Transcript Slide 1

Learning Today, Earning Tomorrow
Florida’s Vision For
Incorporating Career Pathways
Into Adult Education Programs
November 2010
Loretta Costin, Chancellor
Division of Career and Adult Education
Florida Department of Education
Why Career Pathways Are Important
to Adult Education Students in Florida
• The Growing Need for Postsecondary Credentials
– Meeting the labor market’s need for workers who are more highly
skilled and better trained requires upgrading the skills of the adults
currently in the workforce.
– Nearly half of all net jobs created between 2008 and 2018 will require
some postsecondary credential (Lacey & Wright 2009).
– Yet as of 2006, over 40 percent of adults in the United States had
only a high school diploma or less; another 20 percent had earned
some college credit but no credential (Jenkins 2006).
– Far too many Americans – as many as 93 million – score at the lower
levels of national assessments of functional literacy skills.
– These adults have limited opportunities to find sustaining-wage work.
– Wages have remained stagnant or declined compared to those of
higher-educated adults (Jenkins 2006).
– They have also been hit much harder by the recent recession; the
national unemployment rates for those without a high school diploma
are three times the rate of those with a postsecondary degree
(Bureau of Labor Statistics 2009)
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The Lack of a Coherent System
• In most communities, there is currently no ‘system’
designed around the career advancement needs of lowskilled adults; instead there is a collection of disjointed
programs, each with different governance, funding
streams, rules and cultures.
• Historically, adult education programs have focused on
helping adults complete secondary school education.
• But most programs are not designed to adequately
prepare students for the postsecondary education and
training needed in today’s economy.
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Low Transition Rates to
Postsecondary Education
• Number of low-skilled adults who progress from
remediation to credit-level coursework is low
• Current approach is not moving low-skilled adults from
adult education into degree and certificate programs that
are increasingly essential for family-supporting careers
• Many see career pathway models, which integrate
remedial education into CTE training programs,
accelerate and contextualized learning and provide
extensive supportive services, as a promising approach
to helping low-skilled adults complete programs and
earn income-enhancing credentials
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The Challenges to Creating
Effective Pathways
• Rationale is clear: low-skilled adults need postsecondary
education to get good jobs, and Florida needs to improve our
educational systems to ensure that more adults can progress
from remedial education to credentialing programs and from
noncredit to credit programs
• Early indications suggest that this approach can propel more
low-skilled adults into and through postsecondary education
and training programs
• States face a number of common challenges, centered
primarily around two key issues:
– The difficulty of creating coordinated and coherent systemic change
– The challenge of meeting the needs of the hardest-to-serve
populations.
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Challenges
Challenge 1: Defining a New System
– Few are engaged in the breadth of institutional and
system-wide change needed to significantly increase
the number of low-skilled adults who make their way
quickly and efficiently to meaningful credentials and
family-sustaining employment
Challenge 2: Identifying Leadership and
Defining Roles
– Requires strong leadership at every level
– Requires a designated governing structure that has
an ongoing responsibility
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Challenges
Challenge 3: Getting More and Better Data
– If states and colleges are to be accountable for the
outcomes (e.g., higher rates of transition, persistence,
completion, and employment), there must be ways to
measure those outcomes
Challenge 4: Providing Adequate and Aligned
Funding
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Meeting the Needs of Low-skilled
and Working Adults
Challenge 5: Design programs that prepare
low-skilled adults for postsecondary education
– Students are often working adults who need to upgrade
their basic skills quickly and be trained in a career field
while juggling work and family responsibilities
– Programs need to be flexible in terms of hours and
locations.
– Instruction needs to be contextualized to the students’
education and training goals
– Students need to clearly understand what the next step is
after adult education
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Meeting the Needs of Low-skilled
and Working Adults
Challenge 6: Reduce the Time Investment Needed
to Achieve a Meaningful Credential
– “Stackable” credentials - ensure credentials will be
recognized by postsecondary institutions, valued by
employers, and prepare workers for further education and
training and high demand jobs
Challenge 7: Limited Capacity to Provide Student
Supports
– Low skilled and low-income adult learners face numerous
barriers to persistence
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Promising Strategies for Meeting
the Needs of Low-skilled and
Working Adults
•
•
•
•
•
•
Define Pathways Clearly
Accelerate Instruction
Create “Bridges” and “On Ramps”
Create Programs Based on the Labor Market
“Chunk” or Modularize Programs and Credentials
Provide Ongoing, Intensive Supports, Including Career
Guidance
– Case management approach
– Low-skilled adult students need guidance in choosing career
paths
– In a career pathways program, career guidance should be
provided early in the process with counseling throughout the
program, especially at points of transition
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Achieving Systemic Change
• Change is achievable with a welldefined vision and a clearly articulated
plan of action.
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Example of a
Adult Education Career Pathway
C
A
R
E
E
R
L
A
D
D
E
R
EXIT
Earn RNP
EXIT
Earn RN
EXIT
EXIT
Earn
Postsecondary
Degree
(BS, AS, AAS, AA,
CTE Certification)
Earn LPN
Earn CNA
Certificate
Enroll in CTE
program CNA
Earn GED
Diploma
Enroll in GED
Prep course
Earn Standard
High School
Diploma
Earn RNP
EXIT
Earn RN
EXIT
Earn LPN
EXIT
Earn CNA
Certificate
Enroll in an
Adult Secondary
High School
EXIT
Enroll in CTE
program CNA
Applied Academics
(VPI)
C
A
R
E
E
R
L
A
D
D
E
R
Applied Academics
(VPI)
Adult Basic Education 8.9
Level
Pre-GED
6.0 – 8.9
6.0 – 8.9
4.0 – 5.9
2.0 – 3.9
0.0 – 1.9
Math
Reading
Language
ESOL
6 NRS Levels
CAREER
PLANNING
COURSE
(Student Career
Plan)
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Next Steps
What: Gap Analysis – Where we are?/ Where
do we need to go?
• Develop a 5-year strategic plan – state and local
• Establish goals/measure results
• Leverage resources to meet goals of the strategic
plan
• Develop capacity of instructors/administrators
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Next Steps
How:
– Implement State and Local Strategic/Implementation Plans
– Utilize current leadership structure
• Adult Education Cabinet
• Standing Committees
• Department of Education/Division of Career and Adult Education staff
• Local Leadership Structure
– Utilize existing professional development system
• Regional Training Centers
• Professional Development Institute
• TechNet
• ACE of Florida
• Florida Literacy Coalition
– Distribute approximately 6 million dollars to LEA’s in 20102011 to develop capacity/infrastructure
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Loretta Costin, Chancellor
Division of Career and Adult Education
(850) 245-9463
[email protected]