Plans & Goals

Executive Summary

Vision: The South Bay Adult Education Consortium/Southwestern is committed to an ongoing effort to strengthen and enhance adult learner access, persistence, and success. Members offer well-aligned educational programs that provide the region's adults equitable access to educational services that will equip them to acquire English skills for community engagement, workforce, and academic preparation. Additionally, programs offered will prepare them for citizenship attainment, completion of a high school diploma or equivalency, gaining skills for certifications in local industry high-demand jobs, and/or transition to postsecondary institutions and/or the workforce.

Sweetwater Union High School District obtained articulation of all their medical courses with Southwestern College (SWC) ensuring alignment with industry standards and preparing students for successful careers in healthcare. Additional SUHSD achievements were adopting the Foundational Literacy curriculum, Integrating HyFlex/Technology professional development for teachers yearlong, increasing the number ofGallup Strengths trainers, obtaining board approval to start Entrepreneurship 101, Fast Cake Decorating, Savory Pathway to include fourmodules; Pizzas, Salads, Pastas, and Dressings, Framing and Drywall, Electrical and Plumbing, and Painting and Flooring as new courses, improving the IET and VABE courses, adding Certiport Exams to existing test center, receiving the ELL Healthcare Pathways Grant, hiring a transition program manager, culinary instructor, advanced manufacturing instructor, healthcare pathways resource teacher and two CNAinstructors, providing 1,200 GED Ready vouchers and over 500 in-person GED test vouchers, increasing outreach events by 25%, hosting aCTE industry advisory, creating a Community Board Padlet for students to gain access to job opportunities, food, and housing resources,providing a food pantry and toiletries for students in need, presenting in various conferences sharing best practices, and participating in theAnnual Gingerbread competition, Goodwill workshops, and Drone/Soccer Conference Competition.

Southwestern College established a partnership with Chula Vista Elementary School District to deliver CAEP programs for parents and othercommunity members at CVESD community schools, developed noncredit HSE courses, business development courses and noncredit coursesto support both SWC and SUHSD Adult Ed CNA programs, finalized a plan to pilot noncredit progress indicators in ESL for Fall 2024,purchased additional class sets of ESL texts to support the growing increase in ESL sections, hosted SUHSD adult school students to tour andlearn about each SWC campus and programs, published combined summer/fall schedule of Continuing Education courses, completed a pilotof CNA VESL and moved to full implementation, developed and printed postcards for outreach purposes, increased noncredit presence atoutreach events, increased noncredit registration workshops at extension sites, began the process of updating the Continuing Educationwebsite, and began the process of updating and streamlining the noncredit application.

Coronado Adult Education moved from in-person CASAS testing to a remote testing format to support the out-of-region students, hired a new Teacher, and continued to offer work skills training (RBT, Child Development, Instructional Assistant, and Behavior & Health SupportSpecialist.)

The consortium increased the number of SB554 students who transition to Southwestern College and increased the number of field trips to Southwestern College including all three higher education centers; an average of approximately 150 students attended each field trip. In addition, the consortium established a schedule for a noncredit SWC counselor to rotate to all four SUHSD adult schools to support students' transition to SWC and support Pathway alignment and participation in the regional effort to launch the Program Finder tool with adult schools and noncredit CTE program

The consortium's primary goals for the upcoming year are to: 1) continue to strive to equitably and inclusively meet the community of need by advertising 2) maximize course offerings and student services, 3) continue to evaluate and revise current educational pathways to align better to student goals and community needs, 4) find viable avenues to share data among members, and 5) ensure that facilities are equipped with programs and services to meet the needs of the adult education students. All planned allocations are aligned with the 3-year plan, in that they support the goals and strategies as described by all members during strategic planning.

Regional Planning Overview

Members utilized the data presented and collected at the consortium 2022 summit to assist in forming their member metrics and activities. The consortium-level metrics and student barriers relied on the same data sets. The consortium determined that all four available student barriers to employment should be included in this three-year plan since our community of need in these subgroups is extensive: English Learners, Low Literacy, Long Term Unemployed, and Low Income. When determining the target numbers for the consortium-level adults served and student barriers, the consortium agreed to repeat the 2019-2020 figures available in NOVA, recognizing that as the most recent dataset before the pandemic. 

