career preparation « Advance CTE Blog

Pushing the Limits: South Carolina

Thursday, May 25th, 2023

Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits) was released in March 2020 with the support of over 40 national organizations. In October 2021, Advance CTE launched a technical assistance opportunity called Advancing CTE Without Limits, which sought to support states in a project to coordinate systems, improve equity goals, strengthen policy or otherwise align with a CTE Without Limits principle. The year-long Advancing CTE Without Limits project ran from March 2022 to March 2023. This blog series shares the details, outcomes and lessons learned from projects across the three participating Pushing the Limits state teams – Colorado, Nebraska and South Carolina.

Project Focus

South Carolina has made it a priority to build and create aligned state systems that can support all CTE learners to move seamlessly through their education and career journey. To accomplish this vision, South Carolina approached their Advancing CTE Without limits work through the lens of Principle 1: Each learner engages in a cohesive, flexible and responsive career preparation ecosystem.

South Carolina focused on three main objectives:

Needs Assessment: Conduct a needs assessment to identify strengths and gaps within the state’s comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA) process and outcomes (i.e., rural, middle school and students with disabilities).
Guidance and Support for Local Implementation of Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA): Provide strategic collaboration, peer learning, training and support to implement a more strategic process around CLNA.
Building State Leader Data Literacy: Participate in professional development through Advance CTE’s Opportunity Gap Analysis to learn the root cause analysis process and get technical assistance to increase data literacy to address learner opportunity gaps.

Project Outcomes

Through monthly coaching and technical assistance provided by Advance CTE and Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) staff, South Carolina focused on evaluating its comprehensive local needs assessment process and outcomes with an emphasis on continuous improvement. Surveys were developed for state and local stakeholders to gather their input on both the implementation of the CLNA and the practical application of results of the CLNA process. Results of the survey showed that the CLNA process itself had been valuable, and it had served to strengthen connections across the career preparation ecosystem. However, at the state and local levels, stakeholders were not fully utilizing the information gleaned from the CLNA process. At the state level in particular, leaders from across agencies were not as engaged with each other around the CLNA results as the state desired.

This led the state CTE agency to start a quarterly interagency meeting to increase cross-sector team collaboration and support a high-quality career preparation ecosystem. To ensure sustainability of this strategic collaboration among their state agencies, South Carolina has put into practice a shared-ownership structure, where a different agency takes the lead in developing the shared agenda and leads the conversations. The first meeting included sharing results from the CLNA and the survey.

South Carolina also used the CLNA to inform the development of regional “snapshots” of data. The snapshots were published accompanied by a workshop and guidance to support the regional perspective being used in the state for the CLNA.

South Carolina has also designed differentiated support for the regions based on the needs assessment and survey of regions. These efforts have helped increase knowledge and staff capacity in the strategic use of data for the CLNA process.

The South Carolina team also participated in the Opportunity Gap Analysis workshop to learn to conduct root cause analysis, identify ways to address opportunity gaps for all learners and provide guidance to their local educators on how to build a comprehensive career preparation ecosystem.

Lessons Learned

One of the primary lessons learned through this project for South Carolina was to focus on making sure that the results of the CLNA are being used and not treated as a compliance exercise.

Recommendations

States are highly encouraged to look at CLNA results across all their eligible entities or regions and to identify common themes with a lens towards developing new policies, programs, technical assistance and professional development to help address the needs commonly identified across the state. In addition, states should make it common practice to provide technical assistance to local districts on how they can change their behaviors to better address needs.

Stay tuned for future updates about South Carolina’s continued efforts and for more information about other states’ Advancing CTE Without Limits projects. For more information about CTE Without Limits, visit https://careertech.org/without-limits.

To learn more about planning and implementing the principles of CTE Without Limits in your state, check out Pushing the Limits: A Roadmap for Advancing CTE Without Limits.

For more information on better using the CLNA to drive quality and equity within CTE systems and programs of study, read Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment.

