Oklahoma Governor’s council for workforce and economic ...



State Workforce Youth CouncilMeeting Date: April 13, 2018Meeting Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.Meeting Location: Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City900 N. Portland, Oklahoma City, OKBT 304A, Business Technologies Bldg., 3rd floorAGENDAWelcome, Introductions Chuck Mills, Co-ChairCecilia Robinson-Woods, Co-ChairReview of Minutes 01-18 For approval Co-ChairsReview of committee status - report #1 ICAP#2 High School Equivalency #3 #4 Work ready/career ready schools.Co-ChairsEstablish committee meeting dates AllNew Business Old Business Next Meeting 6-8-18 AllCo-chairsAdjourn ATTENDEESChuck Mills, Chair – Mills Machine CompanyToni Pickle – Pioneer Telephone CooperativeLance Allee – Lifelong Learning, CareerTechMarissa Lightsey – Oklahoma Department of EducationKelly Arrington – Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology EducationRhonda Mize – Choctaw NationSteven Shepelwich – Federal Reserve Bank of KC – OKC Branch, GCWEDNorma Noble – Youth AdvocateRachel Holt – Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs (for Steven Buck)Jared Bates – Innovation, Research and Quality, CareerTechFrancie Moss – Upward Bound, OSU-OKCChelsea Hunt – Oklahoma State Department of EducationEmmit Grayson – Oklahoma Office of Workforce DevelopmentJeane Burruss – Oklahoma Office of Workforce DevelopmentDarcee Simon – Oklahoma Office of Workforce DevelopmentMEETING MINUTESWelcome & Approval of 1/18 MinutesChuck Mills began the meeting by welcoming attendees. He asked for additions/corrections to the minutes from the January 18th meeting. None were offered. Toni Pickle made a motion to approve the 1/18 minutes and Kelly Arrington seconded the motion. No further discussion. The motion passed unanimously. IntroductionsAttendees introduced themselves and an informal poll was conducted about subcommittee membership. It was noted that approximately 2 members from each subcommittee were present.Review of Subcommittee StatusChuck began with a review of the council subcommittee projects. He noted that ICAP is well underway and gaining momentum daily. The council is excited to assist the completion of that towards the goal of 100% participation by 2020. He noted the need for private sector support when the grant is complete to be ready to assist with internships and apprenticeships. Chuck described the importance of the high school equivalency committee’s work to engage youth with career pathways. He discussed an interest in participating in DOL’s certification program and a hope to gain support from education foundations and private sector sponsors to support schools with producing work-ready employees. Chuck noted the need for strong marketing and communication to spread the word about workforce challenges and ways that character development can support, especially with employability and soft skills. Chuck mentioned a visit to an elementary school of character and how impressed he was with the conversations he had with students in addition to the school structure and culture. He suggested organizing a site visit to a school of character for a future meeting.Toni described the TAP middle school in Woodward, which is a joint venture with the CareerTech system for 7th and 8th graders. She was impressed with student engagement and school innovation during her tour. For example, students were tasked with developing a product to sell and market. They had to prepare PowerPoint presentations and the next day, there were some career tech instructors coming to do a “Shark Tank” activity with them. Chuck emphasized the opportunity to engage students to promote retention and completion of high school. Kelly noted that the CareerTech and public school partners are looking at the TAP school as a potential model to expand to other parts of the state. Toni also reflected on her tour of the NW Youth and Family Service Center and the work that they are doing with traumatized students (one room is filled with different types of swings to connect and engage students). Norma Noble suggested that the Youth Council needs to highlight more of the innovative and successful programs across the state, perhaps through a publication. Chuck agreed that there are many great programs that more people should be aware of. Marissa Lightsey mentioned the “Share Your Story” tool on the SDE website, which is an in-depth template for school districts and communities to collaborate. An example from Mustang is a senior conference about post-grad opportunities including sessions on financial aid, career tech, and life skills. The event was so successful that it is going to be an annual event and 2 other districts saw it on the website and are planning their own. The official launch of the website is September and it will include toolkits for these programs. In total, the plan is to have close to 100 district or site ICAP plans available for implementation during the pilot phase that will be categorized by school size and used as model tools and resources. There is also a webinar series that