Winter 2022

From the Director

The Research and Curriculum Unit hit the ground running this year with new projects and exciting events, and we’re excited to continue supporting educators in 2022!

Keep a lookout for updates as we continue planning the 2022 Mississippi Association for Career and Technical Educational Summer Conference, which is scheduled for July 25-27 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi. Our operations department is meeting this week to continue ironing out details, and we’ll soon announce the conference’s theme and how you can submit ideas for presentations.

We're currently preparing Feb. 7's Innovative Leadership Summit at the Tupelo Public School District, which was recently named a District of Innovation. Leaders and counselors from districts across the state will come together to hear about the best practices our hosts have implemented that have led them to success in the classroom.

We also recently wrapped up the Mississippi Department of Education Office of School Improvement's winter convening at the Mississippi State University Riley Center in Meridian, where participants received guidance and best practices to support social emotional learning, instruction and leadership. New Teacher Induction training sessions also recently concluded in Oxford and in virtual settings. In those sessions, professionals-turned-teachers received training on how to best deliver CTE instruction to their students. NTI Region 3 sessions will continue in March and April, and the overall program culminates with on-campus events and summer graduation.

Finally, join me in celebrating new hires arriving at the RCU and seasoned veterans taking on new roles:

Rob Fyke now oversees health sciences, ag power and machinery, forestry, horticulture, aquaculture and food products (meats) curricula.
Nathan King joins the RCU as a project manager handling advanced manufacturing, engineering, furniture manufacturing, polymer science, transportation logistics and unmanned aerial systems curricula. He is a former Starkville High School UAS teacher and has a background STEM education.
Melissa Luckett is now a project manager overseeing curricula under the human services pathway after serving as an instructional design specialist.
Courtney McCubbins now leads our curriculum team and oversees the agriculture and natural resources and diversified agriculture pathways.
Amber Lynn Moore joined the operations department as business manager. She previously worked as the executive director's assistant for the Mississippi School for Math and Science.
Mhaire Nickels now serves as an office associate with the operations department after serving as a receptionist.
Romika Sudduth-Conley is now a project manager in the operations department after serving as a project coordinator.

As always, our primary point of contact remains through Help Desk. You can also call our office at 662.325.2510, but please continue to monitor our online channels of information distribution, including our website, newsletters, social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - and emails.

Let's make this spring a great one for Mississippi's educators and students!

RCU Facilitates OSI Winter Conference

The RCU helped facilitate this year's OSI Winter Convening, a two-and-a-half-day conference featuring discussions on best practices, numerous keynote addresses and strands to support social emotional learning, instruction and leadership. Pictured are representatives of the MDE and RCU.

IJBASS Publishes RCU Research on Ethnic, Gender Equity Enrollment, Assessment in CTE

A Mississippi State University Research and Curriculum Unit study exploring ethnic and gender equity enrollment and achievement in Mississippi’s career and technical education (CTE) pathways was recently published by the International Journal of Business and Applied Social Science.

The RCU’s Sean Owen, Ben Alexander, Cliff Thames and Dustin Finch studied 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 surveyed 132,476 students enrolled in secondary CTE pathways in Mississippi, including 15 of the 16 national career clusters and 58 distinct career pathways. Seven of the 15 career clusters and 21 of the 58 career pathways were in STEM-associated areas.

Female student enrollment in STEM-related pathways was larger than male participation due to a pronounced gender disparity in health science. Student enrollment in non-STEM-related CTE pathways was a closer reflection of the state enrollment by gender, with 53% being male.

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

The research showed CTE and non-CTE leaders have been effective in recruiting females and minority students to enroll in STEM-related pathways, with enrollment patterns for most STEM pathways ranking above the 25% threshold for the non-traditional program concentration core indicator of performance in the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act — also known as Perkins V.

The researchers also studied students’ proficiency results on statewide CTE assessment exams by gender and ethnicity. The results were similar to the enrollment patterns, with males scoring higher regardless of the pathway.

Although the research shows 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.

Assessment and Research

Read The Assessment Minute to stay up to date on all of the department's happenings!

Quality Program Rubric: The assessment and communications teams recently started work with WestEd on the branding process for the system that will host the Quality Program Rubric to help with Perkins V accountability and for program auditing purposes. The hope is to house a multitude of monitoring instruments in the new system.

Fall Testing: We wrapped up the fall testing cycle and published reports for approximately 1,400 secondary and postsecondary students. The team spent many hours developing training materials and quality controlling test orders and final reports.

Work-Based Learning Guide: We are working with the curriculum team to update a work-based learning guide that reflects credit-bearing courses, career pathways and career academies.

Online Classes: We are developing six additional online courses - Algebra I, Algebra II, Anatomy and Physiology, Geometry, Physical Science and Physics - that are expected to go live by May.

Other Studies: A few studies are in the data collection and writing stages. Our team is exploring industry preconceptions of student competencies needed in agriculture, food and natural resources; student perceptions of types of feedback and feedback quality in CTE; and administrator viewpoints on promoting additional equity in CTE.

Subscribe to the Assessment Minute

The RCU's curriculum team finalized many documents this past quarter and helped develop instructional resources for recently approved items, including early childhood education, cosmetology and natural hair care and braiding. The team will continue revising curricula and preparing their associated documents this quarter and has many meetings scheduled, including task force gatherings and teacher training sessions.

Download the Latest Curriculum Resources

Download the Revision Cycle Schedule

Connections Highlights CTE's Best and Brightest

The fall edition of Connections is out and spotlights many of the great things happening in Mississippi's career and technical education classrooms.

Our featured series consists of three stories highlighting how CTE programs across the state endured the challenges of the first full academic year back during the pandemic and how student organizations attempted to provide learners with worthwhile experiences during a return to normalcy. We're proud of the effort and determination shown by our resilient students and teachers!

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