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ECMCF Fellow Feature: Dr. Crystal Gardner

Tuesday, June 20th, 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 blog in the ECMCF Fellow Feature series, we interviewed ECMCF Fellow Dr. Crystal Gardner (TX) who entered the Fellowship with experience spanning PK-12, higher education and adult education.

Dr. Crystal Gardner currently serves as the Instructional Supervisor for the Houston Community College (HCC) Alternative Teacher Certification Program (ATCP). In this role, she oversees instructional operations, program development, quality control, and compliance management. Joining the Fellowship was an exciting opportunity to fully immerse herself in the world of career and technical education (CTE) through equity-aligned learning and real-world practicum.

She was first exposed to the world of workforce development through her work in ATCP. This proximity allowed her to work in professional learning communities and connect with other workforce stakeholders. The Fellowship was recommended to her by a colleague who knew about her previous experience and passion for program outcomes.

“My goal is to pull others up through my work. Whether my role is in grant writing, administration or as an educator, my goal is always to prepare and provide high-quality educators, high-quality employees, and high-quality people.”

Dr. Gardner’s work in institution improvement has always been data-driven. She has experience using data to turn around PK-12 campuses and the successful re-accreditation of the Alternative Teacher Certification program at HCC upon its initial re-accreditation audit. As a Fellow, she’s eager for the opportunity to further develop her knowledge and skills around using CTE datasets and Perkins accountability to close gaps in the programs she oversees. One of her long-term goals is to expand alternative certification programs to include CTE educator preparation to increase the availability of high-quality CTE instructors in Houston.

“This Fellowship has given me the skills to analyze our institutional data through an equity lens and identify those areas of need. I’m able to narrow in on key areas like sustainability and retention in an impactful way.”

Dr. Gardner’s role has shifted in exciting ways as she’s been tapped to take on additional projects and speaking engagements. She has had the opportunity to present on accountability at numerous conferences, including the Texas Association of CTE (TACTE) and the Learning Resources Network (LERN) conferences. Dr. Gardner is also proud of the work that she’s led around expanding the eligibility of Veterans Benefit to cover clock hour programs for Veterans wishing to pursue Alternative Teacher Certification at HCC, in addition to completing the process of garnering the approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the Alternative Teacher Certification CE Certificate, beginning Fall 2023.

“Participating in the Fellowship has increased the quality and capacity of my professional network exponentially. I feel renewed and invigorated finding myself surrounded by a group of people of such caliber and similar-minded passion for moving the needle to improve systems.”

If you have any questions, contact Dr. Crystal Gardner by email at [email protected]

Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in Achieving Equitable and Inclusive CTE
Tags: CTE Data, CTE Leadership, Leadership Pipeline, postsecondary, texas

College in High School Series: a Look at CHSA’s State Policy Roadmap

Wednesday, June 14th, 2023

Advance CTE serves as a steering member of the College in the High School Alliance,a coalition of national, state, and local organizations collaborating to enable high school students to enroll in authentic, affordable college pathways toward postsecondary degrees and credentials offered with appropriate support. This blog, the second in a series, highlights the CHSA’s Unlocking Potential guide that elevates findings and work states are doing to design and deliver high-quality college in the high school programs.

Resource Overview

College in High School Alliance (CHSA)’s Unlocking Potential: A State Policy Roadmap for Equity & Quality in College in High School Programs provides a comprehensive set of policy recommendations for states looking to expand equitable access to college and high school programs. This guide provides policy recommendations as well as actionable items for state and local administrators and concludes with other examples of state tools and resources.

Background:

College in High School Alliance defines college in high school programs as dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and early college high school. These programs are formed via partnerships between school districts and accredited institutions of higher education to provide high school-age students postsecondary experiences that lead to college credentials or degrees.

The number of students participating in College in High School Programs has increased to provide opportunities to more than 5.5 million secondary learners, with Career Technical Education (CTE) courses making up one-third of enrollments (1). While these programs have proven popular and in high demand, enrollment demographics do not reflect the full diversity of the learner population. Significant opportunity exists for reducing barriers to accessing College in High School Programs for all learners, especially those in low-income communities, learners of color, learners from rural communities and first-generation college-goers.

Unlocking Potential provides recommendations and highlights work for state policies that advance the goals of equity and quality for college in high school programs in six categories:

The numbers in the image represent page numbers from the resource guide, per each category.

