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CAEP Annual Plan: 2022-23 40 Education to Career Network of North San Diego County (Palomar/Vista)

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2022-23 Produced: Aug 29, 2022, 11:06 PM UTC Garth Phillips

40 Education to Career Network of North San Diego County (Palomar/Vista)

Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

The Education to Career Network of North San Diego County (ETCN) is one of five adult education consortia in San Diego County and one of 71 throughout the state. Through our six member schools (Escondido Adult School, Palomar College, Poway Adult School, Ramona Adult School, San Marcos Adult School, and Vista Adult School), we provide adult students with ongoing learning opportunities by offering high-quality and relevant courses, programs, and services.

In the past year, ETCN has been able to assist adult students in reaching their individual educational goals, including career advancement, college preparation, workforce re-entry, and life enrichment. Together, we continue to leverage resources and increase collaboration and partnerships with adult education providers and support services within the region.

2021 - 2022 Major Accomplishments

  • Hosted a business and community forum to garner input on ways to enhance student education and career success for the upcoming three-year span.
  • Held a virtual Path to Palomar event to showcase Palomar College’s course and campus offerings and to support students transitioning from adult school to college.
  • Organized a legislative and community outreach campaign in conjunction with the statewide “Adult Education Week” and the California Council for Adult Education’s annual Legislative Day in Sacramento. 
  • Continued the alignment, integration, and exploration of curriculum to accelerate student learning and meet regional workforce needs.
  • Held our first Career & Education Showcase, where 77 students from our five adult schools had the opportunity to learn more about career pathways and employment. These opportunities included speaking with a variety of employers who shared an overview of their company, hiring processes and practices, and available open positions.
  • Participated with WestEd on coding courses for the adult education and noncredit college programs to be represented in the statewide Program Finder Tool.  
  • Continued to hold data dialogue meetings where enrollment, student hours, race, and gender data were discussed. 
  • Created a professional development webpage to house all opportunities for faculty to build understanding of course and/or instructional design, which in turn will increase professional development opportunities for faculty to effectively design engaging student-centered courses and increase their education technology knowledge.
  • Initiated a quarterly Pathways Insights discussion to identify Emerging Pathways in our regions in order for ETCN to stay at the forefront of workforce development needs.

Together with our business and agency partners, the Consortium is committed to aligning systems and serving students in more focused ways that will continue to generate successful transitions to post-secondary education and the workplace over the next three years and beyond. 

For 2022-2023, ETCN will concentrate on the following strategies and activities to achieve CAEP’s Three Primary Objectives.

Address Educational Needs

In 2022-23, ETCN will continue to: 

  • Collect and review data about the student experience through surveys and other means
  • Improve the accessibility of academic programs by removing institutional barriers for all students, including students with disabilities.  
  • Integrate instructional practices with the practical needs of students by providing multiple modalities of instruction, developing and implementing career pathways, and enhancing alignment between programs
  • Look to the broader community, including business and other partners, for feedback and support
  • Provide support to students with disabilities through a consortium shared position, our Disability Student Support Counselor.

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

  • Continue to define and integrate organizational and decision-making structures through the creation of cross-agency Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
  • Continue collaboration among member districts to align curriculum

Improve Effectiveness of Services

  • Implement a data dashboard to monitor and adjust programs based on real-time data and provide reports to stakeholders
  • Continue to implement data dialogue protocols to improve student achievement and outcomes

ETCN will continue to work together as a consortium and with our community partners to ensure our students succeed at all levels, now and in the future.

Regional Planning Overview

ETCN members will implement our 2022-2025 Three-Year Plan by focusing on achieving specific strategies throughout 2022-2023.  These strategies will allow ETCN to continuously improve through quarterly goal review, increasing targeted professional development opportunities, creating a data dashboard, implementing data dialogue protocols, and improving student achievement and outcomes. 

ETCN fully believes in the importance of data-driven decision-making and so will implement an easy-to-use data consolidation and visualization tool, or data dashboard, to monitor and adjust programs based on real-time data and to provide reports to stakeholders. This will aid the consortium in comparing year-end accomplishments to this year’s strategies, helping track our outcomes and tying these to the metrics identified in our three-year plan.  Furthermore, we will continue to formalize the process of data analysis by convening once every three months to review data pertaining to student persistence, measurable skills gains, labor market information in comparison to training programs offered, student satisfaction surveys, and teacher surveys on instructional competencies and technology integration. These protocols will assist the Leadership Council in decision-making that will support student success and alignment with industry needs and inform the creation of professional development opportunities and professional learning communities using Community of Practice principles.

