Posts Tagged ‘Fall Meeting’

Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Collaborating to Provide Every Student Access to High-Quality Career Learning

Wednesday, October 10th, 2018

This post is written by Project Lead The Way, a Diamond Level sponsor of the 2018 Advance CTE Fall Meeting.

Project Lead the Way LogoIf learners don’t know what’s possible, they can’t explore opportunities available to them and pursue paths that position them to thrive.

It is because of this that Project Lead The Way (PLTW) believes every student deserves access to high-quality career learning experiences – that is, learning experiences that show students the array of opportunities that exist and empower them to develop the knowledge and skills they need to take advantage of those opportunities.

PLTW’s Career Learning Approach

To support our career learning philosophy, PLTW provides transformative learning experiences for students and teachers across the United States through seamless, scaffolded PreK-12 curricular pathways and teacher training in computer science, biomedical science and engineering.

These efforts are proving effective. Independent third parties validate PLTW’s work, and we hear stories of impact every day from students and teachers nationwide. One PLTW middle school student stated:

PLTW has made me think of goals that I never would have even thought of in the first place, and given me the confidence to pursue them.”

This approach to the classroom is invaluable for learners and businesses. Especially, as industries express concerns about a possible skills gap in the future workforce.

Linking Career Learning and CTE

Career learning exists in direct alignment with Career Technical Education (CTE). Really, CTE is career learning, and vice versa.

In communities across the country, CTE leaders and PLTW work together to provide learners with critical learning opportunities. But we have much more work to do. We need to revolutionize the approach to PreK-12 education, with an emphasis on learner-driven career learning experiences, starting at an early age. This includes equipping students with ways to measure their mastery of the skills in a manner that provides value and currency beyond high school. It also includes engaging all relevant stakeholders – from school administrators and educators, to industry, to public officials – in these efforts.

We look forward to continuing this conversation at the 2018 Advance CTE Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland and discussing the ways we can collaborate to advance this important work. Learners are depending on us, and we can’t afford not to act.

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a nonprofit organization that provides a transformative learning experience for PreK-12 students and teachers across the U.S. PLTW empowers students to develop in-demand, transportable knowledge and skills through pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science. PLTW’s teacher training and resources support teachers as they engage their students in real-world learning. Approximately 11,500 elementary, middle, and high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia offer PLTW programs. For more information on Project Lead The Way, visit pltw.org.

By admin in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
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Advance CTE Fall Meeting Sponsor Blog: Making the Most of School Counselors in Career Development

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018

This post is written by the Fleck Education and Thomas P. Miller & Associates, a Gold Level sponsor of the 2018 Advance CTE Fall Meeting.

School counselors find connecting learners with Career Technical Education (CTE) coursework and career pathways to be an effective career advising and development strategy.  Yet, few counselors are able to make these connections. In their report, “The State of Career Technical Education” Career Advising and Development, Advance CTE and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) looked to see if states and their school counselors are using effective strategies, finding that more than half (58 percent) of states believe “they are only somewhat effectively serving K-12 learners with career advising and development systems” and less than 30 percent of middle school counselors connect students with CTE coursework or career pathways, despite the fact that the majority (87 percent) of those who use this strategy find it effective or extremely effective.

In their study of school counselors’ perceptions of competency in career counseling, Morgan, Greenwaldt, and Gosselin (2014) found that while school counselors did not identify specific training areas that would have helped them, they did acknowledge that continuing education was imperative based on what they received in their graduate preparation programs.  Overall, they mostly relied on their professional networks for support, describing casual, question-and-answer partnerships being used most frequently.

As providers of professional development, we witnessed this desire to consult and collaborate in our recent work conducting workshops with local State CTE Directors and school counselors.  Overwhelmingly, school counselors appreciated having a facilitated “nuts and bolts” discussion about CTE and programs of study, but especially valued being given the time to collaborate with one another.  This was reflected in a sample of their feedback on what they found helpful:

Because Advance CTE is recommending more effective professional development and resources to school counselors, and the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) now requires the provision of professional development for a wide variety of CTE professionals, CTE programs of study might consider the following opportunities:

Finally, professional development that focuses on the practical skills of career counseling will help fill the knowledge gap experienced by most of today’s working school counselors.  This could include a “refresher” on interpreting career assessment results, how to have developmentally appropriate career conversations with students, and identifying connections between Career Clusters® or areas of interest.

Fleck Education and Thomas P. Miller & Associates will attend the 2018 Advance CTE Fall Meeting in Baltimore scheduled for October 22-24, 2018. For more information on our services, please contact Kelly Dunn at kelly@fleckeducation.com.

