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CAEP Annual Plan: 2021-22 30 Mendocino-Lake CCD

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2021-22 Produced: Sep 14, 2021, 03:43 PM UTC Christy Smith

30 Mendocino-Lake CCD

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
ML ACE approved the 20-21 allocations to its member agencies. The mission of our consortium is to collaborate and share resources across historical and institutional boundaries to provide adults in our region equitable, seamless and integrated educational and career pathways and services with multiple opportunities for successful entry and exit. As we continue to effectively collaborate to support this mission, we have accomplished some of our targeted goals, but not all. Despite the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis regionally, nationally and worldwide, we continued to offer educational services in all our locations, albeit remotely and with appropriate health safety precautions. We continued to provide remote instruction and other distanced educational services. Our agency members who provided high school diplomas and HiSET prep and testing continued to provide and assist adult students to continue their goals of finishing high school equivalency requirements in order to obtain their diplomas or pass their HiSET tests. Our Basic skills and ESL classes continued to run in the adult schools and at the college as non-credit classes. Instructors reached out to students via email, telephone calls, social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.) to motivate students to continue distanced learning and learning from home, from their teachers and peers. Many of our adults students also had to navigate learning at home with their school children who were also learning from home since all public K-12 schools were closed and schooling was transitioned to distanced education. Due to the closure of many businesses, many of our adult students lost their jobs or had reduced time at work. Needless to say, many instructors of Basic skills and ESL reported that it was a challenge for students to persist and to carve time out for their own classes when they had the added burden of taking care of their children’s home schooling as well as financially supporting their families due to loss or reduction of work hours while experiencing the stress of their health and safety the midst of the health crisis.Our CTE programs continued to operate via remotely and extended their classes through the mid-summer, so that CTE students can fulfill externship requirement hours to graduate and find jobs. Our MA (Medical Assistant) programs in two counties continued to run their programs and graduated almost all of their students with one or two students dropping out of the programs. In fact, all of our medical assistant students were promised jobs at their externship facilities even before they completed their program. The Vocational Nursing Program graduated 27 students this year, in addition to students in three cohorts who completed their CNA programs. The Phlebotomy program continued to run despite stopping classes at some time because of the impact of the pandemic. These students finished their program and passed their licensure exams as well.Our AWD students were not left alone with no support from their program teachers. Most AWD students were equipped with technology and internet access to get services remotely. A few received services at their homes or outdoors weather permitting. All AWD students had regular contact with teachers via phone, video or in person. Teachers continued to provide life skills via interactive classes on Zoom and in person. Supplies were delivered to students’ homes for use in cooking and other classes. Classes were designed around students’ interests to maintain their engagement and included reading, starting micro-enterprises, traveling around the world remotely and learning about different cultures and customs. The CAEP allocation for this fiscal year remained at the same level as last year with no additional monies given for enrollment and COLA in our CAEP-funded programs. Therefore, we will have to reconfigure and leverage existing resources to sustain most of our programs. For example, we will make sure wrap-around services including providing for digital devices, hotspots and Wi-Fi access for our students are accessible and available. We will continue to fund our support specialists in remote areas so that students will have points of contact locally and connect them to transitional services whether in basic skills/ESL to existing CTE programs in our region. Our implementation of Community Pro Suite as an online referral system will be a valuable to tool to have seamless support and communication among agencies involved in wrap around services for students. In addition, all our monthly consortium meetings were now done remotely, which has reduced travel expenditures for this fiscal year. In addition, during 2021, we drastically reduced our expenditures for fee-based professional development activities but we continued to attend webinars, conferences and workshops via online.
Regional Planning Overview
These strategies and goals approved by the consortium for 2020-2021, include all those listed below and the outcome/results of meeting these goals. In addition, we have also included plans and strategies on how we want to accomplish upcoming goals in 2021-2022 based on our 3-year plan:1. Identify, develop and expand offerings of non-credit Mendocino College curriculum in the priority pathways: We have expanded our non-credit course offerings in ESL, ESL for Home Health Aides, HISET prep and basic computer skills classes in several of our locations in collaboration with the Mendocino College non-credit offerings. In 20/21, we developed the non-credit sustainable construction trade curriculum and is now going to be offered as a group of non-credit construction courses to complete a short-term non-credit certificate in Sustainable Construction Trade in the fall of 2021. We are in the process of submitting the non-credit computer applications certificate (business office Word application) to the curriculum committee of the college district. This non-credit curriculum when approve, will be offered in the fall semester of 2022.2. Improve enrollment in existing programs based on community needs data: According to the LaunchBoard Adult Education Pipeline data, our consortium steadily increased the number of students we served in all our programs during the last three years. From 2017 to 2019, we served about 1800 to almost 2000 students each year. However, primarily due to the COVID-19 health crisis, we have a dip in the numbers in 2020 to about 1700 (TE Summary Data) and even lower to 1600 for 20/21. This is not unusual since many of our students have low literacy and low digital literacy and therefore did not enroll in online or mostly online classes. We hope to continue to review our data in Launch Board, TE and CommunityPro Suite and strategize how we can continue to increase our enrollment, retention and persistent rates by utilizing varied ways of engaging students through small-sized classroom instruction, remote/online instructions and/or hybrid learning. 