New Skills ready network Quarterly Newsletter |
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This is a quarterly stakeholder newsletter for the New Skills ready network. It provides updates and celebrations from the six sites involved in the network: Boston, Massachusetts; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Nashville, Tennessee.
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Over the past year, the six New Skills ready network sites capitalized on the opportunity to collaborate with one another through a variety of different channels. While the COVID-19 pandemic has limited in-person networking, expanded virtual capabilities provided connection opportunities beyond what was once thought possible, through the fall and spring convenings, ad hoc information sharing and, most recently, affinity groups.
As part of the fall and spring convenings, Education Strategy Group (ESG) and Advance CTE intentionally provided opportunities for cross-site collaboration and information sharing through key presentations and role-alike sessions, where New Skills ready network members could interact with peers with similar roles at other sites. At the fall convening, sites shared three “Big Bets” to tee off progress for the coming year; role-alike sessions followed, allowing site partners to share role-specific challenges and needs with one another and build connections. At the spring convening, this type of peer-to-peer sharing continued with a gallery walk of progress and barriers for each site and another role-alike session (complete with a trivia game!). The spring convening also saw more formal presentations on pathways design from site partners, including on the role of four-year institutions from partners in Columbus and Denver and how to utilize labor market information effectively from partners in Boston and Dallas, among others. This type of formal and informal sharing will only continue to expand during the next convening, which will be next month.
Cross-site sharing also has happened during monthly leadership meetings as sites continue to network and gain expertise from one another. For example, at various points in the year, the Indianapolis leadership team brought in partners from other sites to share lessons learned, informing decision-making for the year to come- members from the Dallas project team shared information about their data systems, Denver helped inform conversations around pathways review, and Columbus (including team members from the Ohio Department of Education) shared information about Ohio’s equity labs embedded in their Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) plans. This more ad hoc sharing of information strongly contributed to progress made and will continue to support progress for Year 2.
Finally, partners from each site are participating in two separate affinity groups (data and equity) facilitated by ESG. Building on the role-alike conversations from the convenings, these affinity groups expand into more functional role-alikes with the goal of helping unpack challenges, sharing strategies, exploring and identifying solutions and growing peer relationships across states. The first data affinity group meeting, for example, focused on aligning data to the New Skills ready network needs assessment, identifying key evaluation data metrics and strategies for obtaining missing data points. As part of the conversation kickoff, ESG project lead Heather Justice reiterated, “We want to grow these relationships to the point where you’re reaching out to each other...and connecting with the power of the brain trust again.”
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New Skills Sites in the News |
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New Skills ready network communities continue to make news for their efforts to strengthen college and career readiness. Links to recent articles are below:
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The New Skills ready network sites continue to move forward on four major priority objectives: strengthening the alignment and rigor of career pathways, designing, implementing and scaling real-world work experiences, building seamless transitions to support postsecondary success and closing equity gaps. The big accomplishments within those objectives from the past quarter are listed below:
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College and career advising: The Boston team will focus on college and career advising this year focusing last month on reviewing and outlining current advising efforts in grades 7-16. There is significant momentum in Boston Public Schools around advising, primarily through MyCAP implementation. Boston will leverage this momentum to outline a more cohesive and holistic advising experience for students from secondary through postsecondary.
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Pathway development: The four selected BPS high schools began pathways planning work at the end of June and will continue their planning work throughout the school year. All schools have secured state planning grants, a key milestone towards designation as Massachusetts Innovation Pathway.
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Work-Based Learning: Boston secondary students have broad access to high quality work-based learning & internship experiences (virtual, in-person & hybrid) during the summer. The Boston team will host two student focus groups with participants to learn more about their experiences and to explore issues of cultural wealth and equity.
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Pathways Review: The Columbus Equitable Pathways work group reviewed eight Columbus City Schools programs, seven Columbus State Community College programs, and seven Ohio State University programs against healthcare pathway criteria to help identify strengths and opportunities for growth and improvement.
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Equity Lens: Columbus New Skills Ready Network established Equity Lens Questions for the initiative. The questions are to be used to center equity in what and how the initiative plans, implements, and reviews the work.
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Stakeholder Focus Groups: Warhol and Wall Street, the communications vendor for the Columbus initiative, is assisting the Communications work group in elevating the voice of stakeholders. Warhol and Wall Street conducted focus groups this summer with Columbus City high school students; counselors and community and career resource coordinators; administrators; and middle school students to inform messaging strategies about career pathways.
