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ECMCF Fellow Feature: Dominique Footes

June 5th, 2023

In September 2022, Advance CTE and ECMC Foundation announced the second cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE—Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. The Advance CTE — ECMCF Fellows include representation across multiple demographic categories reflecting the Fellowship’s goal of intentionally building a postsecondary leadership pipeline for underserved populations in Career Technical Education (CTE)  that closes racial representation gaps and removes equity barriers to postsecondary leadership advancement. For this next blog in the ECMCF Fellow Feature series, we interviewed  ECMCF Fellow Dominique Footes (MD) who is passionate about elevating CTE and using data to advance equity for every learner.

Tell me more about your journey to the Fellowship.

I was drawn to the Fellowship’s focus on using data as a tool to advocate for equity, and I had previously worked with Dr. Kevin Johnson through the Association of Career and Technical Education’s (ACTE) Inclusion, Access, Equity and Diversity Mentorship program, so I was confident that the professional development through this experience would be rigorous. He’s the type of mentor that will encourage and push you to analyze DEI issues on a deeper level and asks questions that you’ve never considered before. I knew that I was up to the challenge, and I knew that this would be an incredible opportunity for growth. 

What are the skills or areas where you’ve experienced the most growth in the program? 

I’ve noticed a change in my confidence and the way that I communicate. Fellowships can be intimidating, from the expert speakers to the caliber of my fellow cohort members and having the confidence to navigate these spaces is a huge success. I know that my experience as a practitioner is valuable, and now I have more confidence to ask questions to translate what might be happening in another state to apply it to our own context in Maryland. Engaging with speakers has been the highlight of this experience for me.

Engaging with other Fellows has been great. I’ve been able to learn more about how others have leveraged DEI in their work and applied similar approaches to conversations I am having with my organization’s leadership. My program is centered around career development for minority students and I’ve had the confidence to pose challenging questions that they’ve been very receptive to. 

Have you been tapped for new or more advanced roles within your organization as a result of your experience in the Fellowship? 

The topics we’ve explored in the Fellowship are timely with my current projects as a Special Programs Administrator. We’re looking to engage more minorities in STEM spaces and have the knowledge of how to approach this work with fidelity. 

I have a lot of experience working with students. When I combine this experience with the postsecondary knowledge that I’m gaining through the Fellowship, I’ve seen that my colleagues are more willing to listen to the needs of students to support their career development experiences. I am able to speak directly about the process for re-engaging them post-COVID and what we need to do to equip them to return to the classroom.

How has your experience in the fellowship helped you explore new spaces or positions in postsecondary state CTE leadership? 

My conversations and relationship with my mentor have been really valuable in helping me realize the professional opportunities that exist to support postsecondary work. Initially, I wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go in, but learning more about organizations that do work externally to support postsecondary programs and elevate their work with students has been really rewarding. 

I’m grateful for this thought partnership, and I’ve been able to reflect on how I can continue to build a strong foundation to do meaningful work.

I feel like we’ve reached a point where we have to start looking at CTE as a starting point rather than a stop. This is a huge part of the work that I’m doing and I want to ensure that I am highlighting these programs for students so that they understand that they can access them wherever they are in their journey.

Academic exploration needs to go hand-in-hand with skills training and we need to consider how we’re reflecting this in the marketing of these programs. This work is done through advocacy and increasing awareness of what CTE is. For example, students may not understand that STEM programs fall under CTE. They need to know about all the different pathways and the spectrum within these programs for upskilling. 

Tell us more about your Real-World Project which focuses on using data to provide more supportive programming for women entering STEM industry programs.

I know that engaging women in these spaces is really important and there is definitely a need to increase the number of young women in STEM programs. This issue became more urgent after the pandemic because of the disproportionate burden that was placed on women. There is acknowledgment across the STEM field and a desire to see women succeed but we need to understand the best way to support them. 

My project evaluates the tools that we’re providing learners to understand the impact on their persistence in and completion of their programs. We also want to understand how they’re being prepared to transition into the workforce. I saw an opportunity to leverage and organize the data we’ve collected on women participating in CTE.  I am developing a tool that aggregates the available data to develop a program that targets the specific challenges women in STEM programs are encountering. 

