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CAEP Annual Plan: 2020-21 05 Greater Opportunity Through Adult Learning

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2020-21 Produced: Aug 15, 2020, 11:33 PM UTC Faris Sabbah

05 Greater Opportunity Through Adult Learning

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
Our 20-21 Annual Plan is consistent and aligned with GOAL’s 3-Year Plan. The focus for our consortium is on supporting adult education students to advance to employment and/or postsecondary education and on the development of a bridge for transitioning students between the adult education system, college, and/or workforce. COVID-19 has hit our community especially hard. The demographic characteristic of our consortium students represents the most marginalized adults in our County, e.g. no high school diploma, limited English proficiency, low income, low-literacy, and unemployment. Many students have received emergency assistance grants from both private and public sources (e.g. CARES Act,) as well as equipment through partnerships with the college, Google, and other partnerships such as new Chromebook laptop loan system with hotspots soon be added. Wifi signals were boosted into parking lots to expand options for both students and employees to access internet. All consortium partners, adult school, community college, and county office of education will be delivering all instruction online. The reality is that there are limited resources to share with students, e.g. internet connection, devices to access resources. There are a myriad of different professional development and training opportunities being provided to instructors and staff throughout the summer and Fall at all consortium agency partners. Through district and county leadership projects to equity and digital academies and equity and race training. All consortium partners experienced a significant drop in enrollment after COVID-19 across all of our consortia. We are anticipating a significant drop in enrollment for Fall 2020 (compared to 2019). The college interestingly had a 30% increase for the Spring but are seeing a drop in enrollment for the Fall. Programming in correctional facilities will continue through the Fall. While the initial budget cuts (10-13%) proposed by the Governor were restored by the legislature, the budget is clearly not stable and low tax revenues could facilitate legislative action that results in reduced allocations. Our consortium is awning news from CDE on our allocations.The recent devastating racial violence amidst the backdrop of COVID-19 has made more evident the incredible disparities and oppression that many people of color experience on a daily basis. Our consortium is committed to the prioritization of equity and justice and will continue to use data, focus groups, student voice, and engagement with the community to focus on identifying and addressing disparities. Historically, one of the main mechanisms of systemic racism at the college was blocking students, especially minoritized students, from accessing transfer level English and math courses in which they could have been successful. The college has reformed its hiring practices to monitor the diversity of candidates through the process from recruitment, to application, to screening, to interview, to hiring and training committee members on implicit bias. The college also has a new Equity Certificate program for employees conducted by our Director of Equity and plans a series of equity student focus groups every term. In addition, the Board of Trustees recently established a subcommittee to review changing the name of the college away from a historical figure with an overtly racist past toward American Indian communities through the Americas. Providing a high school diploma program in the correctional facilities is intended to create opportunities for our students so that as they reintegrate into the community they are more prepared to enter the workforce or attend community college. We are working to use our WIOA Title II grant funds to work together with our community partners to create pathways and opportunities into college and the workforce. Participate in legislative advocacy for equitable educational practices and protection of education funding. Internal program planning efforts this coming year will also include expanded equity metrics and disaggregation of outcomes to support equity and inclusion in instruction and support services.
Regional Planning Overview
As outlined in our Annual Plan last year (2019-2020), multiple strategies and efforts were conducted to understand the needs of the community and the alignment between the two. The first is a focus group study conducted to understand the educational and career goals and aspirations as well as barriers faced by the community in meeting those needs. The second was an analysis of course offerings and summary of enrolled student satisfaction surveys from adult education programs and services. Focus Group Study Findings. To understand the needs of adult learners in Santa Cruz County, focus groups were scheduled with the assistance from various community partners. A focus group protocol was developed in collaboration with consortia members. Six 1-hour focus groups were conducted in English or Spanish. Focus groups were held with Migrant Education Parent Leadership Group in Watsonville, Community Action Boards of Davenport and Santa Cruz (Live Oak), Workforce Development Offices in Capitola and Watsonville, and with parents of the community organization Senderos in Santa Cruz. With the integration of a service approach that provides adult education concurrently and contextually with workforce preparation activities are advancing workforce training in indemand occupational clusters that lead to employment with family-sustaining wages. CTE courses that utilize contextualized instructional strategies such as Integrated Education and Training (IET) models will continue to be piloted and implemented in our consortium. Our consortium intends to accelerate learning and produce college and workforce-ready graduates. CTE courses utilizing accelerated IET curriculum such as IBEST and IELCE models will continue to be piloted and implemented in our consortium. To support career pathways consortium members will develop career ladders within the adult school that transition to community college or workforce. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, our student demographics may change as we are only offering distance learning, however the needs of our county remain. And we may very well be adjusting how we deliver distance learning instruction so that we can re-capture our former enrollment levels. To that end, our plans remain steadfast; the GOAL consortium will: Continue its development of shorter courses and stackable certificates with workforce skill preparationUse of common assessment, and contextualized instruction and lesson planning with clear transition pathwaysWASCAE has implemented IET courses especially designed for ESL learners who want to further develop their English literacy and communication skills through learning the context of job skillsCabrillo College and Career Advancement Charter/SCCOE will explore effective IET/VESL coursesConsortium members will align their CTE and ESL curriculum for acceleration and seamless transitionWASCAE focuses basic skills instruction contextualized (IET/IELCE) for a specific occupation or cluster of occupations within an industry or field Cabrillo College and Career Advancement Charter/SCCOE will work together to identify CASAS adult literacy levels and workforce preparation necessary to successfully transition into and complete postsecondary education or training across all consortium member institutions. WASCAE continues to model this practice.The Career Advancement Charter is developing and implementing ESL courses at identified sites that are designed to support English learners with the completion of their high school diploma and job skills trainings that lead to career training readinessProvide instructional support to students to aid in the transition into post secondary and/or job training opportunities with academic successThrough meaningful engagement WASCAE, Cabrillo, and SCCOE instructors will share curriculum, analyze literacy levels and needs of students and develop aligned program curriculum and plansDevelop and implement a writing rubric to agree on writing skill levels; reach consensus on what specific skills constitute the various NRS levels 1-6Improve data integrity and documenting outcomes utilizing Community Pro and dedicate resources/staffing to maintain of longitudinal tracking and warm handoff referral systemDevelop consortium wide strategic grassroots and multi-approach outreach and communication campaign to increase adult education community awareness including vertical alignment and what they mean to the broader communityImplementation of PD around the following: Adult learning theory, CASAS Assessment, Growth Mindset, Culturally Responsive TeachingImplementing ATB across GOAL consortium:Develop work teams for the design of a Student Support Continuum plan: 1) Transition Specialists team (monthly)2) Guidance team comprised of Counselors (quarterly)3) Admin/staff team (monthly)