During strategic planning for our previous three-year plan, all work-groups identified a common need to: 1) improve data-sharing efforts and 2) provide transition services for all students. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 academic year, we determined that the best course of action would be to dedicate a research project to these two topics. We started Phase 1 of this project in 2019-2020 and completed the project in 2022-2023. Our pilot project included leading a cohort of concurrent enrollment SB554 students from adult ed to Southwestern College. The first cohort of concurrent enrollment SB554 students enrolled at Southwestern College for fall 2022 with three students. The second cohort enrolled at Southwestern College for spring 2023 with fifteen students. The latest cohorts for Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 had 29 students. The findings of this project will inform several aspects of how we will move forward with data sharing and transitioning of students from adult education to Southwestern College and the workforce. 

The consortium and its members are committed to adapting curriculum, instruction, services, and professional development accordingly as we continue collaborating in this partnership. The consortium is now providing more opportunities for students to transition to SWC. This year, four field trips were organized, which resulted in the largest turnout so far and we will continue this practice next year. In addition, a Southwestern college counselor was assigned to visit all four adult schools to provide college enrollment assistance, create an educational plan, and support students in their transition as necessary. Also, Southwestern College provided an Enrollment Success Specialist to guide students in the registration CCC Apply process. Members continue to utilize a variety of on-line platforms to deliver instructions (Canvas, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google) and continue to provide students, teachers, and faculty with the devices and support needed to deliver and receive instruction successfully. SUHSD completed a one-year training on Hyflex for teachers and will continue a Hyflex instructional delivery (with OWLs) for select courses in 2024-25. Members have continued to provide professional development for teachers/faculty related to the delivery of online instruction, including Distance Education Faculty Training (DEFT) at SWC, and weekly teacher teams at SUHSD, while also participating in professional development around instructional delivery models using technology. SUHSD continues to offer all-day PD for classified staff quarterly to ensure they are equipped to provide students with a helpful experience to make objective decisions. Additionally, members provide increased technical assistance to students such as student on-boarding videos at SWC and designated times for students to receive technical support at SUHSD. Existing student support and referrals concerning food, employment, clothing, health, shelter, and public assistance continue to be available to consortia students. CAEP budgets will remain focused on maintaining the integrity of CAEP programs and services, and a commitment from members to utilize available data to inform programmatic changes. The consortium and members recognize that agency operations may still be in flux during the 2024-2025 academic year due to various organizational and leadership changes, and we will continue to support each other in navigating a successful year. Lastly, during this last year of the three year plan our consortium will engage in strategic planning for the next three year plan.

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 annual CAEP member allocations closely align with the original allocation percentages determined at the beginning of the first three year planning cycle, and are considered the baseline when discussing annual allocations in support of the CFAD. The consortium plans to continue this allocation process during the 2024-2025 program year and the remainder of the 3 year cycle. Within Sweetwater Union High School District's allocation exists consortium level funding and includes shared expenses such as salaries/benefits of the Consortium Project Director and Administrative Assistant, shared professional development, and shared consortium activities including consortium marketing efforts. Fiscal agent admin funds are used to cover costs incurred by Sweetwater Union High School District to serve as the fiscal agent of the consortium, and are calculated at 5% of the shared consortium level budget. If a member other than Sweetwater Union High School District is identified to carry out a consortium evel activity, a one-time allocation amendment is generated and funded from the shared Consortium budget so that the member may carry out the said activity on behalf of the consortium. Since allocation amendments do not affect a member's baseline funding, allocation amendments are not considered in the following year's CFAD process. Each member has a unique set of leveraged funds that are utilized to fund both their respective CAEP programs and services and any additional activities identified in the 3 year plan or annual plan. Combined leveraged funding sources include CALWORKS, Noncredit apportionment, Perkins, WIOA II, community college supportive services, other state grants, and in kind. Leveraged funding sources and amounts are reported by member in the annual Program Area Reporting tool in NOVA. Members select activities from the annual plan that pertain to their programs and services when building their member budget and workplan; consortium activities are selected by all members.

An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2024-25.

Remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) are incorporated into member and consortium budgets for 2024-25. Ongoing costs are budgeted with current year funding, while one-time and/or large purchases are budgeted with carry-over funds. Our consortium intends to review and approve capital outlay expenses in order to ensure that facilities are equipped with programs and services to meet the needs of adult education students.