postsecondary « Advance CTE Blog

This Week in CTE

Friday, August 7th, 2020

We have compiled a list of highlights in Career Technical Education (CTE) from this week to share with you.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

CareerOneStop has created a series of videos introducing and highlighting industries and careers related to the 16 Career ClustersⓇ. These new videos can be used with prospective CTE students and families to help them learn about CTE opportunities. View the new videos here.

CTE PROGRAM OF THE WEEK

Klein Independent School District (ISD), located in Texas, has been awarded the Houston Business Journal’s (HBJ) Innovation Award. Klein ISD is specifically awarded for their Advanced Nursing Pathway, and is the only awardee to be honored twice by the HBJ. A standout feature of the program is its commitment to community partnerships and access opportunities for all learners. Read more here.

POSTSECONDARY RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

NEW BRIEF: People without postsecondary credentials are hit hardest by economic recession. It's critical that state leaders prioritize and adapt their #HigherEd attainment strategies to accelerate #COVID19 economic recovery. https://t.co/6VTrJwfwaH pic.twitter.com/WX34sCYJ18

— ESG (@edstrategygroup) August 3, 2020

View Pivot to Recover here.

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK

According to Michael Piper, Lowe’s Military Recruiting Strategist and Air Force veteran, “there will be an estimated three million job openings in the skilled trades industry by 2028.” Because of the growing talent need in the skilled trade industry, Lowe’s has made a $4.5 million commitment and partnered with AMVETS to provide grant and scholarship opportunities to re-skill and up-skill the military community. The opportunities include: the Veteranpreneur Business Grants, the Lowe’s + AMVETS Technology Scholarships and the Generation T Scholarships. Read more about the grant and scholarship offerings and how to apply here.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE OF THE WEEK

Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) are continuing to advocate for direct funding for CTE and workforce programs to be included in the next relief package to ensure learners are prepared for labor market needs, particularly as the economy begins to rebuild after the pandemic. We need your help quickly to emphasize this message with Congress as the congressional leaders come together in negotiations. Click here to ask your Members of Congress to support the inclusion of funds for CTE, as provided in the Relaunching America’s Workforce Act, in the next relief package.

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Schools and colleges across the nation have found innovative ways to connect with industry to strengthen their CTE programs. However, with a growing skills gap and rapidly changing workplace, more must be done to ensure educational institutions have the capacity to prepare each learner to succeed in today’s economy. Cheat Sheet: Opportunities for Employer Involvement in CTE identifies ways in which employers can begin to get involved with CTE programs.

View the resource in our Learning that Works Resource Center.

Brittany Cannady, Digital Media Associate

By admin in Resources
Tags: Learning that Works Resource Center, postsecondary, texas

A Learner-Centered Approach to Early Postsecondary Opportunities Amid COVID-19

Monday, June 22nd, 2020

Now that the spring 2020 semester has come to a close, schools, colleges and learners across the country are left with the uncomfortable question: what happens next? Amid the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, the U.S. has faced widespread school closures and an unprecedented – albeit clunky – transition to remote learning. Even as states begin to lift restrictions, the path ahead is still uncertain.

Last week the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) and Advance CTE explored some of the ways the Coronavirus has impacted – and will continue to impact – Career Technical Education (CTE) and Early Postsecondary Opportunities (EPSO), which include dual enrollment, dual credit, concurrent enrollment and other related opportunities. There is no silver bullet solution to these challenges, but state leaders and postsecondary institutions are already thinking of ways to minimize the impact on learners and, to the extent possible, to support continuity of learning through the summer and into the fall.

Hold Learners Harmless

One principle states and educational institutions should commit to is to hold learners harmless from the impacts of the Coronavirus, particularly the financial and academic burdens. States like Ohio have already taken steps to protect learners, issuing guidance that prohibits school districts from seeking reimbursement from students who withdraw from a postsecondary course due to Coronavirus-related disruptions.

Further, states are honoring students’ commitment to learning by giving them opportunities to earn credit for the work they have completed. In North Carolina, graduating high school seniors who are enrolled in EPSO courses will be given a passing grade – coded “PC19” to indicate the unusual circumstances of the pandemic – to ensure they can still meet graduation requirements. States like Georgia and Louisiana are giving learners additional time to complete course requirements over the summer.

