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CAEP Annual Plan: 2021-22 06 Partnership for Adult Academic and Career Education

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2021-22 Produced: Aug 13, 2021, 09:57 PM UTC Blanca Rochin

06 Partnership for Adult Academic and Career Education

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
The Southeast Los Angeles PAACE Consortium has committed all its resources and support toward the continued success of adult education students. Currently PAACE has addressed the challenge imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic through continuous collaboration, and student focused intervention. PAACE has also responded by providing multi-layered support throughout the region via instructional technology platforms such as CANVAS, Zoom, Google Classroom, and Blackboard, which have ensured a seamless delivery of distance learning and student support. Ongoing challenges related to the fluency, access and use of technology have created a digital divide been experienced throughout the consortium membership. CARES allocations have allowed consortium members to purchase and provide laptops and internet access for students in order to address the digital divide imposed by the challenges related to fluency and access. Downey Adult School, distributed CARES funding to provide direct financial aid resources to students in an effort to reimburse supplies that were purchased. ABC Adult School purchased software programs needed for their students. Additionally, the consortium and its members have supplied additional resources throughout the region such as food and public assistance in order to serve students. Faculty receives ongoing Professional Development aimed at providing equitable support to students during distance learning. Cerritos College Counselors continue to provide emotional and mental health support to students in addition to academic advising. The impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic continues to be felt throughout the region and many of the resulting budget constraints and reductions impose a challenge among the PAACE partners. Significant program cuts have been made at Downey Adult School with an 80% reduction in ESL courses and a 50% reduction in the High School Diploma program. Bellfower Adult Re-entry, ABC Adult School and Norwalk La Mirada Adult School have seen less significant impacts but have had to consolidate classes and halt hiring in anticipation of projected necessary cuts in subsequent years. In order to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices PAACE members have examined and challenged their practices and implemented ongoing faculty and staff training in an effort to ensure that systemic racial injustice is not perpetuated on campuses. All instructional methodologies are culturally relevant and inclusive as an example ESL courses reflect the celebration of the diverse communities served by the consortium. PAACE has also incorporated data driven objectives into its plan and continues to implement strategies that address underserved populations with the intent to aim resources and opportunities for communities specifically in the area of Downey. PAACE will continue to facilitate its delivery of collaborative training and professional development across the consortium related to systemic racial injustices. For the foreseeable future Online instruction will remain a significant component of the PAACE instructional delivery on all campuses; and the consortium is poised to offer a variety of instructional modalities to the community in order to promote its mantra of “lifelong learning.”
Regional Planning Overview [Revised]
The Global Pandemic significantly impacted the members of the PAACE consortium’s ability to implement activities as identified in the prior annual and 3-year plans. As the College and its partners return to a modified sense of normalcy the collective focus remains on the integration and alignment of identified goals, and measures to address student engagement amid significant declines in enrollment experienced as a result of the pandemic. The decline in enrollment has particularly impacted the ESL courses. A strong emphasis on the use of data to inform and support program activities will continue to remain a high priority of the consortium. Meeting the needs of the community and engaging prospective students interested in the local level ESL program at the Downey Adult School remains an area of concentrated focus. A transitional program involving Cerritos College and Downey Adult School faculty and staff collaborating to assist ESL students enroll and succeed in college coursework has been implemented through the California College Promise partnership. This program known as Cerritos Complete provides adult education students with individualized support and assistance from their adult education ESL program through college transfer and the completion of an Associates Degree. In commitment to short term Career Technical Education courses both ABC and Norwalk La Mirada Adult school have expanded their CTE offerings. ABC Adult School is working to ensure that students have access to high wage careers in Cosmetology, IT Technician, Web Design, and Graphic Media Design. These programs have been well received in spite of a shift to a hybrid instructional model imposed by the pandemic. Norwalk La Mirada Adult School has focused on CTE courses in Child Care Professions, Real Estate and Welding which are thriving in the community and ensure that students have access to career training that will translate to high demand careers, self- sufficiency and business ownership.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
PAACE consortium members, identified the need for Downey Adult School to increase its ESL offerings in response to an 80% budget reduction in the area of ESL implemented during the 2020-2021 academic year. The consortium in support of Downey ESL students devised an innovative plan to continue serving the needs of the students served by leveraging their joint resources. The collaborative will continue to assess the implementation and progress of this project.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Regular meetings, planning discussions, and working sessions provided members with the opportunity to review and analyze their individual school’s needs. Through this process PAACE consortium members, identified the need for Downey Adult School to increase its ESL offerings in response to an 80% budget reduction in the area of ESL implemented during the 2020-2021 academic year. The consortium in support of Downey ESL students devised an innovative plan to continue serving the needs of the students served by leveraging their joint resources. The collaborative will continue to assess the implementation and progress of this project.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
In order to address the needs of the Downey Adult School ESL program, Cerritos College agreed to increase its ESL course offerings with a goal of serving the Downey Adult School students impacted by programmatic reductions. Cerritos College prioritized outreach and supportive services to the Downey Adult School community. This strategic support includes aligning credit and non-credit courses in a manner that increases accessibility to ESL courses. The PAACE staff at Cerritos College assist with the enrollment and registration by providing outreach to ensure that identified enrollment targets are met. The consortium closely monitors and tracks the progress of the enrolled students in order to identify enrollment trends.

