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Posts Tagged ‘college and career readiness’

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CTE in the News: Wisconsin Program Preps Students for College and Career

Friday, August 24th, 2012

All students should be prepared for college and career, say Wisconsin educators who are leading a program to help improve students’ graduation rates, transition services, and post-school outcomes, according to a recent Education Daily article.

The Wisconsin Career Pathways program was designed to serve all students. Starting in ninth grade, students are asked to choose a career to study and take classes in their chosen field.  The Wisconsin Technical College System partnered with the state department of instruction to develop the program, which is web-based and modeled after the National Career Clusters ™ Framework.

“The idea is that students are making their own plan to prepare for the future,” said Marge Rubin, director of College and Career Pathways at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wis.

“Research shows that students who have plans are more successful than those who don’t.”

The program intends for students to explore different jobs within the career of their choice so they understand the academic and technical requirements, demands and outlook for those jobs, and what postsecondary options within the state can help them achieve their college and career goals.

“There was this great divide. Students either had to choose between preparing for college or a career,” Rubin said. “All students need to be prepared for both.”

Education Daily is an online publication available only to its subscribers.

Erin Uy, Communications & Marketing Manager

By admin in News
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Report: A New Look at the Role of Placement Exams

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

A new report from Jobs for the Future, an organization committed to doubling the number of low-income youth and adults who attain postsecondary credentials, claims that college placement tests should be considered high stakes, and examines the consequences of assigning students to non-credit, remedial coursework.

Where to Begin? The Evolving Role of Placement Exams for Students Starting College highlights ways that states and systems are approaching the use of placement exams, and suggests five key areas of reform and reconsideration as states look to improve policies and practices around placement exams:

The authors also suggest three areas for possible innovation: downplaying the tests; changing the tests; and supporting students around tests. Within each area, strategies undertaken by states are described. For example, under “Supporting Students around Tests,” the authors state that some school systems have created policies that require 11th grade students to take college placement exams so that high schools can examine the results and provide additional preparation before students graduate high school.

The report closes with key questions for further research, such as “Do efforts to better prepare students and increase awareness of high-stakes nature of placement tests lead to higher scores and better predictive value?”

View the report here.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

By admin in Research
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Legislative Update: Alternative Certification, Career Academies

Friday, July 27th, 2012

House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Alternative Certification

The House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing this week to examine alternative certification of teachers. The topic is a timely one given its connection to defining highly qualified teachers under the No Child Left Behind Act. In 2010, Congress passed legislation that allowed students enrolled in alternative certification programs to be considered “highly qualified teachers.” The House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill seeks to extend this definition for two more years.

There was general support for alternative routes to certification on both sides of the aisle during the hearing. Chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA) had this to say:

Alternative certification routes help address teacher shortages in particular geographic areas and subject matter, as well as strengthen the overall quality of the teaching profession. While Republicans know there is no one-size-fits-all federal solution to help put more effective teachers in the classroom, supporting the availability and acceptance of alternative certification programs is one way the public and private sectors can join together to ensure more students have access to a quality education from an extraordinary educator.

Cynthia Brown, Vice President for Education Policy at the Center for American Progress, agreed that alternative certification programs hold a lot of promise, but that there need to be policies in place to ensure that they are “high quality, innovative, and effective,” which also holds true for traditional teacher preparation programs. She suggested that Congress focus on teacher effectiveness rather than alternative routes to certification.

More Details on Career Academies Proposal

Last week Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the National Academy Foundation’s NEXT Conference about the President’s FY13 budget proposal to invest $1 billion in career academies. Funding at this level could increase the number of career academies by 3,000 and serve an additional 500,000 students.

According to Duncan, $200 million in grants to states would be available in FY13, and $400 million would be available in both FY14 and FY15. Grants to would total $4 million each to states, and would be given over a three year period. States would distribute those funds competitively to locals.