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
The GOAL Consortium is strengthening and expanding specific bridge classes from Adult Education to Community College. We are launching two new IBEST classes co-taught by Adult Education and Community College teachers focused on career pathways in Early Childhood Education and Personal Care Assistant which also align with the Adult School’s WIOA Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (IELCE) Plan. Adult English language learners face significant barriers in attaining necessary literacy skills that include restrictive work schedules, low wages, and the need for childcare. These students need flexible evening programs with wrap-around support. Day labor worker centers that were surveyed expressed high interest in having both ESL and Construction job literacy training classes in the evening. GOAL's 3 Year Planning, conversations, focus groups as well as Community Action Board of Santa Cruz county in partnership with the GOAL Consortium, conducted a year long county wide study of adult learners Conclusions of Board members from interacting with key agencies, results of contracted services from Pedroso Consulting, students, and community members; low numbers of students transitioning from adult schools to college. Lack of established structures for outreach and transition support among member entities. Our consortium is now creating opportunities for counselors to meet on a regular basis and to develop common messaging, tools and materials. Surveying increased awareness of GOAL initiatives; increased # of students enrolled in aligned pathways (ESL, CTE); increased knowledge of on and off ramps between education and career pathways; consistency of messaging through marketing by all consortia members; at least one collaborative (AE/CC) community event promoting educational opportunities for adults and bridges to community college, job training, and employment. Partner with existing counselor conference to add specific breakout sessions for consortia member counselors and transition specialists. Students will graduate from high school with increased math and English proficiency, improved job skills literacy, and greater post secondary opportunities as measured by achievement data, CASAS pre and post testing, Community Pro transition to Cabrillo data. Graduation rates, community college enrollment.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Adult SchoolIn 2018-19 58 students were awarded Diploma, GED or High School Equivalency. Thirty students earned one of these rewards in 2019-20. In 2018-19 68% of award recipients were Latino and 17% were White. The percent of Latino students dropped significantly in the 2019-20 year to 42% with White awards increasing to 41%.In 2018-19 1,722 students were awarded a degree or certificate and 1,695 students earned one of these rewards in 2019-20. In 2018-19 48% of award recipients were Latino and 42% were White. and in 2019-20 we saw Latino at 41% with White at 40%. The percent of Latino students dropped 7% between 2018-19 and 2019-20. Multiple ethnicities went up from 5% to 6%. Black, Filipino and unknown race remained at 1% between the two years. Note, this is note the percent of enrollment by race, this is percent of total awards by race.Santa Cruz County Office of EducationThe Santa Cruz County of Office of Education reported that their adult serving charter school had eight students. Of those all eight earned a High School Diploma or High School Equivalency Award and transitioned to Postsecondary.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
The consortium will continue to monitor the data presented here and note the increase and/or decrease in the number of students who progress, transition or earn a degree or certificate or High School diploma/Equivalency.

