Massachusetts New Skills for Youth Grant · Web viewGrant Application Phase I Submitted March...

MassachusettsNew Skills for Youth

Grant Application

Phase I Submitted

March 2, 2016

Table of Contents

Overview……………………………………………………………………………………… 1

Narrative Section 1: State Background, Project Goals, and Objectives……………………… 2

Narrative Section 2: Commitment and Capacity of Cross-Sector Team……………………... 6

Narrative Section 3: Intensive, Diagnostic Needs Assessment……………………………….. 7

Narrative Section 4: Collection of Data on Defined Set of Indicators………………………... 7

Narrative Section 5: Development of Career Readiness Action Plan………………………… 9

Narrative Section 6: Prior and On-Going Work……………………………………………… 12

Supporting Documents………………………………………………………………………... 13

I. Budget Proposal

II. Letters of Support (not included in this copy)

III. Memorandum of Understanding (alphabetical by last name)

Appendices………………………………………………………………………………….… 45

A. Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Advisory Group

B. Career Vocational Technical Education Program List

C. Career Development Education Tool

D. Career Vocational Technical Education Credentials

E. Cross-Sector State Leadership Team Biographies

F. Career Development Education Metrics and Targets

G. Elementary and Secondary – Higher Education Data Sharing MOU

H. Career Vocational Technical Education Program Quality Assessment

1, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Ov e rv i e w There is an emerging consensus across the country and here in Massachusetts that academic proficiency alone is no longer enough to prepare students for success in the 21st century economy. Increasingly, educators, policy makers and citizens agree that all students need career preparation, integrated with rigorous academic preparation, to be ready for success after high school. Consistent with this understanding, Massachusetts has been deeply engaged in a multi-faceted effort to expand and enhance ways students are offered and receive career preparation. 1 The obsolete notion that students are either going on to college or a career after high school has long past. We must prepare all students to be ready for both. The failure to integrate college and career readiness in our public schools will result in more students being unprepared to successfully navigate the demands of the workplace, while continuing to accrue a mountain of debt. Further, there is a deep awareness of the skills gap that exists in the state’s labor market, the needs of workers to secure a family-sustaining wage, and the struggles of employers to fill high skill, high demand vacancies to ensure the competitiveness of Massachusetts in the larger economy. These challenges must be met witha transformational approach to programs and policies that offer students meaningful career preparation.

The New Skills for Youth (NSFY) initiative arrives at an opportune time for Massachusetts. Governor Charlie Baker has recently made the expansion of career pathways and vocational education a major priority of his administration. On February 26, 2015, Governor Baker signed an E x e c u t i v e O rd er creating the “Workforce Skills Cabinet”, comprised of three of the Commonwealth’s eight Cabinet Secretaries- Secretary of Education James Peyser, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Ronald Walker II, and Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash. These three Secretaries meet twice a month to align and coordinate the work of their respective agencies, and recently announced a series of new initiatives to support career and technical education, including $83.5 million proposed between the Governor’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget recommendation and new capital grant funding filed in an economic development bill. With this leadership and commitment, and our state and country at an economic crossroads, Massachusetts now more than ever has a real opportunity for the system change envisioned by NSFY. We envision the creation of a substantial and scalable system in the state that expands opportunities for all of our students to complete career pathways leading to postsecondary degrees and/or industry recognized credentials with real currency in the labor market.

With NSFY funding, we anticipate that these resources, both at the planning and implementation stages, will enable the state to accelerate our career preparation work, incorporate key ingredients not now in active development, and grow capacity to deliver a comprehensive career preparation system scaled up for all students.

The Massachusetts Context: In June 2012, the Integrating College and Career Readiness Task Force (the Task Force), convened by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), issued a final report, titled F r o m Cr ad le to C a r e e r : E du c a ti n g O u r S t u d e n ts f o r Li f el on g Su c c es s . The Task Force, composed of leadingeducators, employers, academic, and labor experts, called for a renewed focus on career readiness to better prepare all students for success beyond high school and to produce a more college and career ready workforce ca pable of driving future growth in the Massachusetts economy. To achieve these goals, the Task Force developed twenty-one recommendations and called for the creation of a comprehensive statewide system comprised of structured, aligned, and strategic partnerships to support students’ “fluid movement” through elementary, secondary, and higher education into successful careers.

The Task Force work led to a more comprehensive d e f i n iti o n o f c o lle g e a n d c ar e e r r e ad i n ess in Massachusetts, which was adopted by both the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Board of Higher Education. The definition established that all students should have “the requisite knowledge, skills, and experiences in the academic, workplace readiness, and personal/social domains to successfully navigate to completion an economically viable career pathway in a 21st century economy.” This definition is grounded in a fundamental notion of self- determination, and anchored in the expectation that every student will be supported in the development of a personalized and student-centered pathway.2

1 See From Cradle to Career: Educating Our Students for Lifelong Success, Report of the Integrating College andCareer Readiness Task Force, June 2012.2 See, for example, M a s s a c hu s etts G u i d e f o r I m p lem en ti n g I nd ivi dua l Le a r n i n g Pl a n s ( I L P) ; Solberg, V. S., Wills, J., Redmond, K., & Skaff, L. (2014). Use of Individualized Learning Plans: A Promising Practice for DrivingCollege and Career Readiness Efforts. Retrieved from National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability website:h tt p :/ / ww w . n c w d - y o u t h .i n f o / u s e - o f - i n d i v i d u aliz e d - lea rn i n g -p la n s ; Test, D.W., Fowler, C.H., & Kohler, P. (2013).


There are three major initiatives that drive the Massachusetts career preparation landscape that are particularly critical to our current and proposed efforts:

The Career Vocational Technical Education System: Massachusetts has a highly regarded C a r e e r V o c a ti o n al T e c hn ical E d u c a ti o n (CVTE) system, which is a cornerstone for the plans we put forth in this proposal. CVTE programs are governed either by MA General Law Chapter 74, or the federal Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Law (the Perkins Act). The students enrolled in our CVTE programs participate in a well -designed sequence of experiences and courses that constitutes the kind of career pathway envisioned in the NSFY RFP. Approximately 60,000 high school students, a little over 20% of the total, are currently enrolled in CVTE programs .

School-to-Career Connecting Activities: The Massachusetts initiative known as C o nn e c ti n g A ct i v iti e s (CA), launched in1998 and led by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE), is a state funded system linking education, business, and workforce development partners throughout the state to provide career development education (CDE) opportunities for students. The sixteen local Workforce Development Boards (WDB) work in partnership with local district/schools to prepare and place students in career awareness, exploration and immersion (internship) activities while recruiting employers to sponsor these CDE opportunities. Over its 18 year history, Connecting Activities has provided an average of 15,000 students per year with work-based learning experiences that support their preparationfor college and career. An average of 6,000 employers have sponsored work-based learning experiences each year. Overhalf of the state’s 393 high schools participate in CA, offering students CDE opportunities.

Early College Models: There is an ongoing and significant effort to expand access to early college career pathways for students. The M a ss a c h us e t ts L a n d s c ap e o f Ea r l y C o lle g e describes the entire spectrum of early college models implemented throughout the Commonwealth. Early college programs offer all students, and especially first generation and underrepresented students, the opportunity to engage in college-level work, develop a deeper understanding of the college experience, and envision themselves as college students. Closely aligned with this work, the Department of Higher Education (DHE) has recently convened a Dual and Concurrent EnrollmentAdvisory Group (DCEAG) to help develop a policy framework for the state that will allow students greater access to dual and concurrent enrollment opportunities by addressing scalability, sustainability, transferability, and equity (see Appendix A).

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 1 : St a t e B a c k g r o u n d, Pr oj e c t G oa l s , a nd O bj e c t i v es The Commonwealth has ambitious goals for the NSFY initiative, which dovetail with our ongoing efforts to create a comprehensive and integrated approach to college and career readiness for all students. Through this initiative, theCommonwealth intends to expand access to career pathways and career development education for all students, leading to postsecondary degrees and/or industry recognized credentials that have value in the labor market. This section addresses our state goals and related work for each of the initiative’s six objectives.

Key Objective 1: Demand Driven and Employer Led ProcessesMassachusetts is focused on the creation of a systemic and sustainable process to identify high skill, high demandindustry sectors. This process will guide the state’s career pathway design, ensuring that decisions are driven by employers and based on labor market information (LMI). We envision a system that has a permanent place in our education domain, replacing the current sporadic use of LMI reports with an ongoing, dynamic research -based approach. There are a number of current efforts that will support improvements in this area, including:

A presentation of national, state, and sub-state LMI data from national databases, including Bureau ofLabor Statistics, by the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development on its

w e b s ite . Data that the Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet is collecting to address skill gaps across the state. Using federal State Longitudinal Data System grant funds to build analytic tools that connect data on

educational attainment with data on future earnings. New regulatory requirements that districts seeking approval for a new CVTE program provide LMI

to support their application. Continuing development of early college career pathways in industry sectors identified by regional WDB

based upon regional LMI. ESE’s new L a bo r M ar k et I n f or m ati o n P r i m er and related training to support educators’ analysis of LMI. Efforts in the state to address new requirements in the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity

Act concerning use of LMI to inform programming.


These tools and practices offer a promising start, but NSFY will help to institutionalize and formalize processes to ensure that these tools are used to align career development programming to high skill, high demand industries. To accomplish our goal, we will need to create a permanent method of generating LMI data, with the support and input of LMI data experts and the Massachusetts employer community.

Key Objective 2: Rigor and Quality in Career Pathways for AllCurrently, Massachusetts has a number of career pathway programs for students enrolled in CVTE programs and forthose students in academic and comprehensive high schools who are not pursuing a technical specialty through CVTE. Career pathways have been defined as programs that provide an organized scope and sequence of academic, technical/technological, and work-based learning experiences through which students achieve high academic standards while exploring career choices. These pathways continue to grow at the local level.

The Massachusetts CVTE system provides students with a rigorous academic course of study, technical skills, work- based learning experiences, career planning, and industry recognized credentials. The quality of CVTE programs is enhanced by the Vocational Technical Education Frameworks, which delineate the knowledge and skills standards, spanning all aspects of industry, to be taught in each of the 44 individual program areas (see Appendix B). These Frameworks were developed by teams of technical and academic teachers, as well as representatives of business, industry, and postsecondary education.3 As demonstrated by the wait lists for many programs, there is high demand for access to CVTE programming in the state. Funding through the NSFY initiative will allow the Commonwealthto plan an incentive grant process to promote the creation and/or scaling of innovative models for expanding access, particularly for underserved populations.

ESE also recognizes that CVTE programs should be driven by and aligned with state and local labor market needs, as well as student interest. In recognition of the importance of that alignment, the BESE approved revisions to the Vocational Technical Education regulations, effective March 27, 2015 that improve quality by requiring applicants to provide clear evidence of secondary student and labor market demand as a condition for approval of new Chapter74 programs.4 At the statewide planning level, the Workforce Skills Cabinet is aligning plans across the Secretariats, so that CVTE and higher education expansion plans draw from the regional and statewide plans required by the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and the WIOA plan is in turn aligned with the Commonwealth’s Economic Development Plan.

For students not enrolled in CVTE programs, there also exist locally-developed career pathways, including those using early college models. Additionally, Massachusetts has developed models for offering career pathways through career development education (CDE) at many high schools. CDE offers students a framework for gaining the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to prepare for a wide range of careers. Our CDE model is based on three stages of career development: awareness, exploration and immersion. In a recent video produced by ESE, called “P r e p a r i n g M a s s a ch us e tts S t u d e n t s f o r S u c c es sf u l Ca r e ers ,” Commissioner Mitchell Chester describes the importance of career preparation, and especially career immersion, for students’ future success, citing Connecting Activities as a key system for delivery of this. Many schools have one or two but not all three elements of CDE, and typically the programs they do have are only available to some students. The Connecting Activities initiative offers professional development and technical assistance to help schools and districts continually expand and improvethese efforts.5 (See Appendix C for a CA tool used to assess the scale of CDE at partner high schools.)

