The State of Career and Technical Education: Kansas City Regional Initiatives. An Analysis Commissioned by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Mid-America Regional Council
Author: Deeds, Donna M.
Date: 2017-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Vocational Education,Educational Practices,Barriers,Incentives,Counties,Urban Areas,School Business Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Best Practices,Access to Education,Charter Schools,Grants,Federal Aid,Labor Force Development,Apprenticeships,High Schools,Educational Environment,Accountability,Vocational Education Teachers,Career Awareness,Career Counseling,Educational Attitudes,Graduation Requirements,Public Schools,School Districts

This report was commissioned by Mid-America Regional Council and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to gain an understanding of the current state of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in nine counties of the Kansas City region: Missouri counties of Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte, and Ray; and Kansas counties of Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, and Wyandotte. Additionally, there is a desire to find evidence of promising practices within other states that are responsive to the needs of the economy and to articulate any barriers and/or incentives that inhibit or support scaling CTE efforts. To develop this report, the author engaged education, business, government, and community leaders to gather the current state of CTE and incorporated extensive input from a wide variety of sources: (1) Relevant research reports, policy conceptual frameworks on CTE reform and success from Kansas, Missouri and national sources; (2) Approximately sixty interviews and site visits with stakeholders and experts inside and outside of the CTE system; (3) Previous CTE-related surveys of student, parent, and teacher satisfaction; (4) Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) Network Summer Huddle (thirty-three school districts); (5) CTE data from Kansas and Missouri State Departments of Education; (6) Programs that support postsecondary credentialing (KC Scholars, Full Employment Council); and (7) Foundations and other organizations that provide support to educational innovation. This report is organized into five sections. The first section begins with an accounting of the current state of CTE in the Kansas City region (nine counties) by reviewing major CTE programs. The second section explores best practices of business-education partnership and examples of business and industry partnerships. The third section introduces evidence of promising practices of other states, focusing on a handful of statewide and/or district level actions like conversion charter schools, workforce development centers, waivers, tax incentives, apprenticeships, sector-level partnerships, and effective high school programming efforts like personalized learning, competency-based learning, and value-add diplomas. The fourth section is a comprehensive view of the barriers and headwinds to scaling the access of high-quality, market-driven CTE programming for 85 percent to 90 percent of the student population. The final section explores what we have learned and offers recommendations for going forward. [This report was prepared by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC).]