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From Director Julie Jordan
Impressive People...Impressive Work
 Welcome to the first issue of the RCU newsletter. It is intended to help us all stay in touch with the many exciting projects ongoing at the RCU, so we can celebrate and support each other in our efforts. I have enjoyed watching and guiding the progress of several of the projects listed below. In fact, during my contract negotiations for the RCU, I have had the opportunity to highlight many of your contributions to CTE and education during meetings with state officials. Your efforts do not go unnoticed, and I congratulate you all on jobs well done. In these fiscally uncertain times, I have been particularly impressed with the level of professionalism and dedication you all have shown. Let's keep up the good work! You are an impressive group! |
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Career & Technical Education
CTE Administrator Endorsement 
The first group of CTE administrators to complete the new endorsement program will wrap up their training with a third session in May. In September 2012, the 40 participants learned about the MDE CTE office and met program supervisors. In January this year,  Julie Jordan (best practices in hiring), Lemond Irvin (Crucial Conversations), and Lois Kappler (M-STAR training) led them in a leadership study. For the third and last module, MAC staff will demonstrate how MS-CPAS2 data may be used to drive administrative decisions.
Internal Tool Development
  Several members of the Business Applications Solutions team have been developing tools for use with or on the RCU Web Portal. Many of the new internal tools are designed to move, implement, and/or enhance old tools from our legacy system. Bhanu Shanmugam developed a module to expedite and automate IAD meeting changes, which ensures that IAD participants are able to access necessary files no matter when their meetings are scheduled. Anup Zope worked with Johnny Jones to develop a print shop module, which transferred functions from the old server to the Web Portal as well as provided some new functions for the print shop. Sujan Anreddy developed a module that
  automatically generates a series of notification e-mails to appropriate staff to set up new-user accounts, thus alleviating lag time between server, e-mail, and Web portal access for any new users. Sujan also developed a module to track software licenses for the RCU. LaVandace Ellis from the Administration and Operations team has been decommissioning old virtual machines and repurposing them for development and testing environments.
MS ACTE/MDE Summer Conference 
The MDE and Mississippi Association of Career and Technical Educators annual conference is scheduled for July 23-26, 2013. The conference will take place at the Muse Conference Center at Hinds Community College Rankin Campus in Pearl, Miss. There will be general-interest breakout sessions, mingling opportunities, and vendor displays for everyone.
Emily Johnson has been working with the MDE and MS ACTE to plan
 the conference, which this year is designed with the classroom in mind. Past attendees have requested more opportunities to meet with state technical assistance staff and to meet with each other to network and learn. As a result, this year's conference includes two full days for affiliates to meet with their teachers, MDE staff, student organization staff, and RCU staff in their specific areas to recharge, plan, and train for the upcoming school year.
To attend the conference, participatns must preregister by July 8, 2013. Participants are responsible for their own lodging and travel arrangements. The preregistration fee is $75, and onsite registration is $100.
MS Counseling Model
Betsey Smith is wrapping up the first year of training counselors in Rankin County, the first school district in the state to adopt the new Mississippi counseling model, which Betsey wrote based on American School Counselor Association recommendations and with support from school counselors around the state. During seven different face-to-face meetings, she has trained 50 elementary, middle, and high school counselors to use the new model. Each counselor earned 6.8 CEUs for completing the training.
Mobile Apps 
Satish Vadlamani is researching options for new ways for the RCU to deliver mobile apps (Android and iOS).
Moving from Blackboard to Canvas
Teachers across the state will be changing from the Blackboard learning management system to Canvas as of July 1. To help facilitate the transition, PL staff will be providing training to teachers this summer to ensure that they are prepared to migrate their courses and materials to the new platform. For more information about Canvas, visit http://www.instructure.com.
Pathways to Success Promo Tour
Diane Godwin has been on the road with the PTS promotional tour. She's visited 20 school districts across the state to teach CTE and academic educators the importance of working together to make classroom learning more relevant to students. Mississippi is one of the first 25 states to adopt the National 16 Career Clusters Framework, known in our state as Pathways to
Success. The framework connects career interests to core courses, making school more relevant and engaging for students. It has also proven to increase graduation rates and the number of students who pursue credentials and/or postsecondary education. To build support for the program, Diane has met with teachers, counselors, principals, CTE directors, and superintendents statewide, presenting them with customizable tools designed to help them promote the value of PTS with parents, civic groups, and business and industry. These resources include a video and audio podcast, banners, PTS career cluster booklets, and a PowerPoint slideshow all available for download on the RCU website.
