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CAEP Annual Plan: 2021-22 59 Sierra Joint Consortium

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2021-22 Produced: Sep 8, 2021, 09:36 PM UTC Jill Alcorn

59 Sierra Joint Consortium

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
As noted in the Sierra Joint Consortium's Three Year Plan, our vision over the next 12 months will continue to be maintaining existing successful programs, expanding offerings and access to more of the region, and fostering student success in their career and educational goals whether that be the completion of a three-hour resume workshop, a high school diploma, industry certification or to transfer to post-secondary. Continued emphasis and attention must be given to providing program delivery and student support as we transition out of the pandemic. Additionally, consortium members need to re-engage community partners who have had limited or no access due to program restrictions or closures during the pandemic (County Employment Services, CA Conservation Corps, Department of Rehabilitation, Public Libraries, Golden Sierra, etc.) These re-engagement efforts should lead to increases in enrollment for some members. The consortium will continue to address social-emotional learning and embrace dialogue on race and examine our policies to address equity and systemic racism. Specifically, we will continue to review our student data to identify performance trends and needs of underserved populations, including access to technology, support in native languages, flexible scheduling, and hybrid models such as a flipped classroom. We will also continue to introduce short-term, high-demand workforce training for students impacted by job loss during the pandemic.Numerous adjustments were made to our curriculum and delivery models in the past year. As we rebuild our programs post COVID19 this will create new opportunities and challenges for delivering instruction to adult learners across our Sierra Joint Consortium region. Our schools will continue to apply the lessons learned over the past 18 months to meet students’ needs in our new hybrid learning environment. One lesson learned during the pandemic is that some students do not do well in an all-online environment. Therefore, blended learning, in which students work remotely but are required to attend a portion of a course in person, is a method that some consortium members favor because it provides both flexibility and the important element of in-person connection with the instructor. Districts may also continue using synchronous distance learning opportunities for both instruction and office hour support. Classes are being provided via a variety of accessible technologies, including Zoom, Remind, Padlet, Gradpoint, Canvas, Edmentum, and more. All consortium members have invested in needed tech equipment to broadcast synchronous online instruction. Roseville Adult School, Tahoe Truckee, and Placer School for Adults have provided Chromebooks for students to check out. Sierra College loaned out laptops and cameras; Nevada County Adult Education has been allowed to maintain open, on-ground labs for testing and Tahoe Truckee Unified has worked with their local internet providers to obtain wifi infrastructure/hotspots for students in need and has added bilingual tech support. It should be noted that, while the consortium is working together to leverage resources and share best practices, individual districts may still have different requirements and varied interpretations of required protocols. This may lead to inconsistencies with some districts allowing activity such as in-person testing, labs, and orientations - some are allowed to conduct, others are not.
Regional Planning Overview
The Sierra Joint Consortium will continue to focus on the four major goals of the consortium's three-year plan and has developed strategies utilizing the logic models to achieve these goals:Goal 1: Expand program and course offerings in remote and/or underserved locations within Consortium boundaries to fill gaps and meet customer needs.Goal 2: Continue to expand workforce training in high-demand sectors throughout the region.Goal 3: Improve transitions from adult schools to post-secondary education.Goal 4: Identify and address barriers to student success and completion.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
The Sierra Joint Consortium covers over 2500 square miles across Placer, Nevada, and a portion of El Dorado Counties with a combined population of approximately 500,000 residents. This wide geographical spread creates a number of unique factors for each consortium member to consider. However, some commonalities can be found. The region has a relatively low percentage of adults who have not completed a high school diploma (combined average of 5.6%) compared to the state overall (17.1%). Still, this represents close to 28,000 adults within the two counties who would benefit from a high school completion or GED program and indicates a need to continue to offer this to our communities. A larger portion of the population, about 20%, has completed only a high school diploma which puts them at risk for unemployment and poverty, particularly during economic downturns. Unemployment in the region is still higher than pre-pandemic levels (May 2021 - 6.6% in the North/Far North and 6.4% in the Greater Sacramento Region) making it more competitive for this group of diploma-only residents to secure employment. In light of this data, consortium members believe that expanding high-quality CTE training, industry certifications and viable pathways to post-secondary education continues to be a vital priority for our communities.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
Meetings and correspondence with regional partners (AJCC, Business Advantage Network, DOR, Nevada and Placer County Employment Health and Human Services, Contractors Association of Truckee Tahoe, Tahoe Forest Hospital District, Workforce Investment Board) as well as viewing quantitative data from sources such Centers of Excellence, US Quick Facts, Federal Reserve Economic Data, Placer/South Placer/ Nevada County Employment Profiles, Launchboard.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
The metrics of the last two years: 2019-20 - normal, 2020-21 - pandemic, do lend themselves to be effective yardsticks to measure our consortium's effectiveness this year. Consortium members agreed to common goals in our Continuous Improvement Plans (CIPs) to increase student persistence, Education Functional Level attainment in our programs, and the number of students served with an emphasis on underserved populations (SED, AWD, Ethnicity, and ESL). Each member will monitor their data as related to their goals in these three areas on a regular basis and make adjustments as needed to meet the individual agency goal as noted in their CIP.Invite community partners (i.e.: AJCC, Business Advantage Network, DOR, Nevada and Placer County Employment Health and Human Services, Contractors Association of Truckee Tahoe, Tahoe Forest Hospital District, Workforce Investment Board) to attend and participate in the monthly consortium meetings.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Expand hybrid learning throughout the consortium.
Strategy #2
Continue to expand ESL/Literacy/Career education to regions in the consortium that do not have adult education programs, for example Lincoln, Rocklin and San Juan Ridge.
Strategy #3
Rebuild inmate education in Placer County and Nevada County following COVID-19 shut down.
Strategy #4
Develop partnerships and collaboration (i.e. PLCs and OneStops) with workforce-funded programs in our region in order to improve transitions to postsecondary education and workforce in high-need, higher-wage, or high-skill occupations in our region as identified by the CalAdultEd Labor Market Outlook, the COE, or the CDE.
Strategy #5
Gather and analyze student data and industry data to identify barriers to student success.

