Federal legislation requires many new data elements to be reported on and new stakeholder engagement to drive Federal funding. This data collection process involves local districts and the EFE System to collect and collate regional data to guide and direct the use of regional funds received through Federal Perkins funding for Career and Technical Education.
To implement the comprehensive local needs assessment, you must evaluate, in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, how your overall CTE offerings measure up on:
• Student performance by subgroup on Perkins core indicators
• Alignment to labor market needs
• Size, scope and quality of CTE programs offered
• Progress toward implementing CTE programs and programs of study
• Recruitment, retention and training for CTE educators and support professionals
• Progress toward implementing and improving equal access and equity to CTE for all students
The goal of this document is to provide an overview of how to get started on your comprehensive local needs assessment and help you translate the language in the law into concrete, actionable steps that not only completes the requirements but also engages stakeholders in meaningful, regular, data-driven consultation that drives program quality and equity. The CLNA is arranged by the required components and includes guidance on gathering information, discussions around data points, recording your findings, and merging those findings as you begin the local application process.
The Illinois Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment process consists of the following steps in IWAS:
1. Verify current approved Programs of Study -work with EFE to make corrections; this step must be completed prior to stakeholder engagement.
a. This step involved the creation of a master spreadsheet with all approved programs and each school’s approved courses marked. This also involved lots of updates to the State Course System as program approval had not been reviewed in several years.
b. This process also included the education of what constitutes and Approved Program. (this information was added to the website)
2. Identify Planning Team/Stakeholder engagement- establish dates to meet with stakeholders to complete CLNA. Stakeholders should include teachers, administrators, counselors, paraprofessionals, students, parents, post-secondary education, economic development professionals, business managers/owners and others who support your program.
a. This step did not have to be done in-person. I created an online survey monkey that any school could send to local businesses for regional feedback. I also created Google Surveys for schools to survey parents and/or students. I provided schools with feedback if their school participated.
3. Identify data sources -ISBE will provide some data for review. School can use their student data software and state report card data as additional resources.
a. I suggest that schools use these two resources as the state data is difficult to read and if there were less than 10 students in any disaggregated segment, the box had a % symbol in it. With a low minority student numbers in our region, there arew a lot of these symbols in the charts.
4. Analyze the disaggregated data through stakeholder discussion with prompts. Collect feedback from stakeholders on:
a. Identify areas of growth and strengths (what is working; summaries within each area of measurement).
b. Identify areas of opportunity (what requires improvement; summaries within each area of measurement).
c. collect stakeholder feedback on what is needed in local industry such as unfilled positions, technical skills, and employability skills.
d. Collect feedback from parents and students on whether they feel the curriculum meets the needs of the students. Look for inequities.
5. Prioritize opportunities for program improvement -create a timeline based on your needs for each area of measurement within the programs of study.
a. Schools can use the information collected to identify where they may need to increase essential employability skills taught in CTE, where they may be able to use CTE to strengthen Math and ELA scores and if they need to create advisory groups.
6. Complete the two parts of the Program Data Review in IWAS.
a. Size, Scope and Quality – Answer questions related to the number of enrollments in CTE, Curriculum standards , placement data, certifications, work-based learning, CTSOs, facility/equipment and use of advisory committees.
b. Professional Learning – Answer questions on career guidance, CTE Staff capacity and professional development topics offered to staff who work with CTE students. Our office created a list of PD offerings provided to regional K-12 educators on a regular basis.
7. Put all information into IWAS Local Needs Assessment system for submission to EFE.
8. The EFE will compile all regional feedback for submission to ISBE.
a. This is a new process that will be done every two years for the new 4 year grant writing.
b. This is due to ISBE by May 1 and has to be completed before the annual Career and Technical Education Improvement Grant and Federal Perkins Grant can be written.