VIP: New Teacher Induction 
The VIP program facilitates the development of newly hired "special" licensed teachers into "standard" licensed teachers. It involves a sequence of professional-development activities that initiate with employment. The training progresses through topics from those "most important to know immediately" to those that meet long-term needs of teachers. Led by Leanne Long, the first cohort of New Teacher Induction, a part of the VIP program, will complete training in June. The second cohort will begin in July.
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Assessment
Mississippi Assessment Center
 Sean Owen reports that this spring, the MAC completed a survey project for the MDE, covering teacher and administrator perceptions of the efficacy of Common Core efforts in the state of Mississippi. 10,980 K-12 teachers and administrators responded to the MDE survey. The assessment group compiled the results and produced district-level and state reports for the department. The MAC also just completed the Spring 2013 MS-CPAS2 administration for postsecondary community colleges and secondary school districts. 21,110 high school students and 3,447 community college students tested during this administration. The staff at the MAC handled over 1,000 phone calls, 200 help desk tickets, and 600 e-mails. In addition, the MAC handled the overall administration of the special February 2013 Subject Area Testing Program assessment for U.S. History (see Other Contracts). Performance-Based Assessments 
Ashley Priebe Brown has led the effort to bring performance-based assessments (PBAs) to four secondary CTE programs across the state. Ashley and other MAC staff worked with RCU employees as well as teachers from the four programs to design and implement these assessments, which measure the second-year course competencies by having the students complete a set of tasks and show their work to evaluators from industry. Ashley believes that the combination of MS-CPAS2 and PBA will show a more complete picture of student learning because a first-year MS-CPAS2 asks, "Do they know it?" and a second-year PBA asks, "Can they show it?" Analysis of the results from spring implementation will start in May, and the MAC is excited to see what the data will tell them.
Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)   Federal requirements stipulate that teachers' evaluations be based in significant part on their ability to show student growth (i.e., a perceptible change in knowledge over the course of an academic term). For teachers in grades and subjects where students are routinely tested using statewide standardized assessments, this is a pretty simple and objective process. The problem that Mississippi is dealing with (along with every other state in the nation) is how to fairly, reliably, and validly determine student growth for students in grades and subjects where no state- or district-wide assessment is currently in use. Like most states, Mississippi's resources are tight, so an alternative way to set SLOs for teachers in nontested grades and subjects is needed. Roslyn Miller, Alexis Nordin, and other MAC staff are helping the MDE CTE office sift through models already in use by various states, determine what will work best for Mississippi, and develop training materials. This project will probably span the course of several years as the MDE establishes the foundation for SLOs and conducts a trial in 2013-2014. BAS Support and Development  
The Business Applications Solutions group and the MAC collaborated on a number of projects that were in place for the spring testing period. For the PBA pilot, Lisa Hardjono and Peter Graves
developed an evaluator management tool for districts to input and track evaluators. They also created a rubric generator that provides customized (to student and course) rubrics that districts may print for evaluators. Finally, they developed a PBA-score input app that facilitates both recording scores and the process of averaging combined-year scores. Several other MAC-related projects involved Peter, Lisa, and the BAS team, including moving and updating the A2D test verification tools that Supriya Mishra uses to prepare and troubleshoot all the  tests before they go online, load testing the QuestionMark server with 2,000 connections, schedule theapproximately 24,500 secondary and postsecondary students for their tests, as well as load item analysis for 5,300 postsecondary items (including 229 items for review). Whew! |
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Other Contracts
ARC: High Performance Leadership Institute
Lynn Eiland reports the Appalachian Regional Commission has extended funding for the High Performance Leadership Institute, now in its fourth year, for at least another two years. To date, 30 schools have been served through the HPLI project, representing over 100 individuals. The program consists of approximately 12 days of training spread over a two-year period. It is
designed to help school leaders dramatically improve their schools, focusing on implementation of management systems for building a data culture and a high-performance team. As participants in the HPLI, principals have the opportunity to fully engage school leadership team members as well as other teams from around the state, allowing for the exchange of ideas as well as the opportunity to help solve key challenges.
ARC: Performance-Based Compensation 
The RCU is collaborating with the MDE to provide training for administrators and teachers on the new Mississippi Statewide Teacher Appraisal Rubric (M-STAR) as part of the Performance-Based Compensation System pilots. Seven districts in Mississippi are piloting PBCS in the 2013-2014 school year. Four of the districts were named by Governor Phil Bryant, and the other three are funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Lois Kappler is spearheading the M-STAR training effort. To date, 90 administrators, most CTE directors, and many teachers in all the pilot districts have been trained, and training will continue through the summer.