Nithya Govindasamy, Senior Advisor

Alisha Hyslop, Senior Director of Public Policy, ACTE

By Jodi Langellotti in CTE Without Limits
Tags: career preparation, CLNA, Perkins, South Carolina, systems alignment

CTE Without Limits Summer Lunch and Learn #1 Recap: Building Foundational Relationships and Infrastructure Key Areas of Focus for First Vision Principle

Monday, June 7th, 2021

On June 1, Advance CTE hosted the first session of a five-part summer lunch and learn series delving into each of the five principles of Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits). Each session features a panel of leading voices from organizations across learning and work followed by interactive group discussions on the information shared and next steps.

This session discussed the first principle of CTE Without Limits, featuring perspectives from organizations representing state elected officials, state and local education administrators and workforce leaders: Amanda Winters, Program Director for Postsecondary Education at the National Governors Association (NGA); Najmah Ahmad, Program Director for the Career Readiness Initiative at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO); and Yvette Chocolaad, Workforce Policy and Research Director at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA).

Themes

Throughout the panel and breakout sessions, several key themes emerged on the most urgent areas of action and foundational steps to be taken at the local, state and organizational level:

State Leaders as Visionaries: Both Amanda Winters (NGA) and Najmah Ahmad (CCSSO) emphasized the role of governors and state education administrators as the visionaries and drivers for organizational change needed to realize this principle, from providing flexibility in funding and funding models to connecting state initiatives for economic growth, postsecondary attainment, racial equity and more into a larger vision for systemic change. Ahmad also highlighted the role of organizations supporting state leaders in providing tools and guidance for that leader’s vision to reach local education agencies and translate into tangible, meaningful action.
Yvette Chocolaad (NASWA) emphasized the importance of designing infrastructure with flexible capacity to support collaboration across sectors, integrated services and innovative funding models. In doing so, systems can be truly responsive to the changing and flexible paths taken by learners to education and employment. This infrastructure can span informational technology and administrative and business service to physical building design and upgrades.
All partners emphasized that investment in career advising, coaching and job search professionals who are often “overloaded and undervalued” as critical to build a cohesive career preparation ecosystem with seamless transitions among education and work experiences.
Promising potential of federal stimulus funding: All panelists elevated federal stimulus funding as a historic opportunity to reimagine infrastructure and state initiative investment in the lens of CTE Without Limits and not just make upgrades to existing systems.

During the breakout sessions, attendees elevated the importance of involving learner voice in the design of career preparation ecosystems and prioritizing the needs of learners with those of other stakeholders such as government and industry. Attendees also highlighted the need for manageable, tangible steps from both the top down and the bottom up to enact lasting change, and the acknowledgement that true cohesion between systems of learning and work is extremely complex and all partners will be learning during the execution of this principle.

First Steps

The foundational steps offered by the panelists may seem obvious at first glance, but are often skipped in favor of pursuing project-based work and are critical to establishing a shared understanding of success.

Shared Vision and Definitions: Chocolaad elevated the importance of cultivating a shared vision, metrics and data infrastructure among all stakeholders at the outset of this work. The need for comprehensive, informed and accurate data was termed a “shining light” for executing both this first step and the principle at large.
Leadership Buy-in: Winters emphasized the importance of governors and other top leaders specifically communicating their commitment to making systemic change and collaboration a priority when current systems are designed to encourage siloed progress.
Equity at the Center: Ahmad elevated the importance of centering equity, a foundational commitment within CTE Without Limits, in all aspects of implementation but particularly in determining the “who and the why” of systemic change. The prior two recommendations are strongly connected to this step, as a shared understanding and equity is critical to measuring progress towards equitable career preparation ecosystems.

Visit the CTE Without Limits web page to read the full vision and access resources to communicate the vision to stakeholders, including a promotional video, slide deck and five sector-focused fact sheets.

