Posts Tagged ‘Spring Meeting’

Pathways for all – With CTE at the Heart

Monday, March 9th, 2015

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the NASDCTEc Spring Meeting. Guest bloggers are partner organizations, supporters and other experts that will be present at the national gathering in Washington, DC in April.

For a very long time, American education has offered an either/or choice for students: Either follow a career track OR enter the (default) baccalaureate track which, while well-intended, is failing LARGE numbers of students. Today’s Pathways model offers a third choice, combining the best of both. And CTE Leaders have an incredible opportunity today to provide leadership in defining and driving the NC3T logo clean largePathways agenda.

At NC3T (National Center for College and Career Transitions), we promote the notion that school districts thrive when they work with employers and postsecondary partners to create a “pathways for all” approach. The Pathways for All approach is more flexible, individualized, and based on the real needs and opportunities in today’s workforce, where skills and knowledge, not years of schooling, leads to meaningful work and family-sustaining earnings.  To accomplish this, each district develops a broad array of pathways, some which are more career- or occupation-specific, and some which are more thematic, like social justice, visual arts, and global leadership.  Ideally, each pathway is designed to lead to several post-secondary options, such as programs leading to certificate programs, associate degrees, and baccalaureate degrees.

To explore this comprehensive Pathways-for-All system, CTE local administrators and state leaders are well positioned (probably best-positioned) to help drive the conversation.  You can drive the Pathways conversation from several entry points, including   Readiness, Teaching and Learning, Effective Employer Engagement, Postsecondary Connections, and Career Development.

Help Define Student Readiness For Work and Life Success
CTE leaders can continue to advance the idea that readiness requires more than academic skills.  Readiness for all students includes Learning Skills, Thinking Skills, Communication Skills, Executive Skills, Persistence and Work Ethic, Interpersonal Competencies, Career Search and Career Management, Civic Awareness and Commitment.

We should stand against definitions that define Career Readiness separately from Postsecondary Readiness.  Yes, there are specific technical skills that are a gateway for certain careers.  But apart from that narrow band of skills, for the most part, the skills and knowledge and attitudes for work success and postsecondary success are the same, but they’re just applied differently based on the learner’s or worker’s context.  A student is really just a worker whose immediate job is learning.

Create Dynamic Teaching and Learning
CTE leaders can work to ensure that CTE teachers learn and apply the most promising and effective teaching practices, utilizing active learning strategies like project-based, problem-based, and inquiry-based learning.  Although CTE content is based on industry-based skills, CTE instruction can easily fall prey to the same trap as a core academic course, in which a teacher “stands and delivers,” conveying information about a career field or the processes of that field, without challenging the students to engage in deeper learning, problem solving, and creativity.  Some CTE teachers deep down may believe that their students can’t learn more deeply, and that simple regurgitation of information and imitation of skills are the best they will be able to accomplish.  This is where strong professional development, and challenging teacher perceptions through collaborative leadership, are essential.

Model effective employer involvement
In a strong pathways system, employers and volunteers are actively involved in classrooms, interacting regularly with students, and helping students get into the workplace.  CTE programs can always get better at utilizing employers in multiple facets of their work.  A good first step is to re-purpose your program Advisory Councils into “Partnership Councils” with the goal of driving deep business-industry involvement in all aspects of instruction, career mentoring, and experiential learning.

Engage leaders from postsecondary education
Each pathway program of study needs active collaboration among teachers and faculty, so that curriculum can be well-aligned and offer early college credits.  CTE teachers and administrators can create the structures and processes for collaboration and recognizing student learning for college credit that others in the school system and colleges can build upon.

Inform Career Exploration
CTE leaders and staff usually have the best understanding and access for career-based information.  They can help inform a comprehensive K-12 career exploration and career development system.

Start the Bigger Conversation
CTE leaders are particularly able, and well-positioned, to develop good working relationships with K-12 system leaders, postsecondary education, and employers. As a result, they are the ideal point people to convene these sectors and begin to explore what a Pathways System looks like.  You can host a business-education summit; create a Readiness-forum among K-12, postsecondary and employers; or call partners together to discuss the merits and challenges of the Pathways-for-All approach.