By admin in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
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Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA, to Keynote Advance CTE Fall Meeting

Monday, October 1st, 2018

We are excited to announce that Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA, will keynote the Advance CTE Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland later this month. This meeting will occur on the heels of the passing of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) and ahead of many state elections. The Fall Meeting is designed to empower state leaders of Career Technical Education (CTE) with the information, knowledge and skills they need to lead over the coming months of transition and change.

Humpton will underscore the importance of being a bold leader who is willing to take risks and strive for quality. While there is much uncertainty and potential challenges ahead for state CTE leaders, it is also a great time for opportunity and innovation. She will discuss her role as CEO, and how she serves as an inspiring leader to 50,000 people across the United States.

Nicole Howard, Communications Associate

By admin in Advance CTE Fall Meeting
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CTE Programs Motivate Students with Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship

Friday, November 7th, 2014

Industry-recognized certification is a key part of successful CTE programs, allowing schools to validate technology skills while helping students build their resumes and preparing them to win jobs and internships.

Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, is the world leader in performance-based certification exams and practice test solutions for academic institutions, currently delivering nearly 3 million certification exams each year around the world. Many students see the value of certification, but a good healthy dose of competition never hurts.

Thirteen years ago Certiport held the first Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) World Championship, a competition to designed to inspire more students to earn MOS certification. Over time the competition has grown in popularity and now educators use it to inspire greatness and generate excitement about certification among their students.

This year more than 300,000 students in the United States entered the MOS competition to demonstrate their level of proficiency in utilizing the world’s foremost desktop computing applications. 40 finalists traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to the MOS U.S. National Championship, where they participated in timed exams and interviews to demonstrate their expertise in Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs. The champions in each program, along with a chaperone, won an all-expense-paid trip to participate in the 2014 MOS World Championship in Anaheim, California.

One of those world finalists, Tyler Millis, is a student of Dunbar High School in tylerFlorida. Dunbar is a magnet school in Ft. Myers, Florida with an enviable CTE program. Dunbar’s Technology Academy Programs offer an outstanding 24 certifications and has certified hundreds of high school students in MOS over the past several years.

Tyler heard about the competition from his teacher, Denise Spence, who has sent finalists in the past. “My teachers all supported me in everything I did and Ms. Spence encouraged me to do my best so I could make it to the World Championship,” said Tyler. He did, and he is already looking ahead since students are allowed to compete for a second time in different exam tracks. “I’m really excited to come back next year if I can,” he said.

Tyler beat out 123 finalists from 40 countries and won the MOS World Championship for PowerPoint 2007 and has become a local celebrity, but the proof is in the pudding, so they say – Tyler has an application development job at a local software engineering company and says winning the MOS World Championship will look amazing on his resume.

Participating in the MOS World Championship is easy – any state, district or school can promote it with marketing materials readily available from Certiport and students enter the competition simply by checking a box when they take MOS certification. Top scorers will be invited to the 2015 MOS United States Championship and the U.S. winners will be invited to compete in the 2015 MOS World Championship in Dallas, Texas next August.

In addition to MOS, Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs including: the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Microsoft Certified Educator program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, the HP Accredited Technical Associate, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Certified User certification program, and the IC3 Digital Literacy certification.Certiport-Pearson-Logo-Final (1)

Certiport was a wonderful sponsor of our 2014 Fall Meeting held in late October. To learn more about how Certiport and the MOS World Championship can help your CTE program teach and validate in-demand workforce skills with industry-recognized certification, visit www.certiport.com.

By admin in Advance CTE Fall Meeting, Resources
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NASDCTEc Fall Meeting Blog Series: The State of CTE: Employer Engagement

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

In late October, at NASDCTEc’s annual Fall Meeting, five state and business leaders joined a panel to discuss their reactions to The State of Career Technical Education: Employer Engagement in CTE, a paper to be released accompanied by a free webinar (register now) on December 3rd. The following are highlights from the panel.

Marie Barry, Director of Career and Technical Education, New Jersey Department of Education, started us off by highlighting ways in which state leaders can use the report once it is released. First, she suggested using it as a reflection tool to answer questions such as: does your state have the right employers at the table? How can your state help in defining what a quality employer and CTE partnership is? She also encouraged states to employee a model of working with schools to ensure states are engaging businesses effectively, while also finding businesses to champion CTE in the state.