Register for Advance CTE’s second lunch and learn scheduled for June 22 at 4:00PM ET featuring Amanda Bergson-Shilcock, Senior Fellow at the National Skills Coalition; Mimi Lufkin, CEO Emerita at the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity; and Stephanie McGencey, Executive Director at the American Youth Policy Forum

By Stacy Whitehouse in Uncategorized
Tags: career preparation, CTE Without Limits, Infrastructure, Webinars

Report Describes What Else States Should Do To Support Career Advising and Development

Tuesday, February 6th, 2018

Today, Advance CTE and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) released a report exploring the strategies currently in place across the country to support career advising and development efforts. Too often, career advising and development only occurs at the high school level, even though learners should have access to career awareness, exploration and planning activities from elementary school all the way through postsecondary education. Anecdotally, many state and local leaders assume that this is not happening to the extent that it should be, but there has not yet been an in-depth examination of the data.

This topic has been a key focus of the New Skills for Youth (NSFY) initiative, a partnership of the Council of Chief State School Officers, Advance CTE and Education Strategy Group, generously funded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. NSFY has provided funding to 10 states to transform their career readiness systems, and all 10 participating states have strategies in place to improve their career advising and development activities.

Advance CTE, as part of NSFY, partnered with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) to conduct research with three questionnaires. Advance CTE surveyed State CTE Directors, and ASCA sent separate surveys to a selection of school counselors and to State School Counseling Directors, in states where that role has been specifically identified. Some of the key findings include:

Across the board, states are not overly confident in the effectiveness of their career advising and development systems. Fifty-eight percent believe they are only somewhat effectively serving K-12 students, and 55 percent believe they are either only somewhat effective or not effective at serving postsecondary CTE students.
States, on average, are supporting a multitude of strategies at the K-12 level for career advising and development (an average of 5.7 strategies), yet they report mixed levels of effectiveness for both the individual strategies and collectively.
Similarly, school counselors also employ many strategies (an average of 5.8) in their career advising and development work and generally feel more optimistic about the effectiveness of their strategies than states do about state-level strategies.
School counselors who connect students with CTE coursework and career pathways find it an effective career advising and development strategy, but relatively few school counselors are able to make these connections:
- Only 27 percent of middle school counselors report that they connect students with CTE coursework or career pathways, even though this strategy is rated one of the more effective among those who use it, with 87 percent of the school counselors who use it in middle school labeling it as effective or extremely effective; and
- Sixty percent of high school counselors use connecting students with CTE coursework and career pathways as a career advising and development strategy, and 91 percent of those find it effective or extremely effective, with a full 50 percent labeling it extremely effective.
School counselors struggle with balancing their heavy workloads and other counseling responsibilities, and they want more professional development and community conversations around career readiness to support their students more effectively.

The report examined numerous strategies currently in place to support career advising and development efforts. Wisconsin’s Academic and Career Plan, for example, is an ongoing process for middle and high school students that involves coordinated conversations around career interests and options, and that helps students make informed choices about career pathways. Texas has spent the last few years developing extensive virtual supports for school counselors, available through TXCTE.org and Texas OnCourse. These resources provide school counselors with messaging materials, lesson plans and other information on CTE and career advising. Maryland has leveraged state and organizational partnerships to develop several career advising strategies at the elementary and middle school levels, which incorporate career awareness and exposure with civic engagement and financial literacy.

To hear more about this report, join our webinar on February 20, which will feature presentations from ASCA and Advance CTE, as well as a local CTE practitioner.

Ashleigh McFadden, State Policy Manager

By admin in Publications, Research, Uncategorized
Tags: Career Advisement, career preparation, individual learning plans, school counselors

Posts Tagged ‘career preparation’

Pushing the Limits: South Carolina

CTE Without Limits Summer Lunch and Learn #1 Recap: Building Foundational Relationships and Infrastructure Key Areas of Focus for First Vision Principle

Report Describes What Else States Should Do To Support Career Advising and Development

Series

Archives