This year we will continue to participate and align our work with other regional planning initiatives. For example, members of the ETCN participate in the San Diego County Regional Career Pathways Consortium, the Strong Workforce Regional Task Force for the Southern Border Region, and the San Diego Workforce Partnership (our local workforce development board) regional planning processes. Also, through the use of our Goals Library, we will be able to ensure alignment with our regional partners.

ETCN will continue to host a Business and Community Forum to allow us to hold a conversation with industry leaders, economic workforce development representatives, and community representatives to gather important feedback on their needs and goals. Likewise, we will again organize a Career and Education Showcase to permit employers to speak directly to our students, giving them and us important real-time knowledge on employment needs in our region. 

The educational needs of adults in our region revolve around the challenge of providing equitable learning opportunities for all adult students throughout the consortium. By providing equitable learning opportunities, we strongly believe that ETCN will be able to grow in a focused way that does not undermine our limited resource pool. For example, we continually strive to create more tailored courses that lead to specific career pathways, with courses ideally linked to local, high-demand occupations that come with industry certifications. Our Data Coordinator and Partnership Coordinator will continue to create Pathways Insights reports to identify emerging pathways that will help us accomplish the goal of better aligning to labor market demand, as this is a key to our growth with competition for adult learners increasing over the past three years.

Even though we feel confident in our positioning as the premier adult education providers in our region, this confidence depends on our ability to continually increase in-person, blended, and online learning options for students to meet their specific needs and schedules, as well as industry’s needs.


Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

There is a strong demand for more labor market-aligned CTE programs as well as more ESL and high school diploma programs in our region. To meet this demand, ETCN will strive to develop alternative curricula to shorten the timeframe for students to transition to post-secondary education and careers. 

Furthermore, ETCN intends to increase workforce training and certification offerings and/or realign current offerings to workforce demands to help supply our region with qualified workers, as well as continue to offer high-quality ESL courses and high school diploma programs, including through CASAS’s National External Diploma Program (NEDP).

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

ETCN members conducted a review of the region’s education and workforce training services offered. Based on member self-assessments and survey results from key stakeholders, we have identified the need to better expedite the career and education pathway of our students, together with analysis of labor market data and local workforce current and projected needs.

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

Effectiveness will be measured by the increase in job opening announcements sent to students and staff, tracking job/employment data of our students, tracking student enrollment into post-secondary education, and by promoting the NEDP with a benchmark of 5-8 students.

Regional Need #2

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

There is a shortage of social-emotional support for students, which is needed to promote continued engagement and increase persistence and graduation rates.

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

This gap was identified by member self-assessments and survey results from key stakeholders that show there is a need to provide more social-emotional support for students. 

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

We will track and expect an increase in connections by Student Support Teams and observe an increase in pathway completions and graduation rates.

Regional Need #3

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs

There is a need to build overall awareness of adult education in the region.

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

This gap was identified through our annual community forum, advisory meetings, Chamber of Commerce meetings, meetings with the larger regions of San Diego and Imperial Counties, student surveys, and member self-assessments. Also, data collected by EMSI, Centers of Excellence, and San Diego Workforce Partnership showi high rates of unemployment, thereby proving the need for more awareness of Adult Education

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

Effectiveness will be measured by gathering student needs information through student surveys, student focus groups, and through social media interactions.

Address Educational Needs

2022-23 Strategies

Continuous Improvement Through Quarterly Goal Review

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Quarterly Goal Review

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants Who Complete an EL Civics COAPP or Course (AE 411 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ABE (AE 400 - ABE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ASE (AE 400 - ASE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ESL (AE 400 - ESL)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Long Term Unemployed (AE 309 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Income (AE 310 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Literacy (AE 311 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to ASE (AE 500 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college) (AE 637 - Overall)

To address the educational needs of our students and of our region, ETCN will conduct quarterly goal meetings to review our SMART goal progress, celebrate wins, and identify areas that are not moving forward as expected. When gaps exist, we will amend the goal or institute any needed changes to help meet it.