As previously noted, Governor Baker has made the expansion of career pathways and vocational education a priority. His recent FY17 budget proposal and related plans include:

3 The Frameworks were also vetted by the Program Advisory Committees (PACs) established for all programs in every district throughout the commonwealth. This engagement of business in defining the essential skills to be taught in each program contributes to the success of the CVTE programs. These PACs work with district staff on an ongoing basis to ensure that programs remain current in both content and equipment. The Frameworks also provided the foundation for the establishment of state-wide articulation agreements between all state-approved CVTE programs and all Massachusetts community colleges.4 Whereas the previous language of the regulation called for demonstration of the labor market outlook for theprogram, the regulation now requires that the applicant provide “clear evidence of…labor market demand...”5 See the CDE Gu id e an d Glo ssa ry from more information.


$75 million over five years: new capital authorization to fund grants for equipment to expand and improve career technical education programs, building on a new $9.2 million Skills Capital grant program launched in FY16.

$7.5 million: work-based learning grants, including nearly doubling support for school-to-career Connecting Activities to $5.5 million, and doubling support for Dual Enrollment to $2 million, to expand and replicate STEM-focused early college career pathways.

$1 million: new Career Technical Partnership Grants, funded through federal Perkins Act grants, to strengthen relationships between vocational schools, comprehensive high schools, and employers.

Key Objective 3: Career-Focused Accountability SystemsMassachusetts is now poised to enhance its accountability system by considering incentives for districts to expandthe structures and systems in place for student career preparation. This would be a significant new direction for the state, requiring thoughtful design. Massachusetts is a “local control” state and as a general rule, there are very few graduation requirements that have been imposed on districts by the Commonwealth. One critical requirement for graduation is student competency in English language arts, mathematics, and, more recently, science.6 Students are required to pass the standards-based high stakes tests to earn their diploma. That accountability system anchors our college and career readiness work, and provides a guarantee that a high school diploma represents at least aminimum degree of competency in these key academic areas. Several years ago, the state modified its accountability system to address the importance of ensuring that students complete high school, by adding new elements to its accountability formula relating to graduation and dropout rates, contributing to improvements in those areas.

In the context of NSFY, Massachusetts would use the planning and implementation periods to develop, test, and pilot a new enhancement to our accountability system – the use of bonus points to reward districts using a robust set of career-focused indicators, such as a specified number/percent of students achieving certain key career readiness outcomes (e.g., completion of a career pathway by graduation). Massachusetts will closely study related systems that have been adopted in other states (e.g. Kentucky and Georgia) and will investigate the challenges and impact of incorporating these bonus points into our accountability system. Additionally, we envision adapting our public data reporting to publicize positive student outcomes related to career pathways. Our data reporting system has been continuously improved to ensure that the data received by the state is made available to all stakeholders; presenting data showing student outcomes with respect to career pathways will be an important result of the NSFY work.

ESE seeks to offer districts a system for measuring their progress with respect to numbers of students participating in career development activities and to incentivize that progress. Essential to these accountability reforms will be a parallel effort to develop enhanced data collection methods. There are a number of structures already in place that will support the collection of additional CDE data:

The existence of CVTE accountability measures for Perkins and state funding that are data-driven. The Governor’s new policy priority around career pathway development relating to high skill, high need

sectors of the economy, focusing on the expansion of CVTE and greater access for students. Massachusetts’ receipt of a $7 million federal State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grant, which

includes data analysis to examine students’ postsecondary outcomes and income after high school. The new focus in the state’s Connecting Activities initiative on our high schools’ career development

education systems, including the Connecting Activities internal accountability system, which has driven growth and quality improvement for many years.

New performance measures under development by ESE’s CVTE unit, including metrics around the use ofLMI to address program viability and better measures of the quality of program delivery.

E SE ’ s C ar ee r De v elo p m e n t E d u ca tio n G u id e , which is widely used to support the expansion of students’ career preparation. ESE intends to update the Guide in FY17 to enhance the definitions of certain career development activities, making it easier to track these activities in ESE’s existing data collection processes.

Key Objective 4: Scaled Pathways that Culminate in CredentialsThrough the NSFY initiative, the Commonwealth intends to expand access to career pathways and careerdevelopment education for all students. The state’s CVTE programming already offers a number of credentialing

6 In addition to passing the high stakes test referred to as the “MCAS,” Massachusetts only requires civics education and physical education, with details about that to be determined by the districts.


opportunities. Students enrolled in CVTE programs are able to access articulated credit toward associate’s degrees through statewide articulation agreements with all of the Commonwealth’s community colleges in 14 program areas. Many CVTE students also have the opportunity to attain industry-recognized credentials, as well as significantcredit toward professional licensure (see Appendix D). These students also have access to high quality work-basedlearning through cooperative education, internships, clinical placements, and outside construction projects, as well as the industry simulated experiences provided in-school, such as restaurants, banks, and IT help desk services.

While these CVTE programs can be strengthened and expanded where they now exist, the larger challenge is extending career education, early college programming, and access to credential attainment to all secondary students in the Commonwealth. Through this grant opportunity, ESE plans to increase the number of quality CVTE programs offered at our comprehensive high schools and to encourage high schools without formal CVTE programming toadd opportunities for technical skill development.

ESE supports efforts to include career development planning into the work of guidance staff. ESE is collaborating with the Massachusetts School Counselors Association (MASCA) to develop an updated framework for counselors, called Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling 2.0, which will include a suite of electronic tools/resources to promote career development education. ESE also seeks to increase the number of districts utilizing Individual Learning Plans (ILPs), which offer students ownership over their college and career planning.

Massachusetts aims to expand the number and type of credentials attained by secondary students, particularly those not in traditional CVTE programs. Some districts have been approved as CISCO academies. Others offer ProStart and Adobe certifications. Through the needs analysis and asset mapping conducted as part of this grant, ESE will acquire better data on the breadth of current offerings and opportunities for expansion.

ESE also plans to expand the Connecting Activities effort to offer high quality work-based learning experiences to more students, often their first job and first chance to deeply explore a career interest. These experiences emphasize skill gain in “Foundation” skills, elsewhere often called “soft” skills, which are universal to all careers. Massachusetts uses a well-designed assessment tool called the M A Wor k - B ased L e ar n i n g P la n , in use for about 15 years, which enables staff to assess student skill gain in the areas of professionalism, communications, teamwork, and other 21st century skills. Employers frequently identify these as the most important for students. We also encourage methods of credentialing work readiness based on acquisition of Foundation skills.7

Additionally, most high schools in Massachusetts offer some form of early college programming that supports college credit accumulation through initiatives such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and articulated coursework. Massachusetts high schools also collaborate with higher education institutions to provide college courses in which students earn both high school and college credit (dual enrollment). As mentioned earlier, the Department of Higher Education (DHE) is currently convening the Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Advisory Group (DCEAG) to help develop a policy framework that will allow students greater access to dual and concurrent enrollment opportunities in the Commonwealth.

Key Objective 5: Align State and Federal Funding StreamsESE seeks to ensure that funding streams from federal and state sources are aligned, so that we can efficiently scaleup the quality and extent of career preparation for all students. This goal reflects our larger vision of enhancing intra- and inter-agency coordination to support the development of a well-designed system of career pathways and early college models. The funding streams that we will continue to align and coordinate include:

Federal Perkins funding and State funding for CVTE, both through “Chapter 74” funding and any newCVTE funding that would result from the Governor’s FY17 budget, as approved by the legislature.

Increased state funding for early college and dual enrollment and for career readiness activities that arebrokered through Connecting Activities, also expanded in Governor’s budget for FY17.

Special Education funding for “T r ansitio n” work for students with disabilities.

7 Many regions in the state are already offering industry-recognized credentials for career readiness based upon students’ successful completion of a significant work-based learning experience. For example, employers in Western Massachusetts are partners in the development of this kind of credential, which has been an initiative of the


Berkshire Workforce Development Board CA initiative. This will form part of our career pathway system.


Federal funding for the new State Longitudinal Data System (“SLDS”), which will track studentpostsecondary education and wage outcomes.

State funding for youth employment experiences (i.e.“Y ou t hWor k s ” program) Federal funding through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act for youth services. State funding for Community Colleges and Adult Basic Education programs. State and capital bond funding for economic development grants.

The substantial funding now pending in the Governor’s FY17 budget, coupled with a new capital grant program for vocational equipment, will be part of this alignment effort. In addition, the Workforce Skills Cabinet will continue to align funding to meet Governor Baker’s priority to expand CVTE, building on the FY16 consolidation of separate grant programs that had been administered by different Secretariats, but were both funding equipment grants to the same CVTE programs. NSFY funding will support efforts like this, focusing multiple funding streams more effectively toward the common goal of expanding career-focused programs.

Key Objective 6: Ensure Cross-Institutional AlignmentESE’s commitment to cross institutional alignment is evident through the implementation of a number of keyinitiatives, including collaboration between secondary and postsecondary education to provide college credit through articulation agreements, early college models, and work that allows secondary schools to provide credit toward apprenticeship programs. Additional collaboration with business and industry has resulted in an expansion of the credentials available for students. One example is the work being done through the Manufacturing Advancement Center Workforce Innovation Collaborative (MACWIC), a partnership between manufacturers and education providers. MACWIC representatives worked in collaboration with the team revising the Machine Tool Vocational Technical Education Framework to ensure alignment with the Applied Manufacturing Technology Pathway Certification they developed. MACWIC also provides curriculum to schools to support student acquisition of the skills required to attain the certification.

While there have been significant achievements through existing relationships, there is opportunity for strengthening and expanding such collaboration. In recognition of the importance of increasing collaboration among educat ional institutions –both secondary and postsecondary –and the workforce development system, the Governor has established a Workforce Skills Cabinet. The Governor’s Workforce Skills Cabinet was created by executive orderon February 25, 2015 to align education, workforce, and economic development strategies across the state. Governor Baker tapped Education Secretary James Peyser, Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker II, and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash, who have been engaging with business leaders and educators around the state to find ways to create partnerships between the employer community, the state workforce system, and education sector in order to increase job opportunities and appropriate training and education here.

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 2 : C o mm i t m e nt a nd C a p a ci t y o f Cr o s s - Sec to r T e a m As reflected in the attached Memoranda of Understanding (see supporting documents), Massachusetts hasconstituted a powerful, cross-sector team, with members from three Cabinet Secretaries, K-12, higher education, school district leadership, workforce development and business and industry. Led by the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester, and facilitated by Deputy Commissioner, Jeff Wulfson, the state team will include:

Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson and Acting Associate Commissioner Keith Westrich. The three Secretaries from the Governor’s administration who together lead the state’s Workforce Skills

Cabinet: Secretary of Education James Peyser; Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development RonaldWalker II; and Secretary of Housing and Workforce Development Jay Ash.

Superintendents from four districts plus a School Committee member: Superintendent Richard Rege, Chicopee Public Schools; Superintendent Andre Ravenelle, Fitchburg Public Schools; Superintendent Sheila Harrity, Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District; Superintendent Robert Dutch, Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School District and President Elect, Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators (MAVA); and Alice DeLuca, Parent and School Committee member from Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District.

Significant state business and industry leaders from a range of high skill, high demand industries: NicholasFintrilakis from MassMutual Life; Dr. Deborah Harmon Hines from University of Massachusetts Medical


School; Susan Mailman, CEO, Coghlin Electric; and Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, NewEngland Regional Council of Carpenters.

Key representatives of higher education: Dr. Carlos Santiago, Commissioner, MA Department of Higher Education; Pam Eddinger, President, Bunker Hill Community College; Javier Cevallos, President, Framingham State University and Incoming Chair of State University Council of Presidents.