Making sure the student is self-sufficient when they leave us and have the necessary language and tools to succeed in these industries and hopefully turn around and uplift that next group is important.

If you have any questions, contact Dominique Footes by email at dominiquefootes@gmail.com   

Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

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ECMCF Fellow Feature: Leisa Mathews

May 25th, 2023

In September 2022, Advance CTE and ECMC Foundation announced the second cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE—Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. The Advance CTE — ECMCF Fellows include representation across multiple demographic categories reflecting the Fellowship’s goal of intentionally building a postsecondary leadership pipeline for underserved populations in Career Technical Education (CTE)  that closes racial representation gaps and removes equity barriers to postsecondary leadership advancement. For this next blog in the ECMCF Fellow Feature series, we interviewed ECMCF Fellow Leisa Mathews who shared how her life experience drives her passion for creating opportunities for learners.

Tell us about your journey to the Fellowship.

Being from a very small town in Wyoming, I never thought that I could be a part of something so impactful.  I may have never applied for this Fellowship without the encouragement of Dr. Michelle Aldrich, the Wyoming State Director of Career & Technical Education and Perkins Funding.

We worked together when I worked as the Workforce Development Coordinator and Perkins Coordinator for Western Wyoming Community College. Dr. Aldrich was a great resource for me when I was completing the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessments (CLNA) and managing the Strengthening Career Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) Grant. After working together, she got to know me, and she suggested that I apply.

I’m here because I’ve seen the gaps in achievement and access through my work, and this Fellowship presented an opportunity to make a change. As a product of the system, as a mother, and as someone who has worked in both academics and the workforce, I know how to approach this work to serve those learners that fall through the cracks. 

What are the skills or areas where you’ve experienced the most growth in the program? 

My experience in the Fellowship is helping me change the culture of the workplace. Through networking with others in the Fellowship and attending the ECMC Convening, I’ve been able to listen and learn from others’ perspectives, and it helped me consider new ways to approach this work. Working with Perkins Grants, I recognized the gaps between groups of learners and the huge differences in representation. As a proud Asian woman, I can literally see myself represented in this data and understand the consequences when we don’t see or reach those small percentages of learners.

We have an influx of immigrant families entering this area, and high school counselors have difficulty going after them to let them know about the different career path options available. Without these relationships and awareness of their options, learners are missing out. I saw this play out with my own kids and witnessed how they had different opportunities offered to them; my younger daughter was in an energy academy program and due to that was encouraged to take dual and concurrent enrollment courses, but my other kids weren’t given that same support or options. Unless changes are made, this will continue to occur. Career counseling and the messages that our kids receive, whether implicit or explicit, can significantly impact their trajectories.

To be a change agent- I’m thinking about how we can implement changes that aren’t only addressing the problems, but that are also sustainable. This Fellowship is giving me the opportunity to learn so much more about how I can reach learners and leverage data to make sustainable change. 

Have you been tapped for new or more advanced roles within your organization as a result of your experience in the Fellowship? 

Since participating in the Fellowship, I have made career changes. While I am currently no longer in the field of education, I am fortunate enough that my employers in my current position, support my continued involvement and see the value in the Fellowship. I’ve been able to steer my organization to market new career opportunities for training for students. I want to visit the high schools and local technical schools to recruit students and emphasize the high-quality instruction and training programs that are available to them. As a small town, we’re invested in retaining talent, and this is an opportunity to reach students early and let them know about the great career options available to them.

I’ve been able to show that I have the confidence to approach these partners and find creative ways to engage our future workforce. After being in the Fellowship and learning about what folks are doing elsewhere, I started to ask, “Why can’t we do that here in our town?” and I’ve been able to make things happen. I recently received a shoutout at our company’s quarterly meeting for bringing innovative practices to connect young people to our work. I’m passionate about creating pathways for learners because they don’t currently exist outside of traditional academic programs. They need to know that these opportunities for continued education exist and that employers are excited to invest in them.

How has your experience in the fellowship helped you explore new spaces or positions in postsecondary state CTE leadership? 

