CAEP
Annual Plan

Produced: Aug 15, 2023, 11:38 PM UTC - By Susan Sweeney

18 Gavilan Regional Adult Career and Education Services
CONSORTIUM APPROVED

2023-24

Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

Gavilan Regional Adult and Career Education Services’ (ACES) vision is to help students move past barriers to education and empower them to continue pursuing their educational and career goals by offering a range of affordable and convenient classes in English as a second language, programs to earn a high school diploma or equivalency, and citizenship classes, as well as other basic skills and short-term vocational courses. Gavilan Regional ACES aims to address the interruption to programs and class offerings caused by COVID-19 including the disproportionate impact the pandemic had and continues to have on students of color, including issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Similar to other consortiums across the state, the pandemic impacted enrollment in adult education programs and created staffing shortages. However, current data indicates a slow but steady return to pre-COVID-19 participation in adult education. 

Goals for the 2023-24 year include the following: rebuilding past program offerings; identifying how to expand existing programs, services and effectiveness; improving transitions to college and career; and developing and implementing both a community outreach effort and a needs assessment. Program areas to be served will continue to be English as a second language, high school equivalency, adult high school diploma, basic skills and expansion of short-term vocational programs. Consortium members highlight the following accomplishments made during the prior year: 

Gavilan Community College: To enable adult learners to access adult education programs, the college provided virtual/online and in-person courses. Gavilan  provided ESL, computer literacy, entrepreneurship, small business ownership and GED/HSE preparation to over 3,000 students in 2022-23. Gavilan is working to reduce barriers to accessing technology by lending computers to its adult learners. To serve additional students, Gavilan purchased 60 computers this year. Gavilan college also recognized the importance of having reliable internet and is working to provide hotspots for its adult learners. Gavilan College further supports adult learners by continuing to provide peer mentors in the ESL classes, supporting a full-time counselor to guide and support adult learners and provides books free of charge to ESL adult learners. Lastly, to assist all learners including adult learners transition to postsecondary or gain employment, a new position was created and staff spring of 2023 titled "Career and Academic Pathway Specialist" . 

San Benito High School District: The Adult Education program through San Benito High School District has an enrollment of approximately 78 students for the 22-23 school year. The program graduated 13 students in June; 9 of which attended a graduation ceremony celebrating their accomplishments. The instructor continues to build the program with enthusiasm and good rapport with students while motivating them to finish their classes with the online platform of Edgenuity. The program continues to explore all options in expanding support to the program and removing barriers for students including providing childcare and partnering with the Food Bank for a mobile food pantry. SBHSD is currently working with San Benito County Workforce Development Board to better align services for both programs in order to provide a continuum of support for our students. In the coming 23-24 school year SBHSD is working with Gavilan College to offer a Welding Course for Adult Education as well as working with the GRACES Consortium to provide a Healthcare Pathway and stackable certifications for adult English language students. 

Gilroy Unified School District: The Gilroy Adult Education diploma program had a successful 2022-23 school year, graduating 92 students. While a decrease from the prior year, the enrollment numbers increased greatly in 2023 (208 compared to 154 the previous year). To serve the increased need, three additional teachers were hired and the counselor position was filled in spring 2023 which had been vacant since the beginning of the year. 

Morgan Hill Community Adult School: During the 2022-2023 school year, Morgan Hill Community Adult School was able to enroll a total of 372 students in three separate programs. Our ESL program continued to have the highest enrollment numbers of all programs offered at MHCAS; English as a Second Language (ESL) with 237 students, High School Diploma (HSD) 88 students, English HiSet with 28 (HSE) and finally Spanish HiSet with 19 students. Of these students, 27 were able to participate in the end of year graduation ceremony. Additionally, MHCAS implmented a needs assessment in spring 2023 to better understand the needs of community and students. Finally, there was a change in site leadership with the onboarding of new site administration both at the school level with a new principal, as well as the Director of Family & Community Engagement who now oversees the MHCAS.



Regional Planning Overview

Gavilan Regional ACES will continue to build on the goals stated in the prior year for 2023-24 which include: 1) rebuilding past program offerings; 2) identifying how to expand existing programs, 3) services and effectiveness; 4) improving transitions; and 5) developing and implementing both a community outreach effort and a needs assessment.