Leaders from workforce development: David Cruise, Executive Director of the Hampden County Regional Employment Board; Neil Sullivan, Executive Director of the Boston Private Industry Council, Nancy Snyder, President of Commonwealth Corporation; and Marybeth Campbell, SkillWorks.

This group of accomplished leaders, each of whom has a history of deep involvement in career readiness work, will ensure an effective cross-sector collaborative effort. Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wulfson, is a highly regarded senior leader at the agency who has, over many years, led major initiatives at ESE that have resulted in improvement in student outcomes. He oversees a substantial body of ESE’s work, including that of the units that guide CVTE, Connecting Activities, dropout prevention and graduation rate improvement, and the early college career pathway work. He monitors ESE’s delivery system, through which the agency holds itself accountable for our goals and strategies, and our metrics for preparing all students for success after high school. He will be responsible for convening the state team four to six times during the six month planning phase, and ensuring that a well-designed action plan drives the work. He will deploy ESE staff as needed, engage key partners in other organizations and state agencies as-needed, and tap the team members’ expertise in between meetings to ensure a successful completion of the planning phase.

Having such a wide range of leaders from state government, K-12, business, postsecondary, and workforce development also ensures that each of these sectors will be fully represented in the development of the three year plan. Their input will support the development of a universal system of career readiness that is of high quality and accessible to all students (see Appendix E for team members’ titles, organizations, and short biographies).

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 3 : I nt e n s i v e, Di ag n o s t ic Ne e ds As s e ss m e nt NSFY offers a powerful opportunity for Massachusetts to document and better quantify the current state of careerpreparation in the state. The Commonwealth will engage the services of an external consultant to conduct a needs assessment of our career preparation system, focusing on the key objectives of the NSFY initiative. This assessment will build on existing data and information compiled by the Workforce Skills Cabinet related to workforce development and CVTE, and will build on work already completed by ESE to identify where career pathways and career development education (CDE) programming is already underway.

Last summer, ESE conducted a survey of all high school programs of study to determine which courses include CDE content. ESE also collects data on a number of CDE metrics, including the number of: schools offering CDE, students engaged in CDE, and the number of employers offering CDE activities (see Appendix F for baselines and targets related to these measures). ESE’s longitudinal data display, in ED W I N A n a l y tics , also includes a new report that provides data on students enrolled in postsecondary programs related to their secondary technical program, their retention in the postsecondary program, and their degree/credential attainment.

The NSFY needs assessment will allow the cross-sector team to expand on ESE’s work to date by mapping existing career pathway programs by type, quantifying participation, including demographic information to the extent possible, and quantifying completion of secondary pathway programs. This exercise will provide information on offerings available geographically and for particular populations. To assist this effort, the external consultant will survey guidance counselors to determine the current level of CDE, and to identify needs for professional development and barriers to engagement in CDE. The needs assessment will include analyzing labor market data to assess current program offerings and identify potential gaps or redundancy. Additionally, the needs assessment will include a review of current funding streams, potential new funding streams, and opportunities for alignment.

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 4 : C o llec t i o n o f D a t a o n D ef ined Set o f I n d ic ato rs The following section details the extent to which Massachusetts already collects data regarding the indicatorsoutlined in the NSFY grant and plans to strengthen and expand data collection on the specified indicators.

1. Which data about the defined indicators already exists?


Currently, Massachusetts has relevant data addressing these indicators for a large number, but not all, of the students across the state’s high schools. The Massachusetts Student Information Management System (SIMS), through which ESE gathers student demographic information (name, date of birth, gender, race, special education and ELL status, etc.), as well as data about CVTE participation. ESE also receives voluminous data through its Student Course Schedule (SCS) data collection, which captures all of the courses taken by students across the state. Through these data systems, ESE is able to address most but not all of the NSFY indicators. The state’s E d w i n A n a l y ti c s system facilitates the use of data, and it offers reports that specifically look at many of these key indicators.

The indicators outlined in the NSFY grant opportunity are most widely available for our CVTE students. All the indicators presented by NSFY can be found in SIMS for CVTE students, except the postsecondary completion information, which can be found in the Edwin Analytics system for public colleges and through the Graduate Follow-Up Survey. For the state’s approximately 60,000 CVTE students, we can also disaggregate the outlined indicators by subgroup. For the remaining approximate 240,000 high school students, available data is more piecemeal, and new systems will need to be built to improve the collection of the data specified metrics. Below, is an assessment of the status of existing relevant data, by NSFY indicator.

Access to, and completion of, career pathways: Outside of the CVTE realm, there are an increasing number of academic and comprehensive high schools that offer quality career pathways, with articulated coursework and work- based learning experiences. However, any data that establishes student access to these structures is retained locally and not submitted to ESE. Similarly, the state’s longstanding Connecting Activities initiative delivers a very large number of work-based learning experiences to many high school students, over 10,400 in 2015, and that initiative captures significant data about those experiences. But the Connecting Activities data system is separate from district student record systems. Generally, no data elements in the state’s SIMS or SCS systems capture this data.

Attainment of industry-recognized credentials: Attached in Appendix D is the listing of credentials that are offered through CVTE programs. Data on broad categories of credentials attained by CVTE students is captured by a data field in the SIMS system (though not at the level of detail reflected in the attached list). Outside of CVTE programs, there are opportunities for students to earn credentials –and increasing awareness of the value of offering these credentials –but there is no state-level data system to capture that information.

Completion of dual enrollment courses: One state funding stream that supports dual enrollment, the Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Partnership (CDEP), captures a portion of the landscape of dual enrollment. For CDEP students, Massachusetts has student-level data about participation. Furthermore, ESE’s own SCS system, which identifies many of the high school courses that offer college credit, is also a potential source when used accurately at the district-level. Additionally, through recent collaboration between ESE and DHE and pursuant to a new Memorandum of Understanding, DHE is providing additional data to ESE from its enrolled student records about students receiving college credit through dual enrollment, which can be matched to ESE’s existing student records. This new data sharing MOU will provide a much more detailed assessment of the extent of dual enrollment statewide (see Appendix G for MOU). In summary, we are now developing a fairly complete picture of this indicator and are in a position to accomplish the desired disaggregation by subpopulation for many participating students.

Enrollment in postsecondary education or employment in high-skill, high-demand sectors within 12 months of high school graduation. With respect to data about postsecondary outcomes, Massachusetts fares well, with a significant body of data regularly collected about postsecondary enrollment through ESE’s work with the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). Information on CVTE students is collected through a follow-up survey conducted within 9-12 months of graduation. Massachusetts will be even better positioned in regard to collecting postsecondary data soon, as the state received a State Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grant. Work under the grant will include linking education and workforce data to examine career outcomes.

2. How effectively does the state use the data it collects now?The Commonwealth aspires to a more strategic use of current data. We do make excellent use of several of thesecore data sets: CVTE data informs policy, technical assistance, and monitoring. Similarly, data about postsecondary outcomes is actively used to improve student transition to postsecondary education. For example, ESE is making thoughtful use of its postsecondary data, disaggregated by subgroup, to set priorities for underrepresented groups pursuing postsecondary education. Also, ESE sponsors a significant amount of training for the field, through


webinars and local, regional, and statewide conferences, covering a wide range of topics, including support for data use in the field. These offer a venue for wide dissemination of data, and better use of it locally.

With respect to some of our other data sources, the efforts to improve outcomes operate in more discrete realms, and would profit from integration. For example, the state uses our Connecting Activities performance data to evaluatethe performance of the program’s funded awardees, and we initiate technical assistance for those whose performance is below target. Using data for continual improvement has helped improve the overall quality of the Connecting Activities initiative and results in more students participating in work-based learning.

Finally, there are clear areas where we are at the beginning stages of data analysis, such as the extent of career pathway participation outside of CVTE. We will need better data collection systems to help make strategic decisions regarding growth of career pathways for all students.

3. Which data are not already connected? Which barriers will need to be overcome?As mentioned, some of the relevant data that is now available exists in several separate systems, and new approaches will need to be devised to make stronger connections among them and/or to replace them. The mainbarrier to the creation of a well-integrated system of data collection is the legitimate concern about imposing any new data collection burdens on already heavily burdened district personnel. Care will have to be taken to equip district personnel to record and report any new information, and attention must be paid to ensuring that the state is collecting data in a way that is feasible for district staff.

As a central element of the planning phase, we will look at new data collection ideas with an eye toward ease and efficiency. Rather than mandating the adoption of these new practices, we plan to incentivize their adoption, largely by demonstrating how their adoption will be positive for districts and more importantly, their students. We will also offer technical assistance to demonstrate that the new data elements will enable districts to take full advantage of the accountability system’s “bonus points” mentioned earlier.

There will also be methodological challenges associated with efforts to link separate data systems effectively, and costs associated with modifications of data collection systems. The Commonwealth will seek to align multiple funding sources for information technology projects to meet these challenges, and seek additional funding as necessary beyond this grant opportunity to ensure that future CVTE expansion is data-driven and informed by analytical information at the school, district and state agency level.

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 5 : De v el o p m ent o f C a r e er Re a di n ess Ac t i o n P l a n 1. What career readiness strategies are in place now?

For purposes of a three year action plan, Massachusetts will build upon a strong foundation. We have several of thecore elements of the system we envision now, along with the motivation to pull the disparate pieces together to form the integrated and aligned system of career preparation for all students that the NSFY grant promotes. Through the work of the ICCR Task Force and ESE’s internal delivery system, strides have been made to develop and pursue metrics relating to student participation in CDE, as well as school and employer participation in student career preparation. These metrics are already drivers of this work, and will help launch this effort.

As previously noted, Massachusetts has a highly regarded CVTE system, which offers most of the elements this solicitation emphasizes for enrolled students. That system serves about 60,000 of the state’s 280,000 high school students, and it is poised for growth now due to new resources and supports being put in place by the Governor. However, there is a significant limit to the expansion of that system as now designed; many of the high quality CVTE programs now offered are costly to launch and maintain, and it will take time and substantial resources to grow the most capital intensive of them to reach many more students. This NSFY initiative would support the exploration of innovative models for increasing access to programs.

Massachusetts has several other initiatives that round out our career preparation picture, which, if expanded in combination with an expanded CVTE system, would be able to reach more students, and in innovative ways that would appeal to a wide swath of students and families. Those include our Connecting Activities (CA) initiative, already active in over half of the state’s 393 high schools. CA students regularly report that their work experience sets them upon a career pathway and guides their choice of postsecondary setting and employment. The large network of field partners in the CA initiative provides the boots on the ground for the creation of the desired scaled-


up and systemic approach to the provision of career pathways and CDE programming more generally. As previouslymentioned, CA has been targeted for a substantial increase in the Governor’s budget.

Additionally, ESE has partnered with key stakeholders for the past several years to grow the number of early college career pathways, supported by dual enrollment dollars and related grant funds and is seeing these gain traction around the state. For example, the state is working collaboratively with Jobs for the Future and three Massachusetts communities as they implement a $4.9 million Youth CareerConnect grant to expand and implement rigorous career pathway models providing students with industry credentials and an associate’s degree in high demand fields.

Another key piece of the puzzle is continuing work to reform guidance services, led by the MA School CounselorsAssociation (MASCA), a forward-thinking body that envisions CDE more fully integrated into guidance services.In addition, the ESE and the Executive Office of Education are working with the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development to redesign two online career guidance tools- Y o u r P lan f o r t h e F u t u r e and the Massachusetts Career Information System (MassCIS).

Our action plan will build upon these elements to achieve the desired comprehensive and fully scaled model.

2. What ambitious, specific, measurable objectives are likely to be built into the action plan?a. What LMI processes are ongoing now and how can they be strengthened?