I want to make a difference. Working at the state level, such as in the Wyoming Department of Education, would provide me with the resources and contacts to make a significant impact. My current organization is incredibly supportive of me being in the Fellowship and they share my passion for growing our community. My strengths lie in finding the right person or resource and positioning them to have the biggest reach for the community, whether it’s students or families.

How has the Fellowship expanded your network? 

I wish I’d known what I know now about analyzing data or about different templates that states are using for their CLNAs. The Fellowship is giving me the missing context for connecting all of these dots, and everything started clicking together in my head.  The ideas for change have always been a part of me, but I now have the network and resources to bring those ideas to reality. 

This national lens has been incredibly valuable, and certainly, the amount of knowledge at my disposal through the other Fellows isn’t something that you can get anywhere else.

If you have any questions, contact Leisa Mathews by email at leisa2you@msn.com     

Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

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

May 16th, 2023

This is the second in a series of four blogs about the Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation and offers a review of several states’ Career Technical Education (CTE) leadership training initiatives and current efforts to diversify the pool of qualified candidates, specific to racial diversity. 

In the first blog of this series, Advancing Equity in CTE: Making the Case for Diverse Leadership Pipelines in Career Technical Education, we shared data that highlighted the increase of diversity of learners in CTE programs and in comparison, the reality that state CTE leadership has remained mostly White, with approximately 13 percent of State CTE Directors identifying as non-White. As we seek to achieve a more demographically representative state CTE leadership, as called for in Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits), this blog reviews the state of the CTE leadership pipeline in three states – Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio. These states can both serve as exemplars and a starting point to evaluate the needs of state CTE systems to create more robust and diverse talent pipelines. 

Overview

The current state of CTE leadership training programs vary based on state requirements to become a CTE administrator and how states and organizations without certification or licensure requirements decide to offer training opportunities. As of 2017 only 16 states require CTE administrators to attain a certification or licensure to teach at the secondary level.  In the postsecondary space, the number of institutions of higher learning offering coursework specific to administrating and leading a CTE program are consistently declining; just nine states offer formal preparation programs 1. Administrative training for CTE is increasingly being offered in the form of mentorship programs, contracted hybrid virtual training typically modules, conference workshops or training academies offered by state CTE agencies and CTE affiliated organizations. 

Pennsylvania

The state offers leadership training through centers supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) at three sites, the state’s eastern site is located at Temple University, the central site is located at Penn State University and the western site is located at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The programs offer a CTE Director’s Certificate for grades 7-12 which can be completed in two years and a Master of Education degree option in a virtual setting with a window of completion of two to three years. Additional or alternative training in the form of mentorship programs and conference workshops is also available through the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Career and Technical Education (BCTE) and the Pennsylvania Association for Career and Technical Administrators (PACTA). These efforts are bolstered by the requirement as mandated by the Pennsylvania Legislature and facilitated through the PA Inspired Leadership (PIL) Program for a CTE administrator to complete a certification process, Praxis Series School Leaders Licensure Assessment. A recent effort to establish CTE leadership standards is the development of a set of knowledge and skill core competencies (KSCC) resulting from the triangulated research conducted at Penn State University 2. The core competencies addressed are:

  • Workforce Education Management
  • Curriculum and Instructional Leadership in Workforce Education
  • Fiscal and Facilities Management
  • Ethical Issues in Workforce Education
  • Administering Personnel Services
  • History and Philosophy of Workforce Education
  • The Law and Education

To date, the PDE has requested alignment between the research-developed KSCCs and the CTE Director Certificate offered in Pennsylvania. 

Texas

Secondary CTE administrator training in Texas is offered by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Career & Technical Association of Texas (CTAT). The New CTE Administrator and Counselor Sessions, professional training modules provided to local education agencies by the TEA at no cost, focuses on preparing administrators to develop CTE systems aligned to the state’s college, career and military readiness (CCMR) standards ensuring access and equity in CTE programming. The NextGen Administrators, training designed for mid-level administrators such as CTE coordinators, specialists and instructional coaches with less than five years of experience, is a virtual option offered by CTAT with aspiring leaders meeting on a monthly basis for 13 months. The program explicitly lists as session topics Terminology and Best Practices in Cultural Diversity and Differentiated Instruction for Special Populations. The state agency no cost training was provided through the use of the state’s Carl D. Perkins Act leadership funds. 

