ACTE PACE Summit 2024

The presentation will focus on retention and success rates. I will share how I implemented positive changes in our technology programs. I focused on changing habits, mundane rituals, leading to success, and implementing key goals to help our faculty and mentors increase student success and decrease the number of students the organization was losing each MOD. The proposed session will follow an interactive format, encouraging audience participation, discussions, and Q&A sessions. I will incorporate actual numbers and trends that occurred when implementing this change by using case studies to enhance the participant experience.

This session examines the pervasive challenges of faculty shortages within postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE), with a particular focus on recruitment and retention strategies. Participants will gain a thorough understanding of the multifaceted issues contributing to these shortages and explore evidence-based solutions that have been gathered from survey data; with 96% of respondents fully completing the survey (N=477, n=456) involving CTE educators across various institutions. The presentation will detail the recruitment techniques participants report to attract highly skilled professionals to the CTE teaching field. We will also discuss findings around retention strategies, such as the development of supportive community networks, enhancement of professional development opportunities, and the implementation of competitive benefits packages. Attendees will leave the session equipped with actionable insights and strategies to apply within their own institutions. We will offer recommendations for future research aimed at those who wish to further contribute to resolving the CTE teacher shortage, enhancing both practical approaches and scholarly understanding of this critical issue. This presentation aims to significantly impact the field by providing the tools necessary to effectively address faculty shortages, thereby strengthening the quality of CTE programs and contributing to the broader educational landscape.

This poster presentation will demonstrate the fundamental role that external partnerships play in elevating educational experiences and promoting student success. The display will feature visual and textual elements that the College’s Adult Basic Education program uses for active on-going approaches to grow and sustain partnerships with community organizations, businesses, higher education institutions, and other stakeholders. Through an engaging and informative presentation, attendees will gain insights into best practices, challenges, and success stories associated with these collaborations that have been beneficial for our program in meeting the College’s strategic, department and program goals.

Virginia’s Community Colleges have implemented numerous types of state aid to support low-income students in attaining stackable credentials and career pathways into sustainability. Along with other state funding to support capacity building and the addition of 21st Century Learning Spaces, many colleges, such as Northern Virginia Community College, have modified programs to meet the needs of working adults while addressing labor shortages. One such program is their Stacked Credential Practical Nursing program, which includes hyflex opportunities for online learning and embedded short-term workforce credentials for accelerated pathways into employment and higher wages for working students.
Session participants will learn about pay-for-performance funding models for CTE, outcomes of this funding and stackable credentials, funding and efforts to expand prison education programs and stackable credentials for the justice-impacted population to include our Higher Education for Justice-Impacted Individuals Consortium, and how to model the accelerated Practical Nursing program to better serve working adults, increase credential attainment.

CTE professionals are in an educational class by themselves and require a different set of pedagogical skills and background knowledge. A high percentage of CTE teachers are recruited directly from industry, and schools face on-boarding and ongoing professional development for a very diversely prepared population. Validating and credentialing CTE professional knowledge has benefits for both schools and individuals and can be used to develop professional development plans that are based on a data-driven gap analysis. Northern Arizona University will share its pilot experiences using the NOCTI nationally validated CTE teaching assessments, which include topics such as student management, instructional delivery, student assessment, employer relationships, and instructional improvement in its teacher-educator program. NAU’s experience will be translated into integrating the assessment data from these credentials into educator professional development plans to target areas for improvement of teacher professional knowledge with the goal of increasing teacher retention. Administrators of CTE programs can use this validated and normed assessment tool as part of data-driven professional development to target and promote quality CTE programs of study through prepared and effective program staff.