Posts Tagged ‘Area Technical Centers’

Alignment and Intentional Equity: Two Priorities for District of Columbia’s First Area Technical Center

Wednesday, November 9th, 2022

For this blog, Senior Policy Associate Dan Hinderliter and Communications Manager Stacy Whitehouse interviewed Washington DC’s State CTE Director Richard Kincaid. 

The 2022 school year heralded the start of another new initiative for the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)- the Advanced Technical Center (ATC), the first DC area technical center to serve secondary students from public and public charter schools across the District. This development was inspired by Advance CTE’s 2021 50 state report on structure and outcomes in the nation’s area technical centers 

The planning process began in July 2021 when OSSE received an influx of coronavirus relief funds after Mayor Muriel Bowser directed funds from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) to Career Technical Education (CTE)  and work-based learning plans. While OSSE is still working to secure long-term funding for the ATC, ARPA funds will keep the school open for at least five years. The ATC initially opened with three programs of study — General Nursing, Cybersecurity and Health Information Technology — on the campus of Trinity Washington University, but will move to a new building shortly after renovations are complete. During the design process, DC CTE Director Richard Kincaid noted two areas vital to the success of the ATC: systems alignment and partnership and an intentional focus on equity, both foundational commitments of Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education.

Systems Alignment and Partnership

When planning the future of the ATC, systems alignment and partnership was a must-have, especially considering the vast and complicated educational landscape in the District of Columbia. Kincaid and his team convened four initial stakeholder meetings, involving partners from the Deputy Mayor for Education’s office, administrators from DC Public Schools (DCPS) and DC Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), and potential employer partners. These stakeholders helped to calibrate on what the core purpose of the ATC is, who it should serve and how to limit duplication with other area programs. Kincaid shared that working from a partnership perspective instead of from a compliance angle served initial work well, especially where there were already places area principals needed to coordinate services on, such as scheduling or transportation. Given the complex dynamic across agencies in DC, this stakeholder group was vital to ensuring buy-in from and alignment to sending institutions. The group also coordinated an initial list of potential programs, leveraging labor market information and opportunity gap analyses. After a series of community input sessions, the group ultimately narrowed the list to the three programs currently offered. 

This lens of partnership also contributed to early programmatic successes. Significant conversations with local postsecondary institutions led to memorandums of understanding (MOUs) allowing learners to receive dual credit for all courses (five credits for every semester a learner is enrolled at the ATC). These courses are applied to aligned credit in the learner’s program of study, not just general education requirements. Postsecondary institutions also share instructors with the ATC to teach advanced coursework. Employer partners also support the program through site visits and career exploration conversations with learners; proximity to federal agencies means federal partners like the White House’s National Cybersecurity Initiative have visited the ATC. Future years will see employers supporting on- and off-site work-based learning initiatives, and Kincaid hopes to one day see an employer co-located with the ATC to provide daily hands-on training.

Intentional Focus on Equity

Kincaid also stressed that the main intent behind the ATC was to close equity gaps, in particular for learners from wards historically underserved by DC’s educational programs. He and his team intentionally designed the ATC’s supporting infrastructure to limit barriers to access for learners. For example, OSSE contracted with a local cab company to provide transportation to learners to and from the ATC, to limit unsafe walks or undue travel burdens for learners. While he noted this was a logistical hurdle, Kincaid noted this was a permanent focus of the ATC to always ensure learners could access the ATC’s programs. Programming for the ATC is also open-access, limiting cost or grade barriers for learners. There are no entrance exams- to earn the aforementioned dual credit, learners must simply achieve a C or higher in each to receive college credit above a final grade. Finally, future plans will continue to center equity initiatives, including paid internship opportunities and the development of future programs that advance historically marginalized learners, particularly learners of color, in historically underrepresented fields.

What’s Next for DC’s ATC

Within the next two years, the Advanced Technical Center looks to make big strides by moving into a permanent home and expanding the student population served. In 2022, approximately 130 learners were enrolled; by 2025, Kincaid hopes to have 600 learners regularly attend. The hope is also for learners regardless of age and program to participate in school-time, paid year-round internships, including some with industry partners co-located with the ATC. Through the changes, equity and partnership will remain at the heart of the ATC’s focus. 

Dan Hinderliter, Senior Policy Associate

By Stacy Whitehouse in Public Policy
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Welcome Jon Wickert as the New State CTE Director in Delaware! 

Monday, September 19th, 2022

The Delaware Department of Education recently named Jon Wickert as its new Director, Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics  (STEM) Initiatives. His path to state CTE leadership reflects the power of career exploration and social capital that will sustain ‘The First State’s’ strong record of innovation and transformation of CTE systems. 

Jon’s wide-ranging career began working with justice-connected youth in outdoor programs for the Maryland Forest Service. After a year in procurement in the nuclear power industry, he pursued his passion for ecotourism and water-based recreation by launching and operating a kayaking  business. However, Jon missed working with learners and returned to the classroom as a high school social studies teacher. This led to his introduction to CTE through his support of Career Technical Student Organization (CTSO) competitions, volunteerism with Junior Achievement of Delaware, and supporting professional learning communities that allowed him to reconnect with his knowledge of natural systems and entrepreneurship. 

Jon’s desire to expand his impact led him to the Delaware State Park System, where he led public and private programs, nature centers and exhibits, the visitor and customer experiences. strategy. During this time, he remained connected to CTE through curriculum review and STEM program development. He joined the Delaware CTE team three years ago where he led postsecondary system development, work-based learning, and registered apprenticeship initiatives. 

