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’s guest blogger is Randy Swann, Education Administrator, Alabama State Department of Education.

The Alabama State Department of Education, Office of Career and Technical Education/Workforce Development partnered with business and industry to develop a certification process that establishes and maintains a quality-oriented accountability system for the improvement and enhancement of Career Technical Education (CTE). All CTE programs must participate in an annual local evaluation for business/industry certification (BIC). BIC promotes program improvement that enhances the preparedness of Alabama’s students for society and tomorrow’s workforce.

Alabama requires all CTE programs to certify to industry standards, either through the state’s BIC process or through a national certification process. The BIC process is certified to standards as developed by the International Organization for Standardization (“ISO”) and these standards are referred to as ISO 9001:2000 certification.

The ISO 9001:2000 certification is process-based and recognizes organizations that link business objectives with operating effectiveness. ISO indicates that CTE demonstrates effective implementation of BIC documentation and records management; has the commitment of top management to local career and technical programs; has established clear policies; conducts good planning and implementation; performs good resource management; and has efficient process control, measurement, and analysis. The ISO certification ensures that the BIC process is quality-oriented, consistently administered, and focused on customer satisfaction. The purpose of BIC is to ensure that CTE programs meet industry standards so that students will be equipped for postsecondary education, apprenticeship, employment, and life.

For more information, please go to Alabama’s Department of Education Web site.

Randy’s breakout session is Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Session E, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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’s guest blogger is Scott Warren, Director of State Initiatives, Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)-High Schools that Work. The SREB is located in Atlanta, GA.

Who says rigorous CTE is not key to improving student achievement?  Consider these figures: 17 percent more students meeting college and career readiness goals in reading and science and 13 percent more meeting college and career readiness goals in mathematics.  Where did these percentages come from, you ask?   When High Schools That Work analyzed data from its 2012 national assessment of seniors we found when students had classroom experiences in their CT classrooms they were much more likely to meet college and career readiness standards.  This was true even when the students all took the same academic classes! 

High Schools That Work compared two groups of students from the 2012 assessment. The first group included students who experienced more than four of the eight indicators for a rigorous CT course.  We then took a similar group in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic and gender who experienced less than four of these indicators.  The results were staggering.  Even when students took the “right” academic classes, rigorous CT resulted in a significant increase in achievement.  For reading, 63 percent of the students who took a college preparatory academic core but did not experience rigorous CT met college and career readiness goals. However, 80 percent of the students who took that same academic core and had rigorous CT met college and career readiness goals – a 17 percent increase! Similar data holds true for science and mathematics.

In this breakout session on Monday afternoon, participants will learn more about these eight critical CT classroom experiences that make a difference.  Participants will also learn a simple strategy to engage teachers in taking ownership of them by developing tools for leaders to use to look for them in classrooms.

Scott’s breakout is Monday, June 10, 2013 in session B: 3:45 p.m. – 5 p.m. 

More information about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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’s guest blogger is Sandra Ann Delgado, CTE Associate Project Director, Statewide Instructional Resources Development Center, Austin, TX.

Greetings from Texas and the STATEWIDE INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT CENTER (SIRDC)!  Our team is looking forward to presenting our breakout session at The National Career Clusters® Institute. I can’t wait to share our FREE instructional resources with you. Yes, FREE, no username or password required.

I’ll begin with a little history, but I’ll make it brief because I want to provide you with the opportunity to review our resources before you attend the session! SIRDC is a Texas Education Agency Perkins state leadership grant-funded project that has been awarded to Stephen F. Austin State University. Our current grant team has been in place since June 2011. The purpose of this project is to provide free instructional resources for Texas instructors teaching courses in the following career clusters:

• Education and Training
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Human Services

We service 25 courses within these three clusters and currently have over 180 instructional lessons published on our website http://cte.sfasu.edu/ (additional lessons published monthly). In addition to the basic components, each lesson includes suggestions for special needs and ELL students, connections to core subject matter, reading and writing strategies, CTSO and service learning ideas, and much more.

Other services we provide include 13 FREE teacher online courses, see http://cte.sfasu.edu/course/lifetime-nutrition-and-wellness/, links to additional cluster/course resources, see http://cte.sfasu.edu/rgroup/instructional-practices-in-education/and a monthly newsletter, see http://cte.sfasu.edu/c/newsletters/.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me. We look forward to meeting you on June 12^th!

Sandra’s breakout session is June 12, 2013 in session G, 8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. . Her co-presenters are Diane Salazar, Statewide CTE Coordinator, Texas Education Agency, Austin,  TX and Lynda Martin, Director, School of Human Sciences, Stephen F. Austin State University, and SFA Grant Program Investigator, Nacogdoches, TX.

More about the National Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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’s guest blogger is Lakshmi Mahadevan, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, College Station, TX.

Why UDL?

Career and Technical Education instructors are most commonly asked to educate many diverse student populations. Although teaching students with such broad ranges of skills, talents, and interests presents challenges for CTE educators, the nature of CTE programs of study fortunately makes them particularly amenable to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach.

In this session, CTE instructors will be introduced to the UDL principles of multiple means of engagement, representation and action/expression that can be effectively utilized within their classrooms so that all their students, including special populations, can be taught the necessary skills and academic content.

What is UDL?

In general, UDL principles call for the curriculum to be presented in multiple modalities, and students are allowed to demonstrate their learning through a variety of formats. Specifically, a universally designed curriculum overcomes limitations by incorporating three principles of flexibility into its design.

Principle I

The first principle is multiple methods of presentation. UDL courses provide alternative representations of essential concepts, which allow students to learn the information in their preferred means. Examples of alternatives include placing course materials on the Web, allowing students to tape record, using videos, podcasts, and other multimedia.

Principle II

The second principle is using multiple options for participation and engagement. By having flexible teaching strategies and course content, students can choose methods that support their interests and skill levels. For example, assignments and course content may be tied to a current news topic or world event, which allows the instructor to tap into the students’ own interests.

Principle III

The last principle is multiple means of expression. The instructor can let students choose a format through which they demonstrate their knowledge of a subject (for example, doing an oral presentation, a written paper, or taking a test). Allowing choices leads students to multiple opportunities and means of demonstrating mastery of the required material.

What will I get if I attend?

Participants attending this presentation will view videos of CTE instructors incorporating UDL principles into their teaching. In addition, attendees will have an opportunity to access UDL tools for self-assessments, ask questions, and discuss UDL-related best practices with colleagues through a group activity.

Other information (URLs, etc.): For further information about this and other CTE and special populations-related topics, go to: http://ctsp.tamu.edu.

Dr. Mahadevan’s session, Making Your CTE Curriculum Accessible to All Special Populations, will be held Tuesday, June 11, during Session C, 8:45 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Co-presenter is Dr. Rick Peterson, Associate Professor, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, College Station, TX.

More information about the Career Clusters® Institute

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager