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CAREER OPPORTUNITIES: CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND THE COLLEGE COMPLETION  AGENDA    

 Students enroll in CTE programs for a variety of purposes and from widely varying life experiences.Many seek near-term employment and want a short-term program to get them there. Some can commit toa program of two years or longer.   Still others have college degrees and seek career advancement or retraining. Many students in all of the above circumstances lac basic proficiency in reading, writing, and math. And, like most community college students, CTE students often have little familiaritywith navigating complex college environments.   The challenge for colleges is to give them the knowledge and skills theyneed, and that employers expect, in ways that their busy lives and individual circumstances can accommodate. Some examples from other states illustrate some of the possibilities.  If similar-sounding programs in a region or state vary significantly in length and content, neither employers nor students will be well served. Employers will not know what a credential means in terms of skills and competencies of graduates, and students will be unclear for what jobs they will be qualified.   States that ensure program consistency around competency standards communicate clearly to students and employers about the meaning of their workforce-oriented credentials and provide a clear path for students towards college completion and a career.   Having statewide standards to ensure program consistency around competencies will help students transfer CTE credits across colleges in the state. In California, only a few disciplines have developed statewide standards to ensure common program outcomes. Beyond those few there is great variability among similar programs.   The Tennessee Technology Centers (TTC) aim to achieve 85% similarity across its programs statewide, giving each campus a set and known structurewhile allowing administrators enough room to meet local needs. The TTC has students apply to and enroll in a program, with a clearly specified number of courses and a set number of hours required for graduation, helping to keep programs consistent.   Oregon's Board of Education, with input from the state's community colleges, the Oregon Manufacturing Workforce Steering Committee, and other employers developed the Basic Manufacturing Technician Statewide Certificate, also referred to as the Core certificate. The certificate is designed to be completed in one semester and is composed of classes in the five basic skill areas needed by employers in all sectors of manufacturing.  The Core certificate has common learning outcomes for technical content and workplace competencies, making its credits fully transferable to any college offering the certificate. In addition, it is embedded in established one-year certificate programs and AAS programs in manufacturing.  The Division of Career and Adult Education within Florida's Department of Education develops curriculum frameworks for each vocational program offered in the state's community colleges and the 44 technical centers operated by K-12 districts. 36 The frameworks specify the standards for all certificates (in both technical centers and community colleges) and AS/AAS degrees (only offered in the colleges), including the technical and academic competencies, program lengths (credits), minimum basic skill levels for students, and required instructor certifications. Colleges decide which CTE programs to offer based on local needs, and design their courses and delivery of instruction according to local preferences as long as the total program meets the statewide standards.   The development of statewide frameworks was made easier by the existence of the Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS), developed in the 1960s in response to concerns about students being forced to repeat courses that failed to articulate between state institutions. All public and many private postsecondary institutions now use the common course number system. Courses are treated as being equivalent by all institutions using SCNS if a teacher with comparable credentials instructs it and the same academic content is covered.    
INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP & POLICY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY,  SACRAMENTO      The North Carolina Community College system publishes curriculum standards for CTE programs offered across the system on its website. 38 For each program, the standards specify credit and course requirements for both general education and the major, for each level of credential offered (diploma, certificate, AAS). The requirements refer to commonly-numbered courses in the system's Combined Course Library. Courses are proposed by colleges and approved by a statewide  Curriculum Review Committee and the State Board of Community Colleges. Revisions to the curriculum for a program require approval by the State Board and by two-thirds of the colleges approved to offer that program.   The ineffectiveness of developmental education sequences for community college students, generally, has been well documented. 39 Such course sequences have been even less effective for CTE students, leading to a search for ways to incorporate or "contextualize" basic skills instruction into substantive coursework.   Complicating the situation for CTE is that some students are seeking associate degrees, where proficiency requirements are usually well defined within a college or system, but other students seek a variety of certificates or just sets of courses for which proficiency expectations may be less well defined. In California, there is no systemwide standard for English language arts or mathematics proficiencies for students seeking to complete certificate programs, and no systematized means to assess whether students attain proficiency by the end of their programs. Several states have developed more systematic means to address student proficiency in CTE programs, including non-degree programs.   In Florida, students enrolled in career education programs that have a required total greater than 450 credit hours must complete an entry-level basic skills examination within the first six weeks of admission into the program. If the student must take remediation courses, the student will have to be retested using an alternative form of the same exam that was used for initial testing. No student will be awarded a career certificate until the student achieves the minimum level of basic skills required for that program by the Department of Educatin.   