Commit to Transparency

As states, higher education systems and local institutions adjust grading policies amid Coronavirus-related shutdowns, they must commit to transparency and provide clarity about how credit transfer will be supported. There are questions about binary grades and their impact on the transferability of EPSO courses to two-year and four-year institutions. States with guaranteed transfer acceptance and institutions with transparent policies for addressing binary credit offer students their best option. Some states have begun to release guidance on EPSOs including CTE dual credit opportunities, which NACEP has compiled here.

Don’t be Afraid to Innovate

States and institutions have adapted remarkably well to social distancing on a very short timeframe, but the hands-on, practical learning experiences that make CTE unique and compelling are often not easy to simulate in a remote or online format. That said, necessity is the mother of invention. Instructors and administrators have started finding creative solutions to maintain continuity of learning, from manufacturing products out of household supplies to distributing at-home lab kits. In Illinois, the Community College Board, Board of Higher Education and Illinois Articulation Initiative are allowing the transfer of credits for lab science course offerings that are delivered through nontraditional formats such as simulations, online labs or at-home science kits. In some cases, campuses are exploring ways to safely facilitate hands-on learning over the summer by cutting class sizes or offering intensive summer bootcamps – all while adhering to social distancing guidelines – to help learners make up missed hours.

Keep Equity Front and Center in Funding

As states face declining revenue and anticipate budget cuts in education and elsewhere, they must consider the critical role these programs play in their societal and economic recovery after the pandemic. Funding to decrease the cost of postsecondary education is an important equity lever to help ensure that the talent pipeline into high-skill, high-wage and in-demand occupations includes the entirety of their diverse communities. But a blanket approach to budget reduction, where all learners receive the same benefit, may imperil this approach.

States should analyze their EPSO funding with an equity lens and, when needed, make cuts that don’t disproportionately impact learners traditionally underrepresented in higher education. Increases in cost to the learner, driven by budget cuts, disproportionately impact learners from economically disadvantaged families who cannot absorb a change in cost like an affluent student can. As states assess the impact of this pandemic on education budgets, they should consider strategic changes to help under-resourced school districts, to address affordability for those students that are most price sensitive, and to look thoughtfully about ways to build access to those underrepresented in higher education. Focusing on equity will be critical to ensure budget cuts don’t exacerbate equity gaps in higher education and ultimately the workforce.

Recognize the Role in Recovery

As state and the national economy recovers and reconfigures, states will be looking to ensure they have a strong, robust talent pipeline to address their current, evolving and future workforce needs. There is a lot of uncertainty in forecasting what the labor market and economy will look like in the next three to five years, but it is certain that revitalizing state economies will depend on access to a skilled, educated workforce. States that have invested in career pathways approaches tied to workforce needs, have strong business and industry engagement in CTE, and strong connections between secondary and postsecondary education and industry already understand the value of these programs in driving the state economy. These relationships and a willingness to partner will yield dividends as states emerge from this crisis.

It is too early to measure the true impact of the Coronavirus on postsecondary readiness and credit attainment, but states and institutions can already anticipate some of the barriers that will come and take steps to address them. The time to act is now. States can and should clarify their policies on CTE EPSOs and ensure that the weight of school closures and learning disruption does not unnecessarily harm learners, particularly those who have the most to benefit from these opportunities.

This blog post is the second in a two-part series about the impacts of the Coronavirus on CTE dual enrollment. It was written by Amy Williams, Executive Director of NACEP, and Austin Estes, Manager of Data & Research for Advance CTE.

By admin in COVID-19 and CTE
Tags: Concurrent Enrollment, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Transfer, dual credit, dual enrollment, Early Postsecondary Opportunities, Economic Recovery, Equity, funding, postsecondary

This Week in CTE

Friday, June 19th, 2020

We have compiled a list of highlights in Career Technical Education (CTE) from this week to share with you.

WEBINAR OF THE WEEK

Advance CTE hosted a webinar with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and industry leaders who have built long-lasting and meaningful two-way partnerships to improve both learner outcomes and industry’s talent needs. New resources from The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, developed with support from Advance CTE, were shared and discussed to strengthen employer-CTE relationships using the Talent Pipeline Management(R) process.

View the recording here, and sign up for our next webinar, CTE Forward: How to Attract and Recruit Diverse Students at the Postsecondary Level: Lessons from Aspen Institute on July 9!

