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CAEP Annual Plan: 2022-23 30 Mendocino-Lake CCD

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2022-23 Produced: Sep 14, 2022, 05:30 PM UTC Amanda Xu

30 Mendocino-Lake CCD

Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

The mission statement of our consortium states that “the ML ACE consortium members are committed to collaborating and sharing resources throughout our region to provide adults with equitable, seamless and integrated educational and/or career pathways/services with multiple opportunities for successful entry and exit”. The goals of 22/23 will continue to offer programs that we offered in 21/22 with an added non-credit, short term CTE program in Sustainable Construction Trade program offered by the college. The majority of our adult schools offer high school diploma or high school equivalency certificates, ESL and Citizenship classes, Career Technical Education programs in the health care industry, classes for parents to support in K-12 success and programs for Adults with Disabilities (AWD). We are a collaborative, creative and resourceful group of educators and service providers committed to serving the needs of our diverse, rural and geographically spread-out communities within our two counties. ML ACE approved the 21/22 allocations to its member agencies.  As we continue to effectively collaborate to support this mission, we have accomplished a few of our targeted goals, but not all. ML ACE continued to offer classes and continued its CTE programs into the second year of the pandemic , in the midst of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis regionally, nationally and worldwide. We continued to offer educational services in all our locations, albeit remotely and some slowly easing into face-to-face instruction in small cohort groups and with appropriate health safety precautions. We slowly added hybrid and small group or in-person instructions in addition to 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. In fact, in 21/22, the HSE programs graduated 22 students while the high school diploma programs in several of our consortium locations had total graduates of about 90 graduates. We also added Leggett Valley to our consortium offering High School diploma. Our Basic skills and ESL classes continued to run in the adult schools and at the college as non-credit classes. Instructors continued to reach 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 became more adept at navigating learning at home along with caring for their school children in 2021/2022.  Many businesses that were closed slowly opened their doors for services but also some closed their doors permanently. Many of our adult students who lost their jobs or had reduced time at work during 20/21, slowly got back to work, continued at school or moved to different jobs and different line of work 21/22.  Many instructors of Basic skills and ESL reported that it continued to be a  challenge for students to persist and to carve time out for their own classes when they were still worried and burdened about job security and their own skills in addition to taking care of their children’s schooling. Providing for their families adequately greatly impacted their class attendance and persistence.  Our CTE programs navigated the health restrictions by providing small group instructions and online instructions. Our CTE health care programs also extended their classes through the mid-summer, so that CTE students can fulfill externship required hours to graduate and find jobs. In fact, most of our medical assistant students were promised jobs at their externship facilities even before they completed their program. Our AWD students were not left alone with no support from their program teachers. Individual AWD students were contacted and teachers continued to connect with students via phone and video-chat. Teachers continued to provide life skills via video conferencing or Zoom. Several AWD clients of UVAH obtained jobs skills and were hired by local businesses. The CAEP allocation for 21/22 year remained largely at the same level as last year with a small amount of COLA but no additional monies given for enrollment in our CAEP-funded programs. Therefore, we will have to reconfigure and leverage existing resources to sustain most of our programs. For example, we provided student support services by providing digital devices, hotspots and Wi-Fi access for our students.  We continued to fund our support specialists in remote areas so that students will have points of contact locally and connect them to transitional services  in basic skills, ESL or to existing CTE programs in our region. We have increased our usage of our referral system specially when we hired and trained our admin assistant to use CommunityPro

Regional Planning Overview

We will continue to effectively meet the goals and strategies identified from the 3-year planning, which are 1.to identify, develop and expand offerings of non-credit Mendocino College curriculum in our priority career education pathways, 2. To improve enrollment in existing programs based on community needs data 3. To create and implement strategies that improve the sustainability of our health care programs, 4 to improve access and availability of outside support agency services for our students 5. To finish the pathway maps in our priority career education areas, 6. to continue to collect, analyze and improve the accuracy of our student data, 7. To improve student retention rates from enrollment to completion of personal education goals, and 8. Equitably fill program gaps throughout consortium. These are the metrics that we have selected and included in our three year plan: Student Barriers: English language learner, low income and low literacy. For Progress: Functional level gains in ESL; for Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) and with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college);For Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency and for Employment and Earnings :change in median earning. Our SMART goals include: By June 2025, to develop and expand those offerings based on the identified needs, create curriculum in the priority areas of business, construction trades and health care. In addition, by 2025,  to increase the number of  participants, persistence, completion, and transition rates by 5% .


Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

Due to the number and percentage of the adult population with no high school diploma, the number of language learners, and other statistics relevant to our adult population in the region as shown in the CAEP Fact Sheets of 2021, the consortium determined that these programs are the greatest needs in our region: High school diploma or equivalency, ESL classes and short term CTE courses in health care, construction/trade and business office skills. Most of the adult schools in our consortium have high diploma programs or high school equivalency programs for our adult students. Some of these adult schools like Anderson Valley, Fort Bragg, Leggett Valley and Round Valley are geographically isolated areas separated by winding roads and mountain passes with few industries and have higher numbers of adults with low literacy, low income and English learners which have been barriers for many adults completing their success and completion in their program areas.  However, we have a bigger-size adult school, Ukiah Adult School which offer  not only high diploma in the correctional facility, but also GED prep and testing, Citizenship class, employment and coaching of adults with disabilities through the Ukiah Valley Association of Habilitation (UVAH) as well a robust vocational nursing program. Ukiah Adult School's varied offerings of programs have filled in the gaps for those programs that are needed in other hard to reach areas of the two counties. In addition to the high school diploma programs from our consortium, in Mendocino and Lake counties, there is a federally funded program called HEP (High School Equivalency Program) through the Office of Migrant Education that offers high school equivalency certificates via exams. The HEP program’s eligibility requirements include adults you have never had a high school diploma in the US, have worked at any point in their adult lives as seasonal agricultural workers and are living in the US. Those adults wanting a high school equivalency certificate but do not qualify as seasonal agricultural workers, are then enrolled in our consortium’s high school equivalency programs. ESL classes are offered by Mendocino College and courses are held in Fort Bragg, Anderson Valley, Round Valley, Lakeport, Willits and Ukiah campuses. The Fort Bragg Coastal Adult School also offers a multi-level ESL class and a citizenship class at the adult school are funded by CAEP funds. We will continue to expand ESL offerings in different adult school locations so that many more adults in our communities can access basic skills classes and obtain their high school diploma or equivalency certificates. The two counties of education, which are part of our consortium, offer programs in the heath care field. Mendocino County of Education's CTE program offers a dental assistant, phlebotomy and a medical assistant program. Lake Count of Education offers a certified nursing assistant and a medical assistant program that are critically needed at this time. These CTE programs have great successes and many of the graduates obtained sustainable jobs in our region. 

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

According to the CAEP Fact Sheet taken from the American Community Survey Demographic Data of 2020, from Mendocino County and Lake County census, Mendocino and Lake counties have a population of about 95,000 who are over 16 years old and about 84% of that population are 30 years and older. Of the 95, 000 of the over 16 years old population, we have about 15,181 adults who do not have a diploma and about 3,323 English language learners, 24,383 who are at poverty line or below, 7337 who are unemployed and about 23,165 adults with disabilities.  From these data, the barriers that are challenges for our consortium as educational and training agencies center around low literacy, low income, high number of English learners and unemployment.

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

These are the SMART goals that the consortium members are committed to achieving to address these regional needs and gaps in services . We will measure the effectiveness and progress of our strategies and activities by evaluating if we have met the SMART goals created by the consortium:

OBJECTIVE:  By June of 2023, identify non-credit curriculum in the priority pathways of business, construction, and healthcare. By June of 2025, develop and expand those offerings based on the identified needs.

OBJECTIVE:  By June of 2023, assess expanding credit and non-credit MC curriculum through the use of technology at various locations to offer hybrid synchronous instruction with onsite local tutor support. If deemed relevant, pilot up to three courses between 2024 and 2025.

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, create a document (community catalog) to identify and define support services available for students and communicate those services and connections to all consortium members, with continuous updates going through 2025 and beyond. (academic, financial, housing, emotional, etc.)   

Here are the SMART goals that we would like to achieve in order to improve the effectiveness of our programs and services. Our strategies will focus on increasing the number of adults served to become participants, increase the number of students completing HSD or HSE and increase the number students transitioning to CTE:

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of adults served who become participants (also known as persistence rate) will increase by 5%. 

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students completing a HSD or HSE will increase by 5%. 

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students transitioning from non credit to credit classes will increase by 5%.

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students transitioning to CTE will increase by 5%.

Address Educational Needs

2022-23 Strategies

Identify and expand non-credit curriculum in priority pathways

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

non-credit curriculum in the priority pathways

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)

Address Educational Needs

Description of Objective: From data in the CAEP Fact Sheets provided to the consortium which shows low number of adults with high school diplomas, high number of English learners and increase job demands in these industry sectors,  the consortium determined that these programs are the greatest educational needs in our region: High school diploma or equivalency ESL classes, Short term CTE courses in health care, construction/trade and business office skills

These are the SMART goals that the consortium members are committed to achieving to address these educational needs:

OBJECTIVE:  By June of 2023, identify non-credit curriculum in the priority pathways of business, construction, and healthcare. By June of 2025, develop and expand those offerings based on the identified needs.