The Commonwealth has been refining our use of Labor Market Information (LMI) in the past several years,especially in the workforce development world. We are now ready to design a state-level system that would offer regular reports from ongoing research about LMI to inform state, regional, and local decision-making about career pathways and related training and education programs. Already, CVTE regulations have been strengthened to ensure that CVTE programs are justified by LMI. The Connecting Activities initiative has developed a set of trai n i n g m ate r ials about LMI for educators and counselors and is actively training interested leaders in their use.Additionally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Commonwealth Corporation and the 16 Workforce Development Boards have all generated LMI analyses in the past to guide decision-making about both adult and youth training programs. It is because of effective research around LMI to date that sectors such as advanced manufacturing and health care have been identified for skill gap response, among others.

As an element of the three year plan, we envision the development and roll out of an institutionalized approach toLMI, one that more deeply involves the employer community through an improved outreach and recruitmentprocess. We envision a process that continuously yields real time results about needs for high skilled workers in high needs sectors, along with a wealth of other LMI. We plan to continuously train key staff members in accessing and using this data. In the planning phase, we will develop a timetable for this work that starts early enough in the implementation cycle to be the driver of new pathway development. Our three year plan will incorporate specific objectives for the development of this new system. We imagine that Year One would yield an LMI collection process, guided by an advisory group. Year Two will see the production of deliverables from that process, in theform of reports that advise about needed skill training across the state, with related suggestions about new orenhanced career pathways. Year Three will include a fully scaled approach to the use of LMI to drive decision- making. During Year Three, other stakeholders will have begun working on pathway development based on Year Two information, taking advantage of the new LMI information.

b. Extent of secondary-postsecondary career pathways that culminate in credentials? Currently in Massachusetts, many students participate in career pathways that span secondary to postsecondary education, primarily in the CVTE realm. Outside the CVTE realm, there are an increasing number of career pathways being developed around the state at high schools that include a connection to a local institution of higher education, most commonly community colleges. To underscore the importance of secondary to post secondary pathways, Massachusetts requires that colleges receiving Perkins funding dedicate 20% of that funding to linkage activities with secondary schools. Some institutions use this funding to support dual enrollment in CTE courses at the college, allowing students who might not have access to CTE in their high school, begin their career pathway earlier. There are currently 60,000 students enrolled in CTE programs in those colleges. As mentioned, we have an ongoing initiative, partnering with Jobs for the Future (JFF), a locally-based national expert about early college models that offers guidance about best practices, to pilot and grow this work, through their initiatives referred to as “Pathways to Prosperity” and “Youth CareerConnect.” More generally, DHE and ESE regularly meet to collaborate about dual enrollment and early college models, with the goal of expansion.


In addition, all of the Governor’s CVTE initiatives focus on incentivizing partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions in support of career pathways culminating in credentials. Two key examples of this focus are the Skills Capital Grants and the Career Technical Partnership Grants. The Skills Capital Grant application required grantees to partner with other institutions and/or employers to qualify for up to $500,000 towards the purchase of equipment to expand CVTE programs.

Our three year plan will contain measurable goals related to these programs, and related increases in student participation in dual enrollment and early college career pathway models, as well as the acquisition of related credentials, including associate and bachelor degrees, apprenticeship enrollment, industry-recognized credentials in specific fields, along with a more generalized work readiness credential.

c. What indicators in the current K-12 accountability system address career readiness? We plan the development, testing, and piloting of a new element in our state accountability system that would incentivize districts to implement high quality career preparation for students. The scale of student outcomesrequired to earn this bonus, as well as the data systems needed to collect the related data, will be critical work for the state team. This work would span the entire three year period. We envision a structured sequence of activities, starting with the development of a system for awarding points, accompanied by a method of collecting the requisite data elements that would document local performance. We would then enter a testing phase, accompanied by communication to the field about this effort. We envision a substantial pilot of these additions to our accountability system in Year Three. This will be an iterative process, requiring deep participation by many stakeholders, both internally at ESE and externally at schools and districts and will be undertaken with great care and attention todetail, in light of the possibility of unintended consequences.

3. What are the primary barriers to achieving planned objectives?

a. Reluctance on the part of some districts and high schools to tackle a challenging new body of work about building career pathways and CDE, especially when they are struggling with several high priority state and federal requirements, such as preparing for the next generation of the our statewide student assessment (MCAS), performing educator evaluation, and other significant bodies of work.

b. Overcoming the belief of some educational leaders that preparing students for college is sufficient for preparing them for career.

c. Ensuring that there is an adequate system of technical assistance and support to help schools anddistricts roll out new high quality career preparation curriculum, instruction and related

structures. d. Difficulties at the local-level in developing structures for high quality career pathways, due to

scheduling and staff constraints.e. Overcoming resistance to changing the current data and accountability systems with

concerns about expense, time, and potential complexity.f. Forming/sustaining partnerships at the local-level to reduce competition for students between

secondary schools that offer CVTE programs and those that don’t.

4. Massachusetts’ Experience with Implementation of Action plans with fidelityMassachusetts is fortunate to have several very substantial state-level initiatives directly relevant to this proposed body of work, each with influential state leaders across sectors that have been executed successfully:

a. ESE’s own internal strategic planning work, referred to as “Delivery”: Our Delivery processdrives action planning and monitoring, using feedback loops and other processes to ensure that the work gets done. If funded, the delivery team will incorporate the NSFY initiative into its regular routines, which are designed to help teams reach performance goals by monitoring implementation progress and supporting mid-course corrections based on data.

b. The ICCR Task Force: The Task Force, as described earlier, involved a 30 person team of high-level state leaders from education, workforce, and industry. The work performed was very comprehensive, and the quality of leadership offered credibility and urgency to the work.

c. Vocational Technical Education Frameworks Revisions Project: This project involved engaging district administrators, academic and technical teachers, business and industry, postsecondary education, and licensing boards to collaborate on teams and in the vetting process to review and


update the standards for the skills and knowledge that should be taught for each of the 44 separate program areas. Teams also identified industry-recognized credentials attainable by students.

N a r rat i v e Sec t i o n 6 : Pri o r a nd O n -go ing W o rk t o E n a ct K ey P o licy a nd Pr og r a m m a t ic Re fo r m s a n d B ui l d S us ta inabi l ity There are significant strengths in the existing systems of CVTE and CDE in the Commonwealth that establish astrong foundation for the success of the NSFY initiative. Many policy and programmatic changes are already underway to improve delivery of CVTE and CDE in Massachusetts, and the needs assessment outlined in this grant will further inform this work. In Phase I, we will make demonstrable strides in these areas.

As has been described in earlier sections, an increasing emphasis has been placed on the engagement of employers, as exemplified in developing the Vocational Technical Frameworks and the ongoing work of the Program Advisory Committees. Strategic partnering with employers is deeply integrated into the CA initiative as well. Significant work has already been undertaken to build use of LMI across the state. Use of LMI to inform program approval has been uneven and somewhat informal in the past. Work on the development of the LMI Primer and the delivery of training on its use is one initiative that is already underway and can be expanded during the grant period.

The demand for Career Technical Education has increased substantially, and discussions have been underway for quite a while regarding how to increase access to technical training. Recognizing that expanded access should be to high-quality programs, work has begun on defining high quality and the development of rubrics as tools in that process (see Appendix H for draft rubrics). ESE is also exploring ways to strengthen the pipeline of technical teachers, which is key to expanding access to technical training. ESE has been engaged in evaluating the current technical teacher certification process to determine potential barriers and to recommend refinements that would improve the process while maintaining quality standards.

Funding through the NSFY initiative will allow the Commonwealth to plan an incentive grant process to promote the creation and/or expansion of innovative models for expanding access to technical programming and career pathway development, particularly for underserved populations. Massachusetts will use the planning and implementation periods of NSFY to develop, test, and pilot a new enhancement to our accountability system, exploring the use of bonus points to be awarded for key career readiness outcomes. New methods for data collection will be developed so that we can track progress. During phase one, a consultant would be engaged to gather information on current related data collection in districts and at the state-level to report on the feasibility both in terms of cost and effort of gathering CDE data (see budget narrative for more details). A detailed analysis of student participation will give us a baseline for growth, to increase the number of students completing career pathways.

Significant efforts have been made, in collaboration with business and industry and postsecondary education, to make transitions between secondary and postsecondary preparation for careers more seamless by establishing articulation agreements, early college opportunities, and credential attainment. The work to expand access to all of those approaches will continue in Phase One and beyond. Alignment of state and federal funding streams to ensure the most effective use of funds to expand career pathways is essential. Removing barriers and ensuring cross - institutional alignment is important in these efforts and the work of the newly constituted Workforce Skills Cabinet, bringing together major players from government, industry, and education is a powerful and positive development.

Governor Baker has made the expansion of career pathways and vocational education a top priority. The increasing commitment to expanding career technical education, career pathways, and career development education,evidenced by the creation of new structures such as the Workforce Skills Cabinet and the increased funding included in the Governor’s proposed budget, bodes well for the sustainability of these initiatives beyond the grant period. The NSFY funds will be used strategically to establish missing system elements, especially by front-loading the non- recurring costs of planning and then implementing new data collection methods, accountability systems and expansion of quality career pathway development. The new systems built under NSFY will be sustained through realigned resources at the district level, through ESE oversight and support from our traditional resources, and through continuing innovation. We have a long horizon for this work, and intend that students for years to come will benefit. The NSFY opportunity will catalyze work that will dramatically improve students’ readiness for successafter high school, which is the mission of ESE.


Supporting Documents

I. Budget ProposalII. Letters of Support

III. Memorandum of Understanding (alphabetical by last name)


Budget Proposal

Staffing(include salaries and benefits) -

Consultants(e.g. contracting services; analysis expenses) $95,000

Subcontractors(e.g. contracts for services provided) -

Travel and Meetings(e.g. air and ground transportation; per diem; space rental; audio visual rental;food and beverage)

$5,000

Communications(e.g. consultants, media, design) -

Office Rent -

Office Supplies -

Technology & Teleconferencing -

Printing & Duplication -

Other Program Costs(specify ) -

Indirect Costs(may not exceed 10%) -

GRANT TOTAL(may not exceed $100,000) $100,000

Budget Narrative

Virtually all of the funding available from NSFY, $95,000 of the $100,000, will be used to retain the services of consultant(s) to support the large body of work identified in our proposal. In the short period of time at issue, April through September, it is unrealistic for existing staff members in the core partners of this work to tackle the new tasks that are essential to the planning period. The funding would serve the essential purpose of supplying some of the human capital needed, described below.

The remaining $5,000 is allocated for the costs of convening the State Team and any subcommittee or working meetings that support the State Team, including travel costs and rental rates for conference space. We anticipate the need for meeting space for 4-6 meetings, at an approximate cost of $600 per meeting, for a total of $3,600 in rental fees. The remaining $1,400 would be retained for the travel expenses of State Team members and their staff attending the meetings, and related travel.

