CTE Without Limits « Advance CTE Blog

Maine’s Early College Programs: Empowering Local CTE Choices for Early College Options

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023

Providing equitable access to programs and opportunities by removing barriers to access based on location, socioeconomic situation or other factors is a key component of ensuring each learner can access Career Technical Education (CTE) without borders. This blog shares two programs as promising practices in Maine that allow all learners, regardless of location or socioeconomic situation to access dual-enrollment and early postsecondary learning opportunities.

Maine offers two primary programs within their early college program offerings: the Dual Enrollment Career Technical Education Program and the Aspirations Program. A promising practice and important aspect of these programs is empowering local districts and CTE centers to choose the program and partner institution that best fits the needs of their learners.

The Dual Enrollment Career Technical Education Program (Title 20-A, Chapter 229) focuses on fostering a cohort-based approach to provide students in their junior and senior years with access to college credit-earning CTE courses. This program is only open to the state’s CTE centers and to be eligible for the program a CTE center must meet the following requirements:

Programming begins with the student’s junior year in secondary school
Includes up to 3 years of summer career academies
Includes a college freshman seminar experience
Meets national concurrent enrollment standards
Concludes at the end of summer following the student’s senior year in secondary school
Includes college course work that provides the opportunity to earn a general associate’s degree allowing students of many diverse interests the opportunity to transfer credits earned to postsecondary education programs of their individual choosing

Additionally, CTE centers must include individual learning plans, academic and career assessment, college and career advising, career exploration, and job-shadowing opportunities matched to achieve the learner’s individual academic and career goals.

The Dual Enrollment CTE Program is optional, allowing schools to choose to participate if the program meets their needs and the needs of their learners. Maine’s 27 CTE centers and regions can partner with the University of Maine system, Maine Community College System, Maine Maritime Academy or approved independent institutions like the Bridge Academy Maine. The Bridge Academy Maine specifically works to offer college-level courses to Maine’s CTE centers providing hands-on experience. Offering programs that provide both career and college-readiness CTE opportunities enhances the options available to learners within the state.

Understanding that there are costs outside of just tuition, the Dual Enrollment CTE program also covers additional related costs to further enhance access and better support equity of the program. Some of the costs that centers can be reimbursed for are professional development, learning management systems, transportation costs, books, and work-based learning summer academies. CTE centers are able to utilize the reimbursement funds both for initial program startup costs as well as for the continuation of programs. The Dual Enrollment CTE Program is managed by the Office of Workforce Development and Innovative Pathways.

Promising practices:

Empowering schools and districts with the option to participate and to partner with the institution that best fits their needs
Reimbursement of costs outside of just tuition that can apply for both program startup and continuation costs

Since 1997 the Aspirations Program (Title 20-A, Chapter 208-A) has provided eligible learners the opportunity to receive academic credits towards a high school diploma and an associate or baccalaureate level degree through dual-enrollments and successful completion of college-level courses at approved Maine institutions. As a part of the Aspirations Program, learners may earn up to 12 free credits per academic year with a maximum of six credits per semester. This program is available to all Maine secondary schools and is also available to learners who are homeschooled.

The Aspirations Program allows learners to take courses during the summer, providing flexibility for learners and families. Summer programming has proven to be very successful with strong enrollment and completion rates showcasing the importance of not only empowering schools and districts but also empowering learners.

Understanding that there are transportation barriers, including those living in rural and remote populations in the state, programs can also apply for remote instruction hosted by the approved institutions. This open access, regardless of the type of institution or location, provides greater access to a larger population of learners. The Aspirations Program is funded through the Department of Secondary Education’s general budget. State funding of dual and concurrent enrollment is an important aspect of supporting the ability of learners to access this opportunity.

