Below are some selected presentations from this year’s conference.

America’s Future Workforce Needs: What Will CTE’s Role Be?
Preparing the U.S. Workforce
The NSF Advanced Technological Education Program
Critical Employee Skills for the Changing Workforce
Susan Sclafani, Director, State Services at the National Center on Education and the Economy and former U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education
Gerhard Salinger, Advanced Technological Education, National Science Foundation
Semiha Evren Esen, Manager, Survey Research Center Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Moderator: Doug Webster, Industry Skills Coordinator, Department of Education, Montpelier, VT and NAWI Past-President
The opening General Session will include presentations from our distinguished guests. Discussed will be the NCEE report “Tough Choices or Tough Times” and how it has influenced “Race to the Top” legislation and states’ endorsement of international standards; the successes of the ATE – Advanced Technological Education NSF program and the role this funding source plays to improve STEM workforce development and our country’s competitiveness; and key findings of the recently released report from the Society of Human Resources Management, “Critical Skills Needs and Resources for the Changing Workforce,” discussing what is important and what’s not.

Building Digital/Social Media Skills for Global Work Environments
Joyce Malyn-Smith, Ed.D.
Linda Scott, Education Development Center, Inc., Newton, MA
Gordon Snyder, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA
In today’s globally competitive environment, businesses and professionals need more than traditional web sites to build and maintain their client base. People inhabit multiple online environments, and to be successful, you need to employ multiple digital/social media platforms. With new tools emerging nearly every day, how can we help students build the appropriate knowledge and skills to succeed in this rapidly changing digital world? Looking for a way to include Social Media Tools into your cluster’s IT Applications? Attend this session, and learn about EDC’s Digital/Social Media Rubrics and how to integrate them into your classes and programs of study.

The Creative Leaders Project: Gateway to the 21st-Century Workforce
Presenters from Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts
Gwen Plummer, Career Experience Specialist
Barbara Galindo, Fashion Design Teacher
Sophocles Grafas, Professional Graphics Studio Alumnus
Current Students
Fairfax Academy, in collaboration with Apple Federal Credit Union Education Foundation, has developed a cutting edge initiative inspired by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind.” The project’s goal is to help students learn and apply key transferable career skills–creativity & innovation, problem-solving, global communication, collaboration, leadership & entrepreneurship–that are marketable in many occupational fields. Hear about the projects, panel discussions, and leadership workshops that evolved from this innovative program.

Guitar Building Provides a Taste of Engineering
Dorene Perez, Program Coordinator of Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Engineering
Jim Gibson, Program Coordinator of Electronics
Sue Caley Opsal, Anatomy and Physiology Instructor
Rose Marie Lynch, Communications Instructor
Illinois Valley Community College, Oglesby, IL
Building electric guitars gives high school students a taste of engineering and earns them college credit through a course pioneered at Illinois Valley Community College and supported by a National Science Foundation grant. Presenters will demonstrate how this Taste of Engineering Careers (TEC) course creates interest in technology, builds students’ technical confidence and promotes high performance technical education. Learn how to plan, organize, publicize, offer, and assess a similar project or course.

Building Effective Industry-Education: Partnership through ICEC, Industry and Education Centers of Excellence
Doug Webster, Industry Skills Coordinator, Department of Education, Montpelier, VT
Doug Webster, expert on engaging industry in education, will share successes and challenges of implementing Vermont’s Industry and Education Centers of Excellence within Hospitality and Green Building economic clusters areas. Industry participation can come easily initially, however long-term commitment must present returns to the business community. Learn how the IECEs took on employer participation issues including, employer return on investment, key activities that keep businesses at the table, and top mistakes that cut short business involvement. Employer engagement is a key component to modernize our secondary education system–high schools and CTE.

The New Workplace Readiness Skills for the Commonwealth
Dr. Ron McCage, Executive Director, Career and Technical Education Consortium of States, Inc., Decatur, GA
Peggy Watson, Administrative Coordinator, CTE Resource Center, Richmond, VA
In 2008, Virginia initiated an update of its Workplace Readiness Skills and employed UVA’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the Career and Technical Education Consortium of States, Inc., and Virginia’s CTE Resource Center to address this work. Upon completion, the revision process will have included: 1) analysis of current national and state initiatives in workplace readiness skills, culminating in a draft list of skills, 2) comments from Virginia employers, 3) a final list revision, 4) development and implementation of instructional resources, and 5) creation and administration of a statewide assessment. Our presentation will focus on the research, data gathered, and ultimate findings, as well as how these revised skills will be integrated into Virginia’s CTE curriculum and tested in the 2010–2011 school year.