Program areas served by the consortium include: 1) English as a second language, 2) high school equivalency, adult high school diploma and 3) short-term vocational programs.

In addition to funding existing programing in ASE, ABE, ESL and short-term vocational, the consortium will do the following:

  1. Continue to build its capacity to conduct systematic reviews of data to assess progress toward metrics and to improve systems.

  2. Continue to hire staff: Last year the consortium hired a part-time consortium director (the third in a one-year span). Given that many of the members hired staff who were new to adult education, onboarding has been facilitated by the part-time consortium director. Consortium members recognize the need to hire both member-specific staff to support expansion of services and consultants to complete specific tasks and will focus efforts to do so this year.

  3. Continue to increase communication about programs and services across the consortium (both among members and across the regions’ community).

  4. Focus on engaging regional business, workforce agencies and other stakeholders.


Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

Gavilan Regional ACES seeks to strengthen and increase enrollment in ESL and high school equivalency (HSE) programs to meet the English language and educational needs of the region.

Nineteen percent of Gavilan Regional ACE’s population earned less than a high school education and 26% reported speaking English less than well. Among consortium members, San Benito County has the highest percentage of population between the ages of 18 to 24 with less than high school educational attainment compared to other members.

Currently, San Benito, Gilroy and Morgan Hill adult schools offer high school equivalency programs. From 2016 to 2018, enrollment in these programs were steady. However, in 2019, the consortium experienced a significant decline in enrollment and rebounded slightly in 2020.

Gavilan College and Morgan Hill Adult School also offer ESL courses. From 2016 to 2019, ESL enrollment was climbing steadily year over year. However, enrollment declined in 2020-21. While efforts to mitigate COVID-19 were put in place, namely online instruction, for many, quality internet service was a challenge. The need for face-to-face courses remains.

While Gavilan Regional ACES has been addressing ESL and high school equivalency needs, due to the pandemic, gaps in service have emerged.

How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?

Gavilan Regional ACES accessed educational attainment and English language proficiency data from the American Community Survey 2020, and reviewed Launchboard and CAEP fact sheets.

How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?

Gavilan Regional ACES will engage in a systematic review of data to assess progress toward these goals. Specifically, consortium members will review local indicators including enrollment data on a per-semester and annual basis to track increases in enrollment in these two programs (ESL and HSE). Further, consortium members will review retention rates by reviewing member-specific exit surveys. The consortium will work to ensure their strategic goals are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) during monthly consortium meetings. Local indicators with year-one targets (number of participants) that the consortium and individual members will assess to measure progress include the following with estimated actual numbers and projections for year two. Note: "P" stands for pending. 

Consortium-level targets:                            Year 1 (22-23)  ActualYr1  Year 2 (23-24)

English language learner (AE 305-overall)  735                     3,040      3,344

Low literacy (AE 311-overall)                        1,000                   P             1,100

Number of adult s served (AE 200):

Consortium level                                              1,900                4,003     4,403

Gavilan College                                               1,000                3,425     3,767

MHCAS                                                             175                   372        410

GUSD                                                                80                     206       227

SBHS                                                                38                       78         86

                                                 

Participants with educational functional level gains ESL (AE 400-ESL):

Gavilan College                                              250                   P             275 

MHCAS                                                           28                     132         145

GUSD Adult Education                                    –                       –

SBHS Adult Education                                    –                       –    

Participants with educational functional level gains ABE (AE 400-ABE):

Gavilan College                                              –                       –               –

MHCAS                                                          62                     23              25           

GUSD Adult Education                                  –                       –               –

SBHS Adult Education                                   –                       –               –


Participants with educational functional level gains ASE (AE 400-ASE):

Gavilan College                                             30                     P                33

MHCAS                                                          –                       –               –

GUSD Adult Education                                  –                       –               –

SBHS Adult Education                                   –                       –               –

Participants who earn a high school diploma or equivalency (AE 633-overall):

Gavilan College                                             –                      –               –                              

MHCAS                                                         33                   25               28

GUSD Adult Education                                 30                    98               108

SBHS Adult Education                                  11                    13                  15

Regional Need #2

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

Gavilan Regional ACES seeks to increase employment and income levels of the region. Among the consortium’s population with income near poverty or lower, 39% have less than a high school education and 40% speak English less than well. Further, among those near poverty or lower, 60% are not in the labor force, 8% are unemployed and 32% are employed. The region fares slightly higher than state averages for the same demographics except for those who are employed, where the region has a lower percentage of the population at or below poverty who are employed (see table 1).