Regarding the consultant services, the Commonwealth will engage external consultant services to support two central bodies of work to be completed during the Phase I planning stage of NSFY. They are:

1. To conduct a needs assessment and gap analysis of all of the existing elements of our career preparation system, focusing on the key objectives of the NSFY Initiative, including its emphasis on


career pathways that prepare students for high skill high demand fields. This assessment will build on work that has already been done by ESE to identify where career pathways and career development education (CDE) already exists across the state. The deliverables will take the form of written reports that capture the results of the assessment. The assessment will include:

a. Mapping existing career pathway programs, in Career Vocational Technical Education and CareerDevelopment Education, programs by type

b. Identify missing elements and programs through a gap analysisc. Analyzing existing bodies of data and supporting information as a starting point for the assessment d. Quantifying student participation, including demographic information to the extent possible, in

existing programse. Quantifying student completion of secondary pathway programsf. Developing and implementing a survey of guidance counselors will be conducted to

i. determine the level of career development education currently taking placeii. identify needs for professional development or barriers to engagement in CDE.

g. Analyzing labor market data in relation to current program offerings to determine the extent to which they are based upon LMI, and to identify potential gaps or redundancy in program offerings

h. Reviewing current funding streams and potential new funding streams for career pathway development

2. To conduct an assessment of the current status of data collection with respect to all relevant student indicators relating to participation in career pathways and CDE, and develop an analysis of existing student level data to create a dashboard of student career readiness in the Commonwealth. This will include capturing the student demographic information needed for disaggregation by subpopulation. The consultant will provide a report that presents an analysis of the available data to show the number and percent of all students in the Commonwealth, disaggregated by subgroup, with access to high quality career pathways in high-skill, high demand sectors, as further detailed in the NSFY Request for Proposal. The report will also summarize the current state of data collection, and idenfy gaps and needs with respect to data collection, as further detailed here:

a. Review and summary of data needs for all identified student outcomes and indicators required by the NSFY

b. Review of all potential sources of data submitted to the Commonwealth by districts through SIMS and SCS, and by DHE relating to dual enrollment, that capture elements of the data needed, including but not limited to

i. All data elements relating to Career Vocational Technical Education in SIMSii. All data elements in SCS relating to CDE and dual enrollment

c. Review of data collected by the Connecting Activities initiative in its separate data system, as well as CVTE data stored outside of SIMS

d. Assessment of the local student information management systems in use across theCommonwealth,

i. to determine the capacity of those to address career pathways and CDE, and the extent to which they are now utilized to collect relevant data

ii. to estimate costs to districts of introducing new data elements, in order to inform a feasibility analysis about modifications locally

e. Outreach and survey of a large sample of districts to determine what data elements are stored locally but not submitted to ESE that capture student information relating to the indicators

f. Assessment of the kinds of codes and variables captured in local systems that are relevant to thedata needed

g. Summarizing all findings relating to local data to inform the implementation phase of NSFYh. Creation of a data report that establishes a career readiness profile of the state, depicting in

quantifiable terms the extent to which Massachusetts is positioned through policy and student achievement outcomes to prepare students for 21st century career opportunities


Appendices

A. Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Advisory Group

B. Career Vocational Technical Education Program List

C. Career Development Education Tool

D. Career Vocational Technical Education Credentials

E. Cross-Sector State Leadership Team Biographies

F. Career Development Education Metrics and Targets

G. Elementary and Secondary – Higher Education Data Sharing MOU

H. Career Vocational Technical Education Program Quality Assessment


Appendix A: Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Advisory Group (DCEAG)

Massachusetts is one of a few states in the nation that do not have state-level policies on dual and concurrent enrollment. Access to dual enrollment courses varies across the Commonwealth, and there are several programmatic and logistical differences that impact program availability. Programming varies by size, focus, how courses are paid, who teaches the courses (high school vs. higher education faculty), and if the college credit obtained transfers towards a major. Engaging district and campus-level experts on dual and concurrent enrollment will assist the Department of Higher Education (DHE) in developing a policy framework that addresses scalability, sustainability, and equity for all students regardless of their location in the Commonwealth.

The DCEAG is charged with providing actionable recommendations towards the following goals:

To recommend statewide policies that will broaden access to dual and concurrent enrollment programs based on research and best practices in Massachusetts and other states.

To increase enrollment of students who represent communities with historically low college participation rates.

To develop financial sustainability and cost equity measures for dual and concurrent enrollment activities that are adopted statewide.

To ensure that all public institutions accept dual and concurrent enrollment credit as transfer credit. To strengthen communication efforts to parents and students about dual enrollment and early college

programming. To inform and engage union leaders from the Massachusetts Teachers Association on benefits and

issues related to expanding dual and concurrent enrollment efforts.

The DCEAG includes secondary and higher education administrators from across the Commonwealth, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. Representative Sean Garballey, an avid champion for dual enrollment, will also be invited to be a member of the advisory group. The DCEAG is co-chaired by a pair of secondary and higher education administrators recommended by the Commissioner. Angela Coletta-Acevedo, Assistant Director of Access and Success Strategies, will serve as convener of the group and will be responsible for assembling the advisory group’s recommendations.

Please see the full list of advisory group members and co-chairs below:

1. Karen Hynick, Vice President of Academic Affairs, North Shore Community College, Co-Chair2. Dana Brown, Principal, Malden High School, Co-Chair3. Joseph DaSilva, Vice President of Administration/CFO, Springfield Technical Community College4. Scott Greenberg, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Framingham State University5. Michael Bullock, Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services, Berkshire Community

College6. Sarah Morell, Dean of Access and Transition, Bristol Community College7. Lori Weir, Director of K-12 Partnerships, Northern Essex Community College8. Thomas Scott, Executive Director, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents9. Ruth Carrigan, President, Massachusetts School Counselors Association10. Bob Packard, Extended Campus Coordinator, Massachusetts Association of Vocational

Administrators11. Anna O’Connor, Early College Pathways Coordinator, Department of Elementary and Secondary

Education12. Linda Noonan, Executive Director, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education13. Representative Sean Garballey


Appendix B: Career/Vocational Technical Programs

Agriculture and Natural Resources ClusterAgricultural MechanicsAnimal ScienceEnvironmental Science & TechnologyHorticultureArts and Communications Services ClusterDesign & Visual CommunicationsGraphic CommunicationsRadio & Television BroadcastingBusiness and Consumer Services ClusterBusiness TechnologyCosmetology Fashion Technology Marketing Construction ClusterBuilding & Property MaintenanceCabinetmakingCarpentryConstruction Craft LaborerElectricityHeating—Ventilation—Air Conditioning & RefrigerationMasonry & Tile SettingPainting & Design TechnologiesPlumbingSheet MetalworkingEducation ClusterEarly Education and CareHealth Services ClusterDental AssistingHealth AssistingMedical AssistingOperating Room Technology (postsecondary only) Practical Nursing LPN (postsecondary only) Hospitality and Tourism ClusterCulinary ArtsHospitality ManagementInformation Technology Services Cluster Information Support Services & Networking Programming & Web DevelopmentLegal and Protective Services ClusterCriminal Justice


Manufacturing, Engineering and Technological ClusterBiotechnologyDraftingElectronicsEngineering TechnologyMachine Tool TechnologyMetal Fabrication & Joining Technologies Robotics and Automation Technology Stationary Engineering Telecommunications - Fiber Optics Transportation ClusterAutomotive Collision Repair & RefinishingAutomotive TechnologyDiesel TechnologyMarine Service TechnologyPower Equipment Technology


Appendix C:Massachusetts Self-Assessment of District/School Implementation of Career Development Education (CDE)

Definition of Career Development – The process through which an individual comes to understand his or her place in the world of work. Career Development Education offers students a framework for gaining the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to navigate the multitude of career options available for post-secondary success. Students identify and begin to plan for careers through a continuum of career exploration, career awareness and career immersion that helps them to create their own career path. Career development encompasses both education and career related choices; optimally it is progressive, sequential and deliberate, and is guided by supportive adults with relevant expertise. In districts or schools, an optimal approach to CDE involves curriculum, instruction and well-planned activities that take place over a number of years, starting ideally no later than middle school. CDE offers students a broad-based career pathway, and supports their choice of college and career.

Self-Assessment. This tool is designed to facilitate a district or school’s effort to assess its own stage of implementation with respect to CDE. In an exemplary CDE model, students will participate in a well-designed sequence of CDE activities, moving from awareness to exploration to immersion, that become progressively deeper and more intensive as the students gain skills and maturity. CDE also addresses student attitudes and beliefs about their future selve s, ensuring a personalized approach to their learning process. Optimally, the district has implemented a process for students to create Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) that support CDE.

Stages of Career Development:

Career Awareness – Activities designed to make students aware of the broad range of careers and/or occupations in the world of work.Career Exploration – Activities designed to provide more in-depth exposure to career options for students.Career Immersion – Activities that provide actual in-depth contextual learning experiences connecting teaching and learning back to the classroom.

More information about Career Development Education may be found in the Career Development Education page of ESE’s website:h t tp : / / w w w . d o e . m a s s . e d u /c o nn e ct/c d e / . That page also provides a link to ESE’s C D E G u i d e an d Glo ss ar y , which offers details about the specific activities.

Specific Examples of CDE Activities for each stage of Career Development

Career Awareness Career Exploration Career Immersion

Career Speakers Career Days/Fairs Career Interest Inventories,

personality surveys and advising

Company Tour College and Career Plans

Career Exploration Classes Job Shadowing

Opportunities Job Rotation Local Labor Market Review Informational

interviews/mockinterviews

Assemble job skills portfolio including resume

Extended Community ServiceLeaning Opportunities

Contextual Learning Coursework using “real world” examples to teach content

Labor Market or occupational research (this should be coupled with an interest orskill inventory) and presentation of findings

Early college, dual enrollment experience

Internships (school year and summer) with a MA Work-Based Learning Plan

Interdisciplinary Capstone Project completed and refereed (judged) by adults (i.e., faculty, business, peers)

Entrepreneurial Enterprise Clinical Experiences Part-time private or public

employment

Active leadership in a“Career Club”

Career, Vocational Technical Education (CVTE) experience with Cooperative Education resulting in an Industry RecognizedCredential

Apprenticeship


Prepared by MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, Connecting Activities Initiative. To learn more, visit: m a s s co n necti ng.o r g


Assessment of School Implementation Name of Workforce Region: District:

Circle the stage that best describes the district’s stage of overall CDE development in relation to universal participation by all students

Rubric for District or School Self-Assessment re stage of CDEImplementation overall

Stage 1Minimal implementation ofCDE; no effort for scale

Stage 2Early Stage – Pilots and smallnumbers of participants in CDE

Stage 3CDE Structure exists forparticipation by all students – Many but not all are involved

Stage 4All students involved in CDE (bygrade or other comprehensive measure)

Goal: All students participate inCareer Development Education (CDE) activities starting at Grade 7 in order to promote student engagement, enhance academic achievement, develop career awareness and provide workplace readiness skills

District has not begun any career readiness programsin middle school

Few students in high school participate in CDE experiences, which are available only throughsmall scale electives/programs

District has some elements of career developmenteducation for some students, in both middle and high school

More students are participating (less than 50%)

No structure in place for scaling up CDE for all students

District has designed a structure that offers a sequence of CDEfor all students 7-12, which is at an early stage ofimplementation

Many but not all students are participating, at both the middle and high school level

Well-designed structures are in place from middle throughhigh school to offer all students a progressive and sequential approach to Career Development Education, including work-based learning for older students

All students involved

Assess the extent of implementation of CDE at each grade level (middle and high school), by filling in this chart (identify specific activities & %)

Career Awareness Career Exploration Career ImmersionGradeLevel

Identify Career Awareness Activitiesoffered (e.g. career interest inventories, career speakers)

Scale (% ofstudents in grade participating)

Identify Career Exploration Activitiesoffered (e.g. job shadowing, labor market research)


Identify Career Immersion Activitiesoffered (e.g. internships, capstone)


6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th


Appendix E. Cross-Sector State Leadership Team Membership

Name, Title Organization Bio/Job DescriptionSEA Leaders

Mitchell Chester, Commissioner

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Dr. Chester began his career as an elementary school teacher in Connecticut, and later served as a middle school assistant principal and district curriculum coordinator. From there he moved to the Connecticut State Department of Education where he oversaw curriculum and instructional programs. In 1997 he was named the Executive Director for Accountability and Assessment for Philadelphia, where he headed the offices of Assessment, Research and Evaluation, Student and School Progress, and Pupil Information Services. In 2001, he served as the Senior Associate Superintendent for Policy and Accountability for the Ohio Department of Education, where he oversaw standards, assessments, accountability, policy development, and strategic planning. Dr. Chester began serving as Commissioner of the Massachusetts public schools in May 2008.

