How many of you feel like you have effective evaluation policies and approaches for your State CTE Program?
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
For me, this question is always at the forefront.
HOW DO I KNOW?
Do I have a high-quality state CTE program?
Are my identified key stakeholders benefiting from my program and how?
Ultimately, is my state CTE program accomplishing what it should be?
How DoYou Know?
To think about this more fully, do you agree with this statement: Simply having a process in place to develop and establish a state CTE program does not translate automatically to having and promoting a high-quality state CTE program. (Show of Hands)
The Rub is:
To what degree - and can be verified - and by how - is the “level of” a state’s CTE program and its components in terms of:
Quality - Relevance - Alignment
Central to the success of any substantive state CTE program is confirming that it is achieving its purpose and that it is remaining relevant to the needs and priorities of the state.
If this is the case, then questions that should always be swirling around you as you lead, execute, and drive your state efforts are:
- Is my program achieving the desired results?
- Is every student’s education and experiences robust and meaningful and aligned with what industry identifies as essential for hiring and advancement?
- Are my educators utilizing course standards and programs of study in the manner intended?
- Do I see positive trends not only in my student achievement scores, growth measures, and attainment rates, but also in where and how my students are leaving with their credentials and landing aligned jobs?
There are other questions that we could add to this, but the message that I want to convey here is that no one can answer these questions
with a “one-and-done” program evaluation.
An ongoing evaluative process must be embedded into the overall operations of the state CTE program.
To answer these broader questions, and institute a meaningful evaluative approach, I want to posit the following – that a state must first identify and answer these simple process questions:
- What should be evaluated and why?
You do not want to evaluate without purpose.
- Which methodological approaches are best suited to answer your questions? This gets back to evaluate with purpose.
- Which stakeholders should play key roles and in what form?
- How often should various program elements be evaluated?
- What data and information are needed?
- How will the data be collected? And is it a reliable collection process, or does it involve non-verified, self-reported data?
And when we are talking program evaluation, we must include instruction.
- How do you know your educators are strong instructors – when it comes to academic, technical, employability skills development?
- How do you know they are current with industry work environments? And that they are employing this knowledge in the classroom?
Recognizing that there is a myriad of evaluative approaches that can be employed, a state should seek out the right approach for each identified component.
Just with the identification and development of a state CTE plan that reflects the priorities of the state, the same approach should be utilized when it comes to evaluating the state plan.
Ultimately, all utilized approaches must be intentional and must determine whether or not the state CTE program reflects the state’s larger vision.
In the end, I believe a high-quality state CTE program is one that remains agile in an everchanging, dynamic environment.