supports schools through the process. Chuck mentioned the financial literacy class that is required in the state, but he has spoken with students who still don’t have a basic understanding of writing checks, banking, interest rates, or obtaining loans. Steve Shepelwich stressed the implementation of the financial education that was required through the legislation passed a couple of years ago. It is not required to be a formal class and seems to have been de-prioritized. While it could be integrated more into core courses, it is one of many things that are asked of teachers and school resources. He cited organizations across the state including the Oklahoma Council of Economic Education and Money Matters as organizations that are available to support financial education for both teachers and students. Kelly mentioned legislation last year that would require professional development for teachers on financial literacy. Steve shared that he is working on that through the Federal Reserve, which hosts a conference for teachers and administrators along with bankers and other private sector folks in partnership with the Oklahoma Jump Start coalition. While there are many initiatives and projects across the state to support teachers and engage schools, Steve noted the importance of recognizing the deeper structural issues that inhibit those efforts (eg. outdated textbooks).Chuck emphasized the need to find opportunities through the Youth Council to efficiently support teachers and schools. Marissa suggested the exploration of some of the deeper, underlying issues. She referenced the synopsis of the Mustang conference and the issues brought forth by the students through their questions, noting that financial literacy is not just for those in poverty. Francie Moss shared a strategy from Upward Bound where they bring in Money Matters and found that they could even take it further by bringing in parents and families. The focus was on first generation students and families to discuss loans and scholarships and have a broader financial literacy conversation. Marissa agreed about the need to focus on the parents and families. She mentioned a need in the Shawnee community to have a program like Junior Achievement or Bridges Out of Poverty. She also wondered if companies offer financial literacy support to their workforce. Chuck mentioned efforts to engage the state chamber of commerce around this issue as a partner to disseminate information.Jeane Burruss mentioned a national finance conference for the Department of Labor and asked about resources that agencies had to locate out of school youth. Jared said that they rely on counselors. Marissa asked Kelly if it was tracked through ICAP and Kelly responded that it’s been discussed and the goal is for all partners to be able to track a student through employment, but it hasn’t been adopted statewide. Francie discussed the TRIO program, which serves first generation college students and shared data that over 10,000 pre-college students in Oklahoma are served with over $24 million in federal grant funding for college preparation and success programs. The founding father of TRIO started at Oklahoma Baptist University and there is a huge history of the program here in Oklahoma. Marissa compared the individual focus of the TRIO program to the intention of ICAP. Jared Bates expressed concerns about privacy issues and the legal challenges that have emerged in discussions about a statewide tracking system. Emmitt Grayson concurred, stating a need to rely on word of mouth from school administrators and the challenges of aligning statistics and records. Norma asked about other states and Marissa responded that Kentucky is one state with a common place for data and shared the similar challenges in other states of determining who is responsible for keeping the data. Jared asked of the Department of Corrections is able to track individuals without using social security numbers and Rachel responded that it only tracks individuals within their system.Subcommittee UpdatesICAPMarissa shared that we’re finishing our 1st year pilot of ICAP with 28 districts and 60 pilot school sites. Midterm reviews were just completed, which include a detailed analysis of each plan’s progress. Each school chooses 1 free online tool to use and 1 grade level for implementation. All OKCPS middle schools are participating at the 7th grade level, but there have been several different approaches within that group. One popular theme has been student-led conferences, a spin on parent teacher conferences emphasizing strengths over deficiencies. Students are responsible for taking an assessment and developing plans and goals. A similar model from Emporia, KS saw parent attendance rates increase from 20% to 80%. Schools will provide SDE with their complete ICAP plans so that a toolkit can be developed and shared across the state. They are also creating a career advising tool kit with 10 counselors who will complete that in June. Applications are open for more ICAP pilot sites and they are also working on completing the next 2 modules of our online