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue to foster postsecondary faculty/counselor collaboration with adult school instructors/counselors on articulations (formal or informal) and transitions to the college when relevant/applicable e.g., construction, auto, IT, advanced manufacturing and welding, etc.Utilize newly formed transition counselor role at adult school and dedicated enrollment specialist at Sierra College to foster transitions. Additionally, California Community Colleges have revised their Credit for Prior Learning policy providing more options to adult students to potentially earn college credit for prior work or training completed with adult education partners.
Strategy #2
Identify and explore best practices across the state to better serve students online via distance learning.
Strategy #3
Continue to support Sierra College faculty collaboration with adult school instructors to develop curriculum to assist in a successful transition to post-secondary (example, dual enrollment, and articulated agreements in auto and welding programs). Explore opportunities to expand these offerings in 2021-2022 (Business 250, Medical Terminology).

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue Sierra College faculty collaboration with adult school instructors on articulations (formal or informal) and transitions to the college where relevant/applicable e.g., construction, auto, IT, advanced manufacturing and welding, etc. Explore the new options with Credit for Prior Learning at Sierra College so that adult education students save time and money getting credit for their past work and training, where possible.
Strategy #2
Make data-driven decisions, with emphasis on student persistence and equity data, in order to improve student success across all programs. For example, adult school ESL instructors will be utilizing the PLC model to identify successful instructional practices that can be replicated to increase completion rates in a more timely manner.
Strategy #3
ELA and/or mathematics gaps will be identified in Adult CTE programs in order to integrate CTE with supporting ESL and/or ABE instruction. For example, during student onboarding into agency-identified CTE courses, students will take the most appropriate CASAS test to determine academic gaps that will then be addressed through the infusion of workplace-relevant math, reading, and writing skills within those classes or through related workplace academic courses included in the CTE program course sequencing.
Strategy #4
Continue to foster collaboration with ABE, ASE, ESL, and CTE instructors to offer integrated learning opportunities. WIOA 243 agencies will identify pathways for ESL students to receive integrated workforce preparation and workforce training pathway options. Students in each program will be supported in identifying academic and employment needs and encouraged to participate in programs that help support those needs. Sierra Building Industries and ESL faculty are collaborating to develop a new vocational ESL course that will assist ESL students in exploring career pathways in construction with accelerated bootcamps and job experience.
Strategy #5
Identify learning gains by one or more of the following:-A grade level increase in HSD as documented by credits earned-Passing of one of the four subjects areas in GED exam-Mastery of GED educational software platform informal exams, in three of the four subjects areas with a minimum score of 80%-Pass and completion of informal educational software learning mastery exercises, written assignments, virtual class assessment, and oral interviews.-Workforce preparation Measurable Skills Gains, as well as Literacy Gains, shall be measured when the student completes a short term program e.g. (Microsoft Word/job search strategies) with supported documentation such as an informal certificate at the end of the program-El Civics Literacy Gains completion of a COAAP-El Civics student moves to co-enrollment class or into next level of learning e.g. El Civics student moves into ASE -All Consortium members programs excluding Workforce Preparation programs. The completion of CASAS Pre and Post-test with measurable literacy gains.-Distance Learning Contact Hours, such as Clock Time - Assigns contact hours based on the elapsed time that a participant is connected to, or engaged in, an online or stand-alone software program that tracks time; Teacher Verification - Assigns a fixed number of hours for each assignment based on teacher determination of the extent to which a participant engaged in the assignment; Learner Mastery - Assigns a fixed number of hours of credit based on the participant completing the content of each lesson.