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Many school districts have developed innovative ways to honor graduating seniors in ceremonies in light of social distancing orders. Take a look at how seniors from one high school in the state of Virginia raced to the finish line. Read more here.

Did you see how our seniors received their diplomas last week? https://t.co/FasapMhe1g @HenricoCTE @HenricoSchools #CTEWorks pic.twitter.com/SP9d0FAdVu

— Henrico CTE (@HenricoCTE) June 16, 2020

PRIZE COMPETITION OF THE WEEK

The Evergreen National Education Prize identifies and scales programs that best help low-income youth access and complete college or CTE degrees. Learn more about what the prize consists of, past prize winners, eligibility criteria and more. Applications are now being accepted and must be completed in full by 5 p.m. ET on July 3, 2020. Email [email protected] with any questions.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE OF THE WEEK

The U.S. Department of Education approved six more state plans under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). The newly approved plans are from Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, New York, South Carolina and Utah. As of now, 31 state plans have been approved in total. You can check out which states’ plans are approved, as well as the final materials on our website.

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Advance CTE examined research and best practices in Developing Credit for Prior Learning Policies to Support Postsecondary Attainment for Every Learner. This report features data on the benefits of Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) for learners, as well as best practices in Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee and Virginia across topics such as CPL for military service members, portability of credits and how to communicate about CPL opportunities. View the report here.

Brittany Cannady, Digital Media Associate

By admin in COVID-19 and CTE
Tags: Colorado, Florida, kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Perkins V, postsecondary, South Carolina, tennessee, Utah

COVID-19 Will Disrupt Early Postsecondary CTE Credit Attainment: Don’t Make Learners Bear the Burden

Monday, June 15th, 2020

The last weeks of March were a test of adaptability for the nation’s education institutions. Over the span of weeks, school districts, community/technical colleges and area technical centers had to amend remote learning policies amid unprecedented school closures. The rapid pace at which systems and institutions have adapted to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has been likened to turning a battleship at the pace of a speedboat.

Early Postsecondary Opportunities (EPSO) – which include dual enrollment, dual credit, concurrent enrollment and other related opportunities – play an important role in facilitating successful transitions between secondary and postsecondary education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, approximately one-third of high school graduates take courses for postsecondary credit at some point during their educational careers. The integration of EPSO courses in Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways is creating options-rich, intuitive linkages between high school, college and career. This approach yields benefits to students, their families and their communities: earning postsecondary CTE credit in high school can lead to higher rates of college enrollment, persistence and success. But as schools, districts and colleges adapt to a new Coronavirus reality and a pervasive shift to online learning, where does that leave learners who are enrolled in CTE EPSO courses?

Coronavirus-related shutdowns put pressure on CTE EPSO courses in a number of ways:

Credit attainment and transfer: Many institutions have transitioned to binary (pass/ fail or satisfactory/unsatisfactory) grading for the spring and summer 2020 terms in recognition of the myriad of equity and logistical challenges presented by an abrupt, unexpected move to online education. This approach attempts to hold the learner harmless in weathering this dramatic shift in their education. Binary grading may have a wide-ranging impact on the acceptance of transfer credit of which EPSO credit is a subset. Like transfer credit, EPSO credit enjoys wide acceptance, often guaranteed by state law or system governance, but those policies were not developed to account for widespread use of binary grading.
Applied curriculum: Hands-on learning is a key feature of CTE, and without access to school buildings, learners may face challenges in demonstrating all of the skills and competencies necessary to receive credit for coursework. Even as many postsecondary courses transition to online and remote delivery, many practical CTE courses have been suspended altogether or significantly scaled back. Similarly, programs that integrate work-based learning activities as an important component of the curriculum are struggling to gain access to clinical hours, internships and other high-value college and career crossover activities. There is an opportunity to look at thoughtful approaches that extend deadlines for course completion, leveraging competency-based approaches, badging, certifications, portfolios and challenge exams to document the attainment of learning outcomes by students.
Funding: Funding for EPSOs varies from state to state, but in most cases tuition is paid through a combination of state funding, support from the learners’ home districts and from the learners themselves. Funding to decrease the cost of participation is an important equity lever for states looking to ensure they have a strong, robust talent pipeline to address their current and future workforce needs. What happens if a class is suspended mid-semester of if a learner withdraws due to circumstances related to the Coronavirus? States and institutions will need to clarify how to address these cases.
Data and accountability: More than a dozen states are measuring postsecondary credit attainment as their CTE program quality indicator for the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21^st Century Act (Perkins V) performance accountability system. Enrollment disruptions in the spring and summer 2020 terms will impact states’ performance benchmarks, and if closures continue into the fall, this will impact their first year of Perkins V reporting. The Coronavirus also threatens to affect the other secondary CTE program quality indicators, as many learners earn recognized postsecondary credentials or complete work-based learning opportunities through partnerships with postsecondary institutions. EPSO programs are built on partnership and require mutual support, understanding and investment by school districts and postsecondary institutions. These partnerships create a better opportunity pivot in approach and resource sharing.