 Table 1. Among population near poverty or less, percentage by demographics

                                                               Gavilan Regional ACES           Statewide

Less than high school education                      39%                                   30%

Speaks English less than well                          40%                                   34%

Not in labor force or unemployed                     68%                                   67%

Employed                                                         32%                                   34%

Among the overall population with no high school diploma, 61% speak English less than well and 55% are either not in the labor force or are unemployed. Compared to state averages for these measures, the region has a higher percentage of the population that speaks English less than well. However, the region has a slightly higher percentage of this population employed than the state average (45% vs. 39%)(see table 2).

Table 2. Among population with no high school diploma, percentage by demographics

                                                              Gavilan Regional ACES            Statewide

Speaks English less than well                          61%                                   49%

Not in labor force or unemployed                     55%                                   61%

Employed                                                         45%                                   39%

Several efforts to support the economic needs of adult learners of the region are in place. For example, Gavilan College refers all students, including adult learners, to resources provided by “El Centro,” which includes assistance with housing, food, financial aid and financial literacy. It also refers them to a regular roster of partner services as well as direct support for justice impacted students. MHCAS houses “The Market,” a food pantry, to its students. In addition, Gavilan College provides services and accommodations to students verified with a disability through the Accessible Education Center (AEC).

To further support the economic needs of adult learners, Gavilan Regional ACES offers short-term vocational programs in Spanish in entrepreneurship and small business ownership. However, there is a need to provide greater awareness of current short-term programs and increase enrollment of these programs to pre-pandemic numbers. Further, additional short-term programs need to be developed to meet the economic development needs of the region. The consortium will evaluate the best programs to develop and will consider the top five in demand jobs (registered nurse, sales representative, first line supervisor, customer service representative, and general and operations manager) and skills (customer service, scheduling, sales, repair, budgeting and computer) and skill cluster (health care, administration, sales, and business and finance) during the first year of the three-year strategic planning process.

How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?

Gavilan Regional ACES accessed employment and labor market data from the Centers of Excellence for Labor Market Research for the San Francisco Bay Area region, which includes San Benito and Santa Clara counties.

How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?

Gavilan Regional ACES will first determine which additional programs will be developed in the first year of the three-year strategic plan as well as support existing programs. In addition, a new outreach campaign will be developed that not only communicates offerings in an effective manner to community members not currently enrolled but also to existing students across the consortium region. For existing programs, the consortium will track enrollment and completion rates regularly (every semester). The consortium will work to ensure their strategic goals are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) during monthly consortium meetings. Local indicators with year one target (number of participants) that the consortium and individual members will assess to measure progress include the following:

Consortium level targets:

                                                                       Year 1 (22-23)    ActualYr1     Year 2 (23-24)

Low income (AE 310-overall)                          600                    P                  660

Long-term unemployed (AE 309-overall)        700                    P                  770

Participants with transition to post-secondary (credit college) (AE 637-overall):

 Gavilan                                                           25                      P                  28

MHCAS                                                          15                       P                   17

GUSD Adult Education                                   –                        –                    –     

SBHS Adult Education                                   –                        –                    –

 Participants with transition to post-secondary (CTE) (AE 636-overall):                                                         

Gavilan College                                             55                     P                    61

MHCAS                                                          –                       –                    –

GUSD Adult Education                                  –                       –                    –

SBHS Adult Education                                   –                      –                    –

Participants with transition to ASE (AE 500-overall): 

Gavilan College                                               55                 P                    61

MHCAS                                                            69                20                  23

GUSD Adult Education                                     –                  –                    –

SBHS Adult Education                                     –                   –                    –   

Address Educational Needs

2023-24 Strategies

Plan to identify partner obstacles/barriers to offer ESL and HSE

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Rebuild ESL and HSE Offerings

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)

For the 2023-24 year, the consortium will continue its efforts to reconnect with past community partners including elementary school sites, libraries, migrant and low-income housing as well as local businesses to identify what is needed to bring back ESL and HSE course offerings within the community. Doing so will address educational needs and gaps in ESL services in the community. During the fall, consortium members will identify these partners and make initial contact to assess feasibility of offering ESL and HSE courses. During spring, these consortium partners will put in place necessary agreements to establish classes in fall 2024.