Keith Westrich, Acting Associate Commissioner


Westrich currently serves as the Acting Associate Commissioner for College, Career, and Technical Education. Previously, Mr. Westrich led the Department’s Connecting Activities initiative providing resources and technical assistance to the 16 local Workforce Investment Boards and local School to Career Partnerships supporting the development and implementation of the state’s work- based learning agenda for districts/schools participating in school to career programs across theCommonwealth. Prior to his work at the Department, Mr. Westrich served as the Director of the Boston Private Industry Council’s nationally recognized ProTech program which laid the foundation for the integration of school and work- based learning designed to give students the academic, workplace readiness and personal/social skills necessary to compete in higher education and high performance workplaces.

Jeff Wulfson, Deputy Commissioner


Jeff Wulfson is currently the Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has been with ESE since 1995, previously serving as the Department's Chief Financial Officer and as Associate Commissioner for School Finance and District Support. Prior to joining ESE, Jeff was the director of administration for the Department of Revenue's Division of Local Services, where he also served as chairman of the finance control boards for the cities of Brockton and Lowell. He is a member of the American Finance Association and a past president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Society for Public Administration

Leaders from State Agencies Responsible for Youth Workforce Development & Career Pathways

Jay Ash, Secretary

Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development

Jay Ash serves as the Secretary of Housing and Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Secretary Ash is responsible for directing and executing Governor Charlie Baker’s agenda on housing and community development, job creation, business development, consumer affairs, and business regulation.


James Peyser, Secretary

Executive Office of Education

As Secretary of Education, Jim Peyser directs the Executive Office of Education which is responsible for early education, K-12, and higher education in Massachusetts. Secretary Peyser sits on each of the boards governing the Commonwealth’s education agencies – Department of Early Education and Care, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Department of Higher Education as well as the University of Massachusetts system. He is Governor Baker’s top advisor oneducation and helps shape the Commonwealth’s education reform agenda.

Ronald Walker, Secretary

Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development

Secretary Ronald L. Walker, II oversees five labor and workforce development regulatory agencies: the Departments of Unemployment Assistance, Career Services, Labor Standards, Industrial Accidents, and Labor Relations. In addition, Secretary Walker manages Commonwealth Corporation-- the Secretariat’s quasi-public state agency charged with administering work force training funds and the Joint Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification, which coordinates the efforts of multiple state agencies to eliminate fraudulent employment activities and level the playing field for all employers.

District Leaders

Alice DeLuca, School Committee Member/Parent

Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District

Ms. DeLuca serves on the School Committee for the Minuteman Regional Vocational School district and is a former Chair of that Committee. She has also served on the Vocational Education Advisory Council to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for the past seven years.

Robert Dutch, Superintendent

President Elect, MA Association of Vocational Administrators

Dutch has held the position of superintendent for the Upper Cape Code Regional Technical School District since 2012. He began at Upper Cape Tech in 2004 as an assistant principal and became principal in 2006. He has previously worked in the Middleboro and South Shore Vocational Technical systems. Dutch also serves as a member of the New England Association of Schools and College’s Committee on Technical and Career Institutions.

Sheila Harrity, Superintendent

Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District

Harrity is the current superintendent of Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District and a former Principal at Worcester Technical High School, where she was named the 2013 Massachusetts Principal of the Year, and 2014 National High School Principal of the Year. In 2013, the school received the National Blue Ribbon School distinction for outstanding student achievement by the U.S. Department of Educationand was the only high school in the nation in 2014 to host President Obama as a commencement speaker. Dr. Harrity was appointed to the Board of Higher Education in March 2015 by Governor Baker.

Andre Ravenelle, Superintendent

Fitchburg PublicSchools

Ravenelle, Superintendent of Fitchburg Public Schools for 10 years, has a life-long dedication to educational excellence for students of all abilities and from all socio-economic backgrounds. His educational leadership career has spanned private and public, urban and suburban, affluent and economically challenged educational communities. He currently serves a President of Massachusetts Superintendent's Association and on the Board of Fitchburg Art Museum, the Fitchburg State University Professional Development Board as well as the Governor’s Task Force on After School Programs.


Richard Rege, Superintendent

Chicopee PublicSchools

Rege graduated UMass Amherst in 1974 with a degree in Elementary Education and certification as a Reading Specialist. He went on to teach at all three levels over the next six years before becoming a casualty of proposition 2 ½ in 1980. He left education for work in the private sector for thirteen years before reentering the field of education in 1993. He then taught middle school English for three years, became a middle school vice principal for five years, then a middle school principal for four yearsbefore being appointed as Superintendent in 2005. Rege has overseen the building of two new high schools and supervised the $38 million renovation of the old Chicopee High School into a new middle school. He is a passionate advocate for art and music education as well as career-tech programs in the Chicopee Public Schools.

Influential Members of Business and Industry

Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary- Treasurer

New England Regional Council of Carpenters

With a bachelor's degree from Columbia University in history and sociology, Erlich has spent most of his career in carpentry, labor organizations, and politics. He began his career with the Boston Carpenters Union in 1974, then served as Field Director for the 1988 "No on 2" campaign, a successful effort to defeat a referendum that wouldhave repealed Massachusetts' prevailing wage law. From there, he quickly became manager of Carpenters Local 40, which eventually restructured into the organization he heads today.

Nicholas Fyntrilakis, Vice President, Community Responsibility

MassMutual Life Insurance Company

Fyntrilakis grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts and earned a double major in Environmental Science and Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the Vice President of Community Responsibility for MassMutual, Fyntrilakis drives the company’s charitable giving, community outreach, and government relations. Fynthilakis also leads the career pathways work with local high school students.

Deborah Harmon Hines, Vice Provost for School Services

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Deborah Hines Harmon is the head of the School Services Department of University of Massachusetts Medical School, which is home to Pre- Matriculation Programs and Matriculation Services at the Medical School. Pre-Matriculation programs include Outreach Programs to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and groups under-represented in biotechnology, biomedical research, and the health professions, as well as professional development for K-12 STEM teachers in Massachusetts. Matriculation Services are: Student Financial Aid, Registrar’s Office, Student ADA Accommodations, Room Reservation and Weather Watch. The UMASS Medical School represents a major employer in the Central Massachusetts region, and implements a substantial internship programfor students in the Worcester public school system.


Susan Mailman, CEO Coghlin Electric

Susan Mailman is the fourth-generation Coghlin to preside over Coghlin Electrical Contractors and Coghlin Network Services. The company was founded in Worcester in 1885 by her great-grandfather. A union electrical contractor, Coghlin works on large-scale electrical construction projects such as the Worcester Trial Courthouse, UMass Medical School, and WGBH. Ms. Mailman is very active in professional, community and educational organizations having served as the board chair of the YWCA and United Way; Vice-Chair of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, Central Massachusetts Chapter President of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), she is a management representative for IBEW Local 96 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC). Ms. Mailman serves as a Council Member on the Massachusetts Apprenticeship Advisory Council and serves as a member of the board of the Associated Subcontractors of Central Massachusetts. She has alsobeen very active in support of Worcester Technical High school and on the board of directors of the Quinsigamond Community CollegeFoundation.

Influential Members of Workforce Development Boards and Agencies

Marybeth Campbell, Executive Director

SkillWorks

Campbell is the executive director of SkillWorks, an ambitious effort on the part of philanthropy, government, community organizations, unions, and employers to create a workforce development system that helps low- skill, low-income residents move to family-sustaining jobs and helps employers find and retain skilled employees. Most recently Campbell served in a role as the Commonwealth’s first cross-secretariat Director of Education and Workforce Development advising the Patrick Administration’s cabinet secretaries in the Executive Offices of Education, Labor and Workforce and Housing and Economic Development on workforce and education policy development, program strategy and implementation.

David Cruise, President and CEO

HampdenCounty Regional Employment Board

The Regional Employment Board of Hampden County named Cruise its president and CEO in December 2013. Cruise had been the Regional Employment Board’s director of Business and Employment Services. The Regional Employment Board brings together educational institutions, industry and government to improve work-readiness and economic opportunity with an annual budget of $12.3 million in state and federal funding. The Regional Employment Board funds one-stop career centers with unemployment benefits, job listings and help with interviewing and resume skills, and offers its vocational training through those centers.

Nancy Snyder, President

CommonwealthCorporation

Nancy Snyder was appointed as the President & CEO of Commonwealth Corporation in 2007. Ms. Snyder served as Interim Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development November 2009-January 2010. Prior to joining Commonwealth Corporation, she served as Deputy Director at the Boston Private Industry Council from 1995-2007. Prior to her work with the Boston PIC, Ms. Snyder held leadership positions in Boston city government, including Staff Director to former Boston Mayor RaymondL. Flynn, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Department of Health & Hospitals, and Director of Jobs and Community Services for the City of Boston.


Neil Sullivan, Executive Director

Boston PrivateIndustry Council

The PIC serves as Boston’s Workforce Investment Board under state and federal law, chartering the city’s three one stop career centers and directing the distribution of workforce development funds, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Jobs and Community Services. The PIC also leads Boston’s school-to-career initiative – organizing employers to provide jobs and internships for public high school students. Before joining the PIC in 1992, Sullivan served as chief policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn for ten years, as a community organizer andpolicy strategist for Massachusetts Fair Share in Worcester and Boston for six years, and as a high school teacher in the Chicago area for three years.

Higher Education Leaders

Pam Eddinger, President

Bunker Hill Community College

From 2002 to 2005, Eddinger served as an administrator at MassBay Community College first as vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty (2002-2004), then as executive vice president (2004-2005). In2005, she began her tenure at Moorpark College, a 15,000-student, comprehensive community college, serving as executive vice president from 2005 to 2008. Eddinger assumed the presidency of Bunker Hill Community College in July 2013.

Javier Cervallos, President

Framingham State University, also representing the incoming Chair of State University Council of Presidents

Dr. Cervallos began his career in education in 1981 as an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Maine at Orono. In 1984, he moved to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1988 and to full professor in 1992. In1994, he was asked to serve as faculty advisor to the provost. In 1996 he was selected as a Fellow by the American Council on Education (ACE) and spent his fellowship at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut. Upon his return to UMass, Cevallos became chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Soon after, he was appointed Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, a post he held until 2002, when he became President of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania for many years, until beginning his tenure as President of Framingham State University.

Carlos Santiago, Commissioner

Department of Higher Education

Santiago brings over 30 years of experience in public higher education. Past academic appointments include that of Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (Wisconsin’s second largest research university), chief operating officer at the University at Albany, (SUNY), and professor of economics at UWM and SUNY-Albany. Santiago was appointed as Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts by Governor Baker in July 2015.


