Perkins Career and Technical Education Program

1. Describe the criteria and process for how the eligible agency will approve eligible recipients for funds under this Act, including how— a. each eligible recipient will promote academic achievement;

Alabama's CTE programs are an integral part of the total education offerings.

• • Secondary and postsecondary recipients offer a minimum of one program of study that incorporates and aligns secondary and postsecondary education; includes academic and CTE content in a coordinated, non-duplicating progression of courses including the opportunity for secondary students to acquire postsecondary credits, and leading to an industry-recognized credential or certificate at the secondary and postsecondary level and degrees at the postsecondary and higher education level.
  • Recipients are required to implement the Alabama Courses of Study: Career and Technical Education. These COS include content standards representative of all aspects of the industry as determined by the career objective of the student.
  • Academic competencies have been documented in the career and technical education programs through the validation process for embedded credit. Where specific academic content is documented, students may receive core credit for math and science CTE courses, upon LEA board of education approval.
  • Career and technical education academies, apprenticeship programs, and magnet programs are promoted as a delivery system for integrated academic and career and technical education competencies and skills.
  • Local school systems are encouraged to develop diploma endorsements which recognize successful completion of the core academic courses for the regular or advanced academic core courses, and the completion of a sequence of three or more CTE courses.
  • All sub recipients will document participation in statewide articulation activities in the local plan annually.
  • The Alabama Community College System (ACCS), in collaboration with the SDE, will develop and annually review statewide articulation agreements for approval.
  • The ACCS will collect data from postsecondary institutions and report the degree to which colleges implement plans of instruction that contain academic and technical competencies identified through a systematic curriculum development process utilizing faculty and industry representatives as subject-matter experts.
  • A postsecondary performance measure indicating the degree to which colleges implement POIs containing both academic and technical competencies will be included in the College Plan for Career and Technical Education, which also serves as the application for Perkins Basic Grant funds. Current and targeted levels of performance pertaining to the measure will be addressed in the College Plan. The measure, current and targeted performance levels, and subsequent improvement practices will be evaluated during the approval process. Planning and evaluation in CTE at colleges will be supported with Perkins funds.
  • A postsecondary performance measure indicating the percentage of CTE students who maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or higher in general education (academic) coursework will be included in the College Plan. Current and targeted levels of performance pertaining to the measure will be addressed in the College Plan. The measure, current and targeted levels of performance, and subsequent improvement practices will be evaluated during the approval process. Planning and evaluation will be supported with Perkins funds.
  • A postsecondary performance measure indicating ECEP and dual enrollment participation and grade point averages in CTE courses will be included in the College Plan and provided to the SDE and LEAs for the purpose of program review and evaluation.
  • Colleges must describe in their College Plans for Career and Technical Education intervention strategies used with CTE students experiencing difficulties in academic and technical coursework.
  • Instructional strategies are continually revised to place greater emphasis on the integration and reinforcement of academic skills for secondary CTE students.

b. each eligible recipient will promote skill attainment, including skill attainment that leads to a recognized postsecondary credential; and

Perkins funds will be used to purchase equipment and other technology needed to train for and assess technical skills attainment.

Perkins funds will be used to provide technical assistance and professional development for CTE teachers to prepare them to instruct students toward technical skill attainment.

Post-Secondary credentials and third-party industry credentials are measured through the Alabama Accountability Model. Performance on these indicators is collected and reported in accordance with Alabama’s ESSA plan.

College Plans for Career and Technical Education must address equipment and technology needs identified by the colleges' Strategic Analysis Terms (SAT) and must provide measurable documentation as to how the equipment and technology will be used to support the five-year plan.

A post-secondary performance measure indicating the degree to which CTE faculty

participate in technical skills upgrade activities will be included in the College Plan for career and technical education. The measure, and subsequent improvement practices, will be evaluated during the approval process. Postsecondary Perkins funds will support technical skills upgrades through professional development activities.

c. each eligible recipient will ensure the local needs assessment under section 134 takes into consideration local economic and education needs, including, where appropriate, in-demand industry sectors and occupations.  (Section 122(d)(5) of Perkins V)

Eligible recipients will utilize locally developed processes for determining the industry needs and prioritizing available funds to best address needs. As part of the statutory requirements for Perkins V, the statewide Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment will guide eligible recipients in identifying needs and justifying expenditures.