Promising practices:

State funding for up to 12 credits per learner
Providing flexibility for learners to take courses in the summer
Empowering schools and districts to partner with the institution that best fits their needs
Programs can apply for remote instruction to increase access for learners in rural and remote areas

To learn more about the impact of state funding on dual enrollment, read Dr. Kristin Corkhill’s research on The Impact of State Funding on Dual Enrollment Participation in Career, Technical and Agricultural Education Programs. An alumnus of the inaugural cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation, Dr. Corkhill’s research was conducted as part of the Real World Project capstone project.

For more information on helping learners access high-quality CTE and early postsecondary opportunities without geographical barriers, read the CTE Without Borders Policy Playbook in the Leaning That Works Resource Center.

Paul Mattingly, Senior Policy Associate

By Layla Alagic in CTE Without Limits
Tags: career advising, Career Exploration, college and career readiness, CTE Without Limits, dual enrollment, Maine, state funding, workforce development

2023 Fall Meeting Keynote and Awards Dinner Celebrates CTE Leaders of Today and Tomorrow

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023

This year, we welcomed over 200 attendees for the Advance CTE Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland to make meaningful connections and ignite innovation to Elevate Career Technical Education’s (CTE) Impact. Our general sessions featured leaders from across the CTE community who are going above and beyond to ensure each learner can achieve CTE without limits.

Keynote: The Work Ahead – CTE and the Future of Work

Our keynote speaker was Chike Aguh, an education and workforce development innovator who is a former Chief Innovation Officer at the U.S. Department of Labor and currently a Senior Advisor for the Project on Workforce Harvard. Chike set the tone for Fall Meeting early by sharing how his parents, first-generation immigrants to the U.S., had CTE-connected careers, which paved the way for his own success which included serving the President of the United States. Chike knows that more remarkable stories like this are made possible because of the work that CTE leaders do. His presentation explored the question:

What world are we preparing our learners for, and how does Career Technical Education prepare them for it?

Chike’s message was clear – the world of work is changing dramatically and CTE needs to meet the challenge. Some changes have already happened, such as automation and remote work from industries ranging from loan administration to transportation. Other changes are yet to come, and they continue to profoundly change and in some cases put at risk jobs that Americans rely on.

The way CTE responds to these challenges, according to Chike, is by equipping learners with both “timeless” skills and “just in time” skills. These skills don’t just make learners prepared for the workforce, they make them economically indispensable.

One resonating message from Chike is that “‘Career Technical Education’ is too small a term for what CTE leaders are doing and what they need to do”. He applauded CTE leaders and educators for the work that they do every day, yet stressed the hard work that lies ahead for CTE in empowering the workforce of the future.

Star of Education Awards

Fall Meeting also served as an opportunity to celebrate state CTE leaders who are making significant contributions to elevating CTE’s impact in their state.

The State CTE Leadership Rising Star Award, awarded to Amy Miller, recognizes new CTE leaders who are actively engaged with and dedicated to advancing a vision for CTE that is committed to quality, equity and access within their state. Miller began her role as Assistant Director of CTE at the South Dakota Department of Education in 2020 following a career as a family and consumer science teacher, CTE director and high school principal.

The State CTE Distinguished Leadership Award, awarded to Dr. Sarah Heath, recognizes current and former state CTE leaders who have a distinguished and tenured history of service and have demonstrated the highest level of commitment to advancing a vision for high-quality and equitable CTE at the state and national levels. Dr. Heath, who served as President of the Advance CTE Board of Directors from 2020-2022, has held the title of Associate Vice Chancellor for CTE and State CTE Director in Colorado since 2015 following positions as a computer science and business educator, state program director and local system administrator.

In their acceptance remarks, both leaders emphasized the importance of their state and local partners’ shared commitment to innovation and the needs of learners as central to their success. Dr. Heath in particular elevated the unique community of the “CTE family” that connects leaders across the country.

Preparations are already underway for the Advance CTE 2024 Spring Meeting in Arlington, Virginia from April 29-May 1, 2024! Visit the event page to mark your calendar and learn more.

