CAEP Annual Plan: 2019-20 13 Morongo Basin AEBG Consortium (Copper Mountain)

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2019-20 Produced: Aug 14, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC David W Norton

13 Morongo Basin AEBG Consortium (Copper Mountain)

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
On February 22, 2019, the Morongo Basin California Adult Education Consortium met to discuss plans for the upcomong three years. Before the meeting, individuals participated in a pre-planning assessment on the current status of adult education in the Morongo Basin. Each individual was asked to submit his/her assessment of the consortium, using the "Program Quality Self-Assessment" and completing a form before the meeting. Based on the assessment, the consortium found three key areas upon which to focus: Connection, Completion/Transition, and Entry. After a detailed presentation and lively conversation, plans were discussed to address each of the three areas to increase the rubric scores to an average score of 3.0 or higher. The goal of the 2019-22 plan will be to address the areas with the lowest average scores. Under the "Connection" focus area, the consortium identified additional areas requiring attention: using stretch goals for recruitment that is informed by data and individuals being knowledgeable in programs offered. The consortium realized a formal recruitment plan that reaches out across partners is vital to improvement in this area. Over the next year (2019-2020), a formal plan will be developed and implemented by summer 2020. Secondly, under the focus area "Completion/Transition," the consortium identified three additional areas for concentration, including collaboration with partners, regularly assessing effectiveness, and utilizing shared systems to support transitions. Two common themes within this focus area were data integrity and alignment of work already being completed separately by each of the members. The consortium was able to agree upon a 5% increase in key metrics such as increasing individuals served, leading to successful transition to post-secondary education. This will be completed by building infrastructure that aligns work, using shared systems within the Morongo Basin Adult Education Consortium. Finally, under the "Entry" focus area, the consortium identified three additional areas upon which to focus, including shared learning plans, an early alert system, a common assessment (which is already being done with the CASAS instruments), data, and placement policies. A theme relevant in other focus areas included data and the ability to share across systems. Additionally, consortium partners have started implementation around student-centric policies and procedures, including Career Technical Education programs and pathways to ensure completion of education goals. Through the planning process, consortium partners realized the importance of focusing on collaboration across agencies to ensure successful pathways for the adult education students being served. The consortium has developed plans to have shared learning paths, early alert systems, and common policies. In summary, the consortium took a holistic approach in using the pre-planning assessment to identify key areas upon which to concentrate over the next three years. Overall, the focus will be on improving data integrity to adjust educational pathways, ensuring completion for our students. Some of the key projects include a "Recruitment and Marketing Plan, procedures to ensure students stay on their educational path, and clarification of the different adult education pathways being provided within and between the adult programs offered by the Morongo Basin Adult Education Consortium members and its partner.
Regional Planning Overview
Pages 25-26 of our Three-Year Plan provide, in a table format, a summary of our implementation procedures, including the following four areas: 1. area of focus, 2. specific area plan, 3. goals, and 4. the estimated timeline for accomplishing each goal.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
As indicated in our Three-Year Plan, there are significant community needs. According to ESRI and ACS Data for the Morongo Basin, 5,644 residents do not have a high school diploma while 2,768 are unemployed. Poverty levels are likewise high for an area our size as 8,464 residents meet the federal definition. In addition, the data indicates that for 508 people residing in the Morongo Basin, English is not their first language.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
ESRI and ACS Data for Morongo Basin.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
As indicted later in this Annual Plan, we are in the process of developing a Recruitment and Marketing Plan, specific to our adult education programs. We anticipate that this will increase our enrollment in the four programs being targeted: the Adult High School Completion, GED/HiSET Prep, ESL, and CTE programs. Furthermore, we will be able to track new students and their method of "hearing about us." We also anticipate that this Recruitment and Marketing Plan will increase our enrollment, but the CMC Student Success Center is also implementing a Case Management Retention Plan since the adults leaving our programs are similar to those throughout the state--about half stop coming to class even before the semester is over. We hope with this two-pronged approach, we will not only increase our enrollment but also retain a greater percentage of students in each of these four programs specific to adult education.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
An ongoing strategy for us is to create academic pathways that lead from adult education (HS completion, GED or HiSET completion) to either short-term certificates OR credit coursework at the college level. With MUSD and CMC working together, each district is creating new short-term certificate programs that will be available for adults in our consortium area. In addition, one of our Adult Education faculty members will be surveying our students as part of his dissertation project concentrating on GED students who transition to college credit coursework. The results of this survey will help inform our strategies as we move forward, particularly as the Coordinator of Developmental Education, the Student Success Center faculty and staff, and the ACCE faculty work together to create Guided Pathways for the Adult Education student while in the program and beyond, whether that next path is college coursework, CTE programs, the military, or the workforce.
Strategy #2
In 2019-2020, we will be developing a Recruitment and Marketing Plan for our Adult Education noncredit programs. We will be utilizing some of our CAEP funding to market the program through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and programmatic marketing. We will be working with a marketing company to produce a professional video that emphasizes both the adult education and CTE programs available to adults, with no cost to the student.

