Spring/Summer 2022 Newsletter
Sometimes we use the metric of months of the year to help us plan and gauge our progress. By this metric, we are approaching the halfway point in the year. On the academic side, many schools and colleges are approaching the end of the school year. It is the formal conclusion of high school or college for many students. However, for those who deliver technical training and expertise, it is actually the beginning of a phase of planning and improving the instruction delivered in the past. It involves setting a higher bar for your institution, program, and enrolled learners.
Anyone who has been involved in education since 2019 knows that the past two years have required significant transition. This is due in part to the pandemic. Those involved in career and technical education (CTE) have had to innovate new methods of online instructional delivery and although some students thrived in this environment, others did not. Nonetheless, many of these new innovations in teaching and learning are here to stay. We need to incorporate them as part of the CTE educator’s toolbox. As you begin this planning phase, I would like to mention a few helpful resources available through NOCTI.
One standard included in ACTE’s “High-Quality CTE Framework” focuses on ”Prepared and Effective Program Staff,” and part of this standard involves evidence-based skills and knowledge. NOCTI believes a great teacher is a reflective teacher, but unless “evidence” exists, there is little to reflect on. NOCTI offers a suite of standardized reports to help you plan and improve! NOCTI’s group score report provides feedback on nationally accepted standards for each participant, can assist with analyzing a group’s performance, and help in identifying potential program improvement areas. It includes information on each learner as well as the class as a whole. Analyzing multiple years of this report can provide relevant longitudinal instructional details.
Another helpful report is the “Analysis of Scores” report, which allows the instructional leader to compare results to similar groups, states, and the national averages. This report also provides information on how a group of learners performed compared to industry expectations.
The last reporting tool that I’d like to highlight is our “Competency Analysis” report. In this report, you can view standard and competency data on every learner enrolled in your program that has completed a NOCTI credential. Essentially, the report condenses all the learners who have gone through your program and places them in a single group. This report removes variables that may categorize students into a best/worst class scenario and provides an accurate picture of learners’ technical strengths and weaknesses over a more extended timeframe.
Now you know what your learners have done in the past, how do you get a sense of the new group coming in? What is their current understanding of the program’s content? A great way to find out is by assessing these skills with an industry-validated pre-test. A pre-test provides a starting point for each of your learners and as a group.
We’d also like to mention one of our newest learning tools — Micro-Credentials! Micro-Credentials are based on nationally validated, industry-based standards and competencies and are assembled by CTE teachers with vetted industry experience. Micro-Credentials can serve as learning aids, formative assessments, knowledge checks, validation of competence, or as a means of exploring a particular occupation. Most importantly, micro-credentials help learners earn recognition for obtaining technical knowledge and skills. After a baseline is determined, these discrete units of instruction can help your learners get to the finish line more quickly! NOCTI has well over 200 videos that are accessible through this great program!
By the time we talk again, the 2022-23 CTE year will be underway. We hope you will reflect, diagnose, and prescribe a plan that continues to move your learners, your institution, and CTE itself forward. Have a great summer!
John Foster