Layla Alagic, Digital Communications Associate
Stacy Whitehouse, Associate Director, Communications

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: 21st Century Skills, Automation, CTE Fall Meeting, CTE Without Limits, Department of Labor, workforce development

Advance CTE 2023 Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Diamond Sponsor, iCEV – 5 Steps Toward Building a Sustainable CTE Program

Friday, September 29th, 2023

As a State Career and Technical Education (CTE) leader, you know the value of CTE in preparing learners for a wide range of work opportunities. But to elevate CTE’s impact, it’s essential to use your expertise to build programs that grow and thrive.

Through our conversations with CTE champions, here are five top tips we’ve summarized that are crucial to building a sustainable CTE program.

After reviewing each strategy, you’ll be better able to pursue the Advance CTE vision of CTE Without Limits.

1. Articulate Your Purpose

Identify your purpose and goals for your state’s CTE programs from the beginning. Ensure your objectives are clearly defined so you can use them to make your decisions. Consistent focus on your core goals is essential to developing a viable program.

Once you’ve defined your goals clearly, share the program’s value with your stakeholders. Prospective learners will gain insight into how the program could benefit their future.

2. Choose Relevant Courses

A key benefit of CTE is developing skills directly applicable to real-world work. Offering the right pathways and courses to teach these skills is a huge piece of any successful program.

Stay in tune with in-demand skills across industries and which careers learners are interested in. By implementing diverse courses with transferable skills, you’ll go further in preparing the next generation of workers.

3. Pursue Professional Development

Implementing ongoing professional development opportunities keeps educators current on CTE objectives, industry knowledge, and teaching strategies.

Effective professional development can take many forms, but supporting CTE instructors with relevant and varied opportunities demonstrates your commitment to their success in the classroom.

4. Build Partnerships within the Community

Connecting with businesses in local communities can create many opportunities for learners, including internships or part-time employment.

Contact companies and express your interest in creating partnerships between their professionals and learners. Making business connections at the state level can boost opportunities for programs and learners throughout your state.

5. Evaluate Your Programs

Implementing CTE at the state level is a long-term commitment to a model that will grow and evolve in a changing world.

From the beginning, gather feedback from involved parties—educators, learners, families, and industry partners. Collecting feedback on the effectiveness of a program offers immense value to all of these stakeholders.

Utilize data to determine if your CTE program is meeting its objectives and to make informed decisions.

Finally, think about how to support learners through career and technical student organizations (CTSOs), expanded program offerings, and investments in technology. Making continual improvements statewide will lead to long-term success and sustainability.

Pursue CTE Without Limits in Your Program

When you use your expertise to build sustainable CTE programs, you can pursue the vision of CTE Without Limits and provide access to a diverse audience of learners.

But to provide a cohesive, flexible learning environment to better achieve these goals, many programs are relying on CTE data.

Visit the iCEV booth during the Advance CTE Fall Conference to learn more about how iCEV can support you in acquiring and using data to make decisions.

By Layla Alagic in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
Tags: 21st Century Skills, CTE Without Limits, CTSO, Fall Meeting, iCEV, internships, professional development, Sponsors

Funding Career Technical Education: Using the 2023 State of CTE Funding Report Resources

Thursday, September 21st, 2023

Advance CTE’s newly released 2023 State of CTE: An Analysis of State Secondary CTE Funding Models highlights how states and the District of Columbia provide high-quality Career Technical Education (CTE) through various secondary CTE funding models and approaches. This blog, the second in a series, describes ways to use the website and supporting resources.

Overview

This resource builds on baseline research conducted in 2014 by RTI International, with the support of Advance CTE, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, and is generously supported by the Walton Family Foundation. Advance CTE is committed to supporting states as they design equitable funding models that direct funding where it is needed most, as described in Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits). Expanding knowledge about funding models and approaches for state secondary CTE is critical for state leaders to provide high-quality CTE for diverse learners. The website consists of an executive summary, research report and three case studies, interactive national funding landscape map and downloadable state-by-state funding table. Below are tips on using and sharing this research with your colleagues and stakeholders, with links to the resources in each header.

