From the Director

As we at the Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) welcome the change and growth that blossoms in spring, we are excited to announce new projects and give an outlook on our annual summer events that provide professional development and support for Mississippi’s educators.

The RCU professional learning team kicked off the year by presenting the 2022 Innovative Leadership Summit in Tupelo. The summit, titled “Innovation Without Limits,” was hosted by the Tupelo Public School District (TPSD). A total of 130 educators attended from across the state, and we enjoyed TPSD Superintendent Dr. Rob Picou’s keynote on the experiences of seeking and earning the District of Innovation distinction in 2020.

In March, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) awarded $1.49 million to Mississippi State University (MSU) to facilitate a multi-tiered project through ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative. The RCU is excited to partner with education software company TRANSFRVR, East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) and the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) to bring virtual reality (VR) workforce training to CTE students in Northeast Mississippi. Stay tuned for additional information as we prepare to launch the first phase of the program, which will begin with teacher training and VR technology implementation!

Spring testing is currently underway for many districts across the state, and I want to give a special shout-out to the RCU assessment team for its role in facilitating MS-CPAS tests. The process of seeing assessments from development to full implementation is tedious, but our team goes above and beyond to design high-quality, effective student assessments.

The 2022 Innovative Institute is planned for June 21-22, and after being virtual the past two years, we are excited to be bringing this event to the MSU Riley Center in Meridian. You definitely will not want to miss this year’s keynote address from Michael Bonner, who will speak about creating innovative and dynamic learning environments! Bonner is an energizing educator who challenges audiences to reflect, strategize and execute in order to be world-changing citizens. Registration is now open for the event!

We are also delighted to have the Mississippi Association of Career and Technical Education (MS ACTE) Summer Conference making a grand return as an in-person event. This year, the conference is going coastal at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center in Biloxi! Registration is now open, so please plan to join CTE educators from across the state July 25-27 as we focus on on “The Pulse of CTE.”

We are currently hiring some positions at the RCU, but we recently welcomed Chris McMillen to the RCU as our communications coordinator. He has already created some fantastic designs that we look forward to sharing with you. 

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 a great summer for Mississippi's educators and students!

Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center

Located in the heart of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center is the largest beachfront facility of its kind in the South. The Coast Coliseum continues to be the crowd favorite for sports and live entertainment, drawing year-round attendees. Since its opening in 1977, the Coast landmark has played host to Broadway theater, comedians, professional sports, rodeos, festivals, circuses and world-class performances by artists such as Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, The Eagles and Cher.

The 400,000-square-foot facility accommodates groups of up to 5,000 people. This state-of-the-art convention center offers all the modern amenities meeting planners’ desire. Perfect for large conferences or intimate events, it is ideally located facing the Gulf of Mexico within walking distance of the beach.

Click here to explore all the amenities the Mississippi Gulf Coast has to offer during your stay!

Innovative Institute Registration Now Open

Register today to join fellow educators at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian for two exciting days of innovation collaboration and inspiring session speakers, headlined by this year's keynote from Michael Bonner. Bonner's enthusiastic seminars challenge listeners to reflect, strategize and execute in order to increase their efficiency in the workplace and personal areas. He is consistently seen as a visionary leader who strives to create a positive mindset among his listeners. Individuals leave Bonner's presence ready to make an impact that affects eternity.

The Innovative Institute will provide an environment of collaboration and professional growth for schools and district personnel involved in school innovations and other school initiatives. Participants will have opportunities to participate in multiple sessions that will highlight innovative practices, ideas and concepts that have demonstrated student success and professional growth.

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

Spring Testing: We are reaching the end of the 2022 spring testing season. MS-CPAS wrapped up on April 28 and make-up testing finished on April 29. Final MS-CPAS reports will be available on May 13.

Future of MS-CPAS: Under federal Perkins V legislation – the source of CTE funding, policies and standards – “technical skills attainment” is no longer a measure of program quality. In future school years, MS-CPAS will be an online program evaluation system that will allow school districts to upload information required by both federal and state laws and policies. Our team researched and refined this system for two years with the help of almost 40 school districts currently piloting the web-based tool. We hope to see you in Biloxi at MS ACTE 2022, where we plan to unveil the new system and provide on-site training on how it works prior to its launch in August.