Appendix F. Career Development Education Metrics and Targets

As the Integration of College and Career Readiness (ICCR) initiative moves forward, the Department is responsible for gathering data to measure progress toward the three goals of engaging more schools, students and employers in career development activities to support career readiness:

SchoolsIncrease the percent of

high schools offering career development

activities

StudentsIncrease the number of students participating in

career development activities

EmployersIncrease the number of employers sponsoring career development

activities

See following pages for metrics and targets


S C H O O L S : By 2017, at least 7 0% of high schools will offer opportunities for any and all students to participate in active career development activities


S TUDENT S : By 2017, at least 100,0 0 0 9-10th grade students will participate in career awareness and exploration activities and 7 5,000 11-12th grade students will participate in a career immersion activity


E M P L O Y ER S : By 2017, 3,000 employers will sponsor career awareness and exploration activities and6,000 will sponsor career immersion activities


Table of Contents

Student Safety & Health 4 Program Design 13Safety and Health Planning 4 Career Development 13

Safety and Health Plractices 4 Program of Study 13Safety and Health Training 5 Curriculum Content 14

Community Involvement 6 Instructional Delivery 15Advisory Committee Role 6 Student Assessment 16

Advisory Committee Membership 6 Student Organizations and Leadership 16Advisory Committee Operations 7 Work-Based Learning 17

Community Partnerships & Resources 7 Resources 19Personnel 8 The Learning Environment 19

Educator Licensure 8 Curricular and Instructional Resources 19Professional Development 8 Equipment 20Professional Organizations 9 Support Services 21

Program Administration 10 Program Awareness and Accessibility 21Local Program Administration 10 Program Support 21

Financial Responsibilities 11 Career Guidance and Counseling Program 22

Program Assessment 12Program Assessment Practices 12

Performance Targets 12


— Student Safety & Health—

Foundational Elements Elements of Emerging Quality Elements of Established Quality

Safety and Health Planning

A plan exists outlining policies and procedures for the overall vocational technical program

Each specific program is guided by a shop- specific safety and health plan that outlines procedures and practices for that shop

Emergency evacuation and lockdown plans have been developed and are regularly reviewed

The program-wide safety and health plan is regularly reviewed and updated

Program-specific safety and health plans are regularly reviewed and updated

Administration reviews safety and health plans against a common rubric or standard to ensure comparability of policy and practice across all programs [see “Program-Specific Safety Plan” in Application Package for Vocational Technical Education New Program Approval M.G.L.c.74 (revised 2016) for one such rubric].

Safety and Health Practices

Staff and students routinely adhere to the practices outlined in both the broad program safety and health plan and the shop-specific plan

Shop equipment is properly installed andmaintained and is shielded, guarded, and ventilated as necessary

Equipment is in place to address fire safety, materials storage, and waste disposal

Environmental factors are maintained at safe and appropriate levels

Environment is clean, orderly, properlymaintained, and safe and includes prominently displayed safety signage

Emergency evacuation and lockdown procedures are regularly practiced

Students can articulate on demand the proper practices around any procedures orequipment on which they have been trained and the reasons for those practices

Students routinely remind and correct fellowstudents who are not adhering to safety and health practices without prompting from the instructor

Program administrators and programinstructors regularly review shop facilities and shop equipment to ensure ongoing student safety and health

Administration designs and implements a comprehensive shop safety and health system, regularly evaluates program practices on key safety and health indicators, and tracks performance within and across shops overtime

Administration and/or program staff routinely examine environmental factors as part of a comprehensive shop safety and health system

Systems and structures exist to assess students regularly on their safety and health practices

Safety and Health Training


All staff are properly trained in shop-specific procedures and equipment prior to implementation/operation

Processes and procedures exist to ensure thatall new staff are promptly trained in shop- specific procedures and equipment

All students are properly trained and tested in shop-specific procedures and equipment prior to implementation/operation

Training and assessment employs various modalities to address the needs of diverse learners

Program staff are trained in their duties and responsibilities in responding to emergency evacuations and lockdowns

Staff and students regularly undergo refresher safety and health training

Training in safety and health is guided by a comprehensive plan


—Community Involvement—


Advisory Committee Role

The program is guided by a General Advisory Committee (GAC) that provides advice on all CTE programs in order to maintain overall quality and relevance and to strengthen support from the community [applicable only in the case of multiple programs within the overall program]

Each specific CTE program is guided by a Program Advisory Committee (PAC) that provides program-specific advice on curriculum content, equipment, and facilities

The GAC and PACs routinely review labor market data and use that information to make recommendations to administration

The GAC and PACs leverage additional financial resources for programs

The GAC and PACs leverage additional instructional resources for programs

The GAC and PACs leverage opportunities for work-based learning and employment from the surrounding community

The GAC and PACs promote and advocate forCTE in the surrounding community

The GAC and PACs develop and maintain systems to assist in long range planning for the CTE program and its constituent programs

The GAC and PACs, in conjunction withadministration, identify key program quality metrics, systematically monitor progress against those metrics, and make data-based recommendations as appropriate

The GAC, in conjunction with administration, develops and implements a community outreach strategy to keep stakeholders apprised of the performance of the CTE program

Advisory Committee Membership

The composition of the GAC and PACs meets regulatory guidelines

Written plans exist to recruit members representing racial/ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and if applicable, members who are nontraditional for their gender in the industry or profession they represent

Industry representation on each PAC reflects a range of different occupations

Representatives from postsecondary educational institutions are able to broker secondary-postsecondary linkage arrangements

The GAC and PACs effectively implement a comprehensive committee recruitment strategy that ensures regular change in membership and committee composition representative of the community


Advisory Committee Operations

The GAC and PACs meet formally with a planned agenda at least twice a year

GAC and PACs record minutes of their meetings, and keep meeting minutes and agendas on file

GAC and PAC agendas are available on a school or program website

An organizational structure, including specific member roles and a set agenda format, guides GAC and PAC operations

The GAC and PACs meet more often that twice a year as necessary to conduct business

The GAC and PACs maintain open dialoguewith program stakeholders, including administration, staff, parents, and students

The GAC and PACs conducts regular self- evaluation of its own effectiveness

The GAC and PACs implement a committee professional development plan to ensure continued growth in the committees’ collective competence

The GAC and PACs establish and maintain written operating guidelines and procedures

Community Partnerships & Resources

Ongoing communication and networking takes place between CTE staff and business partners and potential partners

Outreach to potential business partners is based on strategic needs of the program

Program partners include area industry,business, workforce development, government, and higher education entities and institutions

Administration allows staff time to develop and maintain partnerships

As feasible, the program shares resources with the wider community and provides service to that community

Systems and structures exist to foster andnurture partnerships and relationships withthe wider community

The program offers a progressive array of opportunities for individuals, businesses, and institutions to become involved

A system exists to evaluate opportunities for partnership in the context of the program’s strategic needs and overall mission


—Personnel—


Educator Licensure

All staff are appropriately licensed as educators or have been granted a temporary waiver of license

Instructors in programs that require occupational licenses (e.g., electricity, plumbing, cosmetology) possess those licenses

Administration annually reviews staff licensure to ensure that all staff are appropriately licensed

Cooperative education is overseen by alicensed coordinator*

If there are five or more vocational technical programs, those programs are overseen by a licensed CTE director*

All staff members are appropriately licensed Staff members with less than Professional

licensure can provide evidence of efforts to earn full licensure

Teaching staff obtain and maintain professional skills certifications related to their industries as applicable

Administration provides incentives and supports to encourage teachers’ National Board certification and/or exemplary practice

Professional Development

Staff acquire professional development, including any PD required as a condition for continued licensure

All educators possess professionaldevelopment plans as required

Administration provides professional development tied to individual, program, school and district goals and objectives relevant to desired student outcomes

Professional development opportunities for staff are relevant, extend over time, and include opportunities for staff to implement, practice, and receive formative feedback, all in the service of achieving desired student outcomes

Professional development design andimplementation reflects good pedagogical practice and understanding of adult learning theory

Professional development priorities are determined through data-driven analysis of student needs and educator needs

Data is collected on the effectiveness ofprofessional development in meeting student needs and educator needs

Systems and structures promote collaboration among educators to encourage sharing of ideas and working together to achieve identified student outcomes and educator outcomes


Professional development is designed anddelivered by individual(s) with a strong knowledge and skill base in the identified objectives

Professional Organizations

CTE staff are aware of professional, industry, occupational or other organizations

CTE staff are familiar with both resources and professional development opportunities available through these organizations

CTE staff are active in professional organizations and participate in conferences, workshops, meetings, and activities

Administration actively supports CTE staff members’ participation in professional organizations

Formal structures exist to ensure that resources and learning from participation in professional organizations is shared within and across programs as appropriate


—Program Administration—


Local Program Administration

Administration exhibits an understanding of school law and finance, including the permissible use of funds

Administration develops and maintains systems and structures to routinely communicate with CTE staff and advisory committee(s)

Administration submits required reports in a timely manner

Administration monitors the development ofgrants to support CTE programs

Administration reviews data regarding equal access and full participation of special populations in CTE programs and initiates policy and programmatic changes as necessary

qualifications and oversees the retention,recruitment and replacement of staff

Administration develops and periodically reviews policies that ensure equal access and full participation of special populations in CTE programs

Administration helps establish and supports effective working relationships with postsecondary institutions (including apprenticeship programs) and industry partners

Cooperative education is overseen by a

Administration seeks advice from and communicates with CTE staff and advisory committee(s)

Administration initiates partnership initiatives with postsecondary institutions (including apprenticeship programs) and with industry partners

Administration plays a leadership role, along with program personnel and advisory committees in the development of CTE program plans

Administration develops and maintains systems and structures to regularly evaluate programs for their effectiveness in generating/improving positive student outcomes

Administration involves internal and externalstakeholders in reviewing data on positive student outcomes and on equal access and participation of special populations and solicits input into policy and programmatic changes as necessary

Administration develops and maintains systems and structures to foster positive relationships with postsecondary institutions (including apprenticeship programs) and with industry partners


licensed coordinator* If there are five or more vocational technical

programs, those programs are overseen by a licensed CTE director*

Financial Responsibilities

Plans, forms, and grants are designed, amended, and monitored properly

Funds are used in accordance with federal and/or state rules and regulations

Administration maintains records required for internal and external audits following record retention rules

Administration develops and maintains an inventory control system to record and monitor purchases involving federal and state funds in accordance with law and regulation

Administration ensures that staff meets The program has access to financial resources

sufficient to operate the program in accordance with law and regulation and to ensure a safe environment

Administration requests input from CTE staff and advisory committee(s) prior to the development of program budgets

Administration verifies that program budget expenditures are aligned with local program plans

Administration keeps staff involved in the budgeting and budget management process

Administration routinely pursues outside funding to support programs

Administration develops and maintains systems and structures that routinely gather input from CTE staff and advisory committee(s) prior to the development of program budgets

Administration develops and maintainssystems whereby staff and advisory committee input into program budgets aligns with local program plans

Administration develops fundraising systemsand structures to support programs

Administration uses the program’s fiscal resources strategically to improve or expand programming?


—Program Assessment—


Program Assessment Practices

The program routinely reviews itsperformance against mandated targets, shares results with teachers and, as appropriate, with others such as Program Advisory Committees (PACs) or General Advisory Committees (GACs) and formulates intervention plans asnecessary

Data review involves disaggregation of data by mandated subpopulations

The program implements a process of data analysis and action as a mechanism to drive program improvement

Data review involves disaggregation of data bymandated subpopulations and by other groupings of interest to the program

The program establishes additionalperformance targets as needed

The program involves teachers and GAC/PACs in reviewing performance data and in developing interventions as necessary

Administration allocates funds to support program assessment and improvement

The program establishes a comprehensive program assessment system that examines all facets of the program and establishes rigorous performance targets

The program assessment process includes multiple stakeholders, including parents, students, staff, and industry and community partners

The program ties its professional development to program assessment and improvement, targeting efforts to areas of greatest need

The program’s intervention efforts areresearch-based and effective

Performance Targets

The program meets all mandated performance targets or develops and implements intervention plans to address disaggregated populations that do not meet targets

The program sets performance targets beyond those legally mandated

The program meets all mandated targets The program demonstrates progress in

meeting additional targets established by the program

The program demonstrates progress, sustained over several years, in meeting rigorous performance targets


—Program Design—


Career Development

Program prepares students for careers in current or emerging professions

Program provides students with technical skillsproficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree

All students possess career plans tied to theirvocational technical area of study [a 4-year plan in Chapter 74 approved programs]

Parents/guardians are involved with the development of 4-year career plans

Career plans are available in languages other than English for parents and students with limited English proficiency

Program provides career guidance and placement services, including career assessments and assistance with the development of a four-year career plan

Program provides students with an opportunity to develop career portfolios

Community partners provide direct careerdevelopment links for students

Program encourages students to be self- reflective in career planning and expects students to assume ownership of plan documents and the planning process

