Nontraditional Careers Educator’s Forum

1. Nontraditional Careers Educator’s Forum October 7, 2009 San Diego, CA

2. Welcome • Housekeeping • Restrooms • Cell phones – silent, feel free to step out into the hall for important “can’t miss” calls • Substitute Reimbursements • Form is in your packet, for questions, please see me or email Valerie at vhesson@sdcoe.net • Only 60 days to complete form and send it to SD COE (sooner is better)

3. Startling Statements • There is a number on the top of your page – answer that question FIRST… • You can do the rest if you want to… • Find three (3) people you DON’T know and ask them to ‘fill in the blank’ • Add them all together and divide by 3 (or four if you included your own guess) to get a • Median score • High score • Low score • Your score? Thoughts?

4. NonTraditional Careers Statewide Leadership Project • Valerie Hesson, Project Director, San Diego COE ROP • 858-571-7243 • vhesson@sdcoe.net • Elizabeth Wallner, Project Consultant • 916-455-4643 • eawallner@comcast.net

5. Nontraditional Careers Educator’s Forum • Project Origins • Realization that NT educators faced barriers too • Survey (2006) • Objectives • Enhance CTE • Increase NT participation • Support NT educators • Activities • Forums • Workshops • Website – www.nontrad.info www.fightthetype.org • Marketing Materials

6. Perkins Special Populations • Single Parents, inc. teen parents • Displaced Homemakers • Disabled • ESL/ELL/LEP • Migrant workers (children of…) • Economically Disadvantaged • Foster Youth • Nontraditional – the Way OUT!

7. Barriers Faced by Students • Institutional/Practical • Financial • Childcare • Housing • Internal • Role models, self efficacy • Stereo-type threat • Fear

8. Barriers Faced by Educators • Program Closure • Lack of access • Campus Isolation • Industry ‘outsider’ • Lack of professional development opportunities • Others??? • WHAT CAN WE DO? • HOW CAN WE HELP?

10. Why do We Focus on Nontraditional? • Approximately twice as many female headed households are in poverty as opposed to male headed households • 6%  17% Asian 16%  39% Hispanic • 27 % 39% Black 12%  26% White • http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/detailedpovtabs.html • Gender is not a good predictor of academic skills, interests, or emotional characteristics • http://www.napequity.org/pdf/Stereo.pdf, NAPE • Women have a 90% chance of becoming sole support of themselves and/or their family at some time in their lives • www.jspac.org

11. Root Causes & Influences • Role models/mentors: • Role models: At a distance - online, business, teachers, graduates… • Mentors: Higher up the ladder of success, an authority, effective in their life, genuine interest in mentees success, willing to commit time & emotion (www.diversityweb.org/ ) • Early exposure: can happen at any time! • Self-efficacy: Women underestimate their abilities, including their ability to learn and their verbal and spatial (and visual) skills and aptitudes (http://www.3smartcubes.com) • Occupational Choice: • Encourage the participation of students in NT classes, mentoring, job shadowing, tutoring, career days • Insure that career guidance and practices are gender balanced, ethnically diverse, ability focused (www.napequity.org )

12. More Root Causes & Influences • Instructional Strategies, Curriculum Materials, School/Classroom Climate: Evaluate! • Achieving Gender Equity: Strategies for the Classroom , Dianne D. Horgan • Achieving Diversity: The Sociopolitical Concept of Multicultural Education by Sonia Nieto • Recruit in groups, develop support groups • Nontraditional (NT) newsletter, address harassment issues, address barriers, professional development for all staff • Market programs • Role models (gender, disabled & culturally diverse) • Photos of former nontraditional students • Invitations to nontraditional classes • Support Services - Use data to select student support services

13. Schools: Creating Solutions 5-Step Program Improvement Process

14. Caution… • Sometimes data can surprise you • If its too good to be true ask: • Are you missing something • Is the data incorrect

15. Step 1: Document Performance Gaps Understand the problem completely before you seek solutions! Accountability measures have meaning when the data is used for program improvement (Page 143 -144)

16. What are You Looking for? • Over/under representation • 75%/25% gender rule • Any career that has less than 25% of any gender makes a program nontraditional • +/- 10% rule ethnicity rule • 10% difference in program enrollment versus LEA representation may indicate a recruitment or counseling bias • What do the data indicate? • Can you trust the data? • Concerns? • Timing of measurement? • Reliability? • Coverage? • What else is needed?

17. Cluster: Health Services, Title: Med. Office Svcs. • Male students 72 • Female students 957 • Male Completers 43 • Female Completers 566   • Male Completers 60% • Female Completers 59% • Econ. Disadvantaged 691 • Nontraditional 72 • Disabled 78 • Single Parents 93 • Displaced Homemaker 43 • ESL/LEP 20 Annual Mean Salary $36,056 Increase 19% -- 630 jobs in CA annually

18. Cluster: Construction Title: Electricians • Male students 87 • Female students 4 • Male Completers 32 • Female Completers 3 • Male Completers 37% • Female Completers 75% • Econ. Disadvantaged 51 • Nontraditional 4 • Disabled 2 • Single Parents 1 • Displaced Homemakers 0 • ESL/LEP/ELL 0 Annual Mean Salary = $54,951 10.2 % change in employment = 2,460 jobs annually