Positive Momentum
If you’re in the CTE movement, you may already recognize that the wind is behind our backs in this work.  Many educators, parents, and business/community leaders are troubled and looking for better answers: They realize that core standards and testing are necessary, but not sufficient, because alone they do not adequately engage enough students. They recognize that too many students are pursuing college and taking on debt without a realistic career objective. And they understand there is a broad continuum of postsecondary options for which our guidance systems and programs of study don’t match up well. The result is that only 40 percent of our young adults complete an Associate’s degree or BA program, and about half of young adults lack tangible knowledge and skills that are in-demand.

Just promoting college-going isn’t enough: We must promote discovery, exploration and postsecondary education that has purpose.

So, the wind is behind our backs, but it could change direction at any time. We need to act quickly and help build consensus about what a Pathways-for-All system can be in our communities.

Federal rules, regulations and funding are slow in coming, which is why the pioneering leadership we’re seeing at the state and local levels now is so critical. CTE isn’t the full answer, but it is a foundational part of what a pathways system will become, and CTE leaders can help leverage and engage all facets of our education system to create Pathway Systems that work.

Thank you for your indispensable leadership.  We are standing with you.

Hans Meeder, President and Co-Founder
National Center for College and Career Transitions

Thanks to NC3T for being a NASDCTEc Spring meeting sponsor!

By admin in Advance CTE Spring Meeting, Meetings and Events, Resources
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NOCTI: Honoring our Past and Embracing our Future

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015

This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the NASDCTEc Spring Meeting. Guest bloggers are partner organizations, supporters and other experts that will be present at the national gathering in Washington, DC in April.

From our early days 49 years ago as part of the “vocational” teacher certification process, to our current leadership in the areas of technical data-driven instructional improvement, credentialing and digital badging, NOCTI has always been proud to be an important member of the career NOCTI--Navy-11-2009and technical education (CTE) community.  As a non-profit entity lead by a board elected by the 56 state directors of CTE around the country and in US territories, we do our best to stay ahead of the needs of the field we serve. Though we won’t discuss the specifics of those needs in this blog, we will mention how NOCTI is working to provide forward-thinking solutions for the CTE community.

At our core, we consider everyone we work with to be a partner striving to make CTE as strong as it can be.  Recognizing outstanding established and promising CTE teachers and administrators is important to NOCTI and one reason why we provide awards each year to these CTE professionals. NOCTI’s awards focus on the qualities important to our founders and are awarded each year at the ACTE Vision conference.  In addition, we participate in additional opportunities for our students to show off their skills, most recently through the NOCTI-sponsored Video Contest as part of CTE Month.  NOCTI received 44 video submissions from media classrooms across the nation focused on the 2015 theme “Mission CTE.”  Check out the videos here!  Finally, here are a few other resources worth mentioning.

Collaborations: In addition to the numerous industry association partnerships we maintain, we believe that connecting to our community and related communities is critical. NOCTI has close relationships with NASDCTEc and Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) as well as the National Academy Foundation, the International Baccalaureate Program, Mozilla, the National College Test Administrators and the Association of Test Publishers.

Teacher Tests: We continue to fulfill our commitment to expand our current teacher testing battery. We recognize that we are the only organization with the ability to assure that incoming instructors have experiences in all aspects of their particular industry, and that this has always been part of our history. NOCTI has increased its teacher test offerings to reinforce a commitment to this important population.

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA): By leveraging our association with the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS), NOCTI is able to assess experiences that have occurred outside the classroom through Prior Learning Assessments. This service has been particularly successful with our returning servicemen and servicewomen and community college partners.

Digital Badges: NOCTI currently offers over 120 digital badges. We are collaborating with multiple partners to deliver badges that include both summative and formative structures, as well as badges for both cognitive and hands-on skills.  Badges are also being explored that are based on both asynchronous and synchronous evaluation.  Lastly, we have also started work with a number of our industry partners in building customized badging platforms.

Deep Analytical Reports: By utilizing NOCTI-collected data, we can assist states and regions in identifying which programs–and by extension which teachers–are able to deliver technical instruction that facilitates student competence. What would you do as a curricular leader in your state if you were able to objectively identify the best blueprint reading program in your state? We think we know the answer and we are providing the data to help states get there.

