Prepping for your CLNA 2023

For schools, consortia, and colleges that are preparing for their upcoming meeting with stakeholders to conduct a Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA), now is the time to do the planning and preparation for that meeting. I have had the pleasure of sitting in on a few CLNA meetings and helping to plan and conduct the meetings with schools. That experience has taught me some tips that made the planning easier and the outcomes more productive. The first tip is for you to thoroughly read the guidance state education agencies and ACTA provided when Perkins V was introduced. The guidance can be found on the website of the agency or association. However, the detailed guidance can be a bit overwhelming, so here are a few operational tips that I hope may be helpful.

1. Collect and review your data before you engage your stakeholders. There are three documents I have found in my work that are particularly useful for understanding the current state of Special Populations and goal setting to be able to meet and exceed the Perkins indicators. If you are able to collect and compare your data over multiple years, this will help you to understand program and student trends over time, which is better than only reviewing a one-year point in time. You should have access to all your institution’s data through your state’s data collection system (in PA, it is called PIMs) or through your institution’s data collection point of contact. Depending on your state, this data may or may not be accessible, but it would be useful to collect and track it to be able to measure the impact of your efforts. The useful documents are:

• 2021-2022 Perkins V Performance Indicators (PI) Table (or the most recently available PIs)

• 2023-2024 Meaningful Progress Data Table

• CTE Program Enrollment Chart that documents enrollment for each program by race and Special Populations

• CTE Program Concentrator data that documents concentrators for each program by race and Special Populations

• If available, any reporting, surveys, or other data collected from the previous CLNA to identify the activities that resulted from that meeting.

2. Review the CLNA questions and information you are required to gather. Keep in mind these questions are developed at the federal level, not the local school or college level, and may need to be adapted or explained to make sense for your stakeholders. (Special Populations are defined in your state guidance documents.) Keeping in mind that this effort is not just about providing the state and federal government with information, but also to best serve the school’s unique needs, the school may also want to address additional considerations of students’ special needs, such as:

• Individuals with incarcerated parents,

• Individuals needing added mental health support (particularly in light of COVID)

• Individuals with undocumented adults in their lives, etc.

3. Select your stakeholders mindfully for each to create a small group (5 – 8 people) who understand the current state. This group might include individuals from one or two nonprofits that serve a Special Population in your community; businesses that employ your students in a specific business or industry; and, an educator, parent, and student who can represent the population knowledgably. Educators will also be part of the group to inform the discussions.

4. Colleges and businesses each need their own small group to understand and discuss transition challenges and opportunities with secondary school leadership participants. Focus on inviting businesses that represent the programs with the greatest demand for students or the ones hardest to recruit students. Colleges and secondary CTCs or comprehensive high schools with CTE programs need to have attendees, as well as participate at other institutions’ CLNAs.

• Colleges are focused on recruitment and enrollment. Helping students navigate the process of academic advising, financial aid, admissions, and assessment is huge, particularly for English Language Learners and first-generation students. How can stronger partnerships support this? College stakeholders may be needed from multiple offices. This is an important opportunity to share information related to both marketing opportunities and enrollment and retention challenges beyond the secondary institutions.

• Businesses need to be aware of and sensitive to the needs of Special Populations, but they also need to share responsibility for the students’ experience as a new employee after graduation. Just giving them a job is no longer sufficient. As one of my CTE directors once told me, “I visit the workplaces that hire our students. If I find offensive materials on the walls or it’s unsafe or unsanitary, I tell the business to clean it up, or I won’t be sending my students to their workplace.” Powerful words that reflect the care of the students not just during their tenure at the school, but throughout their life. These students are the school’s future recruiters and supporters, so keeping positive connections is a great outcome.

• Secondary schools need to help students transition to college, careers, or the military, so how can they work collaboratively with the community to share this work, ensure this happens, and keep track of students after they have left the school?

5. Set Yourself Up for Success

• Have someone take notes in each small group during the meeting, and have someone else facilitate the group to get through all the questions on time. A stakeholder can facilitate, but you want a person who can capture the main points of the discussion to take notes. All questions should be sent to the primary organizer at the end of the meeting, including the names of the people in each small group, the facilitator, and the note taker in case someone needs to follow up.

• Provide an electronic survey that can be done at the end of the meeting to gather input from the participants about their experience during the meeting. Possible questions include: Did they find their time used well? Is there anything you had hoped to learn or share at the meeting that you did not? Would they participate further as needed? Ask them to share feedback or corrections to final notes or reports.

• Create a consolidated report from the notes and offer everyone a copy of the draft. You want your stakeholders to feel valued and their input to be recognized, and you also want to make sure you represented the ideas correctly. A final report should be completed within three months of the meeting.

6. Based on the report, you will want to set priorities for the school and community stakeholders for the next two years using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. This can also support your improvement plans if you find your school does not meet a Perkins indicator. The report can serve as a kick-off for the Perkins meetings you hold each quarter to update any of the stakeholders and as the foundation for the next CLNA meeting. Providing progress on the recommendations the community of stakeholders made will build confidence that their time was well spent.

If done properly, the CLNA can be a time for building friendships and connecting resources in your community. Providing time to allow for some focused thinking will provide space for real improvement. Yes, it is a lot of work, but if your students benefit (and the data will show you if they do) then it will have been worth it for years to come.