Professional Learning Communities: Connecting Secondary and Higher Education

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Professional Learning CommunitiesConnecting
Secondary and Higher Education

• Thomas Isekenegbe Ph.D
• Mary Ann Westerfield M.Ed.
• Cumberland County College
• Vineland, New Jersey

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Cumberland County College

• Located in Southern New Jersey
• Diverse population of approx. 139,968
• Unemployment rate is twice the States rate
• Income per capita 22,027
• 1/3 of adult population does not have a High
  School Diploma

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Mission

• Cumberland County College is a comprehensive
  community college that is accessible,
  learning-centered, and dedicated to serving a
  diverse community of learners and employers
  through quality innovative programs, services and
  the appropriate use of technology for life-long
  learning.

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Accreditation

• Cumberland County College is accredited by the
  Middle States Association of Colleges and
  Schools.

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Degrees and Certificates

• AA
• AS
• AFA
• AAS
• Academic Certificates
• Career Certificates

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Service

• Approximately 4,000 FTE students
• Four High School Districts

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CCC Strategic Plan 2006-2011

• Implement Career Pathways
• Healthcare
• Criminal Justice
• Business and Hospitality
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
• Pathway decisions were determined by County
  Economy and Industry Partnership

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Healthcare Career Pathways

• Community Based Job Training Grant (CBJT) DOL
  grant for Jan 2007 through Dec 2009
• Pathways between secondary, post secondary,
  Workforce Investment Board (WIB), County
  vocational schools, and Cumberland County College

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Why Professional Learning Communities?

• In order to create a seamless career pathway we
  needed to bring together
• Administrators
• Teachers/Faculty
• Industry
• Conducted in a comfortable non threatening
  environment conducive for adult learning

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Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

• Create an opportunity for a group of professional
  educators to meet and work collaboratively in an
  effort to affect student learning within the
  context of a professional learning environment.

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Creating Change

• Success or failure of improved student learning
  starts and ends with the teachers
• Administrators and teachers work as one team to
  plan for shared ideas for instruction and student
  learning

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PLC Goal

• Create a collaborative learning
  environment that assists in developing achievable
  expectations for student learners

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Outcome of a PLC
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Why did we do this?

• Promote and align healthcare opportunities in our
  county
• Increase family sustaining jobs
• Work collaboratively between County Public
  Schools, College, and Industry

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• Create successful transition from High School to
  Secondary Education
• Create an atmosphere where students have access
  to higher education
• Exposure to college level course material with
  daily classroom support from HS teachers

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Initial Development of PLC
Time
Administrative support
administrative support
Budget considerations
Participants
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Meetings
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Not a one day event
Progress
Assess
Reflect
Develop
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Impact

• Increase commitment to the mission and goals of
  all types of educational institutions
• Shared leadership

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Our Project
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Preparation

• May 2007
• Obtain names from superintendents
• Goal create 3 to 4 dual credit courses
• Letter to participants for best dates and times
• Offered CEUs as incentive

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First Meeting

• June 2007
• Utilized Leadership Building on Cumberland County
  College Campus
• Time 8 am to 230 pm
• College space, food, and supplies
• Participating schools participants replacements

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Meeting One Goals

• Establish a collaborative community between
  secondary and higher education
• Develop standardized curriculum for elective
  courses to be offered to HS students that will be
  accepted as HS elective credit and community
  college credit
• Explore teaching and learning strategies for
  student learning

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Meeting 1

• Discuss current teaching electives in schools and
  areas they would like to explore
• Round Tables each with laptop computer
• Worked as one group and developed
• Title Elements of Healthcare Careers
• Course description
• Goals, objectives, and curriculum mapping

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Concept Mapping

• Connect relationships between concepts

Curriculum
Student Activities
Ideas Themes
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Meeting 2

• Worked in small groups
• All members brought books, syllabi
• Used computers to search internet for ideas
• Group one Legal and Ethical Issues in
  Healthcare
• Group two Medical Terminology
• Group three Nutrition

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Meeting 3

• Groups reported on their process and outcomes
• Utilized computer screen to review content,
  grammar, and spelling
• Input on meeting state standards
• Incorporated Diversity and Information Literacy
  across the curriculum

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Meeting 4

• Discussed process of school board approval
• Created presentations
• Team would attend board presentations for support

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Evaluations

• I love this committee
• Excellent opportunity to
• work as a team
• Excellent collaboration/teamwork
• Great discussions
• I was impressed with how well CCC staff
  understood the needs of the high school students
  of our area

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We are we now ?

• Three of four public HS will offer courses
• All boards have approved
• Courses began Fall 2008
• Ongoing meetings
• Share processes and collaborate on ideas
• Coordinate speakers
• Developing online resources

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What still needs to be completed?
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Questions?
Jacqueline Galbiati, MSN, RN Healthcare Pathway
Director jgalbiati_at_cccnj.edu
Thomas Isekenegbe, PhD Vice President Academic
Affairs tisekenegbe_at_cccnj.edu