Volume 7                                  January 27, 2009                              Number 9

Special Topics | CTE In the NEWS | CTSO Related | Updates: Credentialing, CTA, VE-135

     ***Click here for the latest information on 2008 CTA Closeout***

Special Topics

Colorado Succeeds is leading an effort by Colorado’s employer community to articulate a vision for quality schools that build a highly-skilled homegrown workforce. A high quality workforce will support business success, and lead to a higher standard of living for the State’s residents.

Through this online survey, we are asking employers, educators and other interested community members to give input to the key design elements and related success factors that we have discovered through a review of education research, supported by site visits to excellent high schools throughout the nation.

The five key Design Elements are:

1. Student-centered focus
2. Relevant and rigorous real-world connections
3. A portfolio of interest-based and career-themed pathways
4. Personalized planning for postsecondary and careers
5. Accountability for continuous improvement

Please click on the link below to participate in the survey before January 30. It should take only 15 minutes and your feedback is critical to ensuring our work will help prepare Colorado students succeed in a competitive global economy. http://www.surveyconsole.com/console/TakeSurvey?id=533942

**Letter from Commissioner Dwight Jones and Executive Director David Skaggs**

Colorado faces a great challenge and opportunity to make its system of public education – from pre-school through college – more successful and productive. We hope you will be able to participate in an important meeting in Denver on January 27, 2009, to help us meet the challenge and seize the opportunity.

The “Preschool to Postsecondary Alignment Act” (sometimes called the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids, or CAP4K) was enacted this year with ambitious goals. It requires the leadership of Colorado’s P-12 schools and its postsecondary institutions to establish a workable pathway from preschool into college or the workplace. Essential to that pathway is an understanding of what it means to be postsecondary and workforce ready and, with that in mind, to ensure that students not only take certain courses but actually master the content. If Colorado successfully implements this legislation, we will lead the nation in preparing our children to be successful and competitive in the global economy.

Because the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and the Colorado Department of Higher Education (DHE) must work together for CAP4K to succeed, we are jointly holding the meeting on January 27 to get input and advice from community leaders such as you. Under CAP4K, CDE and DHE are required to jointly develop an agreed-upon description of “postsecondary and workforce readiness” by December 2009. The description in turn will be the basis for the standards for school districts to meet and for the tools to assess whether the standards have been met. In short, the description we come up with over the next 12 months will guide education in this state for the foreseeable future.

The meeting January 27 is one of a series of town hall style meetings we are convening around the state to hear the views of educators, students, parents, business people, community leaders and interested citizens on what goes into being postsecondary and workforce ready. What skills and competencies do students need to be workforce ready? What skills and competencies do students need to be postsecondary ready? Are there special considerations for the workforce or higher education in your region of the state?

To help answer these questions, please attend the meeting on January 27th at the Tivoli Student Union, Turnhalle Ballroom, 900 Auraria Parkway, in Denver, from 5:00 to 7:00 in the evening with key senior staff from our two departments. Directions to the Tivoli Student Union and a map of campus parking options are attached for your reference. Light refreshments will be provided before the meeting.

Free Facilitating Available

Are you starting to think about what to do with next year’s Perkins funds? Not sure where to start the planning? Looking for a fair way to address everyone’s needs? Want to get the planning done early? Need help?

Our online Administrators’ Handbook may be a place to start! Go to http://www.coloradostateplan.com/admin_handbook.htm and click open the PDF for Section V, Part C, Perkins. Click on the binoculars icon and where it asks what word or phrase would you like to search for, type “strategic planning.” Then click the SEARCH button.

The first page that has that phrase on it will appear on the right side of your screen. Also, in the Search area, below the Results, there will be options to select other pages that include that phrase. Hold your mouse over each of those options until you see the one that says “Page 16,” then click on that choice. The next six pages that appear on the right side of your screen provide a guide, resources, and formats that can be used for strategically planning the use of your Perkins funds.

If you would like Lorrie Toni, Perkins Director, to come to your site to help facilitate this process, please feel free to contact her to schedule a date. Lorrie will try to keep most Fridays open for this purpose but other days may also be available. Lorrie can be reached at 303-595-1565 or lorrie.toni@cccs.edu.

Colorado Symposium on Emergency Care

CACTE Awards

It's time to begin thinking about nominating for CACTE awards. We are encouraging you to submit nominations early as they are due on April 1, 2009. The nomination categories are:

• Career & Technical Education Teacher of the Year
• Outstanding Career & Technical Education Educator
• Outstanding New Career & Technical Education Teacher
• Outstanding Service by a Member
• Merit Award to a Friend
• Merit Award to an Educator
• Merit Award to a Communications/Media Representative
• Merit Award to an Advisory Committee or Member of an Advisory Committee
• Hall of Fame

For more information, go to www.cacte.org and click on "Awards" on the left-hand side of the screen.

Get aHead for Business High School Entrepreneurship Inservice

The Young Americans Center for Financial Education is hosting two mid-winter in-services for the FREE Get aHead for Business (GaFB) high school entrepreneurship program that is sponsored by Oppenheimer Funds. Starting a Business 101 and Running a Business 201 will be featured. Existing GaFB teachers will receive the new economics supplement book, new assessments per unit, the crosswalk with business and marketing standards and information on how students can gain 3 community college credits in Entrepreneurial Operations. GaFB is also being implemented in Catering and ProStart programs.

If you are not a GaFB teacher, you may join us to learn more about it. You will need to RSVP to Mary Stecklein at msteckle@comcast.net. If you have questions, you may call her at 720-373-0108. In-service dates are March 6th in Grand Junction (place TBD) and April 10th in the President's Conference Room at Johnson & Wales.