The field has been quick to recognize these challenges, but given the decentralized nature of higher education – in most cases, articulation agreements for CTE credit are negotiated at the local level between individual districts and partner colleges – the response has been inconsistent and incomplete. This situation creates both challenges and opportunities.

So how can states respond to some of these challenges? Next week the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) and Advance CTE will explore some strategies to minimize the burden on students and honor their commitment to learning.

This blog post is the first in a two-part series about the impacts of the Coronavirus on CTE dual enrollment. It was written by Amy Williams, Executive Director of NACEP, and Austin Estes, Manager of Data & Research for Advance CTE.

By admin in COVID-19 and CTE
Tags: Concurrent Enrollment, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Credit Transfer, Data and Accountability, dual credit, dual enrollment, Early Postsecondary Opportunities, postsecondary

New Research Shows Positive Employment Outcomes for CTE Learners

Tuesday, March 10th, 2020

One of the most important considerations for learners choosing to enroll in secondary and postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs is whether that pathway will lead to a successful career and a good salary. The new Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) requires states and local recipients to set goals around post-program outcomes for CTE concentrators. Several recent studies suggest that learners are finding gainful employment and increased salaries after completing CTE programs.

A study in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice analyzed data from the California Community Colleges CTE Outcomes Survey. Using three years of survey data from over 46,000 former CTE participants, the researchers found that these learners reported positive employment outcomes and obtained greater increases in wages than they were earning before beginning their program.

Another study using administrative data on a cohort of high school CTE concentrators from Washington State found that CTE learners who go on to college, compared to non-CTE learners, are significantly more likely to enroll in and complete vocational programs. They are also more likely to earn postsecondary credentials such as associate degrees and industry certifications, especially in the applied Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and public safety fields. Additionally, secondary CTE learners who do not go on to college are also more likely to obtain full-time employment within the first three years after graduation compared to non-CTE learners.

Lastly, a study of admissions and learner outcomes within Connecticut’s system of 16 stand-alone CTE high schools found that males who attend a technical high school are 10 percentage points more likely to graduate than comparable males who attend a traditional high school. Male learners attending technical high schools in Connecticut also have approximately 31 percent greater post-graduation quarterly earnings, higher 9th grade attendance rates and higher 10th grade testing scores than comparable males. There was no evidence that female learners had significantly different outcomes based on the type of school attended.

As CTE month comes to a close and states finalize their Perkins V plans and invest substantial resources in CTE programs, the findings in these three studies highlight the value that CTE programs have in positive academic and employment outcomes for learners. Additionally, these findings reaffirm the value CTE programs have in preparing learners for the real world and the many postsecondary paths they can pursue. The Washington State and Connecticut studies found that CTE concentrators were slightly less likely to go on to college than comparable learners but still more likely to earn vocational credentials, obtain full-time employment with higher earnings, and have better attendance and test scores than comparable learners. State leaders are encouraged to continue investing in these programs proving to work for learners in their states.

Other Notable Research

A report on Idaho’s education and earnings gap revealed that those with bachelor’s degrees earn substantially more in income than those with less education. Among its recommendations, the report suggests the state adopt explicit policies encouraging school districts to develop secondary CTE course sequences or certified programs focusing on two to three specific career pathways that play to their local strengths.