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Continue ongoing training for instructors on tools and techniques for teaching online and hybrid courses effectively.
Strategy #2
Relative to the strategies articulated in the annual plan, all consortium members will be given the opportunity to select and participate in professional development that will be of benefit. Examples of professional development include but are not limited to; CAEP Summit, OTAN online offerings, CASAS Institute, CCAE conference, etc.
Strategy #3
Maintain Professional Learning Communities in program areas (CTE, ESL, GED, HSD) and allow for a "mixed group" PLC consisting of a member from each program area to share ideas and identify opportunities for IET and articulated pathways.
Strategy #4
Continue regular in-service training for staff, administration, and faculty.

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Re-engage with entities that went “offline” during the pandemic in underserved regions of the consortium to re-establish programs that had been started prior to March 2020. Explore opportunities to expand offerings to regions in new locations via distance learning technologies, satellite campuses, and partnering districts.
Strategy #2
Continue to share curriculum between consortium members and from other consortia across the state (for example Relias curriculum from Tamalpais Adult, Auto, Business 250, Welding 1A, and Medical Terminology from Sierra).
Strategy #3
Partner with local businesses and schools to offer opportunities that are accessible to underserved and underrepresented populations, including job fairs, training, and services.
Strategy #4
Develop partnership and collaboration with workforce-funded programs in our region in order to improve transitions to postsecondary education and workforce in high-need, higher-wage, or high-skill occupations in our region as identified by the CalAdultEd Labor Market Outlook, the COE, or the CDE.
Strategy #5
Collaboration between community college instructors and adult school instructors on articulations (formal or informal) and transitions to the college when relevant/applicable (e.g., construction, computers/IT, advanced manufacturing and welding, etc.).
Strategy #6
Work with regional resource partners to identify the most common barriers preventing our students from completing their educational goals.

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 Sierra Joint Consortium Steering committee agreed to allocate 1.5% of the 2021-2022 COLA for CAEP funding to Roseville Adult School to support program growth in ESL. Subsequent to the initial COLA, the May budget revision included an additional 2.5% to the COLA. The additional 2.5% was distributed across all member agencies. Consortium CAEP allocations are directed to the following areas, based on our 3-year plan: Expanding program and course offerings in remote and/or underserved locations within Consortium boundaries to fill gaps and meet customer needs; Continue to expand workforce training in high demand sectors throughout the region; Improve transitions from adult schools to post-secondary education; Identify and address barriers to student success and completion.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2021-22.
If any member has carryover funds, they will be required to use those funds in compliance with the three-year plan, Constoria by-laws, and state standards. If carryover funds are to be redistributed across the consortium, it will require a unanimous vote of the membership.

Certification

Nevada Joint Union High - Member Representative

Approved by 5304771225 Michael Hughes

08/02/2021 12:40 PM PDT

Placer Union High - Member Representative

Approved by Eric Vereyken

08/02/2021 10:08 AM PDT

Roseville Joint Union High - Member Representative

Approved by Lisa Voss

08/02/2021 10:08 AM PDT

Sierra Joint CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Jill Alcorn

09/08/2021 02:36 PM PDT

Tahoe-Truckee Unified - Member Representative

  • Todd Wold
  • Manager of College and Careers: Career Technical and Adult Education
  • twold@ttusd.org
  • (530) 582-2591
Approved by Dr. Todd Wold

08/02/2021 10:08 AM PDT