Editor: Ellen Kelly-Holland
Correspondents: Barbara Gilbert, Nancy Essey, and Clara Lawson-Holmes

What's inside…

• Message from the Director
• Review of New Perkins IV State Plans
• Approval of State’s Performance Levels for the Three Core Indicators Tied to the No Child Left Behind Act
• Issuing the 1st New Grant Awards Under Perkins IV
• Career Clusters Institute
• Spotlight on Promising Practices: Good Writing Is An Integral Part of This Tech Prep Consortium
• Community College Programs Interest International Visitors
• Mark Your Calendar! Meetings and Conferences

Message from the Director

It's time once again for the Department to conduct its annual Customer Satisfaction Survey. You have likely already received via e-mail a customer satisfaction questionnaire from the CFI Group, an independent third-party research group contracted with the U.S. Department of Education. The questionnaire is the Department's effort to measure your degree of satisfaction with several services and products. The questionnaire will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and will be confidential. We hope that you will complete the survey as soon as you receive it as your feedback enables the Department, as well as our office, to serve you more effectively.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete the survey!

Sharon Lee Miller

Review of New Perkins IV State Plans

DATE staff is wrapping up its review of new Perkins IV State Plans for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Over the past few weeks, where necessary, deficiency letters were sent from DATE Director Sharon Miller to particular State CTE directors requesting additional information in order for DATE staff to complete the review of their State’s plan. As of this date, all deficiency letters have been issued and most State CTE directors have submitted their additional information. Director Miller is issuing deficiency “resolution” letters to let these State CTE directors know that their additional information has been reviewed and is sufficient to address their particular deficiency(ies).

Approval of State’s Performance Levels for the Three Core Indicators Tied to the No Child Left Behind Act

DATE staff briefed Assistant Secretary Troy Justesen last week on State’s submission of student definitions and measurement approaches for the three Perkins IV core indicators of performance that are tied to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—academic attainment in reading/language arts (1S1); academic attainment in mathematics (1S2); and graduation rates (4S1). Overall, Assistant Secretary Justesen was pleased that so many States were using the student definitions for CTE concentrator (secondary and postsecondary) as provided in the non-regulatory guidance issued earlier this year by this office, as well as using their State’s annual measurable objectives (AMOs) or targets under NCLB as their adjusted levels of performance for the 1S1, 1S2, and 4S1 core indicators under Perkins IV. Where States had chosen not to use their AMOs or targets, States had provided baseline data to support their proposed levels of performance. DATE’s Regional Accountability Specialists (RASs) continue final negotiations with particular States based on Assistant Secretary Justesen’s feedback and recommendations.

Issuing the 1st New Grant Awards Under Perkins IV

OVAE will issue the 1st Perkins IV grant award letters on Monday, July 2, 2007, since July 1 is a Sunday. DATE staff will send grant award letters to State CTE directors first in PDF format via e-mail and then as a signed hard copy via regular mail.

Grant award letters for particular States will contain special conditions related to one or more accountability issues: failure to meet adjusted levels of performance overall for the previous program year; failure to meet adjusted levels of performance for the previous two program years; failure to submit disaggregated data for the previous program year; and failure to submit disaggregated data for the previous two program years. These States will be required to submit new or revised program improvement plans by August 17, 2007, to address their particular issues. Improvement plans must be implemented no later than October 1, 2007.

Career Clusters Institute

The 5th Annual National Career Clusters Institute, sponsored by the National Association for State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) was held June 11-13, 2007, in Phoenix, Arizona. Over 1,000 educators and business partners attended the institute for the opportunity to learn more about how states are implementing career clusters and to hear first hand how the clusters and pathways are being applied. Career clusters link what students learn in school with the knowledge and skills they need for success in college and career. The Institute’s offerings included just about everything you would want to know about clusters and pathways from the basic concepts to how states are aligning curriculum with industry initiatives. States also shared their individual challenges in implementation and assessment, and strategies they are using to overcome the challenges.

Next years conference is scheduled for June 16-18, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia. More information is available on career clusters and pathways at www.careerclusters.org.

Spotlight on Promising Practices: Good Writing Is An Integral Part of This Tech Prep Consortium

“Tech Prep students seem to glow when they are on the Lakeland campus,” says Carol Larkin, Lake Shore Compact language arts teacher of 70 –80 students at both Mentor High School and Lakeland Community College, and who was a featured speaker at the Career Cluster Institute in Phoenix recently.

This notable Tech Prep program not only readies students for Information Technology related careers during their final two years of high school and their first two years of college, but Ms. Larkin sees to it that they have the communication skills necessary to do their jobs as well. In her classes, they are becoming especially good technical writers.

Ms. Larkin provides a unique approach to teaching rigorous technical writing. She relates fine literature to practical applications in the business world. Students write resumes for Beowulf and design advertising copy and layouts that incorporate strong metaphors such as Frost’s The Road Not Taken. Working with the best writers inspires good writing and thinking. She states “These are very bright, articulate students who are very interested in learning everything they can about computers . . . “ and for the written word as well. “This is real, authentic learning for them.”

The program is supported by a partnership with the high school, Lake Shore Compact, and Lakeland Community College. Many of the students continue their studies after receiving their Associates degree, and are awarded Bachelors and Masters degrees, while drawing on their Tech Prep skills to earn fine salaries in part time jobs.

The Tech Prep program is useful, being composed of three components: an academic foundation emphasizing math, science, and communications; occupational and technical skills; and employable skills that ensure student success in getting jobs, keeping them, and moving on to better paying jobs in their chosen field. For more information on the program, visit the web site at: http://lakelandcc.edu/academic/techprep/

Community College Programs Interest International Visitors

International guests from the State of Kuwait visited OVAE on May 29 for an overview of career and technical education programs in the U.S., with a particular emphasis on how the U.S. is addressing the challenge of educating a workforce that meets the new needs of the 21st century. The visitors received presentations on career clusters/pathways, the Community College Transition Initiative (CCTI), America’s Career Resource Network, and the State Scholars Initiative. The Kuwaiti delegation included Dr. Yacoub Al-Rifae, Director General of the Public Authority for Applied Education in Kuwait, Dr. Hasan Nasrallah, Cultural Counselor/Director, Embassy of the State of Kuwait, and Ms. Noida Ashton, the coordinator of education programs at the Embassy of the State of Kuwait. The group, accompanied by Dr. Gail Schwartz, Senior Advisor to OVAE’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges, visited three CCTI sites: Corning Community College in NY to see their Information Technology program; Sinclair Community College in OH to visit their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program, and Anne Arundel Community College in MD to observe their TEACH program in education.

Mark Your Calendar!