Brian Robinson, Policy Associate

By admin in Uncategorized
Tags: California, certifications, Connecticut, credentials, employment, Idaho, income, Perkins V, postsecondary, Secondary, student outcomes, Washington State

The Global Imperative for CTE Programs at Community and Technical Colleges

Monday, January 13th, 2020

Learners today are no longer preparing solely for careers in their communities, states or even country, but rather within the global economy. At the same time, when individuals enter the workforce, they increasingly are called upon to engage with a diverse set of colleagues, work with international supply chains, hold multiple perspectives and develop products and services for a more diverse and culturally conscious group of consumers.

Within this context, it is clear there is a greater need to ensure all learners are entering the workforce global competent and prepared for the ever-changing world. Yet global competency is not often an explicit focus of Career Technical Education (CTE) programs.

To elevate this critical issue, Advance CTE partnered with Asia Society, Longview Foundation, American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Association of Career & Technical Education (ACTE) on Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce: The Global Learning Imperative for Career and Technical Education Programs at Community and Technical Colleges. This paper builds on the foundation from a paper released in 2015, which focused on how global competency can and should be integrated into secondary CTE programs of study, and explores the role postsecondary institutions can play in advancing global competency.

This paper provides data and evidence on why and how community and technical colleges can lean in on “internationalizing” their programs and embed global competency in curriculum and instruction, along with specific examples from leading institutions like Ivy Technical Community College of Indiana, Central Piedmont Community College in North Carolina and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The examples in this paper aim to support community and technical colleges and their faculty as they work to integrate global competence into existing CTE courses and advance their missions of graduating career-ready learners.

In the coming months, Asia Society will work to create new tools and resources to assist postsecondary CTE faculty in integrating global issues and perspectives into their courses. If you are interested in participating in this project, please contact Heather Singmaster, Director of CTE, Center for Global Education, Asia Society: [email protected]. To view current tools and resources for middle and high school educators, click here.

Kate Kreamer, Deputy Executive Director

By Kate Blosveren Kreamer in Publications, Research, Resources
Tags: Indiana, North Carolina, postsecondary

New Series by New America Explores the Impact of TAACCCT

Monday, October 21st, 2019

Recovery from the 2008 recession required an understanding of the new sets of skills that the labor market demanded, as well as an emphasis on postsecondary attainment. The Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program was a $1.9 billion investment led by the U.S. Department of Labor in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education to do just that. The TAACCCT grant had the purpose of helping community colleges meet workforce needs by ensuring that learners acquired the skills needed to be successful in a career through postsecondary attainment.

TAACCCT grants ran from 2011 through 2018, and in total 256 TAACCCT grants were awarded in all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. This means that 60 percent of the publicly-funded community colleges in the country were affected by these grants, and almost 2,600 programs of study were created or improved to support adult learners in gaining skills that would bring them to a good job.

Each TAACCCT recipient was required to go through a third-party evaluation so that the benefits, or shortcomings, of TAACCCT could be understand. New America reviewed all of the evaluations to determine whether or not the TAACCCT grant made a difference and what strategies utilized under the grant worked.

One major takeaway from the analysis is that learners were almost twice as likely to complete a program, credential or both when enrolled in a TAACCCT recipient program than not. Increases in employment as a result of TAACCCT grants were seen as well. The full series of briefs by New America can be viewed here.

The findings of these reports were discussed at a recent event on “Community Colleges as Engines of Opportunity: Exploring the Impact of the TAACCCT Program.” The event included panels that featured federal, state, college and nonprofit perspectives. A common theme was that the TAACCCT grant provided a unique opportunity to bring together education and industry representatives. These relationships allowed colleges to best serve their adult learners and set them up for success and helped all sides understand the connection between education and workforce development.

The final panel of the day was comprised of leaders at colleges that received the TAACCCT grant. The group reiterated the important role that community colleges have in supporting adult learners. Dean of School of Applied Technology & Technical Specialties, Salt Lake Community College, Eric Hauser, shared that “life comes at our students faster than others and one small thing can set them off course,” making student support services vital.

A full recording of the event can be viewed here.

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate

By admin in Uncategorized
Tags: adults, higher education, postsecondary, TAACCCT, workforce development

College Affordability Act Released

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

On October 15, the House Committee on Education and Labor introduced the College Affordability Act (H.R. 4674), the House Democrats’ long-awaited legislation to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA).

