MN Perkins Five Years From Now....

In repsonse to a question posed by Ginny K. towards the end of our meeting in DC (and I thank you all to make the meeting such a success), I am writing out the following statements. Not quite an elevator speech, but I think still understandable. Any modifications, suggestions, and amendments highly appreciated.

Every high school CTE student will:

1. Pass the NCLB tests in reading and Math at the proficiency level
2. Graduate bein fully prepared to enter a post-secondary institution of their choice without the need for remediation
3. Acquire, attain and retain basic technical skills and knowledge to enter post-secondary institution of their choice so that they continue along a self-chosen personal career path

Every post-secondary CTE student will:

1. successfully complete a program of their choice and enter meaningful employment in an occupation that permits continuing along a self-chosen personal career path
2. successfully graduate from a program of their choice
3. Acquire and attain the technical skills and knowledge necessary to fully succeed in the 21st century global economy

Day 2: OVAE Conference, Washington, D.C.

Day 2 started off with a presentation by two dynamic presenters Ann and Gene Benson. Their first slide said, in part, “It takes two things to be a consultant—Gray Hair and Hemorrhoids,” and then they went on to give what I thought was an excellent presentation about Developing Programs of Study. I won’t tell you what the Gray Hair and the Hemorrhoids do for a consultant until I see you in person, but I will give you the Benson’s definition of Programs of Study. POS “Include coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant career and technical content in a coordinated, non-duplicative progression of courses that align secondary education with postsecondary education to adequately prepare students to succeed in postsecondary education.” Whew!!

I won’t be telling all that we covered in Day 2 because it was too much, but I’ll highlight a couple of items. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Zala and I went to a session on Professional Development and Teacher Preparation. We’ll be bringing back a lot of material from this conference, but the issue that stuck in my mind from this session is the belief that the number one obstacle to implementation of POS is Professional Development. Zala and I have already been talking about how we might provide resources and help from the Office of the Chancellor’s Center of Teaching and Learning.

Another agenda item included presenters from the U.S. Department of Education on No Child Left Behind and Programs of Study. As one could imagine, a lively discussion followed the presentations. After that we continued our state breakout session and arrived at consensus (20 people!) on the Key Points of Minnesota’s Implementation of 16 Career Clusters and 81 pathways or POS. The Key Points are:
What? Every learner will follow a personal plan that leads to career success.
How? By organizing learning through flexible Programs of Study for developing individual talents.
Why? To empower Minnesota’s life-long learners to become self-sufficient contributors to a vital, interdependent global economy.

OK! Enough is enough! It’s time to play, and I’m going to dinner. More later . . . .

Day 1: From High School to College and Career Conference, Washington, D.C.

This posting is a brief summary of the first half day of the conference "From High School to College and Career--Strengthening Secondary-Postsecondary Transitions Using Programs of Study Organized Around the Career Clusters." The conference is being held in Washington, D.C., and organized by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education.
Minnesota had the largest delegation with 20 participants, nine of them from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The title of the conference pretty much describes what it's all about. We started at 1 p.m. yesterday with introductory remarks by Scott Hess, Chief College and Career Transitions Branch, OVAE, and Troy Justesen, Assistant Secretary, Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Then we jumped into the heart of the conference--Programs of Study and the Perkins IV legislation. We heard three panel members from North Carolina, Utah and Texas talk about implementing their POS.
Next we moved into breakout sessions where facilitators worked with us to assess our state's status about POS and Perkins IV. Since our group was the largest, we had a room to ourselves; and we got a chance to get to know each other better. We started by identifying our goals for the session and discussed some of the challenges we were facing. Today, Tuesday, we'll continue our state breakout sessions as well as attend some all-conference participant sessions and some specialized sessions that relate to and have an impact on clusters and POS. Zala Fashant and I will be attending a session on Professional Development and Teacher Preparation.
The weather is hot and humid; but Washington, D.C., is a beautiful and historical place to hold a conference of this importance. Be on the lookout for the impact our Minnesota group is having on Congress--they might stay in session all night! :<) Keep tuned; I'll have more tonight or tomorrow.

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