This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the Career Clusters ® Institute. Guest bloggers are among teachers, faculty, researchers and other experts that will present at the national gathering in Fort Worth, TX in June. Today’s guest blogger is Dr. John C. Foster, CEO, NOCTI and NOCTI Business Solutions.
Education is at a crossroad in many ways, and there are so many external influences on public education that it can make one’s head spin. The current focus on Career and College Readiness brings with it its own set of external influences which, in addition to the indirect influences on education in general, impact the Career Technical Education (CTE) community directly and more specifically.
Just a few examples of these impacts are big picture issues like teacher evaluations based on student outcome data, return on investment in technical training based on workplace success, researching, categorizing and assessing the value of industry certification systems and, of course, Perkins IV reauthorization. In relation to assessment in the CTE community, we have other layers of impacts including implementation of Programs of Study (POS), the use of data for instructional improvement, articulation agreement foundations, dual credit, and inconsistency of rigor of CTE programs in similar technical areas.
In our session we will briefly explore some of these issues with a focus purposely on solutions that exist for several of them. Specifically, we will focus on collaboration with the National College Credit Recommendation Service (NCCRS), a program of the USNY Regents Research Fund; NCCRS has conducted an academic evaluation showing competence on technical assessments delivered by NOCTI. Over 1500 colleges and universities may consider awarding college credit for NOCTI assessments based on NCCRS credit recommendations.
The presentation will explore the first year of implementation of this innovative approach, what we learned, and how we improved our process and product for the second year. This whole process underscores the rigor of CTE programs and highlights the commitment of non-profits like NOCTI and NCCRS to see that CTE programs have the data they need to prove their success. If time permits we will also discuss the concept of how badges fit into the equation. Please join us for an informative and innovative session!
For more information go to www.nocti.org and www.nationalccrs.org
Dr. Foster’s breakout session (identified as a vendor session) is Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Session D, 11:15 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. and described on page 25 in the Institute program booklet. Co-presenter is Ms. Tina Grant, Director, National College Credit Recommendation Service, Albany, NY.
Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager
Tags: Career Clusters®