Quarterly Online

President's Message

Hello Everyone!

We sincerely hope that your summer is going well and that you’ve taken some time to recharge your batteries. I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Central America and happened to be there when the U.S was competing against Ghana in the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. I watched the game in a local restaurant and was surprised that 90% of the folks watching with me (I was the only American) were cheering for the U.S. I struck up a conversation with a fellow spectator and asked why there was so much support for the U.S. team. He explained that the U.S. team never gave up and had been continuously trying to improve their game throughout the tournament. He also mentioned that we play fair. His comment about trying to improve parallels our attitude at NOCTI. We too are committed to continuous improvement and we hope you can see that reflected in our service and commitment to the field of Career and Technical Education.

This quarter began with our board meeting which was held at ACTE headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. We wanted to hear first-hand about policy initiatives in our field and we were fortunate enough to have a number of discussions with Kim Green from the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education, Jan Bray from ACTE, Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, assistant secretary for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), and Sharon Miller, director, Division of Academic and Technical Education, OVAE. For more details about the discussions with Dr. Dann-Messier and Kim Green, see the Board Chair message by Dr. Jo Kister in this newsletter. We also had a special visit by Dr. Carl Schaefer, the last surviving founding board member of NOCTI, who turned 90 in April. You can see some highlights of our board meeting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AABlOgbu4A.

In June, we had some internal excitement – NOCTI broke its annual test sales record again AND we were able to break it about six weeks earlier than last year! Due to increases in staff, we have again added new office space. We take this as a sign that our clients are pleased with the work we are doing and that we are providing a valuable service.

In the last few months, staff members have attended conferences/meetings in Minnesota, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania to name a few, and we are moving forward with a number of different arrangements with a variety of partners. We recently signed an agreement with the Worldwide Interactive Network (WIN) and are working with the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) and the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC) to deliver even more certification assessments. We have worked with the state of Ohio and the City of Chicago to submit Investing in Innovation Fund (I3) grants. For more information on I3, go to the US Department of Education website: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html.

On the international front, we have been working with CTECs (formerly VTECs) on a potential project with Azerbaijan, and with both CTECs and Kuder on a possible project in Mongolia. In addition, we have been asked to speak at an international conference (TVET) with our friends at Ohio State.

Our study with the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education on the power of data-driven, end-of-program technical assessment and professional development continues. In fact, our research has evolved into a proven model for CTE professional development and it will be offered nationwide as a technical assistance program from the NRCCTE.

NOCTI’s new Instructional Improvement Initiative Assessment Offer was developed for states and large educational systems. We are offering a pathway assessment partnership that substantially reduces the cost of end-of-program testing. The program offers assessments in each pathway area, provides supplemental study guide information, is offered online only, and requires the client to dedicate a staff member to collaborate directly with NOCTI. Contact Amie Birdsall (amie.birdsall@nocti.org) if you would like more information.

John Foster
President/CEO
NOCTI and The Whitener Group
Measuring What Matters

Thank you for trusting in NOCTI to deliver quality assessments, certifications and test data to help you improve your programs! We look forward to continued service to the CTE community and are anxious to show you how we can help even more this coming school year! On behalf of the entire NOCTI staff, I hope you have a terrific start to the 2010-2011 school year!

Message from the Board

We held the spring meeting of the NOCTI Board of Trustees in Alexandria, VA, just outside Washington D.C. The Board is the policy-making body for the NOCTI organization and the nation’s capital is “Ground Zero” for creating CTE policy. We were fortunate to be able to meet at ACTE headquarters and visit with Jan Bray, Executive Director. NOCTI has partnered with ACTE for four years now to sponsor a Pre-Convention Assessment Conference at the ACTE Convention.

The Board had the opportunity to meet with Brenda Dann Messier, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), in an interactive exchange about the direction for career technical education (CTE) in this country and the critical need for technical assessments. Dr. Dann-Messier described OVAE priorities and these actions related to technical assessments:

Promoting the adoption of industry-validated and internationally-benchmarked academic and technical standards and related proficiency-based assessments.
Developing and supporting contextualized learning models that blend academic and technical curriculum.
Funding the development of tests and performance-based assessments.
Using diagnostic, interim, and proficiency-based assessments to accelerate progression

Kim Green, Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education (NASDCTEc) shared the new vision for CTE that her organization just published

CTE is critical to ensuring that the United States leads in global competitiveness. Strategies to accomplish this include developing a national common core of technical standards built upon the National Career Clusters. NOCTI is expanding its technical assessments to include career pathway assessments. The vision also says that

CTE prepares students to succeed in further education and careers. Strategies to accomplish this include the development of valid, reliable and rigorous national technical assessments aligned to a national common core of technical assessments—the key competency of the NOCTI organization.

CTE is a results-driven system that demonstrates a positive return on investment. Strategies to accomplish this include using data to identify successful CTE practices and programs; supporting federal policies for collection of national comparable data; encouraging longitudinal data systems; promoting alignment of data requirements and accountability measures among federal programs; and developing a national return on investment model to demonstrate CTE’s positive fiscal, societal, and economic impact. NOCTI data should be central to this task.
CTE is delivered through comprehensive programs of study aligned to the National Career Clusters framework. Strategies that have implications for NOCTI include encouraging dual academic and technical certification of all teachers and faculty, and supporting federal legislation that encourages rigorous programs of study as the delivery model for education.
CTE actively partners with employers to design and provide high-quality, dynamic programs. Strategies include partnering with business and industry organizations to develop programs of study; to ensure that credentials earned are valued by the labor market and are nationally portable, a key goal of NOCTI.

NOCTI should play an important role in helping the CTE community achieve this vision. The Board welcomes your input as we support NOCTI in its role of being a leading provider of technical assessments.

NOCTI Board of Trustees Chairperson, Joanna Kister, Ph.D.