Virginia Governor’s CTE Exemplary Standards Award Program

Governor Timothy M. Kaine presented his first round of CTE Exemplary Standards Awards August 4, 2009 during the Virginia CTE Summer Professional Development Institute in Richmond. Each of the three exemplary programs received a large banner for the school, a small banner for the classroom, a leather briefcase for each instructor, and a check for $5,000 to be used for program improvement.

Early Childhood Education, Arlington Career Center


Cosmetology Program, Edison High School Academy

Automotive Services Technology, Virginia Beach Technology and Career Education Center

VIEW DOCUMENTATION FOR VIRGINIA’S EXEMPLARY PROGRAMS:

The Edison High School Academy’s Cosmetology program and the Arlington Career Center’s Early Childhood Education program documentation is in binders which may be viewed at the respective schools. During the 2009-2010 school year, documentation will be posted to a Web site.

The Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center’s Automotive Services Technology program’s documentation may be viewed at

http://www.techcenter.vbschools.com/exemplary/pages/standard_list.html.

2010 Nominees Receive Technical Assistance

Nominees for the 2010 awards received technical training August 3, 2009 in Richmond. An exciting change for the second round of Governor’s Awards is that all documentation will be created in portfolios on the Web using TaskStream©. Standards for CTE Exemplary programs were streamlined and the number of required documents reduced. View the 2010 rubric at this link: 2010 Standards

2009-2010 Timeline

June 1, 2009 Nominations Due (see below for links to form and instructions)
August 3, 2009
1:00-4:00 PM		 Technical Assistance Session
CTE Resource Center
Richmond, VA
August 4, 2009 FIRST GOVERNOR’S CTE EXEMPLARY STANDARDS AWARDS PRESENTED
Feb. 10, 2010 Documentation must be posted to Web site
(No paper documentation required or accepted)
Feb & March Documentation Review
March & April Site Visits
May Exemplary Programs Identified
June or July Awards Presented

Virginia Governor’s CTE Exemplary Standards Award Program

“While I’m proud of the work we have done for career and technical education, we still have a long way to go…. It is essential that we develop new and creative ways to meet 21st century workforce needs and help our students succeed. This proposal gives students oppportunities to excel in career and technical fields and change the perception of career and technical education in the Commonwealth.”

Governor Timothy M. Kaine

The purpose of the Governor’s Exemplary Standards Award program is to raise the rigor and quality of career and technical education programs across the state. This will be a two-step process: programs will work with business advisory groups and postsecondary faculty to validate their attainment of rigorous standards, and then apply for the Governor’s designation.

This will be a continuous quality improvement process engaging K-12 and higher education, the business community and state, regional and local officials. The opportunity to earn this distinction will create an incentive for programs to meet high academic standards and improve other measures of program quality, strengthen their partnerships and alignment with postsecondary education and industry, and demonstrate relevant and positive outcomes.

Programs earning this distinction will form a growing network of exemplary programs to share best practices with each other and with other programs striving for the designation. All CTE programs will be eligible to seek exemplary status. The criteria for the awards will ensure that all programs earning exemplary status will raise the STEM literacy of participating students through rigorous academic and programmatic standards.

Specific activities for which funds are requested

Governor’s Exemplary Standards Program – nominal planning costs will be covered with state funds, and will include costs of bringing together CTE administrators and instructors and higher education, workforce and industry advisers to develop the criteria for exemplary standards awards, based on the rubric developed by the National Dissemination Center for Career and Technical Education. Once the standards are finalized it will take approximately one academic year for programs to conduct their reviews and document their attainment of the standards. This process must occur program-area by program-area and it will take centers several years to complete reviews for all programs. It is a two-step process requiring industry-driven validation at the local/regional level followed by application to the state. It is anticipated that in the second year of the grant about 12 programs will qualify for this recognition. Funds are requested to support a portion of a project director at the Department of Education to coordinate the review process. Funds are also requested for incentive awards for successful applicants. Awards will include $5,000 grants for programs to pursue continued improvement activities, a banner to display at the school with the Governor’s Exemplary Standard Award designation, and other small incentives such as caps or polo shirts for lead teachers with recognition for the award.

Once the program has been in place for several years, Academies will have to meet Governor’s Exemplary Standards for a minimum number of CTE programs in order to

retain their status as Governor’s Academies. In addition, other regional and local career and technical education programs will be encouraged to participate in the Exemplary Standards program to raise the bar for their CTE programs. These awards will serve as external validation of the quality of CTE programs, based on standards developed through national research and adopted by the commonwealth. Significant business and higher education collaboration and validation is required to qualify for an award.

A statewide network of programs earning the Governor’s Exemplary Standards Award will be established to share best practices and provide mentorship and technical assistance to other CTE programs.

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