Ohio

The Ohio Association for Career and Technical Education supports CTE administrators for secondary and postsecondary leadership through the Byrl R. Shoemaker CTE Institute. A one-year hybrid program which includes beginning and ending with a legislative seminar, site visits to secondary LEAs and local higher education institutions, conference attendance, networking opportunities with local and state leaders and the completion of a team project.  

Diversification of the CTE Talent Pipeline

While the states reviewed do not specifically outline a process to recruit diverse aspiring CTE administrators, leadership pipeline training opportunities are accessible and prominently featured on state and CTE support organizations’ websites. As identified in the first blog of this series and in alignment with CTE Without Limits Principle 2, the nation’s rapidly changing demographics create a sense of urgency related to the intentional recruitment of diverse leaders into the currently limited administrator pipelines available to CTE professionals. 

In the next blog in this series, we will explore how state CTE leaders can (and why they should) lead with an equity lens. To learn more about the need for equity in CTE, visit Making Good on the Promise: Understanding the Equity Challenge in CTE in the Advance CTE Resource Center.

Read the full blog series

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

Blog 3: Advancing Equity in CTE: The Equity-Minded Leadership Framework

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

Dr. Kevin Johnson, Sr., Senior Advisor

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Looking Back to Look Forward and the Implications for Career Technical Education

May 11th, 2023

Earlier this year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation hosted a webinar to release their new report, The Future of Data, Assessments, and Accountability in K-12 Education, which offers a comprehensive analysis of the landmark education policies of the past two decades, from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

The event featured a discussion among Maya Martin Cadogan (Founder & Executive Director, Parents Amplifying Voices in Education), Dr. Ivan Duran (Superintendent, Highline Public Schools), Dr. Dan Goldhaber (Director, CALDER American Institutes for Research) and Dr. Chris Steward (Chief Executive Officer, brightbeam), on the report’s findings and future implications for the role of federal policy in the K-12 education system. The panelists also reflected on the perspectives and data they felt were absent from the report and the opportunities to leverage lessons learned.

Key Takeaways 

  • The reforms of this era were significant because they put in motion new data collection practices that shifted focus to considering the needs of individual student groups.
  • The report highlights a binary review of whether reforms have or have not worked over the last 20 years in education reform (i.e., from NCLB to ESSA). Unfortunately, this means that much of the nuance of how states/LEAs impact outcomes were not included in the analysis.
  • The federal government has a role in distributing data to states. States and LEAs are responsible for translating this data into information to inform practices that will address the identified gaps in a way that makes sense for their context and communities.
  • One lasting legacy of NCLB is that the last 20 years forced schools to disaggregate data and consider the needs of learners, including students of color, students from low-income backgrounds and students with special needs.
  • The U.S. educational system still relies on achievement tests to measure students’ and schools’ performance. However, there needs to be more information on other types of assessment to measure student learning and hold schools accountable despite the education community advocating for these changes.
  • The authors identified strategies that stakeholders find to have had the most significant impact on building public proficiency in and demand for quality educational opportunities. These include intentional stakeholder buy-in, a compelling and multi-faceted communications strategy and long-term leadership.

 

Next Steps for State CTE Leaders 

As states are considering their next round of Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) State Determined Levels of Performance, or perhaps broader changes to Perkins V plans, consider the following actions:

  • Visit Careertech.org to subscribe to Advance CTE’s blog newsletter to learn more about our data initiatives and data tools for advancing equity and access in CTE!
  • Use Advance CTE’s Inclusive CTE Goal-Setting Tool to further explore equity gaps in data.
  • Mine the data collected through your comprehensive local needs assessments (CLNA). A CLNA must be completed by local recipients of Perkins V funds and updated every two years to ensure programs are aligned to workforce needs and economic priorities and serving learners equitably. 
  • Evaluate what leading indicators your state can develop so data is more timely when making educational decisions.

