Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series – Partner Series: Partnerships in a Career Pathways System

May 3rd, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.

Today we are sharing the final installment of the Institute Pre Sessions. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.Print

Highlighted Pre Session: Partner Series: Partnerships in a Career Pathways System  

The Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) recently collaborated on the development of the book, The Career Pathways Effect: Linking Education and Economic Prosperity. CORD and NASDCTEc have developed a series of professional development workshops based on the major themes of the book to support practitioners in the implementation or improvement of career pathways. The preconference “Partnerships in a Career Pathways System” is from the Partner Series Workshops. A career pathways system requires multiple partnerships within a community. This workshop is designed to help you develop or improve your partnerships. Workshop topics include:

  • Partnership Advantages
  • Partner Identification
  • Goal Setting
  • Model Structures
  • Partner Roles and Responsibilities
  • Action Plan Development
  • Partnership Management – Operating and Sustaining

Participants identify strategies and processes to improve their partnerships. Different stakeholders from your local partnerships are encouraged to attend this workshop together but it is not a requirement. Participants will also receive a copy of The Career Pathways Effect: Linking Education and Economic Prosperity book as a participant.

Fee: $200

Date and Time: Monday, June 10 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12 at the Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

 

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series: Become a Career Advising Idol

May 3rd, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.

Today we are sharing an Institute Pre Session. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.Print

Highlighted Pre Session: Become a Career Advising Idol  

Make colleagues idolize your commitment to excellence and clients worship the guidance you give, simply by engaging in professional development that focuses on career advising. No matter your occupation or intended level of understanding career guidance, Kuder, Inc. will help you quickly grow with flexible online training.

By attending this session, you’ll learn about Kuder’s new Career Advisor Training program that offers three course options to fit the schedules of busy professionals. The program covers the 12 core competencies of career development, which are also used by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and Kuder® Career Development Facilitator Training™ curriculum, in a fast-paced, condensed format requiring an investment of only 10, 30, or 40 course hours. This signature training program lays the foundation for supporting and guiding students and adults in making informed career decisions throughout their lifetimes.KuderAnniv

Fee: This is a seminar; there are no fees to attend.

When: June 9, 2013

Time: June 9, 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12 at the Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series: Lessons Learned in Seven States

May 2nd, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.

Today we are sharing an Institute Pre Session. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.Print

Highlighted Pre Session: Lessons Learned in Seven States  

Recent state-wide evaluations were completed of school counseling programs in six states. Results showed that when more fully implemented programs and practices were in place, student results showed significantly higher achievement on NCLB and Perkins accountability measures. School guidance and counseling programs do make a difference! This pre session will focus on evaluation results completed by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Additionally, New Jersey implemented a pilot program for implementing Personalized Student Learning Plans (PSLPs) in 2009, and has learned many valuable lessons from participating schools. A PSLP is defined as a formalized plan and process that involves students setting learning goals based on personal, academic and career interests, beginning in the middle school grades and continuing throughout high school with the close support of adult mentors that include teachers, counselors and parents. New Jersey’s Personalized Student Learning Plan Pilot Program has focused on exploring meaningful, creative and flexible ways to personalize the learning environment for students in a variety of settings. Come learn about the successes and challenges in implementation of PSLP from the experiences of participating pilot schools and the results of an evaluation study completed by Rutgers University.

Presenters:

Ms. Marie Barry, Director, Office of Career and Technical Education, New Jersey Department of Education
Ms. Donna Hoffman, Nebraska Department of Education, School Guidance and Counseling Programs

Date: Sunday, June 9, 2013
Time: 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Fee: $100

For more information, please Donna Hoffman at donna.hoffman@nebraska.gov

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12 at the Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series: New Tools for Beginning CTE Teachers

May 2nd, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.

Today we are sharing an Institute Pre Session. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.

Highlighted Pre Session New Tools for Beginning CTE TeachersPrint

CTE schools require industry experience of their teachers and in some cases, the tradeoff for that experience is limited preparation in teaching pedagogies. The culmination of the needs of the CTE community and current research have brought together university experts, researchers and NOCTI to produce several modules designed to provided new teachers with research based information about assessments, certifications and third party testing.

This pre-session will explain the evolution, the collaboration and walk participants through one of the 2 modules. This information could also be used as professional development information. Each participant completing this training session will be rewarded with $100.00 gift certificate for pre test use!

Presenters:

Dr. John C. Foster, john.foster@nocti.org

Amie Bloomfield amie.bloomfield@nocti.org

Time Slot: June 9, 2013 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Fees: $125 NOTE: on-site rate $150

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12 at the Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series – CTEDDI: Instructional Improvement for Individual CTE Sites Now Available

May 2nd, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.