Regional Need #2

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
Our consortium will continue to address the low number of adult learners transitioning from WASCAE to Cabrillo College. Adult learners need clear pathways and supportive access points to navigate the transition from adult school to community college. During this school year (2020 - 2021) we will be piloting two IBEST career pathway programs that will be dual taught by an Adult Education teacher for the literacy instruction and a Cabrillo College teacher for the career technical content. These contextualized learning models will be implemented to create smoother transitions and likelihood for success for adult learners. Contextualized basic skills and language development will be included in CTE specific career pathway courses. Cabrillo College offered courses with IBEST supports in two programs, Early Childhood Education, and Health Sciences. In 2018-19 60 students attended these courses and in 2019-20 the numbers increased to 95 students.During the 2019 - 2020 school year our consortium Implemented a co-located HSE class on the Cabrillo campus in the hopes of serving Ability to Benefit eligible students as well as other learners who might find an HSE class on the college campus more convenient. The class never gained much traction and with COVID-19 restrictions, all the instruction will now be online (at least for the first semester). As previously mentioned, we will implement two IBEST co-teaching models this year (also online).
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Cabrillo College students have access to a broad selection of English as a Second Language (ESL), Career Technical Education (CTE) and basic skills courses in both credit and noncredit. Students may choose their own path of coursework to meet their needs but we hope that they take the pathway from noncredit ESL to credit ESL and on to transferable or credit courses.Cabrillo College Student Information System reports reveal that many students successfully took noncredit courses, meaning they passed. Many fewer students transitioned to taking a credit course, after passing a noncredit course. In 2017-18 46% of students made the transition and in 2017-18 56% made the transition. School year 2019-20 was not typical in any way and students struggled to complete their courses in the spring. Only 18% were able to transition, however; the 2019-20 data does not reflect what a student might do the following year. Extensive local and regional data, interviews with consortia members, interviews with community partners as well as students and staff from Cabrillo College and WASCAE review of student academic performance are some of the resources used to identify these gaps.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
The Cabrillo Research office will be conducting an evaluation of the IBEST program to determine its effectiveness. In the coming year they will be asking qualitative questions of faculty, staff and students. In addition, they will compile and summarize quantitative student success and transition data from the student information system. They will present the resulting evaluation for the GOAL board’s review.We will continue to monitor course offerings of member organizations.

Regional Need #3

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
The top ten occupations in Santa Cruz County do not require Post-Secondary education. While these jobs provide needed income for local families, the community would be well served if there were more middle skill jobs available. Adult learners need clearer pathways and access points to navigate adult school to college pathways. Articulation between adult schools and college CTE courses is needed. Development of short stackable CTE credit and noncredit courses in high and in demand jobs to help adult learners transition to the workforce and post secondary studies.Measure the progress towards the development of NonCredit CTE courses focused in high in demand sectors in the Santa Cruz Region, # of students that transition from adult school to Cabrillo's CTE courses.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
In 2019, Pedroso Consulting was contracted by Santa Cruz County’s Adult Education Consortium to conduct a community needs assessment to meet planning requirements set forth by California’s Adult Education Program.They conducted focus groups to study the educational and career goals and aspirations as well as barriers faced by the community in meeting those needs and understand respondents' thoughts about course offerings, They also summarized enrolled student satisfaction surveys from adult education programs and services. The following key findings illustrate the needs and perceived gaps of the focus group respondents. These findings short term stackable CTE credit and noncredit courses in high demand sectors.Become an entrepreneur. Being economically self-sufficient is pressing for many and they believe that owning their own business can help them achieve it.Learn a skill, trade, or profession. Others shared that they would like to secure a better financial future by learning a new and valued skill, trade, or profession.Flexible class schedule. Participants would like to take courses that meet their family and work commitments.Contextualize learning and apprentice opportunities. Participants would like to work while they learn a new skill through apprenticeships or on-the-job training and would like opportunities to engage in real-world application of skills and the English language.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
A review of the Community College and Adult School Course Catalog finds that class schedules do not offer the flexibility that the community is asking for. At the Adult School almost half of the ESL and GED/HiSET sections are offered in the evening with few to none offered on the weekend or the summer. One third of CTE sections are offered in the evening and only two sessions during the weekend. Under COVID nothing is being offered during the weekends. Stumping innovation and movement on NonCredit. We will continue to monitor course offerings of member organizations that use the IET model to assist students in transitioning and track the time of day and day of week courses are offered.

