College and Career Transitions Initiative
Updated: May 10, 2004
Established in 2002, the College and Career Transitions Initiative (CCTI) is a U.S. Department of Education (DOE) project focused on easing student transitions between secondary and post-secondary education and improving academic rigor and persistence at both levels. Primary objectives include advocating high schools reforms and strengthening the role of community and technical colleges in student transitions and career preparation.
In this interview with Dr. Mark David Milliron, President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community Colleges*, and Dr. Laurence Warford, Project Director, CCTI, we discuss the DOE's goals in undertaking this project, expected outcomes, and vision for the future.
Microsoft: What was the driving reason that this project was undertaken by the DOE?
League: The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) in the Department of Education was interested in catalyzing stronger links between community colleges, high-schools, and business and industry. Moreover, they wanted to extend the principles of the No Child Left Behind Act into the postsecondary arena. So they built on the good work with their Career Clusters project, looking to identify multiple models of strong career pathways in high-growth, high-wage areas. They particularly wanted to emphasize the need for strong inter-institutional collaboration, lower student remediation, higher academic standards, and strong accountability.
A lot has been written about the need for these pathways and standards, but not much has been done to corral the research, identify the models, and stimulate further development. The College and Career Transitions Initiative was designed to be a true collaboration between high-quality partnership sites and OVAE; we would work together to disseminate, develop, and document strategies to facilitate the best of transitions for students.
Microsoft: What are the desired outcomes of CCTI and how does CCTI align with the K-8 focused No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001?
League: There are five outcomes of CCTI:
1. | Decreased need for remediation at postsecondary level |
2. | Increased enrollment and persistence in postsecondary education |
3. | Increased academic and skill achievement at secondary and postsecondary levels |
4. | Increased attainment of postsecondary degrees, certificates, or other recognized credentials |
5. | Increased entry into employment or further education |
As said, the initiative is designed to support the principles established in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 by investing in strategies to close the achievement gap, create meaningful educational options that help students with diverse backgrounds and needs reach uniformly high standards, and ensure that students attain these high standards at each level of their educational careers.
Microsoft: CCTI was envisioned to be carried out by local site partnerships that include community/technical colleges, secondary schools and business/industry. What is the role of the site partnerships and how were they selected?
League: We conducted a national RFP process to identify outstanding site partnerships committed to serving as exemplars and leaders in facilitating and expanding promising college and career transition strategies and developing career pathways. The site partnerships are led by a community college and must have at least one secondary and two business partners. Their role is to develop model career pathways and provide leadership that will lead other community colleges to develop similar partnerships across the country. More than 100 partnership sites applied, making our work pretty difficult. A group of nationally recognized readers helped the League and OVAE cull the finalists, helping us narrow down to the top 15.
Microsoft: Through CCTI, Programs of Study are being developed by three site partnerships in each of five occupational areas. What are these occupational areas and how were they determined?
League: The initiative seeks to have an impact on occupational areas that are in high demand. The five occupational areas are Education and Training; Health Science; Information Technology; Law, Public Safety, and Security; and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. OVAE required that Health Science and Information Technology be two of the occupational areas. The League for Innovation in the Community College determined that (1) Education and Training and (2) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics would be two additional areas, leaving the final occupation area to be determined on the strength of the proposals received from local site partnerships. Law, Public Safety, and Security was selected on this basis.
Microsoft: Information Technology is one of the occupational areas of focus but technical skills are critical today for all citizens and in all industry verticals. How does CCTI address basic technical skills important for today's jobs?
League: While we are catalyzing the development of Information Technology (IT) career pathways, we also realize that most people will go into jobs in other fields that may not be focused on IT, but they certainly use and/or leverage IT. Given this, what you will find across all the career pathways is that technical skills have been woven into the academic core. Indeed, information literacy and information technology application have become a part of the essential underpinnings of almost all career areas.
Microsoft: Now that CCTI has been underway over a year, what would you identify as the most significant aspect of the project to date?
League: We are proud of many accomplishments in CCTI over the past year. For example, the establishment of a virtual reader in the area of student transitions; the recruitment and selection of 15 site partnerships in 13 states; and the production of a current practices inventory of those colleges applying for the grant are all major accomplishments. The most significant aspects, however, are the establishment of a statement of characteristics of career pathways, the development of a career pathways template, and the beginning of the production of career pathways in each of the five occupational areas.
Microsoft: Why did OVAE select the community and technical colleges as strategic partners to cooperate in developing and implementing this project?
League: For several reasons, probably: (1) Community colleges have established excellent working partnerships with business, industry, and labor; (2) community colleges are strategically located in the postsecondary area between high schools, four-year colleges and universities, and the world of work; and (3) community colleges have a track record of being community change agents. Indeed, for many of our institutions, "community" is their middle name!
*The League for Innovation in the Community College (League) leads the CCTI consortium of site partnerships through a cooperative agreement with the DOE Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). Microsoft is a member of the Advisory Working Group for the initiative.