Executive Summary

Read the executive summary to get a background of CTE funding foundational basics, a project overview and recommendations for revising and implementing more equitable funding models. This is a great resource for you to pass along to policymakers, legislative staff, state budget staff, partner agencies or local CTE leaders in your state. Consider adding the summary as a pre-reading assignment or an agenda item during your next meeting about state funding.

Research Report and Case Studies

The research report provides a 50-state landscape of state secondary CTE funding, highlights key trends in state funding models, and provides recommendations to advance equitable, learner-centered funding designs. You can learn about some of the ways states made adjustments to their models in the past decade and read examples of how states have designed elements of their funding models to address CTE program quality, access and completion. Case studies from Massachusetts, North Dakota and Texas showcase how three states implement different categorical funding models.

These case-use examples provide ideas for you to maximize the website and supporting resources in conversations about CTE funding.

National Funding Landscape Map

The interactive map provides a comparison of secondary CTE models across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Identify your state’s funding model and then compare it to other states with the same funding model. You can also compare your state’s allocation to other states with similar demographics and CTE learner participation numbers. Use the information for benchmarking purposes when discussing – or advocating for – secondary CTE funding in your state.

State-by-State Funding Table

The state-by-state funding table provides descriptions of each state’s funding approach, allocations from fiscal year 2022 and sources for legislative and regulatory documents. You have the option of downloading the table for additional analysis. Run keyword searches in the descriptions for “enrollment” or “average daily membership” or “ADM” to identify how states structure funding around learner enrollment. Run a keyword search for “grants” to identify which states are using competitive or one-time grants to support secondary CTE. Compare models and approaches from 2012 and 2022 to identify states that have changed their model and/or approach in the last decade. This is helpful information to reference if your state is considering or is in the process of changing its secondary CTE funding model and/or approach.

ACTION: Bookmark the website for easier future access, watch the explainer video and share this blog with your colleagues.

Be sure to read the first blog in this series, Funding Career Technical Education: Secondary CTE Funding Basics, which provides a background on CTE funding and describes various models and approaches states use to fund secondary CTE. In the next blog in this series, we will explore how states have incorporated equity elements into their funding models to address CTE program quality, access and completion.

You can read more about funding in the following Advance CTE resources:

Dr. Laura Maldonado, Senior Research Associate

By Layla Alagic in Public Policy, Research
Tags: cte funding, CTE Without Limits, FY 2022, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Secondary CTE, State of CTE, texas, US Department of Education

Advancing Equity in CTE: Elevating the Knowledge of a New Generation of Leaders

Tuesday, August 8th, 2023

Advance CTE is excited to introduce a collection of briefs that feature the original research conducted by select Fellows from our inaugural cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation (Fellowship). These briefs cover different topics within the CTE landscape and alignment with Advance CTE’s CTE Without Limits’ principles for advancing equitable, high-quality CTE programs for every learner.

The Fellowship strives to address the growing shortage of state postsecondary CTE leadership by closing racial representation gaps and removing equity barriers to leadership advancement. Through individualized supports, intentional networks and a real-world fellowship project, Advance CTE-ECMCF Fellows gain the skills and network to pursue leadership positions and advance high-quality, equitable state postsecondary CTE systems. The Real-World Project is a capstone of the Fellowship. By highlighting selected projects and citing Fellows’ research as contributions to the national CTE landscape, we aspire to elevate a new generation of CTE leaders.

The first brief, Career and Technical Education and the Justice System: State Strategies to Improve Outcomes for Justice-Involved Learners in CTE Programs, features research from Fellows alumni Richard Crosby and Janelle Washington.

High-quality education opportunities for justice-involved learners have demonstrated a strong economic return; a study produced by the RAND Corporation found that, for every $1 invested in prison education programs, there is a $4-5 reduction in incarceration costs during the first three years post-release of a prisoner. Despite these benefits, only seven states are currently opting to allocate the maximum allowable amount of state leadership set-aside funds to improving outcomes for this population of learners. This brief offers actionable recommendations for state leaders to address systemic barriers through changes to funding, administrative and program quality policies to have a long-term and lasting reduction impact on recidivism.