As part of the ARC grant to support teachers in their understanding and implementation of M-STAR, Lois worked with Marilyn Bowen and Michelle Taylor to develop 20 online modules (one for each standard). Finally, she and Diane Godwin are producing a video that will be used to demonstrate to CTE teachers and directors how M-STAR works for them as an evaluation tool.
SATP2 US History Assessment 
Pam Stafford managed the February 2013 Subject Area Testing Program assessment for US History. She and the MAC staff collaborated with the MDE Office of Student Assessment and Office of Career and Technical Education to test approximately 3,800 high school students during this special administration. Lisa Hardjano
and Peter Graves developed tools for the testing and launched them on the RCU Web Portal. Bhanu Shanmugam developed a reporting module, which facilitated the completion of the scoring and reporting to schools within one week. |
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Research
Hospitality & Tourism Industry in the Delta
 Working with the Foundation for the Mid South (FMS), Kristen Dechert and Denise Sibley conducted a study of the hospitality and tourism industry in the Delta with a focus on career pathways for employees in low-wage, entry-level positions to upper-level positions with family-sustaining wages. The purpose of this research was to help the FMS determine whether to fund a workforce-development project in this industry in the Delta. This two-month, qualitative study involved interviewing employees  in various positions and sectors of the industry, including hotels, restaurants, casinos, travel agencies, museums, and event halls. Phone interviews and webinars were conducted for participants who were unable to meet face to face. Labor statistics and other quantitative data were gathered to provide a context for the qualitative work and to guide the research design. Their study also involved compiling a regional training and assets inventory of the resources and offerings from both public and private entities, including universities and community colleges, job centers, and training centers based in or near the Delta. |
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Awards & Acknowledgments
100% Audits Pam Stafford and Kristi Jones expertly orchestrated another 100% inventory audit and a 100% Procard audit, both in record time to boot. Kudos to them for working so hard to keep the RCU in tip-top shape.
RCU Publications Recognized at PRAM  At this year's annual Public Relations Association of Mississippi (PRAM) conference, the RCU received awards of excellence for several publications. To get an award of excellence, entrants have to earn 80-89 points for the category. For the MDE and ORED annual reports, the communication team actually scored high enough to win a PRism (90-100 points), but because so many people scored high in that category, they only allowed 20% to win the top award. The publications didn't rank in the top 20% and won awards of excellence instead of PRisms. Below are the scores for each winning publication:
- RCU Annual Report (ORED): Award of Excellence Score: 100
- RCU/MDE Business Report; Award of Excellence Score: 97.5
- Fall 2012 Connections: Award of Excellence Score 83.5
- Sustainable CTE story: Award of Excellence Score: 84.5
Congratulations to Amanda Bolan, Kristen Dechert, Diane Godwin, Emily Johnson, Johnny Jones, and Heather Wainwright for a job well done.
Lemond Irvin and Scott Kolle
 Lemond and Scott have been selected to participate in the 2013-2014 class of the Mississippi Community College Leadership Academy, which is sponsored by the Mississippi Community College Foundation. The program involves training administrators to fill the need for upper-level leadership in the state's community colleges.
Myra Pannell
 In January, Myra collaborated with members of the Engineering Technology Education Division (eTED) of ACTE to create a survey about hosting a portion of the National ACTE Conference in an online environment. She also delivered a presentation about Career Academies in Mississippi at the Program of Research and Evaluation for Public Schools (PREPS) conference in Jackson in February. LeAnn Miller LeAn  n will graduate with a Master of Science in Technology this May. Congratulations, LeAnn!
Betsey Smith
In June, Betsey Smith will begin a two-year term as secretary for the MS Association for Family & Consumer Sciences. All the best, Betsey!
Michelle Taylor and Suzanne Tribble
 As participants in the Mississippi Education Policy Fellowship Program, which is sponsored throught the Stennis Institute at MSU, Michelle and Suzanne attended the Washington Policy Seminar in Washington, DC, on April 21-24, 2013. The WPS is sponsored by the National Institute for Educational Leadership. It provides attendees with the opportunity to learn about current national education and related policy issues through interaction with legislators, researchers, pundits, and other education leaders.
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It is obvious that the RCU is actively involved in many projects that are making a difference in education for Mississippi. Congratulations on all that you have achieved. You represent the RCU and MSU well!
For updates and submissions for the next issue of the newsletter, please e-mail Kristen Dechert. |
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