Industry Credentials: All NOCTI assessments are industry credentials and include benchmarks established by industry.  When utilized properly, the assessments provide a way to compare student competence against current industry standards in over 100 unique programs of study.  Local industry practitioners play an important role in assisting with the comparison between knowledge and skills learned and applied.  NOCTI also currently delivers over 40 collaborative industry association credentials.

Contact us at nocti@nocti.org  to see how we can help you. NOCTI is excited to be a Gold sponsor of the NASDCTEc Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C.; be sure to seek us out and say hello!

Thank you NOCTI for sponsoring the 2015 Spring Meeting!

By admin in Advance CTE Spring Meeting, Meetings and Events, Resources
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Spring Meeting Recap: CTE & STEM— Making the Connection

Thursday, April 10th, 2014

STEM-CTERepresentatives from the Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and business communities discussed the ways in which STEM and Career Technical Education (CTE) are linked on Wednesday, April 2nd at NASDCTEc’s annual spring meeting. The panel, moderated by Jay Scott Assistant Director at the Kansas Department of Education, explored the ways in which CTE and STEM are connected and examined issue areas which are of interest to both communities. The panel, spurred in part by NASDCTEc’s Associate Executive Director’s recent publication, CTE is your STEM Strategy, tackled this fundamental linkage and looked for ways to build upon this interconnectedness.

Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation (CTEq), started the session off by outlining what a STEM occupation is and the positive impact STEM skills and knowledge have on one’s ability to find gainful employment. Noting that STEM occupations constitute 11 percent of the U.S. workforce, she pointed out that job postings for those with a strong STEM background generally fared much better than those without similar knowledge and skills. She went on to argue that CTE is an effective method of delivery for STEM education and one way to improve upon existing programs that link the two is through greater alignment of CTE programs with the labor market. “Above all, corporate America expects results,” she said. Among other proposals, Dr. Rosen suggested that employers should be engaged (and vice versa) in more meaningful ways and that accountability provisions within current law should be more closely linked with labor market needs.

June Streckfus, Executive Director of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT), focused her remarks on the work her organization is currently doing in the state of Maryland. She outlined the main points of emphasis for her organization and Maryland’s STEM strategy— accelerating student & teacher growth along with cultivating public support for these initiatives. This last point guided the rest of her presentation where she convincingly demonstrated that employer engagement— something the state of Maryland is ideally situated to leverage given its close proximity to many large national employers— was a key tool for improving employment outcomes for students. To support her argument, she highlighted an article that found a strong positive correlation between the number of employer or professional mentor interactions with students and employment outcomes after program completion.

Ted Wells, Chief Strategy Officer for STEM Connector®, rounded out the discussion with an overview of how his organization seeks to support public-private investment in STEM programs. Throughout his presentation he highlighted the importance of CTE and STEM as strategies to effectively address the nation’s skills gap. He went on to argue that this skills gap is clearly evident and that it has persisted for far too long. Wells recommended that CTE be incorporated more heavily into the standards movement, specifically within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common  Core State Standards (CCSS). He also emphasized the importance of involving STEM leaders within the CTE enterprise and stressed the importance of educating policymakers on the importance of these twin issues.

Steve Voytek, Government Relations Associate 

By Steve Voytek in News, Public Policy
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Spring Meeting Recap: #CTE in 140 Characters

Tuesday, April 8th, 2014

twitterLast week, NASDCTEc held its annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. The meeting’s full sessions and lively debate spilled onto Twitter, where participants turned in repeated feats of brevity (unlike this sentence) to sum up the meeting’s lively panel discussions and Q & A in 140 characters or fewer with #ctespringmtg. Thanks to everyone who attended, sponsored, wrote, blogged, tweeted and otherwise engaged with NASDCTEc (@careertech and facebook.com/NASDCTEc) to make last week’s meeting one to remember!

