Throughout the United States, administrators and teachers in American high schools face mounting pressure to increase the academic rigor of their curriculum in an effort to prepare students for postsecondary education and workforce success. Career and technical education (CTE) courses have often been overlooked in the public debate about making sure that students are exposed to rigorous academic content; however, there are an important series of innovative practices that have begun to bridge the gap between traditional academic courses and career-related courses. This paper examines an emerging approach that helps to meet the college and career readiness challenge--"the recognition of academic credit for CTE coursework". This innovative approach is helping students to gain a deeper understanding of academic content that might have eluded them if it were presented only through abstracted and traditional classroom teaching approaches. It also helps them earn more and higher levels of academic credit toward their high school diploma. (Contains 7 endnotes.)