Today we are sharing an Institute Pre Session. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.Print

Highlighted Pre Session CTEDDI: Instructional Improvement for Individual CTE Sites Now Available  

A new opportunity now exists to opt for CTEDDI professional development at a single CTE site! The CTEDDI (Career Technical Educators Using Data-Driven Improvement) model developed by NOCTI through the National Research Center for Career Technical Education (NRCCTE) is a research-based professional development program designed, piloted, and implemented to help administrators and CTE teachers use assessment data to improve programs and to target individual and group instructional needs in the secondary-level CTE classroom.

Previously available only on a statewide basis, now school participants can arm themselves with the tools to collect and analyze data and the skills necessary to develop an action plan to enhance instruction in areas in need of improvement.

Each participant completing this training session will be rewarded with $100 gift certificate for pretest use! Gain a great head start toward CTEDDI implementation.

Presenters: Dr. Sandra G. Pritz, sandypritz@aol.com and Dr. John C. Foster, john.foster@nocti.org

Pre session offered Monday, June 10 from 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at the Omni Shoreham, site of the National Career Clusters® Institute.

Fee: $125; NOTE: On-site rate is $150.

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12 at the Omni Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series: Introduction to Career Clusters® and Pathways 101 Pre Session

April 30th, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.Print

Today we are highlighting the Institute Pre Sessions. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.

Highlighted Pre Session: Introduction to Career Clusters® and Pathways 101: Using the Updated Implementation Tool Kit

This is the starting place for all things Career Clusters® for first time attendees or for those who are looking for tools to take back to begin implementing Career Clusters® in your system, campus or school. This session is definitely for people that are new to Career Clusters® and are looking for a resource to use to teach others brand new as well.

Together, we will:

  • Explore the Career Clusters® Framework and key components
  • Define the benefits of utilizing Career Clusters®
  •  Discuss the core tenets of Career Cluster® implementation
  •  Map a strategy for implementing Career Clusters® in phases
  • Identify the tools and resources available

This workshop will help you connect all the parts and pieces related to CTE, Perkins, Programs of Study, technical skill assessment, career guidance, workforce development, industry partnership, certification, high school reform, and seamless transitions.

Use this pre-session to get the most out of your Career Clusters® Institute attendance.

Attendees will receive the new Career Clusters® Implementation Tool Kit, a $75 value.

Fee: $150

Time slot: Sunday, June 9, 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12, 2013

Location: Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters® Institute Blog Series: The Creative Brain and Entrepreneurship Pre Session

April 30th, 2013

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June.Print

Today we are introducing the Institute Pre Sessions. Attendees can register for a Pre Session and attend the Sunday or Monday before the Institute begins. There is a nominal fee to attend these sessions and registration can be made in addition to general registration online. There are several topics to choose from.

Highlighted Pre Session: The Creative Brain and Entrepreneurship

This interactive pre session explores teaching entrepreneurship and the creative brain. The focus will be on mindsets and how to teach to inventive thinking. Participants will receive a book entitled “Developing an Understanding of How We Learn,” which was written by Dr. Carol Folbre and Sandy Mittelsteadt. Everyone will leave with sample project-based activities, both individual and group, for their classroom.

Presenters:
Sandy Mittelsteadt: sandra.mittelsteadt@gmail.com
Dr. Carol Folbre: carol.folbre@gmail.com

Fee: $130
Time slot: Sunday, June 9 from 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Sandy Mittelsteadt at sandra.mittelsteadt@gmail.com.

Already registered? You can add a Pre Session even if you’ve already registered. If you have questions, please send them to institute@careertech.org and we will be happy to add a Pre Session to your registration.

The National Career Clusters® Institute is June 9-12, 2013

Location: Omni Fort Worth, 1300 Houston Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters™ Institute Blog Series: There’s Nothing “Standard” About Standards!

June 18th, 2012

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters â„¢ Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Washington, DC in June.

Nancy Null is a Curriculum Lead at Towson University in Towson, Maryland and Co-Director at Maryland CTE IT Program Affiliate.

Why aren’t Career Technical Education (CTE) instructors providing the professional development to academic disciplines around Common Core State Standards? Having taught in both academic (English) and CTE (Cisco Networking Academy) worlds, I can state unequivocally that academic teachers have much to learn from any outstanding CTE instructor.

Standards are nothing new to either academic or CTE worlds; however, CTE standards do more closely model that common set of skills now recognized as crucial to both college-and career-readiness. Moreover, exemplary real-world CTE instruction more closely aligns with the learning style of today’s youth than the paper-centric, two-dimensional world of traditional academia.

Don’t get me wrong: I loved teaching English. But I found myself continually searching outside the literary box for ways to connect my students to a real world of prose and poetry that spoke to them. Making that connection from “the other side”—from CTE to reading, writing, speaking and listening—was much easier. My Cisco students were already comfortable and confident in their technical world, armed with knowledge just waiting to be communicated. They could connect to authentic contexts for the “deeper dive” that the Common Core State Standards require.