3. Create and implement strategies that improve the sustainability of our health care programs, Our Health care programs in our three locations have consistently been filled and students who are graduating with short-term CTE certificates in the Vocational nursing, certified nursing assistant, dental assistant, medical assistant and phlebotomy programs. We have increase graduates from these programs at a rate of 10-15% in three years. We will continue to fund, support these CTE programs, and draw interest and student enrollment from our geographically remote areas where students do not have many career education opportunities. This is a challenge since there is no public transportation to these geographically remote areas, 4. Improve the ease with which our students connect to outside support agency services: Due to our partnership with Career Point in Lake and Mendocino Counties, we are able to share and circulate information to our consortium members, which they pass on to their students. Information about job openings, training and workshops and other work-related services that are available at their Career Point sites are passed on to our adult students. We hope to continue to pass on job-related information, basic needs and student-worker support services information and other wrap-around services, as we continue to implement the Community Pro Suite student and agency engagement tool. 5. Complete pathway maps in the priority industry areas: In 19/20, we completed the medical pathway map and brochures that were published and were circulated to our members and our consortium partners in the community. In 20/21, new pathway mapping were initiated and will be completed in 21/22. In the coming year of 21/22, we hope to have three pathway maps completed and distributed as informational booklets: the medical pathway, the sustainable construction pathway and the business applications pathway. Publishing these career pathway maps as informational booklets will provide the students with information to focus on completing required classes that follow educational pathways that would help them get their career technical education certificates that will eventually land them in jobs in their career choices that are economically sustaining their families.6. Continue to collect, analyze and improve the accuracy of our student data: The newly redesigned Adult Ed Pipeline in LaunchBoard also will continue to give us data that we can use to review our enrollment, retention and persistent rates with combine data from TopsPro Enterprise (TE, our state-required student data collection system) and MIS data from the college. In addition, as we gain traction and more member usage of Community Pro Suite in 21/22, we will be able to collect, analyze and improve our student data from several data systems: TE data, MIS data and Cal Jobs data.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
Improve access and alignment of HSE/HSD throughout the region based on best practices.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
In 20/21, we offered High School Diploma classes in six of our 10 Mendocino-Lake ACE locations (Ukiah, Upper Lake, Kelseyville and Willits, Fort Bragg and Round Valley). HiSET prep and tests were offered in Anderson Valley and in Ukiah. We also have HiSET testing centers in Ukiah.According to our data in LaunchBoard Adult Education Pipeline, since 18/19, there is a significant increase of students who are in our ABE/ASE programs. Data shows that there 32% of the students we serve in our consortium are in ABE which is a higher percent that students in ESL programs which is at 30%, ASE at 19% and CTE at 21% and AWD at 12%. https://www.calpassplus.org/Launchboard/Adult-Education-Pipeline.aspx
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
The one activity that we have started to implement in 20/21 and we expect better usage from is the implementation of Community Pro Suites (CPS) referral tool. The implementation of this tool is a coordinated effort of ML ACE member agencies with our local Workforce Development Board and the Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation. Upon successful implementation, these agencies will be more effective at referring our adult students to each other for support services that will positively affect the students’ ability to achieve their educational and workforce goals. This will lead to an increase in our persistence rate and an increase in employment and wage data. At monthly data review meetings the director will prepare and bring reports from TE and CPS that compile the student data necessary to check on our progress indicator goals. We will monitor student persistence rates using CAEP Summary tables in TE. Through the CPS system, we will generate and review reports that identify individual students needing follow up. Each member agency will be responsible for the follow up and outreach, with the goal of assisting students with overcoming barriers to education and employment. Mendocino College will continue to develop curriculum of non-credit courses to expand our course offerings at Adult Schools throughout our district. These offerings were identified through American Community data review, labor market review and community partner feedback. The results were to target offerings in Construction & Trades, Healthcare and Business.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Create and offer a construction corps program for adults in Lake and Mendocino Counties— Non-credit construction curriculum developed and submitted to MCCC curriculum committee in the Spring 2020. Non-credit construction coursed will now be offered in the Fall of 2021.
Strategy #2
Strategy #2Expand Mendocino College non-credit classes at adult ed. locations for ESL (incl. Home Health Aide), HiSET prep and beginning computers.ESL classes in six locations including geographically areas of Anderson Valley and Round Valley. Basic skills classes and HiSET prep classes in six locations.Non-credit Basic computer skills classes were offered in four locations (Anderson Valley, Lakeport and Ukiah and Round Valley).
Strategy #3
Strategy #3Create and offer short term intermediate non-credit computer classes (Microsoft Office Suite)We hired a college instructor to create a non-credit sequential workshop-style curriculum teaching Microsoft Office Applications which is now submitted to the Curriculum Committee for the Fall. We are hoping to offer these classes in the Fall of 2022.
Strategy #4
Strategy #4Offer Basic Math for Trades as a non-credit MC course—Course offerings of the non-credit construction program in the fall 2021 include Construction Math.

