Hello from the Director
As we look back to the beginning of this Alliance, when these goals were but an inkling in our minds, it hits me how far we have come.  Sometimes we can lose sight of our wins while we are bogged down in the mire of the day to day grind of making it (and so many other things) happen.

Career HUBs have been successfully implemented in Sonoma County and have been absorbed by the school district as a service they wish to support with their LCFF dollars.
Marin County and Napa County are hosting an increased number of academies for high school students to explore the college pathway programs and gain early college experience
Solano County has a high functioning and viable Industry Sector Partnerships as well as a vast industry advisory committee.
Mendocino County has engaged outlying school districts and their large districts in high quality pathway development and integrating CTE into their network of MTSS supports.  They are also in the process of setting up digital badging structures.
We have been working with CDE and doing some analysis of our initial data.  The raw numbers look good, and require some disaggregation to fully understand.  Some promising preliminary results include:
  • 120% growth across the region of students in career pathways
  • 33% growth in students remaining in pathways for the second/third course
  • High school diploma achievement has risen, this is also reflected in the state report of graduation rates, indicated the seventh year of increased graduation rates.
I am so proud of the results we have experienced thus far.  It is the result of your dedication, hard work and passion for making education a place where all students are prepared for college career and life.
Gina Dickson, NCCPA Grant Director

P.S. If you are interested in having your local county results disaggregated and reviewed, please contact us and we can connect you with our data analyst directly to start that process.


School Spotlight

The NCCPA Pathway Coaches and Work-Based Learning Specialists had an illuminating site visit to American Canyon High School in Napa Valley Unified at the end of February. The facilities at the fairly new campus are first-rate and the students eloquently spoke about their CTE pathway programs, which include Sports Medicine, Culinary Arts, Biotechnology, and Woodshop/Manufacturing.

In the photo below two student tour guides are explaining some of the equipment they use to train in sports medicine, in which they get to apply their skills at the school's sports events.
 


Industry Spotlight

The spotlight this month is on Jim Churchill, Project and Site Manager at Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa. He has been working with the Sonoma County Office of Education CTE department for the past 3 years. During that time, he has hosted several teams of teachers from Sonoma County high schools and juniors highs durin g their summer externships, which have provided an opportunity for teachers to observe some of the math and science skills from their curriculum being applied in a real-life business setting, as well as witnessing the "soft skills" required to be a successful employee i n a workplace.


Keysight is committed to developing a partnership with public schools, helping to support the workforce of the future by providing opportunities for teachers and students alike. Beyond the summer externships, Jim Churchill and other employees from Keysight offer their expertise to student projects and consultants and evaluators. The Keysight product development process emphasizes the need for collaboration and documentation as requirements to be successful in a competitive engineering and science-based economy. Students learn to maintain a detailed account of their preliminary ideas and elements that will form the basis of a high-quality project. They understand the need for research and development and risk management before diving into a project.

In collaboration with Keysight Technologies, teachers and students alike can enhance their ability to collaborate, solve problems and think critically in a competitive world economy, as they utilize work-based learning as a truly effective strategy in a successful well-rounded curriculum.

Article by David Casey, Pathway Coach in the Sonoma County Office of Education's CTESS Department

Upcoming Events

Marin County
April 21: COM High School Counselor Conference, noon, IVC
April 22: COM Marinovators, 10 am, Kentfield Campus
June 12-16: COM Game Development Academy, IVC
June 12-16: COM Career Exploration Academy, IVC
June 19-22 & 26-29: COM Intro to Health Occupations, IVC
June 23 & 26-30: COM Solar Energy Academy, IVC

Mendocino County
April 21: Adult Education Pathway Mapping
April 28-29 Mendocino College Ag Dept. Plant Sale

Solano County
May 3: Kimberly Bryant: Black Girls Code: Inclusive Strategies for    Girls and Women of Color in STEAM Careers (Free)  pm
   Hogan  MS Auditorium at  850 Rosewood Ave, Vallejo
June 12-16, 19: Solano CC Solar Energy Academy

Sonoma County
April 28: EDB Breakfast featuring K-12 and Postsecondary CTE 
   Doubletree Hotel, Rohnert Park

Would you like your NCCPA-related events on this list? Email Sarah Wilmarth, swilmarth@scoe.org.

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