OBJECTIVE:  By June of 2023, assess expanding credit and non-credit MC curriculum through the use of technology at various locations to offer hybrid synchronous instruction with onsite local tutor support. If deemed relevant, pilot up to three courses between 2024 and 2025

.OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, 40% of ML ACE agencies will assist at least 10% of their participants to transition to post-secondary, which includes CTE and credit college courses. 

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

2022-23 Strategies

Improve access, availability, integration and effective of programs in the region

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Improve the effectiveness of all programs

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Literacy (AE 311 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)

We will continue to support the goals and strategies identified from the previous 3-year planning which include strategies: 

  • To create and implement strategies that improve the sustainability of our health care programs,

  • To improve access and availability of outside support agency services for our students

  • To finish the pathway maps in our priority career education areas,

  • To continue to collect, analyze and improve the accuracy of our student data

  • To improve student retention rates from enrollment to completion of personal education goals, 

  • Equitably fill program gaps throughout the consortium.

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, create a document (community catalog) to identify and define support services available for students and communicate those services and connections to all consortium members, with continuous updates going through 2025 and beyond. (academic, financial, housing, emotional, etc.)  


Improve Effectiveness of Services

2022-23 Strategies

Improve the effectiveness of all programs as evidenced by increase persistence, completion and trans

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Improve the effectiveness of all programs

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college) (AE 637 - Overall)

We will continue to support the goals and strategies identified from the previous 3-year planning which include strategies: 

  • To continue to collect, analyze and improve the accuracy of our student data so that we know how we are improving in our effectiveness

  • To improve student retention rates from enrollment to completion of personal education goals, 

By June 2023, the number of adults served who become participants (also known as persistence rate) will increase by 5% 

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of adults served who become participants (also known as persistence rate) will increase by 5%. 

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students completing a HSD or HSE will increase by 5%. 

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students transitioning from non credit to credit classes will increase by 5%.

OBJECTIVE:  By June 2023, the number of students transitioning to CTE will increase by 5%.

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 CAEP allocation for this fiscal year slightly increased with the addition of COLA but no additional monies were given for enrollment in our CAEP-funded programs. Therefore, we will have to reconfigure and leverage existing funds to sustain most of our programs. However, during the pandemic, through the CARES Act from the college and districts, we were able provide students with hotspots to access Wi-Fi and internet for their virtual classes. We continued 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.  Another use of our CAEP funds was our subscription to online referral system called Community Pro Suite as 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 done remotely, which has reduced travel expenditures for this fiscal year. In addition, during 2021-2022, we drastically reduced our expenditures for fee-based professional development activities but we continued to attend webinars, conferences and workshops via online. In the next three years, there will be uncertainty about the return to in person classroom instruction as the only method of instruction. Undoubtedly, the combination of virtual and/hybrid classes are more advantageous to adult students, thus there will be increase expenditures in paying for instructors, for stronger Wi-Fi connectivity and more student-friendly technology.

In terms of carryover funds, we will continue to incorporate remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for the next fiscal year. Each member agency provides their internal plan for spending down their carry-over funds, which include strategies that are aligned with our current 3-year plan. 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.

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 2022-23.

In terms of carryover funds, we will continue to incorporate remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for the next fiscal year. Each member agency provides their internal plan for spending down their carry-over funds, which include strategies that are aligned with our current 3-year plan. 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.

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.

Certification

Anderson Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Noor Dawood

09/13/2022 02:28 PM PDT

Fort Bragg Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Arlissa Tupper

09/13/2022 11:41 AM PDT

Kelseyville Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Joe Del Prete

09/13/2022 12:21 PM PDT

Lake Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Beth Hampson

09/14/2022 09:37 AM PDT

Leggett Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Melissa Ragsdale

09/13/2022 02:32 PM PDT

Mendocino Co. Office of Education - Member Representative

Approved by Tami Mee

09/14/2022 09:58 AM PDT

Mendocino-Lake CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Amanda Xu

09/14/2022 10:30 AM PDT

Round Valley Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Ms. Euline Olinger Ed. D

09/13/2022 11:39 AM PDT

Ukiah Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Kristy Bryant

09/13/2022 11:56 AM PDT

Upper Lake Unified - Member Representative

  • Coordinator of Secondary Pupil Personnel Services
  • jsturr@ulusd.org
  • (707) 275-0840
Approved by Jeff Sturr

09/13/2022 11:40 AM PDT

Willits Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Nikki Agenbroad

09/14/2022 10:11 AM PDT