. “We were a team of educators, industry professionals, and community advocates who all cared deeply about ensuring students have real pathways into the creative industries. We had rigorous, sometimes challenging conversations about what students truly need to be prepared for today’s workforce and what the workforce needs from them.” Today, Vazquez continues her work to advocate for strong creative career pathways as a professional at Disney. She also serves as board chair for Creative Educators Network, a nonprofit that supports creative educators.
Lisa Neighbours, director of CTE and secondary STEM for the Issaquah School District, was excited to explore the new California standards with her teachers in Washington. “We found these standards to be more valuable and aligned to real-world needs than the existing guidance available in our state,” she said. “We also appreciated the wide range of career pathways represented. Our teachers were especially excited to see their courses connect to industries where we’ve historically had limited partnerships.”
Jamie Treacy, lead facilitator for Creative Educators Network, has supported numerous districts and teachers in aligning to the standards. “We are excited for teachers from other states to take advantage of this incredible resource,” he said. The ultimate goal is to help as many educators as possible.
Back in Waynee’s Classroom
The animation students are hard at work. “I feel our pathways can help change the face of the entertainment industry across California by giving underrepresented students — aspiring artists — an opportunity to get their foot in the door and thrive,” said Matthew Waynee. He is proud of his contributions to the new standards. And he sees them as a way to empower creative industry-aligned learning in his classroom and beyond.
Matthew Waynee’s excitement is contagious. He is passionate about keeping pace “with the ever-evolving innovations and advancements in technology that are prevalent in the fields of film, animation and visual effects.” These are future-focused industries that inspire students to create, imagine and problem-solve. And now, thanks to the new standards, Arts, Entertainment, and Design teachers in California and across the nation have an industry-aligned tool to help their students walk through that door and into these exciting careers.
Ashley Adams is the executive director at Creative Educators Network.
Amiya Vashi is an intern at Creative Educators Network.
