Nebraska Career Education

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Nebraska Career Education

• Equity Advisory Council
• June 5, 2007

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Who are Special Populations?

• Students with Disabilities
• Displaced Homemakers/Single Parents
• ELL and Minority Students
• Economically Disadvantaged
• Educationally Disadvantaged
• Migrant
• Gender Nontraditional Students

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Why Equity for Special Populations?

• Nearly half of students who begin at community
  college do not earn a degree and are not enrolled
  in any institution 6 years later. Why?
• Poor academic preparation
• Competing demands of work, family, school
• Feel unsupported on campus
• Financial difficulties
• Health issues
• Court dates

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Why Equity for Special Populations?

• Casey Family Programs recently examined case
  records and interviewed more than 1,000 former
  foster youth.
• Fifty-five are in prison,
• 11 are in psychiatric hospitals or confined to
  other institutions,
• 62 are deceased and
• 331 are nowhere to be found.
• About 20 had been homeless at some point and if
  employed, their income was meager.

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Why Equity for Special Populations?

• Two-thirds of Nebraskas Limited English Speaking
  adults have less than a high school diploma or
  equivalent the majority of those have less than
  a 9th grade education.
• Only 32 of people with disabilities are
  employed.
• Today, 43 of women work in jobs for wages
  below-poverty-level.
• Nebraska consistently ranks in the top 5 states
  for people holding 2-3 jobs, the majority of
  these are women.

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Why Postsecondary Community Colleges?

• Accessible, affordable, serving 11.6 million
  nationwide 16 in Nebraska-all over the state
• Offer a path to careers with higher incomes
• Strengthened social networks, better health,
  increased civic participation
• Applied, practical knowledge
• By 2014, 40 million occupations will not require
  a 4-year degree (BLS)
• By 2012, there will be a need for an additional
  1.1 million special trades contractors

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Deloitte 2005 Skills Gap Report for Manufacturing

• 90 of survey respondents indicated moderate
  severe shortage of skilled production employees

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What Do You Think the Workforce Looks Like?
1.3 of aviation mechanics are women 7.2 of
registered nurses are men 1 of automobile
mechanics are women Two-thirds of single mothers
are in one of three occupational categories
service, clerical and sales Industrial Tech and
IMES is the most gendered of all career fields
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Diversity Matters

• Increasingly diverse Nebraska
• Recruiting and retaining the best talent
• Diverse groups have varied perspectives, wider
  array of ideas and solutions, challenge
  long-accepted views, divergent thinking, and
  differing communication skills
• Make gains in performance data

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Imbalance is a Threat

• To our future economic competitiveness,
• To our quality of life,
• To our national security
• To our continued funding

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Perkins IV Core Indicators Purpose

• Address enrollment and completion of programs
  preparing special populations for occupations and
  careers in high wage, high skill occupations.
• Measure enrollment and completion in program
  areas that are underrepresented for gender and
  special populations.

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Gender Nontraditional

• The definition of nontraditional with respect to
  gender is defined as an occupational area that is
  represented by less than 25 of specific gender

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Nebraskas Performance Data for the past 5 Years?

• The data indicates Nebraska has not met the
  Perkins PostSecondary Nontraditional
  Participation measure in some of the previous
  five years, and
• Nebraska has missed the target in four of the
  five years for the PostSecondary Nontraditional
  Completion measure

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Possible Root Causes for Consideration

• Curriculum materials
• Interest v. Aptitude
• Dual Credit courses in secondary
• School climate/industry climate
• Limited number of Special Populations instructors
• Participation of Special Populations instructors
  in low numbers in professional associations
• Isolation based on gender, race, other
• Peer Influence/social attitudes/support
• Professional development
• Message to Special Populations

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Perspective

• Many believe Special Populations cannot succeed
  in IMES education.
• Teachers responded when asked if majoring in
  engineering is more difficult than majoring in
• English 63 agreed
• Finance 56 agreed
• Sociology 67 agreed
• Biology 39 agreed

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Past Strategies

• Create career fields, clusters, academies and
  pathways
• Professional Development for counselors
• Look at data from Special Populations to inform
  funding decisions
• Ensure participation of representatives of
  Special Populations in planning
• Perkins resources targeted to close gaps between
  Special Populations and their peers
• Job Shadowing, mentors, apprenticeships, alumni
  speakers
• Special Populations workshops within professional
  meetings and conferences
• Special Projects

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Examples of Special Projects

• Partnerships with Community Colleges
• Girls Discover IT

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Milford Girls Nontraditional
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Girls Discover IT
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Focused on Performance Improvement

• Work with institutes counselors/
  coordinators/human resource administrators
• Provide trainings and technical assistance
• Provide role models, job shadowing,
  apprenticeships, early exposure, and support
• Conduct surveys, focus groups, brainstorming

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Desired Outcomes

• Increase completion persistence habits
• Higher graduation rates, transfers, and/or
  employment in high-wage careers
• Job Satisfaction
• Higher economic base for Nebraska
• Filled labor market shortages
• Solve critical need for living wages
• Overcome stereotyped expectations
• Break through the isolation
• Meet performance measures for continued grant
  funding

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Results

• Funding targeted for special projects aimed at
  recruiting and retaining Special Populations in
  programs and employment Nontraditional for their
  gender, with
• No significant gains in our data over the past
  several years.

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Improvement Plans and Sanctions
Loss of Perkins funding is a possible sanction
for not meeting performance measures, under new
legislation, for local schools, as well as the
state Nebraska Department of Education.
Current data indicates, Special Populations are
severely under-represented in NCE and, unless we
focus on Special Populations, we will not meet
performance measures.
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Identify Potential Strategies and Models

• Issue an RFP for a research study to help us
  identify our strategies for the future
• Form a state-wide Equity Advisory Council
• Develop solutions
• Collaborate among stakeholders
• Implement the model statewide through the Equity
  Advisory Council

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Other Possible Outcomes

• Strengthen instruction
• Improve school/ employer support services
• Increase financial aid while working full time
• Gain exposure to facilities not on campus
• Develop contacts for employment
• Reduce competition for scarce resources
• Connect coursework to employment
• Strengthen relationships among organizations
• Data shows significant increase

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How can an Equity Advisory Council Help?

• Focus on performance gap for Special Populations
  networking, newsletters, role models and
  listservs
• State-wide familiar with needs of area and
  regional leadership
• Identify issues for your area
• Raise awareness for community, business,
  students, educators, mentors, media
• Provide direction for education by participating
  in local improvement plans
• Open houses, career fairs, PTA, School Board mtgs
• Actively participate in advisory meetings
• Join industry groups and associations

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Nebraska Secondary Participation and Completion
Negotiated Level of Performance for
2007 Participation 21 Completion
22.5
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NE Postsecondary Participation Completion Rates
Negotiated Level of Performance for
2007 Participation 15.14 Completion
18.91
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Why?

• Failure is expensive
• Develops partnerships among change stakeholders
• Full support and commitment of school, parents,
  community, industry, agencies
• Invite, involve, and educate
• Meaningful, relevant, financially rewarding
  careers
• Diverse workforce

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Contact

• Rebecca Hasty, Gender Equity/Special Populations
  Initiatives Specialist
• Nebraska Department of Education
• Nebraska Career Education
• PO Box 94987
• Lincoln, NE 68509
• 402-471-4823
• 402-471-4565 (FAX)
• www.nde.state.ne.us/nce
• Rebecca.hasty_at_nde.ne.gov