High School Grads Satisfaction with Preparation for Work: A National Survey

How well are high schools helping students prepare for the world of work after graduation? A recent national survey of young adults says they think they need more help.

Completer Follow-up Survey: How's It Going?

The completer follow up survey has been underway for about six weeks now, so we thought we would share some success stories:

• One school has already surveyed 100% of its completers. While it’s a small school, we wanted to extend congratulations for successfully completing this big project so quickly and thoroughly.  
• Another school with over 100 completers to survey has already reached 90%. Excellent work.
• Fifty five out of the 139 Divisions and regional technical centers have entered data about at least some of their students. The remaining 84 divisions have not yet begun the data entry process, but they may have begun the survey process (we can’t tell).

Any administrators who have not yet downloaded their passwords to the survey website from the VDOE drop box should get in touch with us at CTEcompleters@virginia.edu. The passwords have expired but can be uploaded again.

Building and Sustaining Employer Partnerships

A few weeks ago I attended a great workshop entitled Creating Nonprofit - Business Partnerships that Work, which was held by the Chamber Business Academy, a partnership effort of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce and Piedmont Virginia Community College. Although the workshop focused on helping nonprofits better engage with businesses to raise funds, it also included information that can help CTE increase business involvement with our programs.

STEM Programs for Girls - Research Update

School divisions around the country have introduced programs to help girls to develop an interest in STEM careers and build their skills in science, technology, engineering and math. A recent research update from the Harvard Family Research Project reports evaluations of six different different STEM programs that were conducted "out of school time," that is after school, on the weekends, or in the summer.