To build a more complete understanding of educational needs, ETCN will continue to collect and review data about the student experience through surveys and other means.  ETCN will also continue to improve the accessibility of academic programs by removing institutional barriers to access and continuing collaborative curriculum alignment efforts, continue to integrate instructional practices with the practical needs of students (including students with disabilities) by providing multiple modalities of instruction, providing specialized support through our Disabilities Student Support Counselor, developing and implementing career pathways, and enhancing alignment among programs. Through continued partnership efforts with the broader community, including business and community and educational organizations, we will solicit feedback and support to help identify gaps and needs in our regional adult education system.

Throughout the 2022/2023 school year, ETCN will ensure the following outcomes have been met:

  • A timeline showing all continuous improvement activities will be established.
  • Quarterly goal meetings will be scheduled and attended, during which discussions of achievements, areas for growth, and action plans will occur.
  • All changes will be documented, and staff responsibilities and completion timelines will be set.
  • By spring of 2023, preparation for the 2023-2024 Continuous Improvement Plan submission will have taken place.

Improve Integration of Services & Transitions

2022-23 Strategies

Increase Targeted Professional Development Opportunities

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Assess and improve Professional Development

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants Who Complete an EL Civics COAPP or Course (AE 411 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ABE (AE 400 - ABE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ASE (AE 400 - ASE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ESL (AE 400 - ESL)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Long Term Unemployed (AE 309 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Income (AE 310 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Literacy (AE 311 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to ASE (AE 500 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (credit college) (AE 637 - Overall)

To improve the integration of services and transitions, ETCN will increase the professional development opportunities for all staff, including convening cross-agency Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).  This will enable teachers in similar disciplines will meet across districts to share best practices. As many CTE teachers are the only teacher of that subject in a particular district, meeting with their counterparts in other districts will be crucial for their professional development.

Furthermore, ETCN will create an annual Professional Development plan based on results from an annual survey that will encourage communication between and among staff and administrators and promote a better understanding of what training will be needed. This, coupled with regular access, and use of the ETCN professional development website, will serve as mechanisms to increase the number of targeted professional development opportunities. With this, our adult education staff and faculty will be better equipped to maintain high levels of service, which will support strong retention rates and transitions to post-secondary education and/or career. 

Throughout the 2022/2023 school year, ETCN will ensure the following outcomes have been met:

  • An annual Professional Development plan will be created.
  • Twice yearly, member district equity teams will convene in order to showcase promising practices and discuss obstacles. 
  • Staff participation in training related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, integration of technology, and classroom instructional strategies are promoted.

Improve Effectiveness of Services

2022-23 Strategies

Data Dialogue Protocols and Data Dashboard Implementation to Improve Student Achievement and Outcome

Activity that Applies to this Strategy

Implement data dialogue protocol

Metrics that Apply to this Activity/Strategy

  • All: Adults who Became Participants (AE 202 - Overall)
  • All: Number of Adults Served (AE 200 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants Who Complete an EL Civics COAPP or Course (AE 411 - Overall)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ABE (AE 400 - ABE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ASE (AE 400 - ASE)
  • Progress: Participants with Educational Functioning Levels Gains ESL (AE 400 - ESL)
  • Student Barriers: English Language Learner (AE 305 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Long Term Unemployed (AE 309 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Income (AE 310 - Overall)
  • Student Barriers: Low Literacy (AE 311 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a High School Diploma or Equivalency (AE 633 - Overall)
  • Success: Participants Who Earn a Postsecondary Credential (AE 625 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to ASE (AE 500 - Overall)
  • Transition: Participants with Transition to Postsecondary (CTE) (AE 636 - Overall)

Improving the effectiveness of services starts with the regular collection and analysis of meaningful data. ETCN will implement an easy-to-use data consolidation and visualization tool (i.e., a data dashboard) to monitor and adjust programs based on real-time data and to provide reports to stakeholders. This will aid the Consortium in comparing year-end accomplishments to goals mapped out at the beginning of the year and determining the efficacy of strategies employed to meet them.