Regional Need #4

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
Data systems across GOAL members exist in separate silos and are not aligned to ensure quality data in decision-making, understanding, and acknowledgement of program needs across the region. We need a robust and dynamic data system to ensure quality data and accountability in tracking student progress, transitions, and decision making in our consortium.Lack of data systems to measure student transition and tracking to support student learning and success. Through working leadership meetings and dialog among GOAL consortium members, it was apparent that data systems across the consortium are not consistent. In preparing the 3 year plan, a specific focus and request was made when analyzing regional needs and data. The plan revealed that there were gaps in how services were provided and captured across consortium member systems.Meeting objectives, frequency, timeline, and outcomes will be reviewed regularly. An established system to continuously review data and the regional impact will be developed. This established process will facilitate the alignment of the data collection across the consortium. As a result, consortium members will have an aligned data system that will allow agencies to have a better understanding of gaps in data collection. Additionally, data quality and procedures will be developed and implemented.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
GOAL members each have their own student management systems and those systems are not connected to each other. As a result, it is difficult to see the complete picture of student enrollment, transition and success across county organizations. It is virtually impossible to track students without using technology to match and sort students progress. The GOAL staff Research Analyst reviewed the available data from each member organization and state available data and reported that it was incomplete and/or outdated. It would be much more effective to have our own system that is updated weekly with local data.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
To address this gap in information, the consortium purchased a Community Pro, a software solution. Members submit their data to the Community Pro system automatically. It uses the data to provide student transition reports in addition to providing a system for linking students to resources and providing a warm handoff between member organizations. We are specifically measuring the number of students who transition between the Adult School and other community partners to the Community College. We are also measuring the number of students who are referred between member organizations and their outcomes.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Contextualized learning models will be implemented to create smoother transitions and likelihood for success for adult learners. Contextualized basic skills and language development will be included in CTE specific career pathway courses. Implementation of a co-located HSE class on the Cabrillo campus and tracking transitions to Cabrillo and other postsecondary options for adult learners. Tracking transitions to Cabrillo and other postsecondary options for adult learners. We will work with Agencies, Departments & Instructors interested in learning more about contextualize learning ie. Construction, Welding, CABT, Allied Health at Cabrillo. 2.) Build on current marketing to fill co-located class. 3.) Expand use of Community Pro and and continue to have transition specialist, counselors, coordinators to assist students transition.
Strategy #2
Development of short stackable CTE credit and noncredit courses in high and in demand jobs to help adult learners transition to the workforce and post secondary studies. Establish/Strengthen Career Pathway in Allied Health. Explore curriculum bridges, field trips, faculty/counselor visits to adult school. Bridge program from WASCAE Learning Center to Friday Dental noncredit class at the Cabrillo Aptos/Watsonville locations.
Strategy #3
Identify and adopt a dynamic data systems to ensure quality data and accountability in tracking student progress, transitions, as decision making tools and resources in our consortium. Aligned data system will allow agencies to have a better understanding of gaps in data collection. We will identify and adopt a dynamic data systems to ensure quality data and accountability in tracking student progress, transitions, as decision making tools and resources in our consortium.
Strategy #4
Remote options for the assessments CASAS and GED. Social distancing option for bothCASAS and GED

