2022 RCU Annual Report

Assessment

The Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) researches, develops and disseminates statewide assessments for all secondary and postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) programs in Mississippi, including alternative methods such as performance-based assessment and national certifications.

FY ‘22 Facts

Developed assessments

158

RCU-Designed CTE Program Monitoring System Launched

After more than two years of development, the RCU launched the PULSE program quality monitoring system at July’s Mississippi Association for Career Technical Education (MS ACTE) Conference.

After a pilot year requested by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), the RCU announced and demonstrated the system in an afternoon session held for all conference participants.

PULSE is now used by Mississippi career technical educators statewide, expanding from the 41 pilot schools that initially tested the program.

17,332 MS-CPAS assessments given

The rubric itself is based on 14 indicators of program quality taken from federal and state requirements, including Perkins legislation, Mississippi’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Plan, Mississippi’s teacher growth rubric, and the Mississippi Compliance and Monitoring Instrument for CTE programs.

Development began in March 2020 and was based on what a small number of other states utilized to ensure and increase program quality for their state.

RCU Assessment Manager Ben Alexander said, “The goal behind the project was to produce a tool that vastly increased accurate K-12 CTE data collection on a program level so that both state and district leaders could make more informed decisions regarding the status of programs.”

CTE programs are required to digitally upload evidence for each indicator into the PULSE online portal. The 14 indicators on the rubric are scored on a 1-4 scale by members of the RCU assessment team to provide each district feedback regarding the status of their programs.

High school CTE students earned

5,649 national certifications

In addition to the feedback districts will receive through the PULSE platform, four regional professional development events will be held across the state to impart research-based best practices to all school districts on the indicators listed in the rubric. These trainings provide districts and teachers the knowledge necessary to address any weaknesses in their program quality identified by PULSE.

Accomplishments

Presentations

Courtney McCubbins, Mandy Scarpulla and Ginger Tedder were co-presenters at the Association for Career and Technical Education National Work-Based Learning Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ginger Tedder and Tammie Nichols presented Building Inclusivity: Power Relationships and Powerful Instruction at the Association for Career and Technical Education Vision Conference in New Orleans.

Ben Alexander, Sarah Dygert, Sean Owen and Cliff Thames presented on the relationship between teacher selfefficacy regarding feedback and student formative statewide test results at the Mid-South Educational Research Association Conference in New Orleans.

Publications

• Finch, D., Owen, S., Thames, C., & Alexander, B. (2021). Exploring Ethnic and Gender Equity Enrollment and Achievement Patterns in High School CTE Career Pathways in Mississippi. International Journal of Business and Applied Social Science , 7(11), 31–43. https://www.ijbassnet.com/publication/429/details#

• Alexander, B., Thames, C., Owen, S., Dygert, S. K. C., & Wagner, J. (2021). Teacher Feedback and Its Impact on Statewide Assessment Results in Mississippi Career and Technical Education. International Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Studies , 6(8), 1–12.

Recognitions

Angie Davis was named to the National Business Education Association task forces for entrepreneurship and marketing.

Ginger Tedder was one of 17 educators nationally selected to the Association for Career and Technical Education 2022 NextLevel Postsecondary CTE Leadership Program.

Ginger Tedder was selected to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Emerging Leaders program.

Curriculum

The RCU, in partnership with educators and industry leaders, creates course content for Mississippi’s CTE pathways that combines academic rigor with real-world relevance. The RCU also provides curricula for K-12 science, social studies and computer science in Mississippi.

FY ‘22 Facts

RCU Leads Natural Hair Care and Braiding Curriculum Development

The RCU and a writing team of educators and industry professionals completed a yearlong writing process for a new natural hair care and braiding curriculum that the Mississippi State Board of Education (SBE) approved in November and made available statewide in the 2022-2023 school year.

The new curriculum provides Mississippi school districts an avenue to connect students with the billion-dollar natural hair care and braiding industry.

Deidre Thompson saw a need for natural hair care and braiding at the high school level and brought the idea to McComb Business and Technology Complex (MBTC) Director Robert Biggs.

MBTC piloted the program as a credential-only program for seniors. The course used the existing cosmetology standards but offered a greater focus on natural hair care and braiding and getting students the necessary certification.

The pilot set in motion the development of the SBE-approved curriculum. Under the RCU’s guidance, the curriculum writing team — consisting of Thompson, cosmetology instructors and four practicing cosmetologists and natural hair care specialists — began its work in December 2020.

Melissa Luckett, the RCU project manager who led the curriculum writing process, said the learning curve was steep because a course like this had never been created in Mississippi. Still, the new course creates additional career pathways for more students.