CTE in the News

FFA State Officers go to China

January 14, 2009: Read the story from the perspective of the FFA State President, Elisa Sagehorn, reported in the Holyoke Enterprise.

Did you KNOW?

A video you all should watch if you haven’t already- to give you some ideas on why CTE is more relevant than ever. YouTube link or

CTSO Related

Judges Needed for 2009 DECA State Leadership Conference

Over the past years you have given of your time to make our CTSO’s successful.  Once again this year we are asking you for the gift of time.  Colorado DECA will be holding its annual State Leadership Conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs on February 22-24, 2009.  We are in need of judges on February 23 from 7:00am to approximately 3:30 pm in the afternoon.  Colorado DECA will cover your parking and provide you with a wonderful Broadmoor continental breakfast and lunch.  To join us, we ask you to register at our new website www.decajudge.org  If you have judged for DECA in the past, you will still need to register.  The judges registration website has changed.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me, Everett Vaughan, 303-595- 1576.

Thank you in advance.

Judges Needed for 2009 FCCLA State Leadership Conference and Food Events Competition

Want a positive shot in the arm? Be our hero and be a competitive event judge on April 3, 2009. FCCLA State Conference competitive events will be held at the Denver Tech Marriott and the Food Events Competition is hosted at Johnson & Wales, both on Friday, April 3, 2009. Students from chapters across Colorado will compete in 30 different events, ranging from Job Interview and Career Investigation to Culinary Arts and Interior Design. To take a look at the list of events and to sign up, go to the Colorado Family, Career and Community Leaders of America website: http://www.fccla.cccs.edu/08-09_documents/Jan30judges_form_only.doc

UPDATES: Credentialing, CTA, and VE-135

CTA (formally known as CVA)

The new CTA (Career and Technical Act) is in effect for FY 2009.

Over the last few weeks, CCCS has received numerous inquiries and questions regarding the close out of 2008 Colorado Vocational Act (CVA) activity (this program is currently referred to as the Career and Technical Act (CTA) grant.  Most of these questions surrounded the invoicing of a number of 2008 CVA recipients for overpayments made to those recipients during the 2008 funding period.  As a result, we have determined additional clarification is needed regarding the changes in the process being used to close out Fiscal Year 2008 funding.  We are in the process of drafting a letter of explanation and updates which will be sent to each district shortly.  However, additional information is available in the Administrators handbook http://www.coloradostateplan.com/admin_handbook.htm and in the updated rules and regulations effective August 6, 2008: http://www.coloradostateplan.com/CVAindex.htm.  If you have questions after receiving the letter, please feel free to call to set up an appointment to review the process and answer your questions. Thank you for your patience as we work through the changes.

***2008-2009 VE-135/VE-130 Reporting Announcements***

There are significant reporting changes for the 2008-2009 year that will affect how you are required to collect and submit the VE-135 enrollment and follow-up.  
You are strongly encouraged to review the VE-135 and VE-130 collection and submission procedures for 2008-2009 in the PDF document listed under “Section VI - Data Reporting” of the CCCS Administrators’ Handbook on the state plan website at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/admin_handbook.htm.  We also recommend that you watch the CTE Trends e-newsletter for VE-135 announcements throughout the reporting year.

CCCS is required by law to collect the VE-135 follow-up and enrollment data each year in order to comply with the accountability requirements set forth by both the state-funded Career Technical Act (CTA) and the federally-funded Carl D. Perkins Act.  You must report the VE-135 data even if you do NOT receive state or federal funding for your approved CTE programs because the data is used in the program renewal process.

The VE-135 submission deadlines have changed for the 2008-2009 academic year and are as follows:

• Follow-up deadline-March 15, 2009
• Enrollment deadline-July 30, 2009

The VE-135 data will NOT be accepted after the deadline has passed unless your institution has been granted an official extension for extenuating circumstances from CCCS for either the enrollment or the follow-up.

Important changes to the follow-up for this year include:

• Follow-up surveys should not begin until December 15, 2008.
• Placement questions now are specific to student outcomes between the time period of October 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008 only.
• Follow-up questions have changed for this year.  Questions for secondary and postsecondary are now the same. Placement criteria have been redefined and there are now new questions pertaining to apprenticeships and technical skills assessments.

Important changes to the enrollment for this year include:

• There are both new and redefined secondary and postsecondary fields in the enrollment for 2008-2009 that are critical to defining CTE student populations.
• Definitions regarding enrollment and completion have changed.  You will also be reporting concentration status for all students.

The VE-130 active teacher data is still required from all institutions with active CTE programs. CCCS program directors’ strongly encourage all institutions to report this data completely so that important CTE correspondence reaches all instructors.

The VE-135/VE-130 data collection site at https://ve135.cccs.edu/login.aspx will be undergoing extensive redesign this year in order to meet the changing reporting requirements for 08-09.  Sections of the website will be launched in phases as they are developed.  Phase I and II have been launched and when you go to the website you will be able to update your VE-130 Active Teachers and retrieve your VE-135 Follow-up completer lists, and submit your follow-up survey data either by data file upload or by single student entry.

Contact Julie Eddy, CTE Accountability Director by email at julie.eddy@cccs.edu or by phone at 303-595-1527 with any CTE data reporting questions or comments.

Thank you for your continued cooperation as we work toward documenting our successes in career and technical education in Colorado.

Valuable CTE Websites

This is issue #707 of CTE Trends. The next issue will be released February 10, 2009.

Scheduled publication dates: Feb. 10, 24; Mar. 10, 24; Apr. 7, 21; May 5, 19

Distributed to more than a 1,000 CTE educators and administrators throughout Colorado, CTE Trends is made possible through The Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 federal funding as administered by the Colorado Community College System.

Editor:          Victoria Ekelund