The full report, Looking Back to Look Forward: Quantitative and Qualitative Reviews of the Past 20 Years of K-12 Education Assessment and Accountability Policy can be found online and through Advance CTE’s Learning that Works Resource Center. You can also find the webinar recording on YouTube.

Dr. Laura Maldonado, Senior Research Associate and Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

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

March 2nd, 2023

This is the first in a series of blogs about the Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation (Fellowship), including what contextual factors led Advance CTE to establish the Fellowship and what we are learning as we lead this important work.  

In 2018, Advance CTE began to explore and acknowledge the systemic issues resulting in  inequity, particularly racial inequity, in Career Technical Education (CTE). Our first steps involved starting a learning journey through the Making Good on the Promise Series and our organizational equity statement approved by the Advance CTE Board of Directors, both of which anchored our initial work. 

The more we learned and deepened our knowledge about systemic barriers to equitable CTE, the more intentionally we were able to center multiple dimensions of equity in Advance CTE’s work. The 2021 CTE Without Limits vision, which also serves as Advance CTE’s organizational vision, emboldens our voice and action to lead equitable CTE programs, including guiding our work to ensure every learner  has access to, feels welcome in and has the supports to be successful in their chosen career pathway. More specifically, the second principle of this vision calls upon “(s)tates and institutions …. to commit to building recruitment strategies and talent pipeline programs that attract diverse CTE instructors, administrators and leaders who are demographically representative of the learners they teach.”  

This call to action to address state CTE leadership representation gaps was inspired by the  changing demographics of both our nation and enrollments in CTE programs. Advance CTE was formed over 100 years ago and in that time the vast majority of State CTE Directors have historically been White. Today, that is still true with just 13 percent of State Directors identifying as non-White. Yet, the learners served by the CTE community are much more diverse.

The Leaky State CTE Leadership Pipeline

The state CTE leadership pipeline, like many industries, is struggling. The coronavirus pandemic  exacerbated a surge of state leadership transitions that occurred just prior to the reauthorization of the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). Today, just five State Directors have seven or more years of tenure and only two have more than ten years. At Advance CTE’s 2022 Spring State Leadership Retreat, a straw poll of the attendees (all state CTE leaders) revealed that a slight majority of the participants had less than three years of experience in their roles. In fact, several state agencies experienced a 100 percent turnover of the CTE state agency team.  

The cost (both direct and indirect) of these massive transitions is significant. Leadership instability often results in reduced morale, capacity, institutional knowledge and organizational effectiveness. Exacerbated by the fact that state agencies struggle with recruitment, generally, recruiting a qualified and diverse applicant pool is an even more difficult challenge. The pipeline of state CTE leadership is not always vertical; however, candidates commonly come from the local level. Given that the majority of CTE instructors are White (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), “Public School Teacher Questionnaire,” 2007–08), it follows that the majority of CTE administrators are White. Therefore, current CTE leadership pipelines are systematically perpetuating representational inequities, and new solutions must be pursued to break this cycle.  While Advance CTE is not directly responsible for hiring state agency staff, we are hoping to be part of the solution to strengthen and diversify the pool of applicants for state leadership positions through the Postsecondary State Career Technical Education Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE – Sponsored by ECMC Foundation (Fellowship).

Hope for the Future

The inaugural cohort of the Fellowship, launched in November of 2021, included 15 Fellows from 13 states and 80 percent of the participants identified as members of marginalized or underrepresented populations. The second cohort, launched in September of 2022, with an additional 15 Fellows from 13 states and 72 percent of the participants identified as members of marginalized or underrepresented populations. Through a combination of intensive workshops, support from coaches and the creation of a real-world project, these aspiring leaders built knowledge, network and experience. Additionally, Advance CTE is building a suite of resources to help state leaders on their learning journey to be equity-minded leaders and to support the creation of initiatives that can expand, diversify and strengthen CTE leadership pipelines.

We hope you’ll explore more about the Fellowship and join us on the learning leadership journey. In the next blog in this series, we’ll explore what states are doing to expand, strengthen and diversify their state leadership pipelines. 

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

Read the rest of the series

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

Blog 3: Advancing Equity in CTE: The Equity-Minded Leadership Framework

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

 

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