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Strengthening On & Off Ramps for students from AA to CC. Institutionalizing paper based applications and full consortium onboarding to of Community Pro. Creation of a Counselors, Coordinators, Transition Specialist work group. Engage local workforce entity to transition track transitions to local job training programs, scholarships, apprenticeships, and resources. Co-location of intermediate high ESL class at Cabrillo that aligns with a CTE class (IET/IELCE).
Strategy #2
Expand educational interventions and will provide a broader scope of support services to include implementation of career exploration learning, college counseling, registration, financial aid. Hire a Transition Specialist that will support the wraparound and onboarding of adult education students and helping navigate the community college culture. Transition Specialist, Counselor, Coordinators role in responsive/intrusive intervention strategies: visiting classrooms, onboarding, navigation, field trips
Strategy #3
Design bridge programs and develop Adult Career Pathways to college and workforce. Development of secondary and ESL bridges at AE that can support CTE at post-secondary as part of a transition strategy Continue to explore co-location of HSE, IELCE, CTE among consortia agencies. Ex. ESL students getting contextualized instruction and entering a CTE pathway at the college. Adult school partner has contingency plans for continuing online instruction if necessary. We have expanded our CTE offerings online (CNA, other health careers) and trying to do that at reduced costs.

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
ESL program alignment between Cabrillo and WASCAE. Continue to have cross-level engagement meetings on ESL instruction sequences and demand within the county. Explore Contextualized Literacy (ESL) in preparation for CTE.
Strategy #2
Contextualized instructional strategies such as Integrated Education and Training (IET) models. Develop/Strengthen IET Models (i.e. IBEST, VESL). Continue to have cross-level engagement meetings on ESL instruction sequences and demand within the county. Contextualized Literacy (ESL) in preparation for CTE
Strategy #3
Development of short term stackable certificates. Continue creating stackable certificates within agencies and continue to build bridge courses between WASCAE, COE and Cabrillo CC. Continue to build stronger collaboration between GOAL & Cabrillo CTE to support more Noncredit Dev & Stackable Certificates. Formalizing bridge courses from AE to CC: IET to CTE and workforce prep to CTE

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Collaborate with key partners to leverage and braid existing resources in order to better serve our community. Co-location, VESL course development. Partner with community to expand services into neighborhoods such as school and family resource center. Offer a WASCAE GED class at Cabrillo. Strengthen our consortium with the addition of WIOAII grant and the expansion of programs and services including education in the jails. Continue our involvement with our Super Regional professional development in collaboration with Salinas Valley and Gavilan consortia. Topics include: the role of adult education in addressing racial injustice, trauma-informed teaching and learning, adult pedogogy.

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Through our partnerships with Condensed Curriculum, The Monterey Bay Central Labor Council and The Monterey Bay Optometry Society WASCAE is able to offer Internships (and externships which are not paid) with known employers including pharmacies, construction industry contractors and optometrists. Several local skilled nursing facilities host our nursing assistant student to complete their required clinical rotations at their sites. Continue to build-out and support existing partnerships that provide extern/internship opportunities. Develop other possible internship opportunities with our IELCE Plan helping language learners access career pathways and industry experience
Strategy #2
Adult Learner Registration Fairs –Fairs will be conducted by leveraging the staffing capabilities of community college, adult school, COE, WDB in order to enhance community presence. Fairs will have a focus on adult immigrants and coordinated in an adult learner friendly environment with opportunities to make connections with instructors, counselors, and financial aid staff

Fiscal Management

A narrative justifying how the planned allocations are consistent with the annual adult education plan which is based on your CAEP 3-year plan.
All spending across our consortium is consistent with CAEP Fiscal Guidance and AB104. Consortium Director review member spending by major object code before certifying expenditures to the CAEP Office. Monthly consortium meetings provide governance around polocies and procedures.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2020-21.
Remaining carry-over funds from prior-years will be reviewed by consortium members to examine possibilities for applying them to the following year strategies in alignment with 3-Year Plan.

Certification

Cabrillo CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Dr. Matthew Wetstein

08/14/2020 05:52 PM PDT

Pajaro Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Christina Koda

08/14/2020 04:30 PM PDT

Santa Cruz City High - Member Representative

Approved by Kris Munro

08/14/2020 04:40 PM PDT

Santa Cruz ROP - Member Representative

Approved by Dr. Faris Sabbah

08/15/2020 04:33 PM PDT

Santa Cruz Workforce Development Board - Member Representative

Approved by Andy Stone

08/14/2020 04:40 PM PDT