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Strategy #1Provide student access to academic guidance servicesOutreach and student support specialists in our three geographically remote areas are supporting and giving academic and wrap-around student services so that students have seamless transitions from basic skills or high school equivalency classes to CTE programs or non-credit classes at the college district in our region.
Strategy #2
Provide pathway presentations in appropriate adult education courses to build awareness and help students stay connected.Mainly through our support specialists, our adult students in our programs are connected to our offerings, receive educational, and career/job information through intra-agency and inter-agency communication in our region.
Strategy #3
Finish Business pathway map with inclusion of career centers as part of the student servicesThis upcoming year 21/22, we hope get approval to offer the Computer Application Non-credit Certificate in 22/23. Then, we can begin to develop the Business pathway map.
Strategy #4
Strategy #4Finish Construction/Trades pathway map with inclusion of career centers as part of the student servicesThis upcoming year, the non-credit construction courses are being offered in the Fall of 2021. We will make efforts to hire someone to create a construction/trades pathway map.

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Strategy #1Connect our students to wrap-around services needed for academic successWhile we are still working remotely, we hope to utilize CommunityPro Suite to efficiently and remotely refer students to services in our internal network as well as our external network.
Strategy #2
Strategy #2Embed service providers at adult school locations including Career PointIn progress
Strategy #3
Strategy #3Create work based learning opportunities in our priority pathwaysIn progress

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Strategy #1Data workgroup meetings reviewing agency DIR, table summary and other applicable reports from TE or LaunchBoard.
Strategy #2
Strategy #2Attend annual CAEP Summit, CASAS Summer Institute and other regional workshops and webinars that align to our strategic plan remotely.
Strategy #3
Address racial inequitiesAddress racial inequities by first increasing awareness and knowledge about structural racism and institutional racism in our educational system. CAEP educators need to know learn and understand the issue before plunging ahead and creating perceived needs for such program that may not be equitably accessible to all students.To address the systemic racial inequities re-surfacing in our country, we are mindful of serving all students not only in all the seven CAEP areas but also making sure all adult learners of color have easier access to our programs and classes. However, in implementing our remote teaching strategies via online, the disparity in internet, technological access and availability were more pronounced among our low-income economically disadvantaged students and households. In fact, our geographically remote areas of Anderson Valley, Round Valley and Fort Bragg have limited internet access and broadband capabilities, which hindered and made it difficult for adult students in our programs to continually engage in online classroom meetings or to complete their classes remotely. With this unprecedented period and the necessity to continue instruction remotely and digitally, it is essential that we address the barriers of computer literacy and internet accessibility for our adult students. We will have to create strategies in 2021-2022 to meet the computer literacy needs of our adult students and the regional need for improve internet accessibility.