Next, Andrew Musick, Director of Policy and Research, New Jersey Business & Industry Association spoke about his group’s support of an effort to pass an eight-bill package, which among other objectives, would increase funding for the state’s Country Vocational Technical Schools. Along with the eight bills, which delve into everything from funding and teacher preparedness to implementation of indicators for student career readiness, Musick identified further goals:

  1. Focus on workforce alignment;
  2. Promote CTE as a resource for employers;
  3. Create a strong infrastructure for school and employer partnerships

Lolita Hall, State CTE Director, Virginia Department of Education, showcased a premier partnership example the Virginia Department of Education has with the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. Through this partnership, the Association has place over 1,000 students in automobile internships since 2000. Using this collaboration as a model, Hall cited the following steps in developing an effective partnership:

Lastly, Matthew James, President and CEO, Peninsula Council for Workforce Development, Newport News, Virginia, provided a call to action to states. “Your advantage is relevancy; there is a sense of urgency. Entrepreneurs need you.” Though CTE has the opportunity to create a workforce ready population, he stated the importance of recognizing the international implications developing career-ready students has on the U.S. “Businesses will leave if you don’t provide a skilled workforce,” said James.

For more information and resources from the 2014 Fall Meeting, visit the Fall Meeting page.

Katie Fitzgerald, Communications Associate 

By admin in Advance CTE Fall Meeting, Meetings and Events, Publications
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Fall Meeting: Being an Innovative Leader During Tough Times

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Given the tough fiscal climate, states are being asked to do more with less. During the opening session at NASDCTEc’s Fall Meeting, states shared how they are continuing to expand CTE and be innovative in their approach, despite funding cuts and dwindling resources.

John Fischer, State Director of CTE in Vermont, spoke about a consortium of New England states leveraging their resources to ensure that high schools graduates are prepared for college and careers in the 21st century. For example, partner states are working together to build flexible pathway and proficiency based graduation models together.

Sherry Key, State Director of CTE in Alabama, shared the work being done by her state on a commission that Alabama has created to look at the future of CTE. The Career and Technical Education Commission will review the status of secondary CTE programs as well as the needs of employers in the state, and then make recommendations on how to strengthen and support CTE programs. Despite state budget crises, Alabama has chosen to focus on CTE as a way to help the economy and get people back to work.

T.J. Eyer, Division Administrator for CTE in Montana, discussed the work that Montana is doing around the transition to Programs of Study. Montana is prioritizing all of its Perkins funds to focus on Programs of Study until all programs meet RPOS standards. See his PowerPoint presentation for more information.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

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NASDCTEc Fall Meeting: OVAE Holds Perkins Listening Session

Friday, November 5th, 2010

The concluding session at last week’s Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland was a listening session on Perkins reauthorization, moderated by Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education, Brenda Dann-Messier, and Sharon Miller, the director of the Division of Academic and Technical Education. Assistant Secretary Dann-Messier told the attendees that this listening session was going to be the start of a national conversation about Perkins reauthorization. She and her staff plan to host a series of listening sessions that will conclude at NASDCTEc’s Spring meeting in April 2011. She also said OVAE is soliciting feedback and comments from the public about Perkins reauthorization at cteconversations@ed.gov.

The session was structured around four topic areas: Programs of Study, secondary to postsecondary transitions, performance measures, and whether there should be more specific or common measures and definitions, including regulations.

Programs of Study

o   Need to better engage postsecondary, but Perkins does not mandate secondary and postsecondary collaboration

o   Need a clear definition of POS

o   Not all community colleges offer all POS, so it can be limiting for students

o   It is also limiting for students that many four-year colleges do not accept credit from two-year institutions

Secondary to Postsecondary Transitions

o   Two-year schools are struggling to get four-year schools to accept credit

o   Not all states have statewide articulation agreements

o   As more and mores students flood into community colleges, there is less of a priority in serving high school students through articulation agreements and dual enrollment

Performance Measures

o   Academic attainment at secondary level – because students are often tested before 11th grade (when most students begin CTE), it is tough to the impact of CTE on academic attainment

o   Certificate completion at postsecondary level – the results go to the students, and it is hard for states to track this information

o   Technical skill attainment at secondary level – this is tough to measure, and is not always appropriate at the secondary level

o   Placement at the secondary level – tough to track because of FERPA restrictions on collecting data

Common measures/definitions and regulations

By admin in Legislation, Meetings and Events
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NASDCTEc Fall Meeting: Levers of Change

Friday, November 5th, 2010

During a workshop session facilitated by Langdon Morris of Innovation Labs, Fall Meeting attendees learned about the “levers of change” though a series of case studies aimed at highlighting how companies have transformed their brand, their strategies and their vision. Lessons learned at this session were translated to how State Directors and the CTE community can transform CTE by putting the new vision, Reflect, Transform, Lead, into action as attendees worked together in small groups.

One of the takeaways from this session was that failure is not always a bad thing because the faster you fail, the quicker you can reach success.

We also learned that the closer you get to changing a system, the harder it pushes back. Therefore, each movement, company or organization needs three players to make change happen:

These three players must work together in order for change to happen. Who serves in these roles in your organization?

By admin in Meetings and Events
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