The following are some of the top tweets from this year’s meeting:

NASDCTEc @CTEWorks:  Timm Boettcher of @IWNC_DC: need to change image of varied career options (many of which #cte prepares students for) #ctespringmtg

Glynis O’Leary ‏@GOlearyNYC: “Nothing is as important to national security as education.” – Congressman Jim Langevin, D-RI #ctespringmtg

Nebraska Career Ed ‏@NECareerEd: Career & Technical Education can help resolve the shortage of skilled workers for H3 careers. #CTESpringMtg @CTEWorks

@CTEWorks Fascinating idea! Why aren’t there biz/industry reps required to be on higher ed accrediting boards? Bergeron from @EdProgress #ctespringmtg

NASBE ‏@NASBE: MT @CTEWorks: Takeaway from state associations panel w / @CCSSO @NASBE @NatlGovsAssoc – increased focus on state #cte policy! #ctespringmtg

Business Roundtable ‏@BizRoundtable: @CTEWorks: @dlinn1 from @BizRoundtable: #careerteched needs to be given more credibility, needs to take on more leadership #ctespringmtg

Sean Lynch ACTE ‏@CTEMedia: Joining @CTEWorks for their #ctespringmtg today – excited to learn about how we can partner to make #careerteched work for all students!

NASDCTEc ‏@CTEWorks: Asst Sec Uvin: our work must be responsive, both to labor market needs and to local/state innovation. #CTESpringMtg

Timmothy Boettcher ‏@timmboettcher: #ctespringmtg great discussion on competency based education – anyone have a great example of how to apply this to work based learning?

NOCTI ‏@NOCTI1: Congressman Glenn Thompson R-PA receives Star of Education Award and thanks CTE directors for preparing students for future. #CTESpringMtg

Workforce DQC ‏@WorkforceDQC: Excited to attend & present today at #CTESpringMtg. Great to start the day hearing about aligning postsec w/labor market

Nebraska Career Ed ‏@NECareerEd: STEM skills are in demand well beyond STEM occupations. #CTESpringMtg

NOCTI ‏@NOCTI1: Great morning filled with good conversation surrounding federal funding and Perkins. #CTESpringMtg

NASDCTEc ‏@CTEWorks: OCTAE’s Sharon Miller and our own Kim Green reflect on Dr. Dann-Messier’s work to strengthen CTE. #CTESpringMtg pic.twitter.com/WqQhq3tBTU

NASDCTEc ‏@CTEWorks: .@usedgov‘s Brenda Dann-Messier helping to kick off our #ctespringmtg pic.twitter.com/lmD7UhJpKP

See you this summer!

Evan Williamson, Communications Associate

By admin in Advance CTE Spring Meeting
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Spring Meeting Recap: Beyond Perkins

Monday, April 7th, 2014

Our final panel discussion on the morning of Tuesday April 1, 2014, was on other major federal policies and initiatives that impact – or have the potential to impact – Career Technical Education (CTE). David Blaime, Senior Vice President at the American Association of Community Colleges, opened the panel by discussing some of the major provisions he believes will be addressed in future reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which won’t likely occur before 2015. He identified three themes emerging from the current discussions: reducing complexity in student lending (in terms of regulation and the number of programs), accountability tied to the quality of postsecondary institutions, and a potential shift to outcome-based accreditation, as well as how the U.S. Department of Education oversees accrediting bodies.

Angela Hanks, Policy Analyst from the New Skills Coalition next gave an update on the current state of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which has been due up for reauthorization since 2001. In the last year, the House and the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee each passed an updated WIA bill. While these two bills were developed and passed largely along party lines, last week the leadership from both the House and Senate met in conference to discuss opportunities for a new WIA. NASDCTEc will keep everyone informed as details emerge from those discussions.

Finally, Dr. Johan Uvin, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education, shared some of the Administration’s major initiatives to support CTE and workforce development aligned to President Obama’s goal of ensuring every American has at least one year of postsecondary education or training. Specifically, he mentioned the $100 million in Youth Career Connect grants and the Performance Partnership pilots, which will allow a state, region, locality, or Federally-recognized tribe to pool a portion of discretionary funds they receive from multiple federal agencies while measuring and tracking specific cross-program outcomes, to facilitate better coordination and reduce redundancies. He also highlighted a number of new items put in the 2015 budget including $150 million for competitive high school redesign grants, $110 million for STEM innovation networks and $75 million for accelerated pathways.