Outreach Consultant

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Community Outreach

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)

Due to onboarding of new member staff and bylaw updates, the following activity was postponed in 2022-23. In 2023-24, the consortium will increase community outreach efforts by assessing members’ current marketing and communications information and identifying gaps in messaging. The outreach campaign will include program offerings information and highlight program outcomes, and accurately target adults in the community. This may include development of multilingual collateral, student and partner testimonials, reaching out to partners to help promote awareness of program and class offerings through their onsite and online websites, and paid advertisements. During the fall, the consortium will identify a contractor to conduct a needs assessment of outreach requirements and develop materials and outreach strategies based on best practices and culturally responsive approaches. During spring, the consortium will implement the outreach strategy. Implementing a marketing and outreach campaign will raise awareness of the adult services available to our adult community as many may not be aware of consortium services. Once aware, they may find a needed resource or program and utilize it thus increasing the number of community members served.

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

2023-24 Strategies

Need assessment consultant

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Develop integrated needs assessment tools

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)

In 2023-24, consortium members discussed using CASAS’s assessment tool. Each member agreed to use the CASAS assessment and identified common variables. In addition, consortium members developed an exit survey to gather employment and career interest information among other items. Further, MHUSD opted to develop and implement an online needs assessment of its parent community internally, thus not using a consultant. In 2023-24, consortium members will implement these instruments and report out to the consortium at the end of each semester.  In addition, the MHUSD’s needs assessment results will be reviewed in the fall 2023 and used to assist with outreach and programming. 


Develop tracking system

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Improve Transitions Tracking

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)

Members are working to assist current students identify educational and career goals. Counselors provide students with necessary information to achieve educational and career goals. All adult schools in the region have or will have access to counselors who work to help them transition to college or work. By the end of 2022-23, two members have a part-time counselor, and one member has a full-time counselor. Members are discussing the need to provide a consortium wide counselor who will not only compliment work done at member sites with part-time counselors but also assist the one member who does not have a counselor. Further, the consortium does not have a formal structure to track or share information about postsecondary interests with other members. The consortium will look into state data that is available on transitions and determine how best to track consortium member level transition. This will allow the college to track how many students transferred from member institutions. In addition, partner counseling teams will hold periodic meetings to update and exchange information about contacts, financial aid, graduates, short-term vocational programs, and other services. An initial meeting was held in Spring 2023. Periodic counselor meetings (frequency to be determined) will be conducted in 2023-24.

Improve Effectiveness of Services

2023-24 Strategies

Assess current and new short-term vocational programs

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Offer Additional Short Term Vocational Programs

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • Employment and Earnings: Median Change in Earnings (AE 801 - Overall)
  • Employment and Earnings: Participants Who Became Employed in the 2nd Quarter After Exit (AE 505 - Overall)

The consortium will continue to examine regional labor market (LM) data and input from regional business and workforce agencies to develop additional short-term vocational programs. For fall 2023, based on reviewed LM data, MHUSD’s needs assessment and in-demand jobs, skills and emerging skill clusters, the consortium will identify one or two short-term vocational programs to develop. For spring 2024, curriculum development will take place along with addressing any protocols needed to deliver these new programs in 2024-25.