As part of the grant program, the Department of Education is proposing a definition of “career academy” that each state must use for the in-state competition:

  1. A career academy is a secondary school program as organized as a small learning com­munity or school within a school to provide the support of a personalized learning environment.
  2. The academy must begin in ninth grade and combine credit-bearing academic and techni­cal curriculum.
  3. The academy must organize curriculum around a career theme like those proposed by NAF — hospitality and tourism, IT, health, sci­ence, and engineering — and be aligned with states’ college- and career-ready standards.
  4. The academy must provide work-based learning and career exploration activities through partnerships with local employers.
  5. The academy must articulate entrance re­quirements of postsecondary education programs to ensure students graduate from high school ready to pursue a higher education degree or credential.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

By admin in Public Policy
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Senate Holds Hearing on Impact of Sequestration on Education Programs

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education held a hearing this morning to hear from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and a panel of state and local educators about the impact of sequestration on education programs. Chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Tom Harkin (IA), called on his colleagues to come to a bipartisan and balanced approach to deficit reduction, rather than the “arbitrary” cuts of sequestration.

During his testimony, Secretary Duncan agreed that we need to take a balanced approach because sequestration will cut both effective and ineffective programs. He also argued that cutting education funding is very much a national security issue due to the number of highly technical jobs, including those in the military sector, which go unfilled because there are not enough skilled individuals to fill them. When asked about the impact of the cuts on education reform efforts, Duncan said that sequestration will touch all education programs, including CTE.

June Atkinson, State Superintendent of Public Instructionin North Carolina, spoke about how sequestration would hurt her state’s effort at increasing college and career readiness. For example, providing training for Microsoft certifications requires CTE funding, which would be cut under sequestration. She also noted that the graduation rate of CTE concentrators in North Carolina is 90 percent. Presumably cuts to Perkins funding would hinder the tremendous achievement of CTE students.

Harkin also released this morning Under Threat – Sequestration’s Impact on Nondefense Jobs and Services, a report which looks at the potential impact of sequestration on education, health and labor programs under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction. The report gives national as well as state-by-state estimates of the number of jobs that could be lost and the number of individuals who could lose services if sequestration goes into effect.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

 

By admin in Legislation, Public Policy
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NAF Introduces Student Certification Assessment System for Career Readiness

Friday, July 20th, 2012

The National Academy Foundation (NAF), a network of over 500 career academies and 60,000 students, introduced this week a new Student Certification Assessment System to compliment the Common Core State Standards as a measure of career readiness.

The assessments, developed in collaboration with research agency WestEd, are designed to test a broad range of technical content and skills and result in a nationally-recognized, industry-approved certificate. The resulting certificate would also serve as a tool to help employers and postsecondary admissions personnel identify and recruit career-ready students.

The certificate assessment system components test students in a variety of ways including:

Already piloted in several career academies, the Student Certification Assessment System will be implemented in about one-third of NAF career academies nationwide beginning this fall.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

By admin in News, Resources
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CTE in the News: Push for Career Technical Education Meets Resistance

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

A student at Oklahoma's Ardmore High School works on an assignment for a biotechnical program, which is designed to introduce students to careers in fields like chemistry and microbiology.

This spring, parents in the San Diego Unified School District in California rose in protest when the district proposed to add CTE courses as a graduation requirement. Parents signed a petition and argued that CTE would water down the educational experience of their college-bound students. Education officials, surprised by the backlash, said the proposal was simply intended to prepare students for both college and career, according to a recent article in U.S. News on NBCnews.com.

“Career and technical education has come a long way since the days when students could be steered from academics into hairstyling, auto repairs or carpentry. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to sell the concept of having all students take courses in CTE, as it is known,” wrote Sarah Butrymowicz of The Hechinger Report in the article.

CTE leaders have been taking on the issue of CTE’s stigma for more than a decade, said Kimberly Green, NASDCTEc Executive Director. A turning point came about 10 years ago when the CTE community transitioned program names from vocational education to CTE as a way to shed images of outdated shop classes.

“Career and technical education meant something different than vocational education,” Green said. “It’s academics plus technical instruction.”

Just over a year ago, NASDCTEc launched a re-branding initiative called CTE: Learning that works for Americaâ„¢ to again change minds about CTE. The campaign continues and the work continues across states.

In California, CTE programs have been elevating their status. In recent years, a growing number of CTE courses have been approved towards the University of California and California State University systems’ “a-g” entry requirements – the list of courses that students may complete in high school to be eligible for admittance to the universities. Those courses include academic core classes and electives.

Gary Hoachlander, president of ConnectEd, a California group that works with districts to create career-oriented high school and college programs for students, said there are about 10,000 CTE courses across all the state’s districts qualify for the college requirement. However, most of those courses count as electives.

CTE science classes such as environmental science or agricultural s

ience have yet to be approved for academic credit. “That’s where I think there’s still a lot of work to do,” Hoachlander said.