“There was a great deal of cultural and historical learning that occurred during this process,” Luckett said. “Melony Armstrong, one of the writing team members, was the pioneer of the official occupational license in braiding for the State of Mississippi. With help from the Institute of Justice, she helped to remove barriers so that she and others like her could practice natural hair care professionally.”

108

111 instructors and served on curriculum-writing teams

industry representatives

30 Curricula Revised

and approved by the State Board of Education to go into effect during the 2022-2023 school year:

• Architecture and Drafting

• Automotive Service Technician

• Business Essentials

• Business Law

• Collision Repair Technician—Non-structural

• Collision Repair Technician—Paint

• Computer Science and Engineering

• Cosmetology

• Diversified Agriculture— Agricultural Communications

• Diversified Agriculture— Agricultural Leadership

• Diversified Agriculture— Animals Core

• Diversified Agriculture— Environment Core

• Diversified Agriculture— Food Science

• Diversified Agriculture— Mechanization Core

• Diversified Agriculture— Poultry Science

• Diversified Agriculture— Veterinary Science

• Diversified Agriculture—Agribusiness Core

• Diversified Agriculture—Plants Core

• E-Commerce

• Early Childhood Education

• Educator Preparation

• Engineering

• Furniture Design and Manufacturing

• Information Technology

• Law and Public Safety

• Law Enforcement

• Lodging, Hospitality, and Tourism

• Natural Hair Care and Braiding

• Personal Finance

• Principles of Agriscience

ARC Grant to Provide Virtual Skills Training to CTE Students

A $1.49 million grant awarded to Mississippi State University by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) will allow the Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) to partner with a software company to enhance career and technical education (CTE) infrastructure in Appalachian Mississippi.

The partnership between the RCU and TRANSFRVR – an education software company that provides immersive, hands-on VR training to Fortune 500 companies – infuses virtual reality (VR) career exploration and job training into the education-toworkforce pipeline in Clay, Kemper, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties.

This award is part of a $21 million package supporting 21 projects serving 211 coal-impacted counties through ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. POWER targets federal resources to communities affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations and coal-related supply chain industries.

East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) and the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) are providing additional support for the Infusing Virtual Reality in the Workforce project.

TRANSFRVR will deliver immersive career exploration and skills training to CTE students at EMCC and middle and high school students enrolled in Cyber Foundations and CTE courses in six area school

districts — West Point Consolidated, Kemper County, Columbus Municipal, Lowndes County, Noxubee County and Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated.

The VR experiences will provide students the education and training opportunities to achieve mastery, acquire confidence and earn industry-recognized credentials that will prepare them to enter Mississippi’s workforce.

EMCC will house VR labs at the Communiversity in Columbus and at its Scooba campus to be used to enhance training for its students and individuals in the workforce with support from the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District (GTPDD), Golden Triangle Development Link (LINK), PACCAR Inc. and Oktibbeha County Hospital (OCH).

“We appreciate the support of our congressional delegation, Gov. Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Office of the ARC for this important project. This generous award will support our efforts to enhance the CTE infrastructure in our region through VR,” said Betsey Smith, RCU director and principal investigator (PI) on the project.

“VR workforce training and career exploration will be delivered to more than 10,000 youth and many others in the industry sector through this project and the support of EMCC, these school districts, TRANSFRVR, GTPDD, LINK, PACCAR and OCH. Career exploration programming is essential in getting K-12 students on pathways to well-paying jobs. Infusing VR into career exploration and job training is an innovative approach that is safe, cost-effective and offers improved learning outcomes and shorter training times.”

RCU Assistant Director for Business Operations Pam Stafford and RCU Project Manager Courtney McCubbins will act as co-PIs on the project, while RCU Senior Research Associate Denise Sibley and MSU Assistant Professor for Agricultural Education, Leadership and Communications OP McCubbins will serve as the project’s research associate and lead researcher, respectively.

APAC-Mississippi, Graham Roofing, International Paper, McCrary-West Construction Co., MDE, Southwire, Yokohama Rubber Co. and U.S. Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker offered additional support for the project.

Operations

FY ‘22 Facts

GEAR UP Mississippi

Through the U.S. Department of Education Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant, the RCU partners with the MSU College of Education to provide support to three Mississippi school districts to increase their students' academic performance, graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment.