The second brief, a Policy Review of the Impact of House Bill 444 on Career and Technical Agricultural Education Dual Enrollment at Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) Institutions, highlights the research of Fellowship alumni Dr. Kristin Corkhill.

Dual enrollment is a popular education initiative that has contributed to increased postsecondary enrollment across the Technical College System of Georgia. These programs represent early opportunities for learners to gain industry-aligned skills and develop confidence and awareness of how to be successful in postsecondary programs and generate a highly skilled workforce pipeline to continue to grow the state’s economy. This brief offers recommendations for state leaders on how to continue to support improved enrollment trends.

The third brief, Non-Traditional Learner Participation in Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Programs features research by Fellowship alumni Jean Claude Mbomeda.

The non-traditional gender occupational divide weakens state economies by decreasing economic productivity and reducing diversity in decision-making. By creating gender parity in which “women participate in the labor force at the same rate as men, work the same number of hours as men, and are employed at the same levels as men across sectors,” the United States would see an estimated $4.3 trillion increase in the gross domestic product in 2025.¹ Check out this brief to learn ways that state leaders can strengthen policies to ensure equitable access and outcomes for every learner and better meet the needs of the state’s economy and labor market.

These briefs are the first part of the larger Building a Diverse Leadership Pipeline series, set to be released later this year, that aims to increase leadership stability and achieve more demographically representative state CTE leadership, by providing resources, tools and examples to help state leaders establish a talent pipeline and provide training, mentorship and opportunities for aspiring CTE leaders.

Amy Hodge, Membership & Policy Associate

By Layla Alagic in Advancing Equity in CTE
Tags: CTE Without Limits, Dual and Concurrent Enrollment, ECMC Foundation, ECMCF Fellows, gender equity, Georgia, Justice-involved learners, PSCTE Fellowship, Real-World Project

Advancing Equity in CTE: The Equity-Minded Leadership Framework

Tuesday, July 18th, 2023

This is the third blog in a series of four blogs about the Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation (Fellowship) and provides Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders with a framework by which to develop equitable CTE ecosystems, a foundational approach to ensuring all learners have access to high-quality programs aligned to in-demand high-wage occupations.

Overview

The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation is anchored in the construct of “Equity-Minded Change Leadership” which posits that in order to transform education systems and engage the operations of and organizational structure of education institutions, a lens of “equity-mindedness” has to be clearly defined and used to evaluate learner outcomes. To clearly determine a challenge, adaptive leadership is necessary. The combination of the adaptive leadership theory and the concept of equity-mindedness is the foundation of equity-minded change leadership. Advance CTE chose this framework of equity-minded change leadership because it can support CTE leaders in fostering change and addressing the effects of inequitable systems on learners who have been underserved by education institutions.

Defining the Challenge

In order to transform or mitigate the effects of an inequitable system, the problem has to be clearly defined and categorized to determine the approach leaders should take and which solutions to apply to enhance learner success. “Adaptive challenges linked to differences in how students experience and benefit from education, systematically advantaging some while disadvantaging others, must be recognized and addressed to change education in ways that reduce and eventually resolve systemic equity gaps”.¹ Equity-minded change leadership. Seattle, WA: Bragg & Associates, Inc. Retrieved on April, 12, 2018.[/efn-note] As part of a mandatory real-world research project, each fellow identified a challenge, collected data to describe the scope of the challenge, applied a solution to the challenge, reported on the impact of the intervention, as well as offered recommendations using the adaptive change leadership theory.

