Using numbers to tell the
CTEbySTORY Kristen Dechert
What’s it all worth? With funding cuts and the recent recession, that’s the question Mississippi and national policy makers are asking about everything these days, including career and technical education. And with one 2012 report citing that 6.7 million high school and college dropouts between the ages of 16 and 24 who have been unable to hold a permanent job cost the U.S. $4.75 trillion dollars over their lifetimes, this is an important question to be asking. The MDE and the RCU are building a return on investment model to help Mississippi leaders assess CTE statewide. Although the numbers are not yet calculated, all parties involved think this model could make the difference in getting each Mississippi graduate prepared for a successful future.
Each year, Mississippi spends about $500 per student on CTE education, or $13.3 million statewide. Naturally, legislators, policy makers and educators want to know what the state of Mississippi is getting in return. Spearheading the ROI model development are Mike Mulvihill, the bureau director of compliance and reporting at the MDE, and Robin Parker, the manager of curriculum, instruction and assessment at the RCU. Parker said, “In the wake of funding cuts in Washington and in Jackson, we need to prove that CTE has a positive impact on our economy. We think that is happening, we have a feeling it is, but we need some hardcore data to show that kids are going to industry and that they are earning a sustainable income.” Also working on the project are Laura Kerr, Lisa Hardjono and Young Bin Lim of the RCU. To determine a particular district’s or program’s return on investment, the MDE and the RCU will compile various district- and program-level data, including MS-CPAS2 test scores, numbers of students enrolled in CTE programs, and federal and state spending dollars on those programs. Then they will look at county data for jobs and postsecondary programs in the area to determine projected earnings and job availability for students. The
Parker chosen to deliver webinar for ACTE Congratulations to Robin Parker, former Mississippi educator and an active member of ACTE and MS ACTE, who was recently chosen to lead a webinar as part of an ACTE series.The webinar,“CTE = Economic Development: A Five-step Process to Ensure a Strong ROI for Your Program,” was conducted in January 2012 and led participants through a resultsbased approach to calculating their CTE program’s return on investment. Parker, an assistant research professor at the RCU, hoped to educate participants on the potential of CTE programs to be a strong economic-development tool in their communities. 6