Program maintains a staffed career resource center at the school that is open to students, families, and community

All students have developed career portfolios, and portfolios are routinely updated and used by students

The district actively encourages parents and students to use the staffed career resource center for career research and planning

Program of Study

Program includes a sequence of courses , both academic and technical, organizedsequentially in order to develop students’skills and knowledge

Program of study reflects both academic and technical learning

Formal mechanisms exist to inform students and families of available technical programs of study

Program’s sequence of courses is coherentand developmental

Career and technical student organizations enhance students’ understanding of programs of study

Students are strongly encouraged to exploreprograms nontraditional for their gender

Formal mechanisms exist to review programs of study on a regular basis, and programs of study are updated as necessary to remain current with industry trends, skills,knowledge, labor market demand, and career options

Formal mechanisms exist to ensure continued congruence between practices and activities of career and technical student organizations


Program of study permits students to exploreand/or prepare for a variety of career options within an industry

Program of study allows students theopportunity to explore programs and careers nontraditional for their gender

Program includes both secondary and postsecondary elements; linkages exist through articulation agreements that are annually reviewed and approved

Program includes state-approved vocational technical education exploratory program*

Programs of study are informed by labor market demand and student demand*

and programs of study Systems, structures, and supports create an

environment where students may safely choose career paths that are nontraditional for their gender

All students, regardless of gender, areexposed to the full array of career possibilities available in the program

Schools actively and routinely seek out partnerships with postsecondary educational institutions and other community institutions, organizations, and businesses in order to provide students with rich programs of study

Curriculum Content

Program curriculum provides opportunities for students to gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of an industry

Content is coherent and rigorous and aligns with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills

Program contributes to students’ higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills

Program provides students with general employability knowledge and skills

Program provides students with occupational safety and health knowledge and skills

Program provides students with management and entrepreneurship knowledge and skills

Program provides students with technology knowledge and skills

Curriculum provides at least one credentialing option for students (e.g., articulated dual enrollment credits, industry-recognized

Program has developed and implemented interventions and supports as needed to help students transition to postsecondary education and/or employment without the need for remediation

Curriculum provides students with multiple credentialing options

Curriculum is reviewed and revised regularlyto reflect new competencies, new technologies, changing labor market needs and current and/or emerging teaching strategies/pedagogical approaches

Program successfully prepares all students for transition to postsecondary education and/or employment without the need forremediation

Upon completion of the program, all studentshave earned as least one major credential and/or transferable college credits


credential) Program is based on the Massachusetts

Curriculum Frameworks and the applicable Massachusetts Vocational Technical Framework*

Instructional Delivery

Differentiated instruction is routinely employed to ensure that students are provided with the conditions for program success

Program includes competency-based applied learning

Program staff provides and documents safetyinstruction to students prior to use of equipment and ensures that students employ overall safety practices and operate equipment in a safe manner

Program implements effective classroom and shop routines and procedures to maximize instructional time

Instruction is based on clear objectives andincludes relevant measurable outcomes

Instruction promotes equity across all subpopulations and supports high achievement for all students

Instruction includes learning supports to meet the diverse needs of all students

Instructional plans incorporate student careerdecision-making and employability skills

Instruction aligns Vocational Technical Education Frameworks standards with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks*

Program provides students with access to and opportunities to develop proficiency with a range of technologies used in the field

Students are aware of both the skills and competencies they are expected to master at each stage of their program and their performance with respect to those skills and competencies

Program makes use of industry partners as an instructional resource

Instruction is continually modified tomaximize student attainment of assessed skills

Program secures access to state-of-the-arttechnology based on industry trends

Instruction is informed by regular analysis of student-level achievement and performance data


Student Assessment

Program assesses students for the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the following areas:

o safety and healtho a vocational technical discipline,

including embedded academicso employabilityo management and entrepreneurshipo technology

Program tracks student competencyattainment

Program uses performance-based assessment tools and processes to determine studentskills and competencies

Program uses assessment data to determine students’ readiness for postsecondary education and remediates as necessary

Program uses industry standards to assessstudents’ skill acquisition

Program uses a competency tracking tool or procedure to monitor students’ skill and knowledge attainment and regularly analyzes aggregate and disaggregated data to improve curriculum and instruction

Program regularly shares data from competency tracking with students and with other key stakeholders, including Program Advisory Committee

Stakeholders and the wider school community assist in assessing students through rigorous exhibitions and/or portfolio reviews

Program provides to students and parents a summative student competency profile upon completion of the program

Student Organizations and Leadership

Students have opportunities to participate in student organizations and clubs that enhance their vocational technical skills

Program provides students with opportunities to develop leadership skills through involvement in career and technical student organizations and/or through other planned activities

Program devotes resources to the establishment and maintenance of career and technical student organizations, including providing funds for faculty advisors and travel to competitions

Program demonstrates a recognition thatcareer and technical student organizations are integral components of students’ overall career and technical education

The program invites a broad range of students to participate as stakeholders in program improvement efforts

Institutional structures ensure that studentsplay meaningful roles in program improvement through participation on program advisory committees

Work-Based Learning


Work-based learning, implemented when feasible, operates in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies

Work-based learning is guided by schooldistrict-created policies, procedures and forms

Students are regularly evaluated by their site supervisors on their attainment of and/or practice of customized and agreed upon competencies as captured by a Work-Based Learning Plan or other similar tool, and these evaluations are shared with the student and program staff

Communication among the student, the supervisor, and the program is regular and ongoing, and procedures exist to address problems or conflicts at the earliest possible point

Parents are not required to waive legal rightsas a condition of their child’s participation inwork-based learning

Students are supervised during work-based learning in order to ensure that the work is safe and provides a meaningful learning experience

Cooperative education, implemented when feasible, operates in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies*

Cooperative education is guided by school district-created policies, procedures and forms*

Unpaid off-campus construction and maintenance projects are appropriately implemented per Massachusetts regulation*

The program engages in ongoing efforts to establish and maintain positive working relationships with new and existing work- based learning partners

Program administrators routinely examine work-based learning data to improve program design and outcomes

Program administrators routinely examine work-based learning data to ensure equity in access to WBL

A classroom component (WBL Seminar) is provided for all students involved in long-term worksite placement (e.g., cooperative education, internship), and that classroom component is directly connected to students’ work experiences

Work-based learning is envisioned as a centralcomponent of a capstone experience, and students are expected to exhibit evidence of their work-related learning in a rigorous and authentic demonstration

Long-standing and mutually advantageous relationships exist among all partners participating in work-based learning

Structures and systems exist to ensure that meaningful data on work-based learning is shared with program advisory committees and/or other stakeholders


—Resources—


The Learning Environment

Facilities provide an environment that is conducive to learning, free of barriers, and supportive of curriculum goals and objectives

Class size and instructional staffing (teacher :student ratio) are suitable to provide safe student learning

Environmental factors are maintained at safeand appropriate levels

Environment is clean, orderly, properly maintained, and safe and includes prominently displayed safety signage

Facilities meet recommended industry and educational standards

Program staff undergo routine training regarding environmental issues in the learning environment

Administration and/or program staff routinely examine environmental factors as part of a comprehensive shop safety and health system

Curricular and Instructional Resources

Program has basic resources available to permit students to acquire skills and knowledge with respect to:



Curricular materials are culturally inclusive andfree of bias

Curricular and instructional materials areavailable to meet individual student needs

Program has a wide array of resources and materials that provide for challenging and enriched learning

Program ‘s curricular and instructional resources reflect technological advances in technical content areas

Program maximizes access to instructional resources by developing and maintaining partnerships with local businesses, industries, and institutions

Affected staff are trained in any new curriculum and/or instructional materials prior to implementation

Administration develops and maintains systems and structures to ensure that the program’s materials are routinely replaced and updated to remain current

Program stakeholders, including parents,students, and PAC members are involved in vetting curricular and instructional materials prior to procurement

Administration develops systems and structures to review materials and resources routinely for cultural inclusivity and absence of bias

Systems and structures exist to ensure that all affected staff are proficient in the use of any new curriculum and/or instructional materials


Equipment

Program has basic equipment available to permit students to acquire skills and knowledge with respect to:



Shop equipment is properly installed andmaintained and is shielded, guarded, andventilated as necessary

Equipment is in place to address fire safety, materials storage, and waste disposal

PAC members are involved in vettingequipment prior to procurement

Program ‘s equipment reflects technologicaladvances in technical content areas

Program maximizes access to equipment by developing and maintaining partnerships with local businesses, industries, and institutions

Affected staff are fully trained in any new equipment prior to implementation

Administration develops and maintains multi- year prioritized plans, developed in conjunction with program PACs and the GAC (if applicable) to ensure that the program’s equipment is routinely replaced and updated to remain current

Affected staff must demonstrate an appropriate level of proficiency with any new equipment prior to use with students


—Support Services—


Program Awareness and Accessibility

Program provides equal access to all students, including members of special populations

Program has written policies and procedures to ensure the learning environment is barrier free

Program makes basic accommodations that allow participation of all students

Program outreach and promotion is designed to be free of bias and discrimination

Program promotional, curricular, and instructional materials are accessible to English language learners and parents with limited English proficiency

Program accessibility for all students to facilities, equipment, and curriculum is ensured through modifications and accommodations as needed

Program presents a broad range of careeroptions to all students, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity

Program environment honors diversity and respects all students

Program promotional, curricular, and instructional materials reflect diversity with respect to race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity

Outreach and promotion involves students who reflect diversity with respect to race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as students who are English language learners

Program regularly reviews data to determine whether program enrollments reflect a diverse student population and/or the student population of the communities it serves and whether obstacles exist to student access

Program develops and maintains systems and structures to promote diversity and equality of access and fosters a culture where diversity is embraced and celebrated

Program Support

Administration has programs in place to support all learners, including special populations and English language learners

Program staff are provided with opportunities to be involved in the development and implementation of Individualized Education Plans

Program staff regularly consult with student support staff (including Special Education staff) to address individual student needs

Program staff regularly access professional development and technical assistance services in order to enhance their ability to address individual student needs

Dialogue between program staff and student support staff is open and ongoing and reflects a shared concern with promoting success for all students

The program identifies and collects data in a comprehensive system designed with the specific purpose of identifying and helping


Program staff are actively involved in thedevelopment and implementation ofIndividualized Education Plans

Program staff are actively involved in thedevelopment and implementation in their classrooms and shops of support practices to maximize student success

Program uses vocational technicalparaprofessionals as needed to provide additional support to students

Program staff use available data to monitorstudent success and to develop interventions and supports

students in need of support Administration provides resources to ensure

that program staff are adequately trained to provide effective support to students

Career Guidance and Counseling Program

Program ensures that all students possess a career plan tied to their vocational technical area of study [a 4-year plan in Chapter 74 approved programs]

Program staff work with guidance and counseling staff in the provision of college and career counseling to students

Program staff works with guidance and counseling staff to provide student access to career assessments, student organizations,and other tools to investigate career options in order to make informed decisions

Program involves parents in students’ careerplanning

Guidance and counseling staff are sufficiently well informed about vocational technical education to provide advice to students regarding course selection, articulated college dual enrollment options, articulated apprenticeship opportunities, and college and career options

Administration provides access to professional development to program staff and guidance and counseling staff to improve career-related counseling

Guidance and counseling staff regard vocational technical education and/or career development education as a valuable component of all students’ programs of study

Program’s career guidance and counseling program seamlessly integrates the efforts of all school-based service providers, program partners, and parents in a holistic effort to guide students’ postsecondary planning

Program develops, collects and routinelyexamines data to determine the effectiveness of its career guidance and counseling efforts

Massachusetts New Skills for Youth Grant · Web viewGrant Application Phase I Submitted March...

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Transcript of Massachusetts New Skills for Youth Grant · Web viewGrant Application Phase I Submitted March...