Equity Goal and Public Reporting:
- Set an equitable and statewide public goal for increasing the participation and success of traditionally underserved learners in the early postsecondary groups
- Disaggregate public reporting and accountability for progress toward the goal
- Practices in Louisiana, Montana, Minnesota, and Washington are highlighted
Program Integrity and Credit Transfer:
- Support and promote high-quality early postsecondary opportunities
- Create cross-sector partnerships between secondary and postsecondary teams
- Create articulation agreements to remove barriers on student transfer opportunities
- Practices in California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas are highlighted
Finance:
- Design funding mechanisms that remove financial barriers for low-income and moderate-income students who want to participate in early postsecondary opportunities
- Practices in Arkansas, Georgia, Nebraska, Utah, Vermont and Washington are highlighted
Course Access and Availability:
- Remove course access and availability barriers for all learners
- Maximize learners’ college credit attainment experiences through international pathway opportunities and by providing academic and career exploration opportunities
- Practices in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine and Virginia are highlighted
Instructor Capacity
- Develop strategies to recruit, provide support, and diversify the pool of instructors with the appropriate qualifications to teach college in high school programs
- Create high-quality partnerships between K-12 and postsecondary partners as college in high school programs
- Scale college in the high school programs and create sustainability
- Practices in Hawaii, Kansas, Minnesota and Ohio are highlighted
Navigator Support:
- Prioritize student navigational support.
- Enhance the current advising mechanisms.
- Practices in California, Colorado, Montana, Ohio and Tennessee are highlighted

The policy recommendations are presented along a continuum: foundational, advanced, and exceptional policies. Foundational policies are those that every state must have to best support its learners.

For example, under the Equity Goal and Public Reporting, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) data reporting requirements would be considered a foundational policy. On the other end of the spectrum, states can enhance these same data reporting requirements by creating tool kits and providing technical assistance to empower local use of data to remove barriers for learners and create more equitable programs.

To learn more about how CTE early postsecondary opportunities (EPSO) such as dual enrollment serve learners, check out Advance CTE’s report on The State of CTE: Early Postsecondary Opportunities. This 50-state report, provided in partnership with College in the High School Alliance reveals key findings on how EPSOs serve CTE learners and provides recommendations for state leaders to leverage state infrastructure and collaboration to advance equity in these experiences.

Suela Cela, Senior Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in CTE Without Limits
Tags: Access and Equity, Arkansas, California, College Access, college in high school, Colorado, dual credit, dual enrollment, early college high school, Early Postsecondary Opportunities, ESSA, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, state policy, tennessee, texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington State

New Skills ready network highlight: Interview with JPMorgan Chase Vice President Deshaun Mars

Wednesday, June 7th, 2023

The New Skills ready network is part of JPMorgan Chase’s (JPMC) substantial portfolio in support of an inclusive economy and workforce. This five year commitment is part of the New Skills at Work initiative to prepare people for the future of work and their $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity. With dedication to building equitable career pathways, the New Skills ready network connects six sites — Boston, Massachusetts; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Nashville, Tennessee — with local partners with the intentionality necessary to build a strong workforce ecosystem for all learners.

As part of ongoing blog topics providing updates on this initiative, Deshaun Mars, Vice President, Global Philanthropy (Job Skills,) and Brice Thomas, Policy Associate engaged in a discussion to highlight JPMC’s view of the initiative and how this work advances JPMC’s philanthropic portfolio and ultimately building high-quality local and state career pathway systems.

How does the work being done in the initiative support the rest of JPMC’s Global Ready Initiative (GCRI) job, skills, and philanthropy portfolio?

As a firm, we are focused on creating a more equitable labor market, and we support policy solutions, organizations and initiatives that help upskill and train the workforce of today for future jobs.

More specifically, our Global Career Readiness Initiative prepares young people, particularly those from historically underserved backgrounds, to build skills and enter the labor force through quality jobs.

This investment highlights the importance of intentional engagement between the education (K-12/higher ed) and business/employer communities to support students and arm them with the resources, skills and access to meaningful career pathways to help power the economy and workforce of the future.

How do you see JPMC leveraging the work being developed through the initiative?

Businesses are grappling with a challenging labor market – there are more job openings than qualified people to fill the roles. This investment helps fill that gap by increasing access to skills, training and resources for young people so they are better prepared to enter the labor force with the skills employers need most.

We are learning how deep cross-sector relationships and partnerships can support young people, communities, and business outcomes. Within our own workforce, we are applying these same principles to transform how we prepare people to compete for well-paying jobs and successful careers.

With multiple sites across the world, we’re able to share best practices and lessons learned to bolster engagement and strengthen the investment.