community platform to connect students, parents, educators, and the business community. The grant will end in the middle of our 1st year of implementation in August 2019. We’re also partnering with Upward Bound. Gear Up grants go on for 5-6 years and have opportunity to sustain/support school districts through ICAP pilot. Norma asked about support from other states and Marissa shared that our grant is organized into a smaller work-based learning group. We are the final ICAP class.High School EquivalencyJared shared that the committee focus is on dropout recovery for 16-18 years old since Career Pathways looks at other ranges. For the last 6 months, they’ve been working on the re-granting of the state for federal funds which hasn’t happened for 15 years. Through the re-allocation of funds across the state a few programs have been dropped and new ones have been added. Round one is complete except for the NE region which is expected to be done by May 1. There are a number of individuals who will drop out of high school and immediately enter our programs (may be bullying issues or not want to go to alternative ed). They will go into our programs for HSE. We’ve started working on marketing for HSE and our programs, but that has been tabled until the re-granting process is complete. The next step is to develop marketing strategies and collect data on our progress. Individuals with a HS diploma make about $6,000 more per year than those who don’t. We’re at/near 100% ROI after 1 year on that component and it compounds afterwards. Through the Central Oklahoma Workforce Investment Board, 49% of participants who complete GED go on to post-secondary education and 90% are retained in their 2nd year compared to 40% statewide college retention rates. Norma emphasized the need to change the perceptions of HSE that legislature members have. Lance Allee noted the difficult level of the new GED test. It’s been brought up in the past to share a quarterly HSE newsletter with changes and success stories to market and share more about adult education. Jared mentioned the intent to market to state representatives and senators as long as it isn’t a conflict of interest. The Youth Council may be the best advocate in this capacity. Lance mentioned 9 dropout recovery programs at 11 locations across the state who serve 1,079 students last year. 124 continued to postsecondary education and 374 returned to earn a diploma from their original high school. Jeane mentioned partnership opportunities and communication with Indian nations. Chuck suggested a celebration of success stories at the capitol. Lance shared that test vendors would support with marketingWork Ready/Career Ready SchoolsRhonda Mize described the benefits of ICAP, HSE, and character as a foundation for developing the framework for certification. It’s currently organized at bronze, silver, and gold levels with key elements and components at every level. The committee has discussed 15 components and are considering an additional 5 more. Jeane mentioned work that has been done with Carl Perkins and ICAP and the need to standardize the work across the state. Rhonda added that TRIO is an additional resource to avoid duplication of services and manage expectations of schools. She stressed the importance of being strategic to offer support and resources to fill in gaps and not overwhelm school partners. Francie added that Gear Up and TRIO are post-secondary, but hope to be resources to fill in gaps. Rhonda described a program called Project Impact that she would like to be an ICAP pilot that utilizes career elective classes. It began in January with 35 students and now has 85 students as Choctaw Nation Career Development. The students had a field trip to Cowboy Stadium in Dallas and learned about career opportunities in sports and entertainment. They’re also planning a trip to Tulsa Tech’s aviation program and museum. Character CommitteeChuck gave a report on behalf of Robert for the Character Committee. He stressed the goal of awareness building and celebrating rather than marketing a character program. The committee seeks to assist and recognize schools of character. April 9th was School Character Day at the capitol (the celebration had been postponed due to weather). The website has a character exchange toolkit. The Dove Academy school visit was a good example of what character looks like in the classroom and school-wide. It wasn’t just about the kids being disciplined, but instead being intent and engaged. They were having fun learning and liked the environment. The private sector is excited about this concept because it will promote employability skills for the future workforce.Old businessNone.New BusinessNone.Next MeetingFriday, June 8th at 10amOklahoma State University – Oklahoma CityBT 304A, Business Technologies Building, 3rd floorAdjournmentChuck asked that committee members continue to communicate and thanked everyone for their time and volunteerism. The meeting adjourned at approximately 12:00p.m.Respectfully submitted,Darcee Simon ................
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