National Certifications: National Certification testing opened on March 21 and will close on May 13 at 5 p.m. All certification vouchers have been purchased and are in your accounts or have been sent via email. Please reach out to us if you have any issues with certification vouchers or testing.

NCCER: More NCCER proctor training will occur at MS ACTE. Be on the lookout to sign up for these trainings later in the semester.

The curriculum team has been researching and developing new curricula for the 2023-2024 school year in partnership with CTE teachers and industry professionals across the state.

Beginning in the 2022-2023 school year, work-based learning (WBL) will be piloted in Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources (AFNR) and Health Sciences and Sports Medicine courses. Our curriculum team members have begun integrating support for WBL into new documents and are working closely with the RCU's assessment and communications teams to develop and produce supporting materials to aid in the successful implementation for our new Perkins quality indicator. 

As we transition into the last quarter of FY22, the curriculum team will continue focusing on research and development of curricula, as well as WBL initiatives and helping to secure training for CTE teachers on the new WBL requirements.

GEAR UP Mississippi

GEAR UP Mississippi provided VR goggles to juniors in College- and Career-Readiness classes in Meridian and Greenville. The VR goggles allowed students to virtually tour each of Mississippi’s community colleges and public universities. While this initiative was planned before COVID-19, its availability provided more students with exposure to Mississippi’s educational institutions without having to personally tour each facility. Our GEAR UP Mississippi team hopes students use this tool to focus on the schools that closely match their interests. MSU is also doing research on the effectiveness of the VR experience and will be writing about the findings.

GEAR UP Mississippi also piloted an ACT prep company to provide in-person and face-to-face training for 224 students in preparation for the April ACT testing date. We will be able to track ACT preparation to determine the correlation between preparation time and score increase.

Student-athletes were a focus during third quarter GEAR UP Mississippi activities. We met with athletic directors to determine how we could assist with helping students receive the GPA and ACT scores necessary for meeting NCAA eligibility requirements. During the ACT registration periods, many student-athletes were also registered for the Next College Student Athlete Platform, which promotes student-athletes to coaches around the country. Student-athletes and their families were informed of the requirements to play beyond high school. Due to the favorable response, GEAR UP Mississippi realizes student-athletes can be an area for additional support in the coming year.

Connections Call for Stories

It's hard to tell your stories if we haven't heard them ourselves, and we know your teachers and counselors are the best sources of information we have. Be sure to forward this email to everyone!

This year, we are focused on showing your stakeholders — from potential students and their parents to members of your community — how beneficial CTE is. Our goal is to publish a magazine that shows off your successes and encourages others to pursue these skills and invest in the future of CTE.

Specifically, we'd love to hear stories of past completers who graduated and found employment because of their high school CTE experience or of those graduates who went to an institution of higher learning and continued honing their skills. One of our 2021 stories is a perfect example of this connection: Walthall County Career and Technical Center completer J.C. Atterberry enrolled at a Tennessee college to become an automotive technician after gaining invaluable shop experience in high school.

We also want to spotlight how important it is for students to earn national certifications before they graduate. Having their skills certified can fast-track them to employment in high-demand, high-wage industries. Whether it’s WorkKeys or NCCER certifications, we want to show off the results of hard work!

You can also submit photos of your students winning awards at various state and regional competitions, like this one showcasing Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science students who earned a number of recognitions this semester at a Future Business Leaders of America competition.

We look to highlight great hands-on projects and work-based learning examples; new, expanded or renovated CTE spaces and infrastructure; community service profiles and projects; awards and honors; business and industry partnerships; and ways teachers and professionals are connecting textbook curricula and classroom experiences to real-world examples.

If you have a story idea you'd like to share with us, please fill out our online form, send a Help Desk ticket or email us directly. Also, check out our nomination forms for student and teacher spotlights.

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