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Middle School Career Exploration: The Dallas team has started the development of curriculum for a pilot project launching Spring 2022 that tests ideas surrounding delivery models, including when and where the curriculum will be delivered during the school day, the professional skills/training of the person leading the curriculum, etc. The team has also started to outline learning outcomes and success metrics.
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IT Pathway: The postsecondary curriculum work with Dallas College was briefly paused as an assessment of the first round of feedback received from employers on high demand IT jobs was reviewed. The team learned that the number of IT related jobs had exponentially grown, and the rapid growth had left employers without a clear roadmap for the skills needed for many positions. The team decided to proceed with further, in-depth work with employers to ensure the curriculum developed was as up-to-date as possible.
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Virtual Internships: At the conclusion of the summer internship program feedback sessions were conducted with employers on what worked and what could be improved. The team has begun recruiting new employers to participate with secondary and postsecondary partners and has started identifying goals for the next internship season.
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Data Framework: DEAN partners have adopted a pathways data framework that will provide decision-makers with the information they need to implement, improve and understand the impact of pathways on educational and workforce outcomes. DEAN has developed a model data sharing agreement and is working with partners to approve and sign this fall. The end result will allow for tracking pathways enrollment, transfer across partners, key momentum points and outcomes.
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Work-Based Learning: College Credit for Work Experience: Recent legislation (HB20-1002) requires Colorado’s higher education institutions to accept transfer credit for previous work experience. DEAN’s work in this space has been recognized as a possible model for other institutions across the state. Specifically, the Community College of Denver and Denver Public Schools have been working closely to develop academic maps that integrate industry certifications for credit along pathways.
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Partnership Building: The ICAP (Individual Career and Academic Plan) pilot, which launched in July, is designed to explore how the sharing of key student data from high school with postsecondary partners can increase the effectiveness of academic advising for students in their first semester of college. The ICAP pilot is also an example of a key collaboration between the Colorado Department of Education and DEAN, creating a model for how regions can effectively implement good policy.
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Postsecondary Pathways Coach in Secondary Schools: Ivy Tech has hired a new pathways coach who will provide targeted, on-site support to IPS students enrolled in CTE pathways and help build connections between IPS and Ivy Tech instructors to strengthen dual-credit courses. Additionally the coach will develop four regularly scheduled small-group sessions for students throughout the year and coordinate two student career workshops with Ivy Tech.
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Postsecondary First Destination Survey: Ivy Tech released their first Launch Survey in June 2021 which captures information on new college graduates. Moreover, the survey collects key demographic information from students and graduates, helping to determine outcomes for special populations and inform Ivy Tech of critical equity gaps. With the Launch Survey, Ivy Tech and IUPUI are now collecting similar placement metrics, enabling a comprehensive view of Marion County postsecondary students and graduates.
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Equity Labs: The Governor’s Workforce Cabinet organized and facilitated the state’s first pilot Equity Lab, modeled after the Ohio Office of CTE Equity Labs. The Indiana pilot was implemented in July 2021 with Indianapolis K-12 districts, additional Equity Labs will be implemented across the state beginning September 2021. Moving forward GWC will be including Equity Lab activities into the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) process, expanding the Labs to some postsecondary partners as well.
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Equity training: Continuing Nashville’s commitment to building a shared understanding of equity and systemic racism’s two additional workshops have been scheduled with the Racial Equity Institute (REI). Seventy education and community stakeholders will participate in REI’s two-day Phase I training that is designed to develop the capacity of participants to understand racism in its institutional and structural forms.
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Collaboration: Six work teams have been formed to expand the number of stakeholders working on key action items and accelerate implementation. All work teams will participate in Systemness* training over the next eight months to build “collaborative muscle”.
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Pathways support: New positions have been added to serve the New Skills sites four College & Career Coaches in the designated high schools as well as a Work-based Learning Coordinator and a College & Career Coach at Nashville State Community College.
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Remember that Advance CTE is always available to provide research on topics your New Skills ready network teams are working on.
To submit a research request please fill out this form.
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New Resources and Publications |
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Check out the latest resources from Advance CTE and Education Strategy Group and additional partners:
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