The 2013 National Career Clusters® Institute was held June 10-12 in Fort Worth Texas, and resources are now available on our Web site Institute resources page. These are primarily Power Points, provided by our presenters.

Several presenters also blogged about their sessions prior to the Institute. To find these blog posts, go to http://blog.careertech.org/ and search under Career Clusters® Institute Series. Following is a blog (with the Power Point found on our Web site Institute resources page) for the breakout session Rigorous and Relevant Technical Writing in the High School by Carol Larkin, Instructor, Mentor Public Schools/Lake Shore Compact, Lyndhurst, Ohio:

Blog: Rigorous and Relevant Technical Writing in the Career and Academic Classroom

The Art of Writing is more than telling stories and responding to literature; it is the gymnastics of the mind on paper. Writing fires synapses, pumps ions, and speeds neurons along their path. Writing puts our thoughts and vision into something that a wide range of audience can comprehend. The Common Core State Standards has untethered writing from the English department and sent it across the curriculum. Writing now takes on the role of a real world application for our students. How do we integrate this real world writing into our Technology courses? Through an understanding of technical writing—its style, function and form—and technical writing projects! Why should technical writing be integrated into both academic and technical courses?

• Engages students in critical thinking and writing
• Prepares your students for college level writing
• Makes writing real and relevant to the student

The foundation of technical writing begins in English class with the study of form, style and function; while students apply what they learned about writing in their technical classes. As an Applied English teacher, I work with the technology instructors. We plan projects that require trip reports, progress reports, research, flyers, brochures, instruction manuals, presentations and much more. Our program has existed for over 15 years. On a yearly basis less than five percent of our students need writing remediation upon entering college. This session provides you with three critical components to create rigorous writing assignments:

• Knowledge of how technical writing differs from academic writing
• Structure for the Academic and Tech teachers to create rigorous writing assignments
• Real time projects combining technical class work with Language Arts writing.

Please join us for some “Take It With You Ideas” for your program.

Take advantage of the Power Point and blog resources available at www.careertech.org and learn more about the work of these outstanding presenters.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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 Scott Hess, Vice President of Community Partnerships, Ascend Learning CTE (pictured below right).

So you want to be a social worker? Well how about being a nurse instead? They help people too (and, um, we don’t have that Program Of Study)…

Questions and answers like these are not uncommon for students and their counselors as they try to create a Program of Study (POS) aligned with the student’s career goals and interests.

The dilemma facing many schools today is that, while they want to encourage kids to explore careers in all 16 Career Clusters®, in actuality, they may only offer options in 5 or 6 clusters.  Student participation should not be determined by the size or location of the school they attend.

The traditional ‘Vocational Education’ came under scrutiny because it only provided opportunities for a few students in a few jobs. In reality, we aren’t much better off today. The lack of access to a variety of programs of study is one of the biggest issues facing Career Technical Education (CTE), and it doesn’t only affect rural schools. We have heard from districts in the Washington, DC suburbs that want to respond to their students’ growing interest in local and organic farming, but do not have agricultural programs.  The only way to provide opportunities to all students is by “thinking out of the box,” using a little imagination, taking advantage of technology and creatively addressing outdated policies and other roadblocks.

Recognizing this dilemma, Ascend Learning’s CTE group is working with schools to help them develop and implement blended learning solutions. We bring schools modular content and interactive digital resources that can be used to craft courses that help students study towards industry-recognized credentials wherever they and whenever they have time to study. During our breakout session, we will share some of these resources and talk about strategies teachers can use to engage students in a blended learning format.

We also want to help you share your insights about blended learning with other teachers. We will be putting recommendations from the breakout session participants on the Ascend Learning CTE blog following the conference.

Scott’s vendor session is scheduled for Monday, June 10 from 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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 blog is from  Kuder, Inc.
As a longtime National Career Clusters® Institute presenter and exhibitor, Kuder, Inc. is determined to make this year’s event unforgettable. 2013 marks our 75^th anniversary and we want to celebrate it with you! There are a variety of ways you can connect with us during the institute to learn a little more about who we are, what we do, and how we’ve helped over 150 million users worldwide achieve lifelong success.

Let the celebration begin as you attend our pre session, “Become a Career Advising Idol,” on Sunday, June 9 at 1:00 p.m. in Texas Ballroom A. Be the envy of colleagues for your commitment to excellence and clients ‘wow’ your guidance, simply by engaging in professional development training. Our courses will increase personal performance and help you better assist those you serve.