Jon has been a very active member of Advance CTE prior to his promotion to State Director, participating in the Postsecondary Data Initiative, contributing to Advance CTE’s research on area technical centers and developing an environmental literacy framework through the Bay Watershed Education Training (BWET) initiative. He emphasized the immense value of Advance CTE’s support in helping him to “connect the dots” in his work and connect to leaders in other states. 

Jon is most enthusiastic about continuing current work to equitably update the statewide programs of study, which will focus on centering program requirements with labor market information and wage data, identifying metrics for credential recognition and alignment course mapping with Advanced Placement, dual enrollment courses, and other early postsecondary opportunities. Not surprisingly, Jon’s list of other priorities was quite extensive – internal role realignment, middle grade CTE standard development and a statewide framework for Credit for Prior Learning, among others- , and his enthusiasm for all of them is apparent. Jon is committed to ensuring each Delawean has access to high quality education that centers individual identity within a recession-resistant career, is efficient and affordable, and results in a wealth-generating wage.

Jon encourages fellow new State Directors to be patient with themselves, especially with new work, and use it as an opportunity to facilitate collaboration: “You don’t need to have the answer right now. Start slowly so you can go faster later — this is an opportunity for more voices to be heard.” 

Jon earned a Doctorate of Education in curriculum, instruction and assessment from Walden University. He earned both a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in social science and secondary education from Frostburg University. Jon and his wife, Sinead, have a 10 year old son named Sean.  They love hiking, camping, kayaking, and enjoying the outdoors as much as possible.  Please join us in welcoming Jon to Advance CTE!

Stacy Whitehouse, Senior Associate Communications and State Engagement 

By Stacy Whitehouse in Advance CTE State Director
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Legislative Update: House Passes BBBA and New Guidance from ED

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021

Democratic lawmakers in Congress have made progress on a domestic spending package aimed at investing in the nation’s human capital infrastructure, including Career Technical Education (CTE). Meanwhile, a House subcommittee recently examined how states and school districts are making use of education-related pandemic aid while the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued new nonregulatory guidance, announced changes to civil rights data collections and more.  

House Passes Build Back Better Act (BBBA)

After months of intense debate and negotiations, House Democrats successfully passed the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) on November 19. The passage of this legislation is an important next step in Congressional Democrats’ ongoing efforts to pass a wide-ranging domestic spending package to complement the recently passed and enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). While the IIJA was passed via the regular legislative process, Congressional Democrats are making use of the budget reconciliation process which allows certain legislation, like the BBBA,  to be passed by simple majorities in both Chambers of Congress (thereby avoiding a likely Republican filibuster of the legislation). 

In the lead up to the BBBA’s passage in the House, the Congressional Budget Office released an official “scoring” of the legislation, including for the bill’s education and workforce development provisions. This was a key point of contention for some House Democrats who wanted this score prior to a formal vote. Following the release of this score, the BBBA was passed narrowly along party lines by a margin of 220-213. The BBBA now heads to the Senate where the lawmakers in the upper chamber are widely expected to make additional changes to the legislation in the coming weeks ahead. 

As shared previously, this version of the BBBA would provide $600 million for the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act’s (Perkins V) basic state grant formula program and $100 million for the law’s Innovation and Modernization competitive grant program. If enacted, the legislation would address a host of Advance CTE’s policy priorities and would also provide $5 billion for Community College and Industry Partnership grants while also ensuring that certain Area Technical Centers are eligible to apply for this funding. As the BBBA works its way further through the legislative process, Advance CTE will continue to advocate for these important investments as part of a final package which is widely expected to be complete by the end of the year. 

House Subcommittee Examine Pandemic Aid Spending

On November 17 the House Education and Labor’s Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education and its Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee held a joint hearing titled “Examining the Implementation of COVID-19 Education Funds.” ED’s second highest ranking official, Deputy Secretary Cindy Marten, along with James Kvaal, ED’s top official for postsecondary education, provided testimony and answered questions as part of this hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to scrutinize state, district and institutions’ use of over $160 billion in collective pandemic-related funding provided since March 2020 to help the nation’s educational systems respond to and recover from the public health crisis. 

The nearly four hour hearing explored a wide range of topics including ED’s ongoing efforts to monitor and oversee how these funds are being used by states, school districts and postsecondary institutions. In addition, lawmakers expressed a strong desire to ensure that this monitoring and oversight process ensures these funds are being spent in ways Congress intended. Relatedly, lawmakers also discussed efforts to develop reliable measures of student performance to more accurately assess the impact of programs and initiatives being funded with these pandemic relief resources. An archived webcast of the hearing, including witness testimony, can be found here

ED Issues New Guidance Related to Student Transportation 

This month, ED published new guidance related to the use of pandemic aid dollars for student transportation. The guidance, in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), provides answers to several questions related to the use of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funding to provide transportation services to eligible students. Of note for the CTE community, this guidance affirms that school districts are permitted to use these funds, in certain circumstances, to provide transportation for students participating in after-school learning and enrichment programs. The full guidance can be found here

MOU Signed to Expand Apprenticeship Programs 

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves and Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) as part of a series of events and announcements marking the nation’s 7th annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW). The MOU will expand and make wider use of apprenticeships among Swiss companies operating in the United States. More information on the announcement can be found here

ED Soliciting Feedback Regarding Civil Rights Data Collection 

On November 18, ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it has submitted to the Federal Register for public comment a proposed Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) Information Collection Request package for the 2021–22 school year. OCR plans to introduce new data categories by proposing the following data which were informed by listening sessions with stakeholders:

Comments regarding these proposed changes to the CRDC information collection are due by January 18, 2022. The full announcement, including the portal to submit input, can be found here

Odds & Ends 

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Brittany Cannady in COVID-19 and CTE, Uncategorized
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