FY ‘22 Facts

students completed college admission, FAFSA or GEAR UP Scholarship applications in statewide events hosted by GEAR UP Mississippi and Get2College

25 students received ACT preparation and teachers

481 76 and counselors received professional development through GEAR UP and Get2College statewide efforts

GEAR UP Mississippi Schools

Receive Access to STEM, Academic Success Programs

GEAR UP Mississippi partnered with North Carolina-based Betabox Learning to provide a STEM outreach initiative for the Meridian and Greenville public school districts in the 2021-2022 school year.

The collaboration offered students and teachers in Meridian and Greenville — two districts served under the GEAR UP Mississippi initiative administered by Mississippi State University — access to highquality, hands-on STEM experiences and curriculum. It marked the first joint endeavor between Betabox and Mississippi public schools.

The partnership includes on-site field trips in Betabox mobile labs, a standards-aligned STEM curriculum, professional development opportunities and individual instructional coaching through Betabox’s Educator Member portal.

Betabox’s mobile lab stopped in the Meridian and Greenville school districts in the fall and spring semesters, offering students experiences with 3D printing, computer coding, piloting drones and more STEM-related experiences.

GEAR UP Mississippi school districts also received access to the Success Can Happen Out Of Low Scores (S.C.H.O.O.L.S.) program, which works with schools to help build students’ academic success.

The program supports students by focusing on preventative strategies and building individual care plans so students can achieve academic success. It also uses language arts, math and science assessments to teach students strategies for becoming “test attackers” who actively engage standardized tests.

The S.C.H.O.O.L.S. partnership also includes ACT prep, offering students access to grade-level tutoring, standardized test preparation, family stability measures and career attainment modalities.

The program strives to create positive academic outcomes for students, such as increasing performance in math and science; increasing overall academic performance; and increasing parent, student and school contact and interaction rates.

GEAR UP Mississippi, which serves the Greenville, McComb and Meridian school districts, strives to increase the academic performance and preparation for postsecondary education opportunities; increase the rate of high school graduation and enrollment in postsecondary education; and increase GEAR UP students’ and their families’ knowledge of postsecondary education preparation, options and financing.

Research, Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives

The RCU conducts research on a wide range of topics related to public education to provide timely and useful analyses to state policymakers and educators. Additionally, the RCU conducts robust internal evaluations of RCU programs and serves as evaluators on several initiatives for the Mississippi Department of Education and our university partners to help the agencies determine if programs are meeting desired outcomes and running efficiently.

FY ‘22 Facts

RCU Research Projects Receive Publication

A pair of RCU-led research projects studying career and technical education (CTE) efforts in Mississippi were published in FY22.

The first, a collaborative project between the RCU and the Mississippi Department of Education, was published in the August 2021 issue of the International Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Studies and studied how teacher feedback impacts statewide assessment results in CTE in Mississippi.

Ben Alexander, Cliff Thames, Dr. Sean Owen and Sarah Dygert of the RCU and Jill Wagner, MDE’s agriculture program supervisor, surveyed more than 60 CTE teachers in Mississippi, with data from 33 teachers capable of being fully analyzed. The survey responses were mapped to 170 students who took two optional formative practice tests and a non-optional statewide summative test online in spring 2019. A finalized questionnaire was distributed in spring 2020 to teachers in Mississippi’s agricultural environmental science technology pathway.

In November, the International Journal of Business and Applied Social Science published an RCU study exploring ethnic and gender equity enrollment and achievement in Mississippi’s CTE pathways.

Owen, Alexander, Thames and Dustin Finch researched enrollment patterns of Mississippi secondary CTE students by career cluster, including STEM-associated career pathways, from the last five years and compared them to statewide enrollment patterns by gender and ethnicity.

The study found a higher female enrollment in STEM-related pathways due to a pronounced gender disparity in health science, but 53% of males enrolled in non-STEM-related CTE pathways, a closer reflection of the state enrollment by gender.

Regarding ethnicity, nontraditional student groups were underrepresented in STEM-related pathways but enrolled at a more equitable rate in non-STEM pathways.

Although the research showed female and minority students are underrepresented in STEM-related career pathways, Mississippi is showing less disparity in nontraditional student enrollment in STEM-related pathways than on the national scale.

3

2 program evaluations undertaken

research articles published

Our goal for all research and evaluation is to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions that support effective innovations for schools and programs.

services:

• Data Analysis

• Education and Workforce Policy

• Economic Value of Certifications and Credentials of Value

• Innovative Projects

• Practitioner Communications

School Innovations and Professional Learning

School Innovations

The RCU's school innovations team supports schools to prompt rapid, substantial progress based on six foundational design principles: college and career readiness, learning and instruction, student culture and personalization, collegiality and professionalism, purposeful leadership and innovative design.

