Note from the EDITOR

There will be no CTE Trends on April 7, 2009 as originally scheduled. The regularly scheduled editions will begin again on April 21st.  Please note that individuals can submit items for consideration for inclusion in CTE Trends by sending them to victoria.ekelund@cccs.edu.

 

Math in CTE:

In an effort to expand the positive impact of the Math in CTE project in Colorado, CCCS is announcing an expansion of financial support for additional projects for the 2009-2010 fiscal year to $60,000. Districts, consortia and other eligible agencies are encouraged to respond to the RFP available at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/NewsNote/ or via email by contacting Ben Nesbitt, Program Director for Skilled Trades and Technical Sciences, at ben.nesbitt@cccs.edu.

 

Changes to Articulation Requirements for Program Approval:

With the Perkins reauthorization of 2006, the Act put in place the following definition of Articulation Agreement:

ARTICULATION AGREEMENT.—The term ‘articulation agreement’ means a written commitment—

(A) that is agreed upon at the State level or approved annually by the lead administrators of—

(i) a secondary institution and a postsecondary educational institution; or

(ii) a subbaccalaureate degree granting postsecondary educational institution and a baccalaureate degree granting postsecondary educational institution; and

(B) to a program that is:

(i) designed to provide students with a nonduplicative sequence of progressive achievement leading to technical skill proficiency, a credential, a certificate, or a degree; and

(ii) linked through credit transfer agreements between the 2 institutions described in clause (i) or (ii) of subparagraph (A) (as the case may be).

Based on the underlined statement above, CCCS found it necessary to adjust past practices related to the articulation section of the program approval process.  Previously, articulation agreements were accepted for secondary program approvals, regardless of the date of the agreement.  Program Directors will check the Articulation Agreement date and request that a revised date be included if the date is previous to the prior academic year.

In addition, CCCS is establishing a process through which the Program Directors to review and annually approve and post statewide agreements.

Contact Scott Stump, Dean of Career & Technical Education at scott.stump@cccs.edu with questions.

 

 

Excellence in Career & Technical Education
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Symposium 9:00 am- 11:00 am
Awards Luncheon 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Arvada Centerfor the Arts and Humanities

Two special guests will participate in this event: Governor Ritter has been invited to speak on the P-20 Initiative and assist with the awards ceremony. The Asian Pacific Development Center will host Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the Washington D.C. school district. Ms. Rhee has received national recognition for her school reform efforts. Her keynote speech will focus on educational reform and the role of business and industry.

Exemplary CTE programs have been established throughout the state of Colorado. The “Excellence in CTE” Award celebrates local creativity and innovation. Up to eight CTE programs will be recognized, one from each of the following CACTE Divisions:

• Agricultural Education
• Business Education
• Family & Consumer Sciences
• Health
• Marketing Education
• Special Needs (ACE-Alternative Cooperative Education)
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer & Mathematics)
• Technology & Industry

In addition, up to eight outstanding students (one from each of the following career and technical student organizations) will be recognized:

• Family Career and Community Leaders of America
• Future Business Leaders of America
• FFA
• DECA
• Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA)
• Postsecondary Business Leaders of America (PBLA)
• Skills USA
• TSA

CACTE and Asian Pacific Development Center encourage you and your district to participate in the Excellence in Career & Technical Education awards. The awards nomination form can be found on the CACTE website: http://www.cacte.org/.

For more information about this outstanding opportunity for all stakeholders in education, contact Katy Blatnick-Gagné, CACTE President-Elect at katy.blatnick-gagne@cccs.edu or (720) 858-2713 or John Chin, Asian Pacific Development Center at john.chin@apdc.org or (303) 365 2959 ext. 102.

 

2009 Regional Monitoring Workshops

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) will host Regional CTE Monitoring Workshops this spring at Trinidad State Junior College, Morgan Community College and the Community College of Aurora.  The purpose of the workshops is to provide an opportunity for secondary and post-secondary CTE administrators, school administers and school fiscal and procurement management staff to learn about the monitoring process, procedures, guidelines and expectations for federal compliance with the Carl D. Perkins Act and Title VI, IX and Section 504 (MOA) – Civil Rights.

Preliminary agendas for the workshops can be found at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/index.htm.  If you’d like to attend, please register online at http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?492796.  Registration is free of charge, but space is limited so register early!

Workshop Schedule: (10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.)

Fort Morgan, Morgan Community College	Friday, April 17, 2009
Aurora, Community College of Aurora	Friday, May 15, 2009

Florence High School’s Welding Program

The Florence High School welding program has succeeded in providing students a safe, encouraging environment to explore their interests. By highlighting a variety of welding techniques and applications, it exposes students to the multitude of career possibilities in welding and manufacturing in general. In a country where manufacturers are facing increasing work shortages, such exposure at the high school level is invaluable. See the article highlighting this program in the online Modern Metals magazine.

JUDGES NEEDED for upcoming State Conferences

Judges Needed for TSA NATIONAL Conference to be held in Denver

The 2009 National TSA Conference will be held in Denver, CO, June 28-July 2, 2009, at the Sheraton Denver Downtown (formerly the Adams Mark). More than 5,000 students from all over the USA are expected to attend this annual event.

For the national conference, TSA will need more than 250 judges to judge leadership and skills-based events. If you or someone you know is interested in judging for TSA this summer, please contact Tony Raymond, Colorado TSA State Advisor, at (720) 858-2794, or at tony.raymond@cccs.edu.

2009 CTA Training Schedule

CCCS staff will conduct interactive trainings for teachers and administrators across the state this spring to address CTA Final Financial Reporting. The three-hour trainings will be held in March, April and May (see below). Online registration is required. To register, go to http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?443041. Please refer questions to Pat Sagrillo at 303-595-1568.

2009 Date	Time	City	Location
March 12	9 am-Noon	Denver	Colorado Community College System, 9101 E. Lowry Blvd, Denver
March 20	9 am-Noon	Ft. Collins	Front Range Community College, 4616 S. Shields St., Fort Collins
March 27	10 am-1 pm	Sterling	Northeastern Junior College, 100 College Ave., Sterling
April 2	9 am-Noon	La Junta	Otero Junior College, 1802 Colorado Ave., La Junta
April 3	9 am-Noon	Pueblo	Pueblo Community College, 900 W. Orman Ave., Pueblo
CANCELLED	9 am-Noon	Craig	Colorado Northwestern Community College, 50 College Drive, Craig
April 17	9 am-Noon	Grand Junction	Western Colorado Community College, 2508 Blichmann Ave.
May 6	9 am-Noon	Alamosa	Trinidad State Junior College, 1011 Street, Alamosa
May 7	9 am-Noon	Mancos	San Juan Basin Technical College, 33057 Highway 16, Mancos

 

CTA (formally known as CVA)

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

If your district received an invoice for a fiscal year 2005 audit adjustment, please submit payment to CCCS.

There has been some confusion about 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.  Due to a number of factors that impact the final closeout of FY08 CVA funds, CCCS will be recalculating the final closeout. After February 16, 2009 the 2008 CVA numbers will be re-run and new invoices will be mailed to recipients. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.

The close out for 2009 will be due September 1, 2009. Training dates will be posted online at http://www.coloradostateplan.com/CVAschedule.htm once locations are determined. Please refer to the Administrators Handbook CTA portion or contact us if you have any questions about upcoming CTA reporting.

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-Extended to April 30, 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, 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">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.