ETCN will implement data dialogue protocols to help formalize the process of data analysis to improve student achievement and outcomes. Once every three months, representatives from member districts will convene to review data pertaining to student persistence and measurable skills gains, labor market information in comparison to training programs offered, student satisfaction surveys, and teacher surveys on instructional competencies and technology integration. These protocols will assist in decision-making and inform the creation of professional development opportunities and professional learning communities using Community of Practice principles.

Representatives from member districts will convene every three months to review data in order to improve student achievement and outcomes.

In order to ensure the following outcomes are met, throughout the 2022/2023 school year, ETCN will: 

  • Plan and schedule meetings at the beginning of the school year, and quarterly meetings will include the data dialogue.
  • Distribute meeting summaries that include meeting participants, data reviewed, action items, and implications for teaching and learning.
  • Clearly assign actionable items to responsible staff with agreed upon due dates. 
  • Regularly incorporate data into our decision-making processes. 
  • Consistently use the data dialogue as a way to evaluate student achievement and outcomes. 
  • Gather and share products and artifacts (including evaluation) from professional development offerings, Professional Learning Communities, and data dialogue.  

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.

To ensure fiscal accountability and continued transparency, ETCN employs an outside auditor to review our books annually. Funds were allocated and spent according to our goals for FY 2021 - 2022. These included increased emphasis on stakeholder/partner engagement to support student education and career success; implementation of common student data tools to gather, measure, and analyze student and/or program successes and outcomes and share best practices; platforms to assist students with work-readiness, career exploration, and job search; and continued alignment and integration of curriculum to accelerate student learning and meet regional needs. To accomplish the goals above, members interacted on a more frequent basis, with shared positions spending time addressing the needs of each individual member district. In addition, funding was spent on meeting the new demands due to COVID-19, i.e., professional development for online technology and curriculum, additional technology tools, and PPE. CASAS pre/post-testing was difficult to implement due to the restrictions of COVID-19. In addition, ETCN applied for federal WIOA and Perkins grant funding as a consortium. This has created additional opportunities for consortium member districts to leverage resources and align services and data collection. We have jointly utilized 231/243 funding to benefit ETCN students and our ESL/IELCE programs. Our members are committed to continued progress towards the realization of the vision and goals of the ETCN Three-Year Plan and will continue to implement identified strategies that fill the regional gaps in service, support the seamless transition of students, increasing professional development opportunities for staff, better leverage resources, and to accelerate transitions for learners across the consortium.

An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2022-23.

A standing agenda item at every leadership council meeting is a fiscal agent report; this report includes examining planned v. actual expenses. Our fiscal agent, Vista USD, holds regular meetings regarding specific fiscal practices, reports, and deadlines among the member districts' fiscal representatives and leadership council members. The ETCN Leadership Council approved the budget for its CFAD submission and projected a budget for the following year. Based on expenditure projections, any carry-over identified is used to either carry incomplete activities into the next year, accelerate portions of the plan with later start dates, or support new budget requests. Members making additional budget requests are asked to identify whether the request is one-time, short-term, or ongoing, so the expense can be appropriately budgeted in future years. In addition to regular monthly meetings, the Leadership Council members participate in an annual planning retreat. The retreat is used to amend and update our regional plan, while the regular Leadership Council meetings are used to monitor the implementation of the plan and tend to the business aspects of our consortium's operation. Due to COVID-19, we anticipate continued reductions in our overall WIOA performance payment points as expenditures to ensure health and safety (following guidelines by CDC) increase.

Certification

Escondido Union High - Member Representative

Approved by Tom Allison

08/27/2022 09:47 AM PDT

Palomar CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Dr. Nora Kenney PhD

08/29/2022 08:50 AM PDT

Poway Unified - Member Representative

  • Executive Director, Career Technical, Adult and Alternative Education
  • kporter@powayusd.com
  • (858) 668-4016
Approved by Kathleen Porter

08/27/2022 09:12 AM PDT

Ramona City Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Dr. Melissa Marovich

08/29/2022 09:26 AM PDT

San Marcos Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Garth Phillips

08/29/2022 04:06 PM PDT

Vista Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Vista Adult School Elizabeth O'Shea-West

08/29/2022 08:08 AM PDT