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Both CMC and MUSD have partnered to open two satellite sites where we offer our adult education programs as well as new CTE programs. These CTE programs are offered and taught by MUSD, but if there is room available in the class, adults are allowed to enroll in these CTE courses. In 2018-2019, we began writing Course Outlines of Record (CORs) for these noncredit CTE courses that align with the MUSD curricula. In 2019-2020, we will continue to write CORs for the remaining CTE courses, and the CORs will follow the required process for California Community College curricula: CMC technical review, CMC Curriculum Committee, CMC Academic Senate, CMC Board of Trustees, CCC Chancellor's Office. Furthermore, the transition discussed in the "Gaps in Service" above will also prove crucial to this process, especially for the Adult Education program completers who move from noncredit to credit-bearing classes at the college level.

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
With the exception of our MASP (Military Academic Skills Program), all of our programs and courses are open-entry/open-exit which makes accelerated courses for the high school, GED/HiSET, and ESL programs virtually moot. Our adult students in our high school and GED/HiSET programs have individualized instruction available to them with our, respectively, GradPoint and GED Academy software programs. Our high school students using GradPoint enroll in the courses required for the diploma while our GED/HiSET students are able to take a diagnostic test in each subject area, thereby identifying weaknesses for them to focus upon in an individualized instruction and receiving tutoring when needed. We're currently receiving funding for EL Civics through our WIOA grant, and our ESL faculty are incorporating various COAPPs into their classes. As mentioned earlier, MUSD continues to add CTE programs for their K-12 students, but if there's space available, we're able to enroll adult students into those CTE courses.

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Faculty and staff attend professional developments opportunities when they arise. In addition to those events mentioned in last year's annual plan, one Adult Education faculty member attended the annual National Conference for Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) and two faculty members attended the On Course training. We hope to send another faculty member to the NCORE conference in 2020. In addition, we plan on sending our two part-time ESL faculty to Southern California ESL workshops and conferences, and we hope to send at least one GED Prep faculty member to the national GED conference. We also will send faculty and staff to the CASAS Summer Institute in June 2020. The Coordinator, faculty, and staff will attend the regional CAEP meetings (usually in San Bernardino), and the Coordinator will attend the quarterly Workforce Development Board meetings. We have two staff members who will be attending the ASAP conference in October 2019, and when needed, staff and faculty will attend TOPS Pro training and various conferences related to adult education such as CCAE South Coas as well as the ACSA, CAEAA and CCAE State Summits or Conferences. Online workshops and webinars are also available for both faculty and staff, who will utilize these PD opportunities throughout the year.

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
CMC participates in the local County WIB, and we have signed-on to the MOU regarding all county agencies that cover WIOA I, II, III, and IV services. Additionally, we work with our local chambers of commerce, and we are looking forward to working with our local libraries. Our one partner in the Consortium is the Morongo Basin Coalition for Adult Literacy (MBCAL), and they provide volunteers who work with our ESL students, both during and outside their ESL classes, as well as our adult basic education students with low literacy levels .

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.
Moving forward, CMC will remain the fiscal agent in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The year 2019-2020 will be the second year of a two-year lease of ACCE-West located in Yucca Valley, and at our September 30, 2019 meeting, we will discuss the continuation of the lease for ACCE-East located in 29 Palms. (ACCE is the Academy of College and Career Excellence.) The lease for each location is paid out of the allocation to CMC as the ACCE-East facility is owned by MUSD while the ACCE-West facility is leased to MUSD and CMC utilizing a sub-lease with MUSD. Students in our Adult High School Completion Program and our GED/HiSET Prep program will be able to work on their adult education requirements at either of these sites as well as the main campus in Joshua Tree. In this way, we are providing services that are geographically convenient: 29 Palms (East), Joshua Tree (Central), and Yucca Valley (West). In addition, MUSD is offering CTE programs for their K-12 students, but adults are offered any available seats in those programs. This year, CMC will continue to plan short-term certificate programs and the curriculum will be going through the approval process. Because our process involves planning and implementation, the funds required for implementation are usually greater than is required for the planning process.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2019-20.
In previous years, it may have looked to the outside observer as if we didn't need our complete allocation because we had significant amounts of CMC allocation rolled-over from one year to the next. However, that was done purposefully because we knew that we would be needing a significant amount of funds for our purchase of two modular buildings for our expanding adult education programs at the CMC main campus located in Joshua Tree. We don't anticipate that either member of our consortium will need to roll-over 2019-2020 funds.

Certification

Copper Mountain CCD - Member Representative

  • David W Norton
  • Vice President; CIO; CSSO; Project Director, Morongo Basin Adult Education Consortium
  • dnorton@cmccd.edu
  • (760) 366-5249
  • Jane Abell
  • Executive Dean of Student Services and Equity
  • jabell@cmccd.edu
  • (760) 366-3791 ext: 5280
Approved by Dr David W Norton

2019-08-14

Morongo Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Amy Woods

2019-08-14