Some of the major initiatives of the bill include:

Creating a federal-state funding partnership to incentivize states to make community college tuition-free;
Increasing the value and funding of Pell Grants;
Simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA);
Repealing the ban on Pell Grants for incarcerated students;
Codifying restrictions on federal funds used for for-profit institutions that had been put in place by the Obama Administration;
Repealing the student unit record data ban and creating a new postsecondary student data system;
Expanding Pell Grant eligibility to certain short-term credential programs; and
Creating additional funds for postsecondary Perkins CTE programs, including tribally controlled postsecondary CTE institutions.

Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) intends this to be a comprehensive reauthorization, in contrast to the recent “mini” HEA reauthorization proposal, The Student Aid Improvement Act, introduced by Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

Advance CTE staff will continue to monitor changing developments with this proposal and related legislation. Advance CTE’s full recommendations for HEA reauthorization can be found here.

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate and Sam Dunietz, Senior Associate for Federal Policy

By admin in Legislation, Uncategorized
Tags: Congress, federal legislation, HEA, Higher Education Act, postsecondary

The Importance of Credit for Prior Learning to the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and its Students

Monday, October 7th, 2019

Guest blog from Dr. René Cintrón, Chief Academic Affairs Officer, LCTCS

Why Credit for Prior Learning?

Credit for prior learning (CPL) – often described by the American Council on Education as academic credit granted for knowledge and skills gained outside the classroom – supports the unique mission of community and technical colleges. These colleges provide students with the opportunity to earn affordable credentials in a timely fashion that lead to valuable employment and/or transfer, whether the credential is an industry-based certification or a career-technical or transfer degree.

Unfortunately, not every student completes their program. We surveyed Louisiana community and technical college students who withdrew from courses, and found that only 18 percent gave an academic reason for doing so. By far, more students were leaving college without completing a credential because of personal (53 percent) and/or financial (31 percent) reasons. Thus, the majority of students are not withdrawing because of challenges with course content but rather – simply put – because of time and money. CPL has the ability to tackle both of these challenges for students.

Our students come to our colleges with a wealth of knowledge they obtained through their careers, past learning, military service and life experiences. When relevant, this knowledge can and should be applied to progress towards an academic credential. A few years ago, we started working with military partners in the state to increase the number of military students who enroll and graduate. Our approach was to treat the military transcript as an academic transcript. We don’t charge fees to transfer courses from other postsecondary institutions to ours, so why would we do that for students coming from the military? We took the same approach to students arriving with industry-based credentials (IBCs), transcribing and articulating these credentials as we do with courses on other transcripts. Thus, we consider these students to be “transferring in” just as students do from other institutions.

How Do We Do It?

Credit for prior learning evaluation is the process of determining how to award credit for college-level learning acquired through a variety of means. At the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), expert faculty groups, along with the chief academic officers’ group, met and did the work of compiling existing articulations and mapping future ones. The System reached out to entities such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Louisiana National Guard, the state’s Department of Education, the Louisiana Workforce Commission and the Workforce Investment Council, among others, to collect information on the various military courses and IBCs, to review them and determine which could be converted into Career Technical Education (CTE) courses.

The initial review involved each college determining its equivalent course and adding it to a matrix. The next step was to compile all of the colleges’ determinations into the system-wide articulation tables. These tables are updated and maintained on an annual basis, similar to academic catalogs. Then, importantly, the faculty and chief academic officers recognized that to ensure the staying power of their work, the process should be enacted into policy. In March 2018, the LCTCS Board of Supervisors approved revisions to Policy 1.023, which, in addition to supporting credit for prior learning, established guidelines for processing it, formalized the systemwide articulation matrix, and declared no cost to students for CPL course transcription for those in the matrix. The result: the 2018-2019 academic year, 2,073 students enrolled with credit for prior learning – a 50 percent increase from the prior year.

This kind of collaboration and commitment across a broad scope of professionals to reward students for their prior learning efforts exemplifies how Louisiana’s community and technical colleges are supporting students in reaching their college and career goals in a timely manner.

