College, Career and Technical Education

College and Career Readiness Professional Development Series

School Year 2013-2014

Dear Colleagues, The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) is offering a new professional development series for schools, districts and community partners that supports college and career readiness (CCR) for all students. ESE in consultation with a Guiding Coalition has developed a coordinated regional approach by offering CCR professional development opportunities that integrates existing initiatives in a more strategic and comprehensive manner. Our agenda for school year 2013-2014 takes a blended approach of sponsoring monthly webinars (decreasing travel impact and "time out of building") and regional face to face meetings along with initiative/grant specific meetings to better support your collective professional development needs. The CCR professional development series is based on the following Department goals:

Increasing the five year graduation rate
Increasing the MassCore completion rate
Increasing the number of students that enroll in postsecondary education
Reducing the number of students who enroll in developmental (remedial) coursework during their post-secondary educational experience
Increasing the number of students, schools, districts and programs participating in career development education (including career awareness, exploration and immersion activities) as outlined in the Integration of College and Career Readiness (ICCR) Taskforce Report
Increase the percent of overall student learner gains in adult education programming

All of these metrics are focused on one of the agency's priorities that support "Success After High School."

Structure of Professional Development Series

Regional Sessions: Purpose: The purpose of the CCR regional sessions is to provide a facilitated day to help support teams of district, school, workforce development, higher education, and other community partners strategize and plan to move their CCR work to the "next level." This will be accomplished through structured sessions to promote sharing across teams as well as individual team time. Teams will leave the day with the start of (or expansion of - depending on starting place) a CCR action plan that emphasizes coherence across CCR initiatives, as well as connections to other key education initiatives. The regional sessions will use the DSAC regions and focus on content/topics that tend to run across many programs and initiatives focusing on college and career readiness. These are daylong sessions with an option to purchase lunch. Information will follow on how to register as a team since the focus of much of the day is coordinated around a team concept working on a variety of student outcomes. Sessions will be held in the following regions. While you are not restricted to your own region, the content of each session will be very similar, so there is no need to attend more than one session unless your program is working with districts from multiple regions. Directions and specific information will be provided as we get closer to the convening dates.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - Berkshire: Crowne Plaza, Pittsfield

Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - Pioneer Valley: Holyoke Community College, Holyoke

Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - Central: Worcester State College

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 - Northeast: UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center

Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - Greater Boston: Four Points, Norwood

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 - Southeast: Holiday Inn, Taunton

Registration Information: We encourage districts and their partners to attend regional sessions as a team. Please register your team. Success of districts, schools and community partners (including Workforce Investment Boards, career centers and community colleges) serving students is based on a collaborative approach. Individual registration is discouraged, and those participants will likely be added to an existing district team. Participants engaged in specific ESE CCR initiatives who are interested in earning PDP's will need to complete the requisite final project needed for their program or district. If you have any questions, please email us at: collegeandcareerreadiness@doe.mass.edu. Monthly Webinars: Content-based and thematic webinars on the topics below will be offered from 2:00 to 3:00 PM on the dates listed below. Participants will need to register for each webinar individually at http://www.doe.mass.edu/events.aspx or the links below.

Month	Title
September 17, 2013	CCR Data Wise: EWIS, Postsecondary Reports and DART (COMPLETED)
October 15, 2013	Career Development Education: Career Awareness, Exploration and Immersion (COMPLETED)
November 12, 2013	Transition to High School through Summer Bridge and Other Ninth Grade Transition Programming
December 17, 2013	CCR: Integration of the Academic, Workplace Readiness and Personal /Social Domains
January 21, 2014	Individual Learning Plans
February 25, 2014	Graduation and Dropout Rate Data
March 18, 2014	Structured Learning Time: Extended Day, 990 and Alternative Structures
April 15, 2014	Transition for Students with Disabilities
May 20, 2014	MassCore
June 10, 2014	Early College Designs

Initiative and Grant Specific Technical Assistance: Technical assistance for ESE programs and initiatives including MassGrad, Academic Support, STEM Early College High Schools, Connecting Activities and the Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling will be sent under a separate cover. We strongly encourage participants in these initiatives to take part in the CCR Professional Development Series.

Last Updated: November 8, 2013