Kate Blosveren, Associate Executive Director

By Kate Blosveren Kreamer in Advance CTE Spring Meeting
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NASDCTEc 2014 Spring Meeting Recap

Monday, April 7th, 2014

IMG_7999

State CTE Directors, NASDCTEc members, CTE expert panelists and many more converged on the nation’s capital beginning on March 31, 2014. Over three days, NASDCTEc’s annual Spring Meeting covered a broad array of subjects, from the pending reauthorization of The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) to breakout sessions on secondary-postsecondary collaboration, just in time labor market information, accountability initiatives and much more.

On Tuesday, April 1, 2014, Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), spoke after NASDCTEc/NCTEF President, John Fischer, formally opened the Spring Meeting. In a bittersweet moment for everyone in the CTE community, we learned that Dr. Dann-Messier plans to leave OCTAE in late May. Dr. Dann-Messier received repeated praise from fellow panelists and membership for her five years of dedicated service at the head of OCTAE and at the forefront of CTE.

Tuesday’s sessions continued with panels outlining the state of federal funding and guidance on CTE, with many commentators commending the CTE community’s assiduous advocacy on behalf of CTE along with reminders to remain in contact with your senators and representatives going forward.

On Wednesday, NASDCTEc was proud to honor five critical advocates for CTE with Star of Education Awards. Co-Chairs of the Congressional CTE Caucus Representatives Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) and Jim Langevin (D-RI) both received the Star of Education—Congressional Award for their years of dedicated service as congressional advocates for CTE. Later, recently-retired State CTE Directors Dr. Patrick Ainsworth of California and Dr. Kathy Shibley of Ohio were inducted into the ranks of State CTE Directors Emeriti, while Ainsworth’s successor Russ Weikle received the first-ever Rising Star of CTE Award for his pioneering work in the state of California. Wednesday also included sessions on CTE’s role in the ongoing push to improve STEM enrollment and outcomes nationwide, the growth of competency-based education and CTE, and strategies to utilize postsecondary CTE as a way to maintain the American workforce’s place as one of the most highly-skilled worldwide.

More outside experts on CTE offered their perspectives on Thursday morning’s panels. Beginning with a focus on new reporting guidance regarding the Office of Management and Budget’s “Omni Circular,” Thursday’s sessions focused on developments that will affect CTE in the weeks and months ahead. Panelists throughout the morning reiterated their efforts to establish partnerships with CTE programs, and offered their insight on how the CTE community can facilitate collaboration with business and industry groups and state-level education leaders to broaden the CTE stakeholder base and stimulate the national conversation on CTE. The session closed with updates from the Division of Academic and Technical Education and the National Center for Innovation in Career Technical Education.

Couldn’t make the Spring Meeting? Resources and information on several sessions are available online! While on the site, be sure to sign-up today for the next gathering of Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders in Phoenix, June 16-18, 2014, at Achieving Excellence in CTE: The Career Clusters Institute. Don’t delay — April 8, 2014, is the last day of the early bird registration rate.

Evan Williamson, Communications Associate

NOTE: Photo courtesy Bob Witchger, all rights reserved

By admin in Advance CTE Spring Meeting, Meetings and Events
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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 Spring Meeting: Reaction to the Vision Paper

Friday, April 9th, 2010

The unveiling of NASDCTEc’s new vision paper at the Spring Meeting last week spurred comments from partners/education stakeholders who said the vision can set CTE on a course that breaks through silos constructed by bureaucracy, legislation and traditional approaches to education. They advised the CTE community to move forward in that direction.

Representatives from the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, National Education Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Governors Association provided insight on their views of Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for Career Technical Education – NASDCTEC’s new document intended to guide the transformation of CTE as the nation responds to the global economy. While all panelists held different perspectives, they shared interest in the vision paper’s concept of developing CTE into a comprehensive program that prepares students of all ages for the workforce through college and career readiness.