For more, see Advance CTE’s report Developing Credit for Prior Learning Policies to Support Postsecondary Attainment for Every Learner

By Kate Blosveren Kreamer in Advance CTE Resources
Tags: credentials, Credit for Prior Learning, Louisiana, postsecondary

Using Advance CTE’s Policy Benchmark Tool to Address Gaps in “Policy” and Practice

Wednesday, August 7th, 2019

Guest Post by Whitney Thompson, Senior Director for Career and Technical Education, Illinois Community College Board

As the third largest community college system in the country, Illinois community colleges serve over 600,000 residents each year in credit, noncredit and continuing education courses. The Illinois community college system, made up of 48 colleges, has over 4,265 active, approved CTE programs spanning across all 16 Career Clusters®, which provide high-quality, accessible, cost-effective educational opportunities to the entire state.

In early 2018, Illinois embarked on the Postsecondary High-Quality CTE Program Approval Project. The goals are to assess existing program development and approval processes, align approval and review systems, identify technical assistance needs across the system, and share lessons learned within the broader CTE community.

This project was initiated just after Illinois went without a budget for close to two years. To add, investments in higher education over the last decade have been decreasing, or at best stagnant. Yet, thriving, modernized CTE programs across Illinois are critical to meeting the state’s goal of 60 percent of all Illinoisans with a postsecondary degree or credential by 2025.

What We Found

Because of Illinois’ challenging fiscal predicament, the colleges were facing significant staff turnover. With this, the system was experiencing a hemorrhaging of institutional knowledge. One major goal of this project, although not as originally designed, became to document practices and processes to build institutional knowledge.

The loss of institutional knowledge was also recognized among Board staff. During the self-assessment of our policies using Advance CTE’s Policy Benchmark Tool, we found that in practice we were upholding quality metrics, but there were a number of critical gaps in “policy” – documented in our Program Approval Manual. In the end, these high-quality practices were being upheld by one to two staff.

In examining our policies at the state level, we found two areas that were “building” or “promising” but not “strong:” secondary-postsecondary alignment and experiential learning. After our state-level assessment, we brought together ten participating colleges to conduct assessments of their own program approval policies and practices, with an additional lens of how they went about developing programs.

While there was some initial resistance to a couple of the elements, namely requiring secondary articulation for all CTE programs and identifying a common set of statewide standards for CTE, largely, the colleges felt it to be a helpful exercise. Similar to our assessment at the state level, the colleges also found that secondary-postsecondary alignment and experiential learning did not meet the “strong” benchmark as desired. Additionally, a few colleges noted that the use of labor market information could be strengthened in the program development process, but more education and training may be needed for staff in retrieving and analyzing this data

Alongside these examinations of our program approval policies and practices, we embarked on research to better understand program development at the campus level. We engaged our partners at the Illinois Center for Specialized Professional Support to conduct fieldwork on each college’s program development process as well as identify needs for technical assistance. Their fieldwork produced a list of areas in which the Board can help the colleges be more systematic in their program development activities and documentation.

Next Steps

While the participating colleges were steadfast for change, we are finding that there may not be enough buy-in from the system at this time to completely revise the program approval policy due to its grounding in administrative rules. However, in the midst of our project, Congress passed Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21^st Century Act (Perkins V), allowing us to leverage several principles to encourage each and every college to take another step forward.

Specifically, we will be leveraging Perkins V’s calls for smooth transitions (including multiple entry and exit points in programs of study), equitable access and outcomes, alignment to secondary programs, and expanding work-based learning. We look forward to continuing this work well into the future as support for CTE is echoed nationally. Advance CTE has been instrumental in giving CTE a voice on the national stage and supporting states in fostering high-quality CTE programs across the P-20 continuum.

To learn more about Illinois Postsecondary CTE visit: https://www.iccb.org/cte/.

By Kate Blosveren Kreamer in Public Policy
Tags: Illinois, Perkins, postsecondary

Posts Tagged ‘postsecondary’

This Week in CTE

A Learner-Centered Approach to Early Postsecondary Opportunities Amid COVID-19

This Week in CTE

COVID-19 Will Disrupt Early Postsecondary CTE Credit Attainment: Don’t Make Learners Bear the Burden

New Research Shows Positive Employment Outcomes for CTE Learners

The Global Imperative for CTE Programs at Community and Technical Colleges

New Series by New America Explores the Impact of TAACCCT

College Affordability Act Released

The Importance of Credit for Prior Learning to the Louisiana Community and Technical College System and its Students

Using Advance CTE’s Policy Benchmark Tool to Address Gaps in “Policy” and Practice

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