Professional Learning

From facilitating online learning to delivering conferences with more than 1,000 attendees, the RCU helps educators perfect the craft of teaching by providing professional development for teachers, counselors and administrators using versatile teaching styles and delivery methods.

FY ‘22 Facts

Hosted the sixth annual Innovative Institute, which was attended by approximately

Offered different 10 education stakeholders from across Mississippi

300 districts of innovation

middle college programs 10& 7 Supported early college high schools, 5 Events hosted by the RCU school innovations team:

• Leadership Summit

• Innovative Institute

• Highly Engaged Classroom

• Coach University

• Leadership Assembly

online professional development courses

Supported

users of the Canvas learning management system

75

3,436

12,700 professional development course completers

new CTE teachers successfully completed the New Teacher Institute program

1,337

Registered attendees for the MS ACTE Summer Conference and provided 118 informative breakout sessions and 17 industry tours

School Innovations and Professional Learning

RCU, MDE Partner to Encourage Successful Transitions for Middle Schoolers

RCU staff supported the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) in releasing the Middle School Transition Toolkit, a collection of resources designed to bridge the leaps from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school.

The toolkit is the MDE’s latest effort to offer teachers, counselors, parents and students resources that draw together the roadmaps already available to them, from social emotional learning (SEL) standards to scaffolding and the Access for All Guide 2.0. The document is designed to support students from all walks of life, helping foster success in the middle years of their education.

All suggestions in the toolkit are research-based, and the toolkit is divided into five categories, each of which contains several recommended activities to assist with middle school transition: communication, culture, instruction, family engagement and SEL. Activities range from student-led conferences about academic

progress and parent academies to community walks and pass-thetorch meetings. It also offers proven ways of creating a consistent communication plan for school districts and student bodies.

“The toolkit helps everyone follow the same roadmap by pointing them to the same resources and language. This toolkit serves to build a bridge between the islands of elementary, middle and high school,” said Cindy Ming, an RCU project manager who coauthored the toolkit.

MDE and contractors across the state put years of effort into creating superior early elementary and high school resources that prepare students for their next steps by modeling consistent terminology that assists teachers in communicating with students about what they have learned and build on what students have already mastered. The toolkit is the final piece that will bolster students’ transitions through every grade.

ADMINISTRATION

RCU Staff

As of Dec. 15, 2022

Betsey Smith ........................................................................ Director

Myra Pannell Associate Director

Pam Stafford Assistant Director/Business Operations

ASSESSMENT, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Ben Alexander Research Associate III/Assessment Manager

Avery Adkins ............................................................ Project Manager

Riesa Blackwell Project Manager

Allison Crowson Project Manager

Kyle McDill ............................................................. Project Manager

Janna Paes Project Manager

Bhanupriya Shanmugam .......................................... Project Manager

Denise Sibley Senior Research Associate

BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Pam Stafford.............................. Assistant Director Business Operations

Amber Lynn Moore Business Manager

Barry Williams .......................... Project Manager/Operations Manager

Joseph Dudgeon Project Coordinator

Lydia Eaton ................................................................ Student Worker

Lynn Eiland Project Manager Rehire Retiree

Bree Keowen Student Worker

Courtney Martin Accountant

Mhaire Nickels Receptionist

Caitlyn Powell ............................................................ Office Associate

Romika Sudduth-Conley Project Coordinator

Kallie Wallace ............................................................. Student Worker

COMMUNICATIONS

Brock Turnipseed ............... Marketing and Communications Manager

Heather Craig Editor

Will Graves Project Coordinator

Chris McMillen Communications Coordinator

Zoe Williams Student Worker

CURRICULUM

Courtney McCubbins Project Manager/Curriculum Manager

Angie Davis Project Manager

Rob Fyke .................................................................. Project Manager

Nathan King Project Manager

Melissa Luckett ........................................................ Project Manager

JoAnn Watts Project Manager

GAINING EARLY AWARENESS AND READINESS FOR UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

Mandy Scarpulla ....................................................... Project Director

Altonique Binion Project Manager

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND SCHOOL INNOVATIONS

Myra Pannell Associate Director

Cindy Ming Project Manager/Professional Learning Manager

Annabelle Alsobrooks ............................................... Project Manager

Suzanne Bean Project Manager Rehire Retiree

Chance Carden ........................................................ Project Manager

LaNell Kellum Project Manager Rehire Retiree

Adrienne Minor ....................................................... Project Manager

Ginger Tedder Project Manager

Tara Thames Project Manager

+45 additional intermittent/rehire retiree employees/trainers