How does JPMC plan to continue supporting the sites?

Intentional collaboration and partnerships are key to the ongoing support of these sites. We are connecting our local market leaders and the firm’s work across other bodies of work to these partners to help them scale, build capacity and think long-term.

Since we are past the midpoint of this initiative, what do you hope to see from the participating sites?

Continue investing in building out the long-term infrastructure of career pathways so this work is not dependent on one funder.

As sites progress on implementation and sustainability, what encouragement would you share in their continued progress?

We understand how difficult this work is. That is why we made a longer-term investment so our sites have the time to put the infrastructure in place to support and build the local economies of the future.

The New Skills ready network has also supported the creation of several publications and resources designed to engage and support the field. Advance CTE’s Learning that Works Resource Center houses hundreds of reports, briefs and toolkits designed to advance high-quality CTE for our members. The State Work-Based Learning Innovation Tracker, for instance, compiles the work-based learning toolkits from all 50 states to serve as up-to-date models of best practices. Our latest resource from this initiative, the Credit for Prior Learning Messaging Toolkit, provides effective messages targeted to key audiences and strategies for dissemination to increase participation in Credit for Prior Learning among adult learners.

JPMC, New Skills ready network, and Advance CTE remain committed to helping all learners have access to high-quality career pathways.

Brice Thomas, Policy Associate

By Layla Alagic in Achieving Equitable and Inclusive CTE
Tags: career pathways, Colorado, Equity and Access, Indiana, JPMorgan Chase, Massachusetts, New Skills ready network, Ohio, skills training, tennessee, texas

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

Tuesday, 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

By Jodi Langellotti in Achieving Equitable and Inclusive CTE, Advancing Equity in CTE
Tags: Access and Equity, Administrator Pipeline, CTE Leadership, Ohio, Pennsylvania, postsecondary cte, professional development, PSCTE Fellowship, texas

Six Focus Areas to Actualize CTE Without Borders

Thursday, May 4th, 2023

In March 2021, Advance CTE released Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits). This vision put forth a bold vision for a cohesive, flexible and responsive career preparation system that aims to close equity gaps in educational outcomes and workforce readiness and leverage Career Technical Education (CTE) as a catalyst for ensuring each learner can reach success in their career of choice. CTE Without Limits lays out five inter-connected and equally critical principles – Principle 5 in CTE Without Limits describes that all learners can access CTE without borders.

To truly meet the needs of learners, we must remove the geographic barriers that limit access and opportunities, particularly for learners in rural communities. CTE policies and programs should enable, not limit, mobility and access and states should come together to develop and expand new models of collaboration by investing in open-access systems that enable access within and across states.

Advance CTE’s upcoming release, the CTE Without Borders Policy Playbook, developed in partnership with the Southern Regional Education Board and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, and with input from more than 100 national, state and local leaders, highlights six focus areas to help states, secondary and postsecondary institutions actualize CTE without borders with expanded access to high-quality CTE and work-based learning within and across states. The six focus areas include:

Aligning partners, values and vision;
Driving decisions with data;
Incentivizing access with flexible and sustainable funding;
Capturing learners’ credits, credentials and experiences;
Optimizing the conditions for virtual and hybrid learning opportunities; and
Informing and supporting learners and families.

The policy playbook features promising state and local practices from across the country including Colorado, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Texas and more; strategies to actualize each focus area; and resources to support state and local leaders in providing expanded access within and across states.

Review the CTE Without Borders Policy Playbook series in the Learning that Works Resource Center when it’s released later in May to learn about the ways your state can meet the needs of all learners regardless of where they live.

Haley Wing, Senior Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in Publications
Tags: Colorado, CTE Without Limits, Equity, hybrid learning, North Dakota, online learning, rhode island, rural, texas

Getting to Know the 2022- 2024 Advance CTE – ECMCF Fellows Part 3

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023

In September, 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.

Over the next several weeks, this blog series will introduce each Fellow participating in the second cohort of emerging leaders from 14 states, including 12 professionals of color.

Dominique Footes – Maryland

Dominique Footes’ (Maryland) experience focuses on college and career readiness for learners across postsecondary, non-profit and commercial sectors. Currently, she serves as the Special Programs Administrator for the Southeastern Universities Research Association. In this role, she works alongside partnering universities and scientists to develop and implement early career development, mentoring, and student programming for Goddard Earth Science Technology and Research II. Footes earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore.