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Strategy #1Implement Community Pro Suite (CPS) with participation from Career Point agencies.In March of 2020, before the COVID-19 health crisis and before our regional shelter-in-place order, we held a Community Pro Suite training in which we invited our consortium members and community partners from Workforce Alliance of the North Bay, Career Point (Mendocino Private Industry Council) Mendocino and Lake Counties, Career Hub (Center from Mendocino College), etc.. to begin implementing CPS and its many function as a student tracking, referral and data management system which we can share with consortium members and community stakeholders.We plan to continue and invite more community stakeholders who can share and benefit from this system to track and provide referrals for students so that the students are able to get wrap around services from the community.
Strategy #2
Strategy #2Continue outreach to agency partners to provide integrated services and leverage resourcesThrough the CPS training in March of 2020 and invitations to attend our regular consortium meetings, we have reached out to our agency partners and community partners like Career Point in Mendocino and Lake Counties, the Workforce Alliance of the North Bay, Redwood Children Services, North Coast Opportunities, Ukiah Valley Association for Habilitation, Adventist Health etc. In 2020-21 we will continue to reach out to our community partners and potential partners like the Career Hub Center (Mendocino College) Native American Resource Center (Mendocino College), and other community service providers.
Strategy #3
Strategy #3Create and utilize an instructional services agreement template with Adventist HealthThis has been done through the work and instructional services agreement between Ukiah Adult School and Adventist Health of Ukiah. Ukiah Adult School began a service agreement with Adventist Health to use an employee of Adventist Health to teach and direct the Vocational Nursing Program at Ukiah Adult School.
Strategy #4
Strategy #4Combine healthcare advisory committees into one meeting for all programsOur consortium members have been represented in the healthcare advisory committees in Mendocino County.
Strategy #5
Continue annual marketing plan with the regional marketing firm, Pacific Sky.WE have continued to utilize Pacific Sky for our marketing needs to advertise courses, programs in the CAEP areas that we offer and support. We also utilized Pacific Sky to print our Medical Pathways Map Brochures which were widely distributed in Mendocino and Lake Counties.
Strategy #6
Strategy #6Continue to support Outreach & Support Specialists to serve Anderson Valley, Ft. Bragg and Covelo areas.In 20021, the consortium continued to fund outreach & support specialists to serve Anderson Valley, Ft. Bragg and Covelo areas.

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.
ML ACE created an internal mini-grant allocation process for non-MOE funds. We call these "project based funds". Over the past three years, ML ACE Agencies have submitted proposals for on-going programs/projects. These projects we then reviewed and approved (or revised or denied). In November of each program year, member agencies provide a detailed presentation to the consortium that shows how the allocated funds are spent and aligns the expenditures to our annual plan. The implementation of these processes gives ML ACE significant oversight of the funds and ensures internal accountability.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2021-22.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 20-21. Each member agency provides their internal plan for spending down their carry-over funds, which must include strategies that are aligned with our current annual plan, at our November monthly meeting. Our policy includes language that ensures the agency can only spend the funds on current approved programs and activities from the original approved project based proposals or previously MOE funds. However, in light of the rapid switch to delivering educational and wrap around services from -face to -face to remote delivery due to the current COVID environment, we will continue to prioritize needs in our consortium that will support and fund those needs appropriately within ML ACE guidelines and CAEP guidelines.

Certification

Anderson Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Noor Dawood

08/03/2021 02:01 PM PDT

Fort Bragg Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Coni Belli

08/03/2021 12:20 PM PDT

Kelseyville Unified - Member Representative

  • Timothy Gill
  • Director, Student Support Services
  • tgill@kvusd.org
  • (707) 279-1511
Approved by Lynn Thomasson

08/03/2021 02:51 PM PDT

Lake Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Beth Hampson

08/03/2021 12:55 PM PDT

Mendocino Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Tami Mee

08/03/2021 08:21 AM PDT

Mendocino-Lake CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Ms. Euline Olinger Ed. D

08/02/2021 06:35 PM PDT

Round Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Ms. Euline Olinger Ed. D

08/03/2021 01:03 PM PDT

Ukiah Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Christy Smith

09/14/2021 08:43 AM PDT

Upper Lake Unified - Member Representative

  • Jeff Sturr
  • Coordinator of Secondary Pupil Personnel Services
  • jsturr@ulusd.org
  • (707) 275-0840
Approved by Michael Kauble Upper Lake Unified School District

08/03/2021 08:46 PM PDT

Willits Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Nikki Agenbroad

08/03/2021 04:09 PM PDT