A few examples of research topics explored include:

Advancing Equitable Access to CTE Programming in Illinois Correctional Facilities
The Impact of House Bill 444 on Career Technical and Agriculture Education Enrollment at Technical College System of Georgia Institutions
Eliminating the Educational Assessment Score Requirement for Enrollment in Postsecondary Education CTE Programs in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Exploring Equity Gaps and Achievement in the Agriculture Cluster at Rural Community Colleges in Northern California
Increasing the retention rate among African American Males at Greenville Technical College

Analyzing the Gap

How challenges are initially framed are important and essential to applying the appropriate solution to a problem. Equity-mindedness takes into account the current systems, policies, cultural norms and everyday practices being applied in an education institution or agency and evaluates the impact, intentional or unintentional, on individuals or groups. A starting point for the Fellows was to disaggregate data by the special populations and subgroups identified in the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) and analyze learner outcomes for a subset of this group. This analysis revealed gaps in access and outcomes, which were then mapped to root causes that likely require systemic interventions and remedies.

Building Solutions

Equity-minded change leadership offers state leaders an evidence-based approach to deliberately and systematically evaluate impact for learners. In doing so, it holds the potential to be a transformational lever to achieve, fully, the aspirations of CTE Without Limits. During the Fellowship, Fellows applied this framework to their real-world projects with much success. Fellows evaluated equitable access to CTE programming for justice-involved learners, Black males in South Carolina’s technical college system and women in rural communities, among others. CTE has always been a system that was required to be responsive to the needs of industry. As state leaders strive to build high-quality CTE systems, they must also be responsive to the needs of our nation’s increasingly diverse learner population.

Blog 1: Advancing Equity in CTE: Making the Case for Diverse Leadership Pipelines in Career Technical Education

Blog 2: Advancing Equity in CTE: A Review on the Current State of CTE Leadership Programs and Diversification Efforts

Blog 4: Advancing Equity in CTE: Administrative Policy Review – An Assessment of Equitable Practices

Dr. Kevin Johnson, Sr., Senior Advisor and Kimberly Green, former Executive Director

1. Bragg, D., & McCambly, H. (2018). Equity-minded change leadership. Seattle, WA: Bragg & Associates, Inc. Retrieved on April, 12, 2018.

By Layla Alagic in Advancing Equity in CTE
Tags: Access and Equity, California, CTE Leadership, CTE Without Limits, Georgia, Illinois, Perkins V, professional development, South Carolina, texas

CTE Without Borders: Meeting Rural Learners Where They Are

Tuesday, June 13th, 2023

CTE without borders allows learners to engage in learning opportunities of their choosing regardless of their locality. Learners have the flexibility and support to engage in learning opportunities no matter where they live and no matter whether they are engaging in online or hybrid learning or attending courses and programs on school campuses outside of their home districts or local institutions.

CTE without borders calls attention to the geographic dimension of equity and the disparities among learners related to access to high-quality programs that can prepare them for the workforce. Often, learners are excluded from enriching CTE programs and work-based learning opportunities due to geographic barriers.¹ This issue is most common for learners in rural locations but is also experienced in suburban and metropolitan areas. To ensure that the CTE community remains flexible to meet the needs of learners and industry across the country, leaders should enable their CTE systems to provide expanded access to high-quality CTE programs and work-based learning opportunities.

The second release of Advance CTE’s new resource, the CTE Without Borders Policy Playbook, highlights the infrastructure that should be established to expand access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning opportunities and ways leaders can remove barriers to ensure learners and families are informed and supported in expanded access within and across states. This final release in the series articulates the remaining four of six focus areas critical to expanding access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning:

Incentivizing Access With Flexible and Sustainable Funding;
Capturing Learners’ Credits, Credentials and Experiences;
Optimizing the Conditions for Virtual and Hybrid Learning Opportunities; and
Informing and Supporting Learners and Families.

State CTE leaders can learn how to build the infrastructure to expand learners’ access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning opportunities and consider strategies that remove barriers to support learners as they navigate through their CTE programs.

This final release features promising state and local practices from across the country including Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Wyoming and more; strategies to actualize each focus area; and resources to support state and local leaders in providing expanded access within and across states.

