Basic Skills: A Look Towards the Future

1. Basic Skills: A Look Towards the Future Randy Whitfield, Ed.D. Associate Vice President of College and Career Readiness North Carolina Community College System

2. Unknown “Why can’t problems hit us when we’re seventeen and know everything?”

3. Basic Skills Data Team Recommendations • Changes to Colleague for NRS • Changes to Colleague to fix issues • Collection of contact hours through computer system throughout year, not at end • Mini-mesters for late spring and summer

4. Revised Data System

5. New Monitoring Process • Adding “at-risk” monitoring • Adding financial monitoring • Adding project monitoring • Revising current monitoring forms • Revising desk monitoring form • Revising the way federal outcomes are calculated for local programs

6. New Funding Formula

7. New Performance Measures for Community Colleges

8. Postsecondary Education Focus

9. Workforce Investment Act 2011 Assist adults in attaining a secondary school diploma and in the transition to postsecondary education and training, through career pathways.

10. Basic Skills Plus • Provides opportunities for GED students to dual-enroll in developmental, occupational training, or curriculum certificate courses; tuition is waived. • Revisions made to Basic Skills Plus Guidelines • 43 colleges to have Basic Skills Plus programs by October

11. Accelerating Opportunity: A Breaking Through Initiative • Accelerating Opportunity focuses on connecting and streamlining adult education pathways by developing clear pipelines for students from ABE to GED, then to college through a credential with a workforce value. • 9 colleges involved in the initiative • All colleges will have opportunity to learn from this project.

12. Developmental Education Initiative (DEI)

13. NRS Changes Goal setting has been replaced with automatic cohort identification for the follow-up measures of employment (entry and retention), obtaining a secondary credential, and entry into postsecondary education or training. 

14. NRS Changes • In addition, new data will be collected and reported on the highest educational level of students and teacher experience and certification. • These changes went into effect on July 1, 2012.

15. GEDTS Changes

16. 2002 GED Test

17. 2014 GED Test

18. Other Equivalency Assessments • ETS and the University of Iowa • McGraw-Hill • PARCC • Smarter Balanced

19. Basic Skills Programs Current Programs: Adult Basic Education, Compensatory Education, Adult High School, GED, English as a Second Language NRS Programs: Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, English as a Second Language

20. Managed Enrollment • Emphasis on managed enrollment rather than open labs • Gives instructors opportunity to teach rather than just managing a classroom of students on different levels. • Set time to start and set time to end course.

21. Instructional Changes

22. Basic Skills Conference • Basic Skills Conference to be held every other year, not annually. • Basic Skills will combine with the System Office Conference when offered. • The Basic Skills Conference will be a mixture of sessions for directors/administrators and day-long training for instructors.

23. NC Instructor Certification • 7 core day-long training sessions • Specialty certificates • CEU credit from NC State University • Current certification process by portfolio will still be an option for instructors.