Dr. Crystal Gardner – Texas

Dr. Crystal Gardner (Texas) is an experienced educator with a record of success in improving school systems and championing culturally responsive professional development at the secondary and postsecondary levels. She currently serves as the Instructional Supervisor for the Houston Community College Alternative Teacher Certification Program. In this role, Dr. Gardner oversees instructional operations, program development, quality control, and compliance management. She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Prairie View A&M University and both a master’s degree and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Texas Southern University.

Davil Jackson – California

Davil Jackson (California) is passionate about empowering youth and young adult learners and has significant experience in apprenticeship program management and career readiness advising. Currently, Jackson serves as a Career Services Advisor at the University of California, Riverside Extension. He earned a Multi-Craft Core Curriculum Apprenticeship Readiness Instructor Certification from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California – San Bernardino. He is currently set to complete a master’s degree in education from Touro College in the fall of 2022.

Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in Uncategorized
Tags: Access and Equity, California, ECMCF Fellows, Maryland, professional development, texas

Midpoint Highlights of the New Skills ready network

Monday, October 31st, 2022

In February 2020, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced its New Skills ready network initiative, which bolsters the firm’s efforts to support an inclusive economic recovery. This effort is part of both their $350 million, five-year New Skills at Work initiative to prepare people for the future of work and their $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity.

While there was a lot of excitement – and some uncertainty – about how exactly the work would unfold, we had no idea that, in just a few short weeks after the launch, the world would change as we knew it. Plans of in-person leadership team meetings, extended needs assessments that included focus groups of learners, industry partners and other key stakeholders, and network-wide convenings were all put on hold or adjusted due to the pandemic.

While the ramp up may have slowed down and plans evolved, what never changed was the commitment of the six sites, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Advance CTE and our national partner, Education Strategy Group (ESG) to the ultimate vision of this initiative – to dramatically increase equitable access to and success in high-quality career pathways and experiences that lead to good jobs for all learners across these communities. This became even more important as the pandemic laid bare the deep and abiding inequities in our education system, workforce and society, particularly for learners and communities of color.

We are now two-and-a-half years into the five-year initiative and there is a lot to celebrate! New Skills ready network is a bold and audacious initiative that aims to achieve both systems change at the ecosystem level while also improving programmatic opportunities for learners and industry partners in real time. It is no easy feat to build a career preparation ecosystem that engages and brings along K-12 districts, two- and four-year institutions, intermediaries, state agencies and industry partners – while also implementing new pathways, advising structures and other critical programmatic improvements at the school and institutional level.

So what have we learned?

Programmatic improvements are critical but can always be swept away with a change in leadership, funding or priorities. To achieve true sustainable change and equitable opportunities requires a focus on the overall systems. We’re impressed at how sites are focusing on the system-level work of building true buy-in, deepening partnerships between the state and local level and across institutions, and strengthening data collection, sharing and use across partner organizations.
Equity must be at the core of the work – as both a moral and economic imperative. As such, sites are engaging learners and families to understand their motivations and concerns, assessing the cultural wealth and assets within school buildings, providing ongoing professional development to system leaders and instructors to build shared understanding of systemic barriers to equity and other key activities.
In order to build sustainable systems, sites can’t simply add new pathways and related experiences, but also must transform or sunset what isn’t working – be it outdated advising models, misaligned pathways or work-based learning that isn’t accessible or meaningful to learners.
New Skills must be built into the communities’ broader career pathways ecosystem. Given the increased interest and investments in career pathways over the last decade, we are finding that the work supported by New Skills is an accelerant to those efforts – or even the glue that holds them together.

For more on site-specific progress, check out the:

2021-22 New Skills ready network snapshots and annual report.
Videos and graphics, released by ESG, elevating the sites’ “big bets” for the year ahead.

Kate Kreamer, Deputy Executive Director

By Stacy Whitehouse in Uncategorized
Tags: career pathways, Colorado, Data Collection, Equity and Access, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Skills ready network, Ohio, tennessee, texas

2022 Advance Fall Meeting Recap – Forward Together: Supporting Every Learner

Friday, October 28th, 2022

Advance CTE’s 2022 Fall Meeting, held last week, included five breakout sessions that equipped state leaders to support every learner in CTE by tailoring support to meet unique and intersecting learner population needs.

Keep reading for key takeaways and resources from each session shared by state CTE leaders and our Advance CTE-ECMC Fellows!