Visit the Learning that Works Resource Center to read the final release in the series and for additional resources to support CTE Without Borders.

Haley Wing, Senior Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in CTE Without Limits
Tags: CTE Without Limits, Equity, Georgia, hybrid learning, Kentucky, Ohio, online learning, rural, Wyoming

Perkins Regional Meetings April and May 2023: Key Takeaways

Thursday, June 8th, 2023

Over April and May 2023, Advance CTE hosted three Perkins Regional Meetings across the country in Minneapolis, Baltimore and Phoenix, with over 200 leaders from across 40 states and territories which was made possible through support from the Gates Foundation. The agenda for the three meetings was designed for state leaders from secondary, postsecondary and workforce development to connect and collaborate on ways to enhance their current Career Technical Education (CTE) systems and programs.

States participated in keynote presentations, workshops, roundtables focused on supporting special populations and cross-state sharing sessions with the intent of building and strengthening the career preparation ecosystem for all learners across the nation. State leaders and our Advance CTE team were both energized by the engagement and inspired by the dedication of all those that attended the meetings and are working to create a high-quality and equitable system that supports all CTE learners.

While each state has its own unique challenges, accomplishments and opportunities, certain recurring themes emerged across multiple states. The national CTE landscape is one of great opportunity but will need support to provide access to high-quality experiences for all CTE learners.

Key Takeaways

Accomplishments

Strong partnerships and support between private industry, education and government leaders to support economic development
Implementation of needed improvements garnered from Comprehensive Local Needs Assessments (CLNA) at the state and local levels
Collaboration and cooperation among state workforce agencies and departments of education and higher education during the Perkins Regional Meetings
Work-based learning (WBL) program guidance on how to focus staffing and funding resources

Challenges

CTE instructor training, recruitment and retention
Staff turnover at both the local and state level
Data management, collection and utilization
Collaboration between secondary, postsecondary and workforce development
Capacity building to meet the demands of learners and region-specific needs

Using the information gained at these meetings, CTE leaders will be able to build upon the accomplishments and help provide resources, tools and support to address the challenges within the current system, with an eye towards how states will leverage the potential to revise or update their Perkins V state plans as their original four-year plans come to a close next spring. Advance CTE continues to be available as a resource to provide best practices, information on innovative policies on the horizon and technical assistance to states to achieve our shared vision of Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits).

As states work to address the challenges they face, Advance CTE has numerous resources available below and through the Learning that Works Resource Center to assist with goal set and challenges identified during the meeting:

Perkins V Supports Teacher Recruitment and Retention
This resource discusses the mechanisms in Perkins V that support teacher recruitment and retention, an overview of how this appears in Perkins V state plans and examples of how states are tackling the challenge of recruiting and retaining qualified and diverse CTE instructors.
Championing High-Quality Data
This brief addresses the importance of a unifying vision for education and workforce that draws upon and regularly uses postsecondary CTE data to measure progress and guide state policy and practice.
Beyond the Numbers: Design Principles for CTE Data Reporting and A Toolkit for Communicating CTE Data
This report, developed with input from a shared solutions workgroup of national and state experts, provides nine principles for developing effective and accessible CTE data reporting tools. A companion toolkit contains guidance, best practices and tools that CTE leaders can use to create communications to help stakeholders better understand and act on CTE data.
Coordinating Across Perkins V and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
This guide looks at six opportunities to promote coordination across Perkins V and WIOA as states develop and implement plans under Perkins V.
Strengthening Career Pathways Through the Power of State and Local Partnerships
This resource is the third in a series of policy briefs centered on strengthening career pathways. It offers promising practices for leveraging the strengths of state and local leaders to cultivate sustainable, scalable partnerships and advance high-quality career pathways.