Business and Industry

Indeed, business and industry are seeking more students who fit that readiness criteria, said Karen Elzey, ICW Executive Director. In fact, industry is searching for more students who earn certifications or industry credentials from two-year institutions. That means CTE would best work with industry if it can show demonstration of or interest in creating programs – from secondary to postsecondary — that set students on course to earn such credentials, Elzey said. The challenge will be collecting and providing return on investment data that proves programs can or have the potential to educate and train students. This effort would require partnerships with secondary and postsecondary institutions, and business and industry.

Further, to gain support from industry, the CTE community will have to do a better job at providing clearer, simpler explanations of what programs of study are and how advocates can become involved in their success, Elzey said. The lack of clarity makes it difficult for the two sectors to communicate and find common ground. Somehow, education and industry need to find a common language so they can work together.

Elzey urged members to address some main issues to strengthen business and industry partnerships:

Teachers and Administrators

Policies play a significant role in how CTE can be implemented. A broad approach to delivering comprehensive CTE programs to all students should open discussions about legislative opportunities beyond the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, said Donna Harris-Aikens, NEA Policy Advisor. She suggested NASDCTEc explore alignment opportunities in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and policy-driven projects such as the Common Core. Also, NASDCTEc should conduct outreach to all congressional members, not just those who belong to the CTE caucuses. Take hold of any opportunity to cross-pollinate the message about CTE, she advised.

The message of CTE is traveling through the circles of school principals, said Mel Riddle, NASSP Associate Director of High School Services. He said many but not all principals recognize that CTE provides students with multiple pathways to success. Riddle said more needs to be done to increase the presence of CTE in secondary schools. Currently, principles are bounded by shortage of CTE classes and increased core graduation requirements, which make it difficult to usher students into good CTE programs.

Policymakers

Perhaps access to CTE programs would increase if the value of CTE was clearly and effectively articulated, David Wakelyn, NGA Center for Best Practices Education Division Program Director. He suggested a marketing effort that would underscore the value of CTE and programs of study as a way for “people to commit their kids to something that shows the future for them.” He also noted policymakers’ outdated recollection of CTE, which still brings visions of limited, skill-focused vocational education courses to mind.

Also, Wakelyn embraced the vision paper’s notion of ridding of the “false dichotomy of college and career readiness.” He added that college included two- and four-year institutions, saying that other nations in Europe have increased their college success and competitive advantage by stepping up student achievement at two-year institutions.

As conversations move forward regarding common academic standards, Wakelyn told NASDCTEc to be equipped to demonstrate where technical standards align with the Common Core. CTE is expected to be part of that conversation.

By admin in Public Policy
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NASDCTEc Spring Meeting Resources Now Available Online

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Perspectives from Hill9resizedThe resources from the recent NASDCTEc Spring Meeting can be accessed online at our website. Resources include legislative briefing materials, presentations by speakers,  the ‘2 Minute Roundup’, a compilation of responses to successes, challenges, and other issues facing states. The new vision document Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for Career Technical Education can also be downloaded from this web page.

By admin in Uncategorized
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NASDCTEc Concludes Spring Meeting, Embarks on New Vision

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Vision signedNASDCTEc wrapped up a momentous Spring Meeting this week and kicked off its new vision with the support of members, partners, and, in particular, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education. While the campaign to gain support for and implement the vision has just started, the momentum brought on by the discussions and brainstorm sessions will likely only increase as efforts move forward.

OVAE Assistant Secretary Brenda Dann-Messier called NASDCTEc’s new vision document, Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for CTE, an “extraordinary step forward.”Brenda

“I pledge to you whatever I can to help this vision become a reality,” she said.

A range of OVAE officials expressed their support, noting the potential the value they recognize CTE has in a range of legislation and policies outside of Perkins. That includes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Workforce Investment Act and the Race to the Top Fund. The sentiments reflect NASDCTEc’s new vision, which broadens the scope of CTE’s reach and more clearly connects CTE with college and career readiness – a topic that is present in nearly all education efforts. Clearly, we have the potential for a mutually-rewarding relationship.

WorkingAnd work is already underway. During the meeting, State Directors and partners participated in working sessions to create plans to implement the new vision in their state or within their organizations. NASDCTEc is in the process of developing a comprehensive plan that will lead our organization to successfully achieving the aspirations of our new vision. This is just the beginning.

By admin in Uncategorized
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