19. Step 2: Identify Root Causes • Ways to search for Root Causes • Brainstorming • Literature review • Analyzing student data • Focus groups • Reviewing program/institutional evaluations & effectiveness reviews • Peer benchmarking • Develop an exhaustive list of Root Causes affecting _____ CTE program • Pick three and analyze them further Don’t Settle for Conventional Wisdom & Symptoms—Never Stop Asking Why

20. Identify Root Causes -- Continued • Identify potential causes • Analyze and evaluate potential causes • Causes within control • Student motivation and engagement • Effective instructional practices • Teacher training/education • School expectations/incentives • Perceived career relevance

21. Identify Root Causes -- Continued Causes outside control • Student transfer/mobility levels • Family income • Parents’ education • School resources • Organize your theory and select most critical root causes Guide for Program Improvement Perkins IV: NT CTE Program Participation and Completion National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity:www.napequity.org

22. Root Causes Career Guidance Materials & Practices Access to & Participation in STEM Instructional Strategies Classroom Climate Self-efficacy Early Exposure Support Services Role Models Student Isolation Based on Gender Curriculum Materials School Climate Student Attitudes Occupational Choice

23. Step 3: Select Effective Solutions • Things to think about in selecting strategies: • Sound theory – does it make sense to all? • Strong evidence – has it worked elsewhere? • Cost and time of testing – can our site afford to test solution! • Resources and support – can we afford the solution? • Stakeholder support – do we all agree?

24. Step 4: Pilot Test and Evaluate Solutions • … create a pilot test and evaluationthat will allow you to assess how well the improvement strategies and models are working. • Choose a study design • Select pilot sites • Select outcome measures • Identify data sources • Grades, surveys, interviews, classroom visits, focus groups, • Train staff Make sure your improvement strategy works somewhere before you attempt to apply it everywhere…

25. Step 5: Implement Solutions • IFthe pilot is successful… • Move from pilot site to sphere of influence • Monitor implementation • Adjust as needed! Don’t say you’ve addressed the problem until you’ve fully implemented solutions and achieved results!

26. CTE/Nontraditional Resources • CA One Stop CTE (Clovis, CA) • http://www.cteonestop.com/ • Architecture • www.cab.ca.gov Recommended Links Careers  Candidate's Handbook • www.aiacc.org Foundation  BEEP • Built Environmental Education Program (BEEP) • This book is designed to be used by architects, teachers and others who want to introduce children to the world of architecture. It includes a series of participatory projects.

27. Nontraditional Career Resources • Society of Women Engineers • http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/ • Crop Science Society of America • https://www.crops.org/ • National Organization for Associate Degree Nursing • https://www.noadn.org/ • American Society for Information Science and Technology • http://www.asis.org/about.html

28. Success for All • Despite economic, academic, and demographic disadvantages, special population students who receive vocational training were able to successfully narrow the earnings and employment gap. • The more education attained, the more stable the employment! • Special population women increased their median annual earnings by 182%, men by 149%. • Special population students increased their year-round employment rates over time and narrowed the gap with non-special population students. • Laurie Harrison, West Hills Community College laurierharrison@gmail.com www.vteabp.org

29. California Department of Education Resources Joint Special Populations Advisory Committee www.jspac.org Career Technical Education http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/ Perkins http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/pk/ CTE-Perkins Consultants List http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/pk/contacts.asp CTE Online http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/gi/cteonline.asp Nontraditional Career Lists for California http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/pk/nontrad.asp

30. CCCCO Online Resources • Joint Special Populations Advisory Committee • www.jspac.org • CCCCO CTE Unit • http://www.cccco.edu/SystemOffice/Divisions/EconDevWorkPrep/CTE/tabid/415/Default.aspx • CCCCO CTE Unit Staff Directory • http://www.cccco.edu/SystemOffice/Divisions/EconDevWorkPrep/CTE/CTEStaff/tabid/493/Default.aspx • CCCCO Economic &Workforce Development Unit • http://www.cccco.edu/SystemOffice/Divisions/EconDevWorkPrep/EWD/tabid/379/Default.aspx • CCCCO Student Services and Special Programs • http://www.cccco.edu/SystemOffice/Divisions/StudentServices/tabid/237/Default.aspx

31. Nontraditional & Special Population Resources • ACTE Promising Program Search • http://www.acteonline.org/promisingprogramsearch.aspx • National Girls Collaborative Project - Advancing the Agenda in Gender Equity for STEM • http://www.pugetsoundcenter.org/ngcp/directory • CA Community College Special Population Collaborative Project • www.cccspecialpopulaitons.org • www.vteabp.org • National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity & STEM Equity Pipeline Project • www.napequity.org • Women Tech Train-the-Trainer Workshops • www.iitts.com

32. Other Online Resources • Tufts University Child and Family Web Guide • http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/category/3.htm •   ACT/SAT   Learning/physical disabilities   • Testing/NCLB   Literacy/reading   • Bilingual education    Mentoring   • School readiness Multicultural ed. • National Center for Learning Disabilities • http://www.ncld.org/content/view/403/456/

33. Education Policy Sites • Public Policy Institute of CA • www.ppic.org • California Postsecondary Education Commission • http://www.cpec.ca.gov/ • Edutopia (George Lucas Educational Foundation) • http://www.edutopia.org/(www.glef.org)