Serving Middle Grades Learners through Career Supports

Career advising and development supports geared towards middle grades learners to improve access and achieve high-quality and equitable secondary CTE programs prove to be an early opportunity to develop an occupational identity and better build social capital. Ohio discussed the policy structures the state has put into place to support learners in CTE programs before they enter high school, including funding mechanisms and alignment of middle grades programs of study. Michigan Advance CTE-ECMC Fellow Tony Warren shared how states and regions can broaden a middle schoolers mindset by focusing on the challenge they want to solve and helping develop a pathway to achieve a goal centered on their intrinsic motivations. Fellow Donald Walker provided local examples of carrying out state policy and practice at the Detroit School of the Arts showcased how one school is putting state policy into practice and action.

Supporting CTE Learners in Rural Communities

Representatives from Montana and California shed light on the challenges and opportunities faced by CTE students who reside in rural areas of the United States. With a majority of Montana (46 out of 56 counties) being part of the frontier, the state has implemented the Hub & Spoke model for several programs. One such example is healthcare, which enabled a main campus to establish a healthcare program, complemented by satellite campuses through partnerships with local secondary and post-secondary institutions that offer limited services distributed across the other counties.

Fellow Jean Claude Mbomeda shared California’s approach for reviewing disaggregated data to identify gaps in CTE programs in rural communities colleges in California, which was discussed as a necessary first step to unearth opportunities and develop supports for learners.

Ensuring the Basic Needs of Postsecondary and Adult Learners are Met

An education consultant and a state leader from Wisconsin provided an overview of programs that support learners basic needs, while elevating that many programs still create barriers for learners to complete credentials. Immediate next steps that were shared included making integrated benefits applications for federal assistance programs available online and inviting benefits coordinators to provide services on campus. Wisconsin highlighted their steps to create affinity groups with faculty and staff, with Dr. Colleen McCabe stating “To understand the effects of poverty, you have to explore learners’ multiple identities.”

Maximizing the CTE Experience for Learners with Disabilities

Maryland and Nebraska equipped attendees with state-level strategies to leverage Perkins state plans, the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) and interagency partnerships to provide sustainable support to learners with disabilities. With one in four Americans identifying as having a disability, discussions centered on viewing disability as a spectrum, both visible and hidden, and centering learners as people rather than just a population. Maryland shared practices for empowering local leaders to identify and act on opportunity gaps for learners with disabilities through and the CLNA. Nebraska emphasized the importance of developing consistent cross-agency routines, and highlighted their recent achievement of a tri-agency conference across, CTE, vocational rehabilitation and special education.

Equitably Serving CTE Learners in Correctional Education

With more than 30,000 youth being incarcerated in the United States each year in the juvenile justice system, Texas joined by Advance CTE-ECMC Fellows Richard Crosby and Janelle Washington discussed the differences in secondary and postsecondary CTE programs, as well as some of the intricacies of carceral justice-connected program designs. Texas highlighted barriers for this learner populations, including unfair placement testing that occurs days after sentencing and the availability of CTE programs that will not incentivize recidivism. The panelists shared that establishing meaningful and collaborative partnerships with correctional agencies and state CTE departments are paramount to creating better and more equitable programming opportunities for carceral students.

Here are additional resources to support every learner in CTE:

Nithya Govindasamy, Senior Advisor

By Stacy Whitehouse in Resources
Tags: Adult Learners, California, Correctional Education, CTE Fall Meeting, Maryland, Michigan, Middle Grades CTE, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, postsecondary cte, Rural CTE, students with disabilities, texas, wisconsin

Legislative Update: Congress in Recess Through the Midterms

Monday, October 24th, 2022

The last few weeks, lawmakers in Congress have remained in recess ahead of the upcoming midterm elections set to take place November 8. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has launched a new STEM initiative while other federal agencies have made several recent grant announcements regarding connectivity efforts and mental health.

Congress Remains in Recess Ahead of Midterm Elections

Both the House and Senate are currently on an extended recess ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. While the chambers are formally out of session, they are holding pro forma sessions during this time to continue committee-level work on a number of existing agenda items. Before going on this extended recess, Congress was able to successfully pass short-term funding legislation, known as a continuing resolution (CR). This CR extends current fiscal year 2022 (FY22) funding levels for all federal programs, including the Carl D. Perkins Act (Perkins V), through December 16. By that date, lawmakers will next need to act by either passing an additional funding extension at that time or completing work on a more comprehensive funding proposal for the federal government.