An Oregon bill, House Bill 2398 (2009), established the Oregon Career Readiness Certification Program which includes a process through which the proficiency level of students' work-ready skills in reading, applied mathematics, and locating information are assessed to ensure students meet business and industry skill demands. The certificate is awarded in four levels, depending on the individual's performance on the assessment, with a higher level indicating readiness for a wider range of jobs.   Recent legislation in Iowa provides $5 million for tuition grants for skilled workers in CTE fields where there is a shortage of workers. Applicants for tuition assistance complete an initial assessment administered by the community college and they complete assessments for a National Career Readiness Certificate, in the areas of reading for information, applied mathematics, and locating information.   Washington's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training pairs occupational training with adult basic education (ABE) or English as a Second Language (ESL), allowing students to work towards a career while acquiring basic academic skills. 43 1-BEST classes feature two instructors: a basic skills instructor and an instructor from the professional-technical program jointly teach  in the same classroom with at least a 50% overlap of the instructional time to provide an integration of both types of education.   As part of the national reform efforts to provide more structure and guidance for community college students, some states have begun to use highly structured models for CTE programs by which students enter programs and attend multiple classes with a small group of the same students on a set schedule.   
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES: CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND THE COLLEGE COMPLETION  AGENDA         The City University of New York's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) offers a model designed to get motivated students through associate degree programs on an accelerated schedule by requiring full-time attendance and using features like block scheduling, cohorts, and small classes. ASP offers programs in both CTE and Liberal Arts and Sciences fields of study.   At Tennessee Technology Centers, students usually enroll in the programs full-time for approximately hours per week. All programs are organized based on "clock hours" instead of credits, meaning that programs are organized around the number of total hours a student will take to complete the coursework.   Students are given limited choices in their courses, as the centers run few classes and programs but provide the option to study full-time or part-time and in the evenings or during the day. Because of the limited choices available, an entering student is able to know exactly when they will earn their credential. Students are allowed to enter or exit the program at any time, but new students are only able to enter programs with available spots in progressing cohorts.   Many students who enroll in CTE programs can benefit greatly from immediate employment, even as they continue to climb the career ladder with th benefit of more education. This can be facilitated by ensuring that shorter certificates, commonly used for gaining specific skills for the workplace, articulate to a longer certificate program or associate degree program.   Many California colleges independently develop sequences of certificates, but the lack of standardized programs across the system inhibits the development of well structured career ladders or stackable certificates.   Ohio developed a stackable certificates framework to deliver pre-college academics and for-credit job training to adults lacking college-level skills in math and English language arts. The certificate framework was designed to combine remedial coursework, certified career training, and college credits.   The certificates are stackable, meaning that a student can progress through the program, from entry-level to advanced, receiving additional certificates as they learn.    Roadmaps for programs in Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin show the multiple entry and exit points, depicting how a student can move clearly between the workforce and college. Programs contain embedded certificates that prepare students for progressively higher employment.   In Kentucky, embedded certificates are available in programs that terminate in an AAS degree. Students are able to either collect certificates the way to completing the AAS or leave earlier and enter the workforce trained for a specific class of positions within their chosen occupation.   In Oregon, AAS degrees and longer-term certificates (45 quarter credits or above) are used as a base to anchor shorter-term Certificates of Completion. Certificates of Completion are used to designate specific skill proficiencies, or train for specific careers within larger career pathways.   CTE programs can be very specialized and dynamic, placing demands on colleges to ensure they can deliver the curriculum effectively. Small and rural colleges may have trouble offering entire programs and may need to only offer programs for limited periods to fill a need.   Policies that allow or encourage colleges to collaborate in program ownership or delivery can increase access to programs as well as program quality and can be more cost effective. In California nearly all programs are developed and owned by an individual college and pressures to produce enrollments for funding purposes may inhibit sharing of programs.   The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges established Centers of Excellence (COE) at flagship institutions to act as vehicles, in part, for the sharing and dissemination of information to community colleges in targeted industries. Each of the ten Centers of Excellence provides individualized.  The articles were written by Amily Donaldson. If you want to learn a little bit more about the author and her works, articles, essays, follow the weblink. She is a famous american author, journalist and researcher.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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