Accelerated Learning: From “What Difference Does it Make?” to “What Difference Can I Make?”
Janice Tkaczyk, Adjunct Professor, UMass Boston, East Dennis, MA
“This is boring!” “Why do we need to learn this?” Sound familiar? Come to this highly interactive workshop where you will learn why some students are failing, as well as how both teachers and school counselors, with an understanding
of learning styles, can improve classroom lessons while increasing student interest, involvement, and success! Make your lessons both fun and relevant!

Connecting Education to the Innovation Economy (Keynote)
Hans Meeder, President, Meeder Consulting Group, LLC, Columbia, MD
Innovation is the key to restoring and sustaining America’s prosperity. America’s learning systems have to help meet the innovation challenge by not just focusing on basic academic skills, but extending student capabilities in problem-solving, creativity, and teamwork. Hans Meeder, researcher, author, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Education, explains how education can connect to the innovation economy. He emphasizes strategies to build strong connections with business and industry and redesign education around the convergence of rigorous academics, relevant career themes, and relational-focused learning environments.

Blending Academic and CTE Content: An Online Approach
Mary Waters, Educational Consultant, Illinois State Board of Education, Geneva, IL
This session focuses on the use of online tools that allow teachers to plan standards-based instruction, document the standards their curriculum addresses, deliver it via an online format that is attractive to today’s students, and assess student performances relative to the standards. The test data enables teachers and administrators to address areas of deficiency for individual students.

All Students are Filmmakers Potomac Room
AFI Screen Education Suggested General Reading
Canon FS200 Basic Video Operation
Door Scene #1 Handout
Door Scene #2 Handout
Moving Images Integration
Protocol and Materials Guide to the Screen Education Process
David Watnee, Technology Specialist, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Producing a film is not limited to Hollywood studios anymore. Students today have easy access to inexpensive video cameras, and many of their cell phones can record video. Participants will learn the fundamental skills students need to make a good film. Participants will also learn how filmmaking by students can be incorporated into Career and Technical Education curriculum.

Got Rubrics? Your Guidepost to a Technologically Rigorous Curriculum
Joyce Malyn-Smith, Ed.D.
Linda Scott, Education Development Center, Inc., Newton, MA
Mary Vukelich, Century College, White Bear Lake, MN
As in nearly every career sector and industry, technology is essential to the work of law enforcement and criminal justice departments. However, the programs that train law enforcement officers and investigators generally do not include the technologies essential for career advancement. Attend this session, and learn how Century College and EDC, through the NSF-funded ISLET 2 project, are closing the knowledge gap. They are creating a national framework for a technology-enabled investigator based on rubrics developed to assess and benchmark achievement of investigative skills across content specialties and provide a technologically integrated curriculum.

Using Problem-Based Learning in Sustainable Technologies to Increase the STEM Pipeline
Nick Massa, Professor, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA
Today’s energy and climate concerns have captivated a new generation of students who have fervently embraced the cause of clean renewable energy and environmental sustainability. In this presentation, you will learn how problem-based learning (PBL) is being used to increase the STEM pipeline by tapping into students’ passion for clean renewable energy while at the same time developing their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Using GPS to Navigate Careers
Dr. Fran Beauman, Project Director, U.S. Department of Transportation, Springfield, IL
Tim Greenway, CTE Department Chairman, Varina High School, Henrico County Public Schools, VA
Darren Morris, Writer/Editor, CTE Resource Center, Richmond, VA
Be the first to try out one of the lesson plans recently piloted in Virginia as a part of a national curriculum project. Roll up your sleeves as teacher Tim Greenway walks you through a lesson in disaster preparedness, using GIS technology. Lessons are built for infusion into middle and high school curricula across disciplines, from CTE to fine arts, emphasizing both green technologies and STEM. Learn how you can join the field-test for this national project.

Congressional Updates and Trends in CTE (Keynote)
Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager, National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), Washington, D.C.
Last month, the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education unveiled “Reflect, Transform, Lead: A New Vision for Career Technical Education,” which is intended to guide CTE’s role in our nation’s future educational, workforce, and economic success. This session will outline the new vision and provide an update on legislative happenings in Washington, D.C.

- Presentations
- Participants