The length of the CR is intended to provide Congress additional time to campaign ahead of the fast-approaching midterm elections November 8. It is broadly hoped that when the outcomes of these elections become clearer, lawmakers will be able to reach consensus during the “lame duck” session of Congress. As these efforts get more fully underway, Advance CTE will continue to work with its partners in Congress to secure robust funding levels for the Perkins V basic state grant program and other priority Career Technical Education (CTE) funding streams.

ED Launches “YOU Belong in STEM” Initiative

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently announced a new initiative aimed at encouraging learners to explore and pursue pathways in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields. The effort pulls together a number of existing ED activities and related priorities highlighting various opportunities to promote STEM education for learners at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels. In the coming weeks, the Department intends to release additional guidance, technical assistance, and related information for how to deepen and expand on these efforts in the future.

FCC Releases Additional Connectivity Funds

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced another round of Emergency Connectivity Fund Program (ECF) funding totaling nearly $78 million. Authorized by the American Rescue Plan, the ECF provides funding to schools and libraries to purchase broadband plans and devices for students, school staff, and library patrons and has been a key Advance CTE federal policy priority since the start of the pandemic. These latest funding commitments are from the first and third application windows for the ECF program and will benefit nearly 175,000 students from Delaware, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Texas.

ED Distributes Funding for School-based Mental Health

In the wake of several tragic mass shootings earlier this year, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S. 2938). The new law modestly tightened the nation’s gun laws while investing significant new funding into K-12 education to support safer schools and promote learner mental health. On Monday, October 3, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it had published two grant funding opportunities as part of this legislation.

The first of these is the School-based Mental Health Services Grant program which will provide competitive grants to state (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs), along with consortia of these entities, to apply for funding to increase the number of school-based mental health services available to students. There is more than $144 million available for these grants. More information on how to apply, including related deadlines, can be found here. The second grant announcement is related to the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration grant program. This competitive grant effort is intended to provide financial support to SEAs, LEAs, and postsecondary institutions to hire additional staffing capacity for similar purposes. Additional information regarding this initiative can be accessed here.

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Stacy Whitehouse in Public Policy
Tags: Continuing Resolution, Delaware, Department of Education, FCC, Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Perkins V, STEM, texas

State CTE Policy Update: Examining CTE Instructor Compensation Strategies

Thursday, September 22nd, 2022

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its report “State of the States 2022: Teacher Compensation Strategies” earlier this month. This report takes a deep dive into the compensation strategies each state and the District of Columbia use to continue to recruit and retain talented instructors.

Instructors are the backbone of high-quality Career Technical Education (CTE) and are essential to ensuring that each learner is fully supported by the career preparation ecosystem of their state. “Teacher Compensation Strategies” divides compensation strategies into three different categories: 1) Differentiated pay; 2) Performance pay, and 3) Pay for prior work. While the first two offer their own merit, and all can perhaps be used in some combination, pay for prior work may offer an elegant solution for staffing CTE teachers.

A common barrier to CTE teacher recruitment and retention is matching instructor salaries, which are historically lower than industry salaries talented CTE instructors often transfer from. In an effort to reduce the gap, states can offer instructors an increase in pay based on experience from non-school related careers relative to the subject matter they are teaching. This strategy embraces the promise to capture and value all learning that occurs, wherever and whenever it occurs. Below are some highlights from the report on the current application of this strategy::

When it comes to paying for prior experience, only five states—California, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and North Carolina—grant extra pay for relevant prior experience in another industry and allow administrators the discretion to determine its relevance.
Six states—Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Texas, West Virginia—allocate pay for prior experience in non-academic industry in selected cases only. The majority of those states limit this extra pay to teachers of CTE only. Hawaii limits this extra pay to those who have prior military experience.
Thirty-nine states make no mention of adjustments in starting salary for prior relevant experience for individuals entering teaching from other professions.

Of the states currently using pay for prior experience strategies, North Carolina and Louisiana took two different approaches. North Carolina, per the report, awards one year of credit per two years of relevant, non-education work experience pre-bachelor degree, and a one-for-one exchange post attaining a bachelor’s. Louisiana school districts are required to develop compensation plans that take into account effectiveness, experience, and demand with no one factor being given a weight of more than 50 percent. The report highlights that language surrounding this particular strategy is often vague which makes it hard to track if it is being enacted.

With teacher attrition at unprecedented levels and teacher recruitment levels dropping, state CTE leaders have the opportunity to provide innovative solutions to teacher compensation. You can read the full report here: State of the States 2022: Teacher Compensation Strategies. Advance CTE’s Learning that Works Resource Center provides additional tools on embedding credit for prior learning and other state approaches to fully documenting skills.