Save the Date for our next in-person opportunity to connect and receive support from Advance CTE! Our 2023 Fall Meeting: Elevating CTE’s Impact, will be held October 16-18 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Paul Mattingly, Senior Policy Associate

By Layla Alagic in Uncategorized
Tags: career pathways, CLNA, CTE instruction, CTE Without Limits, Data Collection, data quality, Industry Collaboration, Learning that Works Resource Center, Perkins, Perkins V, Postsecondary Education, Secondary, turnover, WIOA, work-based learning, workforce development

Innovating State Systems through CTE Without Limits

Thursday, June 1st, 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.

Over the past year, three states – Colorado, Nebraska and South Carolina – leveraged CTE Without Limits in their states to improve Career Technical Education (CTE) practice through technical assistance and strategic planning. Each state took a different approach and focused on a different CTE Without Limits principle, but ultimately each state centered its project around leveraging tools and resources already at its disposal to realign and refocus state practice for all CTE learners. All three states took an innovative approach to revitalizing existing policy and strategy and the alignment work vital to their year-long projects is already paying dividends. For more information about each state’s project check out the previous posts in this blog series.

This year, Advance CTE is continuing to help states innovate their state systems through CTE Without Limits. Earlier this year, we opened an application for technical assistance to help states specifically interested in strategic planning and alignment support. Four states – Indiana, Nevada, Oregon and Rhode Island – are working with Advance CTE and Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) coaches to build strategic goals, centered around a statewide theory of action, or revamp state plans for the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). The initiative, Innovating State Systems through CTE Without Limits, will run from June 2023 to June 2024.

While previous technical assistance efforts were focused on individual state projects, this year’s project builds specifically on the strategic planning process. Each state will create a 12-month action plan and will have opportunities to begin to pilot some of the initiatives embedded in their new strategic plans. Each state will build a statewide team made of stakeholders within and outside of their CTE agency to ensure their strategic goals meet the needs of learners, families, educators and administrators statewide. Participating state team members will also engage in quarterly cross-state sharing sessions to discuss insights and lessons learned.

Advance CTE Senior Advisor and project lead Eliza Fabillar hopes the value of this technical assistance opportunity will be clear: “The Innovating State Systems initiative will help participating states develop and implement strategic priorities to strengthen the career preparation ecosystem for all learners, which will lay the groundwork for continued quality implementation after the project period. Advance CTE members will also benefit from lessons learned, which will be shared with the CTE community.”

Kickoff meetings with each state’s State CTE Director have already started and progress will continue throughout the next year. Stay tuned for future updates about this project.

For more information about CTE Without Limits, visit https://careertech.org/without-limits. To begin processes like this in your own state or locality, view our CTE Without Limits roadmaps and view this resource recap to see how to use these tools step-by-step.

Dan Hinderliter, Senior Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in CTE Without Limits
Tags: Advance CTE State Director, CTE Without Limits, Indiana, Innovation, Nevada, Oregon, rhode island, strategic planning

Why CTE Without Borders?

Monday, May 22nd, 2023

Advance CTE’s new resource, the CTE Without Borders Policy Playbook, calls on leaders to truly meet the needs of learners by removing the geographic barriers that limit access and opportunities, particularly for learners in rural communities. This work is essential to ensure that each learner can access CTE without borders — one of the five principles of Advance CTE’s Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education. Policies and programs should enable, not limit, mobility and access. States should come together to develop and expand new models of collaboration by investing in expanded-access systems that allow access both within and across states.

The first release in the CTE Without Borders series highlights the importance of expanded access and introduces two of the six focus areas critical to expanding access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning: Aligning Partners, Values and Vision and Driving Decisions With Data.

State CTE leaders can learn how expanded access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning opportunities benefits learners, industry, institutions and state labor market demands; consider how to assess current CTE systems to actualize CTE without borders; and prepare their state for expanded access within and across states.

This first release features promising state and local practices from across the country including California, Kansas, Tennessee, Utah and more; strategies to actualize each focus area; and resources to support state and local leaders in providing expanded access within and across states.

Visit the Learning that Works Resource Center to read the first two releases in the series and for additional resources to support CTE Without Borders.