Join us on Tuesday, June 11 at 1:20 p.m. in Fort Worth Ballroom 8 for our breakout session, “Facilitating Career Success Through One Seamless Pipeline of Comprehensive Solutions.” We’ll feature our customizable line of end-to-end education and career planning solutions uniquely tailored to the individual and developmental needs of every student and adult. Our systems are proven to boost academic performance, increase retention and completion rates, and give users hope and direction for the future.

After our breakout session, stop by our table at the sponsor showcase until 5:00 p.m. for more information.

For instant updates from us during the 2013 National Career Clusters® Institute, search for @Kuder or #KuderCCI13 on Twitter.

We look forward to meeting you and making this year’s event unforgettable!

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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 Foster, President/CEO of NOCTI, Big Rapids, MI.

States have varying requirements for certification of Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers who enter the system from alternative paths. In some states, these teachers fall into an “alternative certification” category.  Regardless of whether these individuals have received college-level coursework, they rarely have had extensive preparation to become a teacher, much less a CTE teacher.  Schools hiring these individuals to teach their programs require current industry experience and many times, the trade-off is an individual with limited preparation in teaching pedagogies.

There are many other topics that individuals who go through a traditional teacher certification track are exposed to, including student assessment which focuses on how to use assessments for instructional improvement.  As times have changed, there are additional alternative uses for assessments such as the more formal inclusion of assessments in states’ teacher evaluation models.  Assessments play a key role in each of these areas.

Thanks to a combination of universities, current needs, and NOCTI board members, modules have been developed providing research-based information about assessments.  Though module development was led by NOCTI, the majority of the content it is applicable to any third-party technical assessment.  These modules are available free of charge as a service to the CTE community we serve and focus on two areas:

1) Understanding CTE assessment/certification systems; and

2) Understanding and preparing for teacher and student level competency tests.

While our session is not intended to be a formal training in traditional teaching pedagogy, it will provide helpful information about important components of a classroom setting including assessments, psychometrics, and utilizing data within the classroom. With a high demand for high quality CTE teachers, providing resources for training these individuals to prepare tomorrow’s workforce is extremely important.

Our session will include a review of the developed CTE Teacher Modules and suggest module implementation ideas as part of a professional development workshop, an in-service for newly hired teachers and/or as a portion of a university course.  Stop by this session to learn some basics about assessment and take your skills to a new level!

Dr. Foster’s breakout session is Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Session C, 8:45 a.m.-9:45 a.m. Co-presenter is Mrs. Amie Bloomfield, Customer Care and Outreach Manager, NOCTI, Big Rapids, MI.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

For more information, please go to www.nocti.org

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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. Sandra Pritz, Senior Consultant, NOCTI.

Strategies to improve instruction are embedded in your students’ data if you know how to mine for them.  CTEDDI (Career Technical Educators using Data-Driven Instruction) is a researched professional development mining tool, and the model can be implemented in various ways to meet needs at the state or local level.

Educators say they welcome evaluations of their practice and programs, but need more support in interpreting and using student assessment data to make their instruction more effective and help their students achieve at higher levels and meet their learning objectives. Increasingly, evaluations of schools, programs, and teachers are being tied to student achievement.

To help schools, teachers, and students excel, NRCCTE researchers at NOCTI spent three years researching, developing, and pilot testing CTEDDI—a professional development model that empowers CTE administrators and educators to use student assessment data to enrich classroom practice, capture student interest, effectively target individual and group learning needs, and meet student learning objectives (SLOs).

Unlike out-of-the-box, one-shot professional development, with CTEDDI:

• Training is highly interactive and customized.
• Professional development is a year-long process rather than a one-time event, with participants receiving ongoing support and mentoring.
• Educators use their own students’ data to create classroom- and student-level instructional improvement plans.
• Educators participate in an online collaborative community of practice with CTEDDI participants across the country.
• Educators are assisted in making systematic and strategic instructional decisions that can result in higher student scores and teacher performance evaluations.

CTEDDI technical assistance is available at the secondary and postsecondary level for states, districts, and/or schools and can be customized to meet specific needs. Join educators in California, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Chicago who are currently participating in CTEDDI.                                   

Come and find out how the process model can be replicated using the action planning process as long as you have mined your data. At the session, small groups will mine ideas from sample technical skills data.

For more information, go to www.nocti.org

Dr. Pritz’s breakout session is Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Session C, 8:45 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. and is described more fully on page 19 in the Institute program booklet.

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

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