CTE teachers have long and deep experience shaping and guiding diverse populations of students toward common industry-standard goals; we know that real education takes place only when teachers have a reason to teach, and students have a reason to learn. We can lead the way in creating a real 21st century schoolhouse—a place where students hear the same message in all classes, meet the same expectations, and develop the same skillsets throughout their educational experience. That schoolhouse will be standards-driven, but there will be nothing “standard” about it!

Come hear more at our session: Techniques to Show Alignment to National Education Standards (Common Core) and How to Use Them, Tuesday, June 19: 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.

You’ll see a process one technology education program uses to map and document alignment to national education standards such as Common Core and STEM, and the tool I use to help education institutions articulate alignment and hear from one university how they put into action.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clusters™ Institute Blog Series: Arkansas Works – Creating a Competitive Workforce through State and Community Collaboration

June 18th, 2012

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters â„¢ Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Washington, DC in June.

Sonja Wright-McMurray is the Associate Director for the Arkansas Department of Career Education – Career and Technical Education Division (Arkansas Works). She is the founding Director and responsible for providing statewide oversight of the Arkansas Works Initiative. Wright-McMurray holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She also holds a Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from Drake University.
As Career and Technical Education (CTE) administrators and teachers try to ensure that a qualified workforce stands ready to fill 21st century jobs, one of our struggles is ensuring our students are college- and career-ready. That is the mission of Arkansas Works.

Arkansas Works is a collaborative effort among the departments of Career Education, Education, Higher Education, Workforce Services, and Economic Development; the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority; the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges, and the State Chamber of Commerce.

Funded by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, this initiative is a three-component system that includes:

•The Arkansas College and Career Planning System, a web-based career planning system powered by Kuder™;
•The College and Career Coaches Program and;
•The ACT Academy Program

Over the past two years, Arkansas Works has addressed the issue of students being under-prepared to pursue postsecondary education and enter the workforce in the most impoverished areas of the state. The program strongly emphasizes the benefits of CTE courses, apprenticeship programs and work-based learning opportunities. Arkansas high schools served by the program have seen an increase in applications for financial aid, increase in the college-going rate, increase in ACT scores, increase in opportunities for employment and a decrease in the amount of students taking remediation courses at the postsecondary level.

Learn more about how you replicate this program and achieve similar results in your state for your students by attending Sonja’s session at the National Career Clusters™ Institute: Arkansas Works – Creating a Competitive Workforce through State and Community Collaboration on Wednesday, June 20.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute Blog Series: If Programs of Study Are the Solution, What Is the Problem?

May 25th, 2012

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that will be shared at the upcoming Career Clusters â„¢ Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Washington, DC in June.

Dr. James R. Stone, III is the Director of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) at the University of Louisville. Dr. Stone’s research has focused on strategies that improve the capacity of CTE programs to improve the engagement, achievement, and transition of secondary and postsecondary CTE participants, including longitudinal studies on the effects of work-based learning and the effect of whole-school, CTE-based school reforms on educational outcomes of youth in high-poverty communities. A former editor for the Journal of Vocational Education Research, Stone has published numerous articles, books, and book chapters on CTE.

Programs of study (POS) are the most recent effort in the United States to improve the transition of youth from high school to the workplace. In most industrialized nations, one national institution governs education; in the United States, schools, state and local governments, and business organizations—operating in very loose partnerships with the federal government—have sought to support youth in successfully and efficiently transitioning from public education to further education or careers.

As a result, the default structural support for youth transition to the labor market has become what most term “college,” usually defined as a degree from a two-year or four-year postsecondary institution. Believing that the high school diploma no longer signifies a meaningful standard of achievement, and lacking a national system of industry credentials, employers have come to rely on college degrees as proof of preparedness and competency. This assumption has, for better or worse, led to the notion of “college for all” as the best means of preparing all youth for the emergent labor market.

“College for all” has evolved in recent years to incorporate the idea that public education ought to prepare youth for college and careers. “College and career readiness” is a phrase that has captured the imagination if not the vocabulary of state and federal policymakers in the United States as the solution to preparing all youth for a successful adulthood.

Yet the youth of today are moving into an uncertain labor market marked by high unemployment, changing skill demands, and intense global competition. POS are seen as the key to achieving a truly career and college-ready high school graduate who will be prepared to succeed in these uncertain times.

Three questions have driven the National Research Center’s POS research agenda, tied to our overarching interest in student engagement, achievement, and transition. If POS are fully implemented:

  • Will more students graduate from high school—evidence of their engagement?
  • Will students’ academic and technical achievement increase?
  • Will more students transition successfully into the workplace or further education and training?

Learn more about what the research shows are the measurable effects of POS on increasing student engagement, improving student achievement, and enhancing student transition to further education and work by attending Jim Stone’s presentation entitled National Research Center for CTE: what the Research Reveals about Programs of Study at the 2012 Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

 

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