Erin Uy, Communications & Marketing Manager

By admin in News
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Report Urges Policy Makers to Support Deeper Learning

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

Education stakeholders have emphasized “deeper learning” and “21st century skills” as requisite for students to achieve the higher level learning that the labor market demands. But what exactly do these terms mean?

The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies of Science released a new report that brings some clarity to this question. NRC breaks down into three areas the skills that may fall under definitions such as “deeper learning” or similar terms: cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, and intrapersonal skills.

Cognitive skills include critical thinking, information literacy, reasoning and argumentation, and innovation.

Intrapersonal skills involve competencies such as flexibility, initiative, and metacognition.

Interpersonal skills include areas like communication, collaboration, responsibility, and conflict resolution.

While cognitive skills are certainly valuable, the study suggests that a combination of skills in each of the above areas helps students to transfer their specific knowledge to broader situations and influences more successful outcomes.

The authors recommend that policy makers support strategies and efforts, such as common standards, that integrate deeper learning skills into education. They also suggest that foundations and agencies support more research on the relationship between student attainment of deeper learning skills and their later outcomes. Lastly, the authors recommend using research-backed teaching methods, many often used in Career Technical Education (CTE), such as teaching with examples and cases, to provide real-life learning experiences for students.

Learn more about this extensive study here.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

 

By admin in Research
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Five More States Receive NCLB Waivers

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

Last week the Obama Administration announced that five more states – Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia – have received NCLB waivers that give them flexibility in meeting performance targets under NCLB. This latest round of recipients brings the total number of states with NCLB waivers to 24. Additional information on state requests and other documents can be found here.

By admin in Public Policy
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Career Clustersâ„¢ Institute Recap: CTE and the Common Core State Standards Implementation

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

The National Career Clusters™ Institute is an annual summer event that offers a range of seminars and workshops highlighting model CTE programs across the country that are aligned to the National Career Clusters Framework ™. This blog series provides a recap of the broad range of information shared over the course of the event, which took place June 18 – 20 in Washington, DC.

Margaret Reed Millar of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) described at the National Career Clusters™  Institute work taking place through the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Initiative and the State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), and how Career Technical Education (CTE) is a part of the CCSS implementation.

Millar discussed the tendency for U.S. education to cover content that is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” The CCSS, a set of high quality academic expectations adopted by 45 states, are helping states focus on fewer concepts in greater depth to provide students with a richer, more meaningful education. Millar stressed the importance of communication between districts, teacher colleges, and business and industry to ensure that students are college and career ready upon graduating high school.

A variety of digital resources are available to support CCSS implementation including;

NASDCTEc President and State Director Dr. Patrick Ainsworth also discussed work taking place in California to incorporate CTE into CCSS implementation. Ainsworth described how CTE is a central part of education reform in California; CTE is represented on every CCSS committee, and has its own section in the state’s CCSS implementation plan.

Currently, California’s CTE standards are being aligned to the CCSS. Ainsworth described CTE standards as a tool to foster the career readiness of all students and to develop a highly skilled and educated workforce which contributes to economic prosperity. He also suggested that incorporating CTE in CCSS implementation requires an emphasis on teams and groups, and on using technology to demonstrate learning and mastery.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

By admin in Uncategorized
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NASDCTEc Unveils Common Standards for Career Technical Education

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Career Technical Education (CTE) State Directors unveiled the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC), a shared set of high-quality CTE standards. The CCTC is a state-led initiative to ensure that CTE programs are consistent and high-quality across our nation.

“Career Technical Education State Directors have put to action their vision for all CTE programs to meet consistent and rigorous standards by coordinating the development of the Common Career Technical Core,” said Dr. Patrick Ainsworth, President of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium and CTE State Director.

“The CCTC, which was developed with input from education and industry experts, will help to ensure that our nation’s students are poised to meet the education and workforce demands of the global economy.”

States may voluntarily adopt the CCTC, which will complement and support other comprehensive college and career ready standards, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts and mathematics.

Over the course of the next year, NASDCTEc will launch an initiative to coordinate a comprehensive gap analysis to compare each state’s current course-level standards against the CCTC program-level standards to determine alignment. The gap analysis will be conducted by a team of third-party experts to ensure quality and consistency across the states.

DOWNLOAD the CCTC Standards here. 

Erin Uy, Communications & Marketing Manager

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By admin in Uncategorized
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