Career Services

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Build Capacity for Career Services

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • Employment and Earnings: Median Change in Earnings (AE 801 - Overall)
  • Employment and Earnings: Participants Who Became Employed in the 2nd Quarter After Exit (AE 505 - Overall)

 A new position to extend career services across Gavilan college, including adult education students, was hired Spring 2023. Services will include career panels, internships, resume and job search workshops, and career counseling. The goal is to have a bilingual person in the new position to provide greater service to English language learning students. The college will also continue to provide counseling and peer advisors to serve continuing education students. As part of the job duties, the staff member will develop a mechanism for tracking adult education students’ participation.  MHUSD will also look to hire mentors for the 2023-24 year to support both students in the classroom and the part-time counselor. In 2022-23, GUSD hired a part-time counselor. As noted in prior activity, consortium members have agreed to use CASAS to collect adult learner information. In addition, members will continue to onboard and train staff to use the wage and earnings survey. To compliment the collection of earnings by CASAS, consortium members will implement an end of semester survey that will also ask about income.

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.

Planned allocations align with the annual adult education plan as it supports continued funding of existing and new programs that meet educational and economic regional needs. In addition, consortium members have identified the need to conduct consortium wide activities that will ensure greater awareness and enrollment. In addition, consortium members have identified the need to provide additional consortium wide counseling to support transition to post-secondary and/or workforce. Finally, efforts to streamline internal processes such as data collection and reporting is supported by the consortium as it identified the need to ensure a part-time consortium director position (previously the position was only 10 hours a week). Members are committed to serving the consortium community and are working to ensure activities noted are funded appropriately and equitably through annual budgets and work plans that support these efforts as well as consortium amendments that address one time activities. The current allocation is distributed as follows: 

  • Gavilan College             (39%)

  • Morgan Hill Community Adult School     (35%) 

  • Gilroy Adult School                 (19%) 

  • San Benito Adult School                         (7%)

Each member works to serve specific needs in the community. Gavilan College continues to serve as the fiscal agent but also provides ESL, citizenship, short-term vocational and continuing education programming. Morgan Hill Community Adult School provides similar programming including adult basic education. Both San Benito and Gilroy Adult schools provide High School Equivalency (HSE) programming. 

An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2023-24.

Consortium members have been working to finalize the consortium bylaws and included in the bylaws are processes for expending carry-over fundings. The process which will be used this year is as follows: 

1)     Members with 20% or more carryovers will submit an expenditure plan in September or 15 months after initial funds were disbursed outlining expenditures and timeline to expend funds. The plan must be approved by the consortium. The expenditure plan includes a contingency plan if funds can not be used for whatever reason as specified. Members are required to maintain a separate line item for carryover funds to ensure funds are identifiable and distinct from yearly operating expenditures.

2)     The consortium will ensure costs outlined in the expenditure plan align with the three-year plan.

3)     The director of the consortium will meet with such members either monthly or bi-monthly outside of monthly meetings to ensure progress towards expending funds.

Members have outlined how they will use carryover funding from 2021-22 and approved by the Consortium. Activities outlined in their plans align with the three-year plan and include the following:

MHCAS will:

  • Purchase furniture to update their facilities.

  • Hire classroom assistants to provide tutoring in HiSet/ESL classes.

  • Purchase consumable materials needed for class offerings.

  •  Create opportunities for transitions to college by touring local post-secondary institutions.

  • Four staff members will attend CAEP conference; this will assist with onboarding as this member experienced staff turnover.

  • Offer adult education family night art activities to increase enrollment/retention and wellness.

  • Purchase digital libraries and software to increase literacy and language acquisition.

San Benito Unified School District will:

  • Purchase materials for a welding class offered at San Benito by  Gavilan College.

  • Cover costs of attending professional development events for district adult education staff.

  • Purchase computers for adult education students.

These members are also working to outline how they will use 2022-23. Discussions have included setting aside consortium wide costs for items such as a full-time counselor, consortium director salary, and meeting supplies.  

Certification

Gavilan Joint CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Susan Sweeney

08/15/2023 04:37 PM PDT

Gilroy Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Greg Camacho-Light

08/15/2023 12:14 PM PDT

Morgan Hill Unified - Member Representative

  • Director of Family & Community Engagement
  • sapienc@mhusd.org
  • (408) 201-6000 ext: 51076
Approved by Abel DeLeon

08/15/2023 01:17 PM PDT

San Benito High - Member Representative

Approved by Claire Grissom

08/15/2023 12:45 PM PDT