Regional Need #2

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
Data systems across PAACE agencies are not aligned to ensure quality data for decision-making purposes in order to inform program needs across the region
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Dialogue and data reviews among the PAACE consortium members at leadership meetings revealed that data systems across the consortium inconsistent. The PAACE plan revealed that there were gaps in how services were provided and captured across consortium member systems. A work process and regular data meetings are taking place with the consortium members and CASAS personnel. PAACE has also assigned a Head Data Collection specialist to facilitate data reporting and training. Conversations at these meetings will facilitate the analysis and alignment of data across the consortium. Data will be more effectively utilized in order to review changes, growth areas and to inform instructional practices.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
To align data across the consortium, regular data regional meetings will take place with the consortium members and CASAS data personnel. Bellflower Adult School has recently purchased Tops Pro Enterprise Software in order to implement CASA’s assessment and data collection. Intensive CASA’s data training will continue to be facilitated. Meeting objectives, frequency, timeline, and outcomes will be presented to consortium members annually. An established system to continuously review CASAS 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 data outcomes. Additionally, data quality and procedures will be developed and implemented.

Gaps In Service

Existing Strategies

Strategy #1
In addition to aligning the planning tools and data systems across the consortium to improve student awareness of academic and career offerings, the consortium will continue to work on addressing systemic racial injustices by continuing to take into account the populations who are not being served and providing more resources and opportunities for those communities. Strategies to reach identified student populations have included outreach flyers, videos, and electronic resource files designed to provide awareness and facilitate community college enrollment. The consortium continues to collaborate on offering trainings across the consortium regarding systemic racial injustices. This will allow for an increase in training to be offered and avoid any duplication of specific training efforts across the consortium’s region.

Seamless Transitions

Existing Strategies

Strategy #1
In order to create a seamless transition into the workforce, the consortium will continue to provide trainings on SELACO Workforce Development Board (WDB) CalJOBS system. Consequently, students will be more knowledgeable about academic and career options that align with their interests and relate to the programs offered in the consortium. The consortium will also utilize the Cerritos College Job Speaker platform and the Work Study program. These efforts will aid PAACE in continuing to retrain individuals foster economic growth given the devastating impact that the global pandemic has imposed on the local economy.

Student Acceleration

Existing Strategies

Strategy #1
Cerritos College courses continue to be extended to adult school consortium member sites in a program that brings the college to the community. These programs will serve as “bridge” credit courses that will facilitate student’s transition to their local community college. Already identified are credit ESL courses that are fully aligned and will serve as upper level continuation courses for the adult learner. The Cerritos College ESL credit courses are also articulated with the college level English courses and serve to directly progress students into the college level English course. The consortium will guide ESL students into college courses specifically ESL 5, ESL 100, ESL 120 in order to help further advancement toward career goals. In order to ensure success, the consortium will track a cohort of ESL students at Downey Adult School as they enroll in the College Promise program. Downey Adult School students will continue to serve as a pilot as one of the ESL offerings is a mirrored noncredit section of the ESL 5 class already being offered as a way to allow those students who do not qualify for Financial Aid to continue pursuing their education despite not earning the 4 units of college credit by continuing their ESL courses.

Professional Development

Existing Strategies

Strategy #1
In order to ensure that alignment in data management is occurring throughout the consortium, faculty and staff will attend online professional development workshops and conferences. Additionally, professional development days will be organized by each member site will be open to all members of the consortium. Specific professional development will prioritize and include topics on remote learning and issues of social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Leveraging Resources

Existing Strategies

Strategy #1
The PAACE consortium will build on a close relationship with SELACO WDB in order to maximize adult student outcomes in spite of the the impacts felt by the pandemic. Specifically, these outcomes will be in industry-certified programs and job placement in priority industry sectors that align with students’ chosen career technical paths. Cerritos College has developed and implemented a SOLAR certificate to build training programs and opportunities for adult students in new industries. In addition, development of an entrepreneurship curriculum will be provided to focus on language learners that are already engaged in business development, as well as industry apprenticeships. These programs will be open to all students across the consortium.

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.
The PAACE consortium has consistently allocated funds based on members needs and have voted by majority to distribute resources. Goals and activities for the second year have been discussed and identified. The resources attached to the PAACE goals and activities are representative of the needs, programs and services available and distributed. Despite the 12% cut seen in the allocation for this academic year, the PAACE consortium continues to enhance student programs and improve student achievement within the region, consortium agencies are committed to leveraging resources. The sources of funding include CAEP, CalWORKs, Perkins V funds, and WIOA II, with total funding projected at approximately $50M for the 2019 - 2022 planning cycle.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2021-22.
On an annual basis, the members of the consortium will discuss the carry-over funds and decide how to effectively utilize those funds. A contingency plan will be created and used on a priority basis as identified by consortium members. This list can include but will not be limited to technology and professional development days for faculty and staff for all members. Should any consortium member not be able to spend any carry-over funds after a designated and agreed upon deadline, then PAACE members will bring this forward at a leadership meeting, discuss contingency plans, and vote on how to redistribute and expend the available funds. The guidelines for this process will be memorialized in the consortium's governance document which will include carry-over bylaws.

Certification

ABC Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Nancy Amara

08/12/2021 02:16 PM PDT

Bellflower Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Tia Ewing

08/12/2021 01:35 PM PDT

Cerritos CCD - Member Representative

  • Graciela Vasquez
  • Associate Dean, Adult Education & Diversity Programs
  • gvasquez@cerritos.edu
  • (562) 860-2451 ext: 2490
Approved by Dr. Sherryl Carter

08/12/2021 01:35 PM PDT

Downey Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Blanca Rochin

08/13/2021 02:57 PM PDT

Norwalk-La Mirada Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Sharon Renfro Todd

08/12/2021 01:42 PM PDT