2. Describe how funds received by the eligible agency through the allotment made under section 111 of the Act will be distributed—

a. among career and technical education at the secondary level, or career and technical education at the postsecondary and adult level, or both, including how such distribution will most effectively provide students with the skills needed to succeed in the workplace; and

• Beginning with the first year of the four-year plan (FY2020), the split for the flow-through funds will be based on the unduplicated enrollment at each level as reported in the 2019 Consolidated Annual Report (CAR).
• The secondary formula will use the population data provided by the Census Bureau and the poverty data collected under the ESEA of 1965 to allocate 30 percent of the funds according to the number of individuals ages 5-17 who reside in the district served by the LEA and 70 percent according to the number of individuals ages 5-17 residing in the district and are from families whose incomes are below the poverty level for the previous fiscal year.

• Funds will be allocated to colleges and, if applicable, consortia of colleges based on the number of Pell grant recipients (or in the case of incarcerated students, those who would otherwise be Pell-eligible). Colleges will submit a College Plan for Career and Technical Education, which serves as the application for Perkins V Basic Grant funds.

                  b.  among any consortia that may be formed among secondary schools and eligible institutions, and how funds will be distributed among the members of the consortia, including the rationale for such distribution and how it will most effectively provide students with the skills needed to succeed in the workplace. (Section 122(d)(8) of Perkins V)                   

A Memorandum of Agreement will be required and will be developed between the members of consortia. The agreement will define the responsibilities of the fiscal agent and the other members of the consortium. The outcomes of the agreement will be outlined out in the annual budget requests from each member of the consortium and will be submitted for approval to ALSDE.

3. For the upcoming program year, provide the specific dollar allocations made available by the eligible agency for career and technical education programs and programs of study under section 131(a)-(e) of the Act and describe how these allocations are distributed to local educational agencies, areas career and technical education schools and educational service agencies within the State.  (Section 131(g) of Perkins V)

Based on the current year funds received, a preliminary allocation of $11,445,470.40 was made available to the 142 local school systems and educational service agencies within the state. The secondary area career and technical schools operate as a part of the total school district and do not receive a separate allocation. Funds are allocated according to the formula given in the Act, Section 131(a)(1)(2).

4. For the upcoming program year, provide the specific dollar allocations made available by the eligible agency for career and technical education programs and programs of study under section 132(a) of the Act and describe how these allocations are distributed to eligible institutions and consortia of eligible institutions within the State.

Based on the current year funds received, a preliminary allocation of $4,902,842.00 was made available to the postsecondary institutions within the state.

Funds will be allocated to colleges and, if applicable, consortia of colleges based on the number of Pell grant recipients (or in the case of incarcerated students, those who would otherwise be Pell-eligible). Colleges will submit a College Plan for Career and Technical Education, which serves as the application for Perkins Basic Grant funds.

Describe how the eligible agency will adjust the data used to make the allocations to reflect any changes in school district boundaries that may have occurred since the population and/or enrollment data was collected, and include local education agencies without geographical boundaries, such as charter schools and secondary schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education.  (Section 131(a)(3) of Perkins V)

Eligible recipients are given an allocation of funds by the eligible agency according to the legislated formula in Section 13l(a)(l) and (2). When there are changes in school district boundaries, the adjustments are made at the beginning of the new fiscal year. A new school district will receive an allocation based on a pro rata share of the numbers in the formula for the preceding fiscal year for the school district of which it was a part.

1. 5. If the eligible agency will submit an application for a waiver to the secondary allocation formula described in section 131(a)—a. include a proposal for such an alternative formula; and

There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

b. describe how the waiver demonstrates that a proposed alternative formula more effectively targets funds on the basis of poverty (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget and revised annually in accordance with section 673(2) of the Community Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) to local educational agencies with the State.  (Section 131(b) of Perkins V)

There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

Also indicate if this is a waiver request for which you received approval under the prior Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV).

            There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

1. 6. If the eligible agency will submit an application for a waiver to the postsecondary allocation formula described in section 132(a)—a. include a proposal for such an alternative formula; and

There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

b. describe how the formula does not result in a distribution of funds to the eligible institutions or consortia with the State that have the highest numbers of economically disadvantaged individuals and that an alternative formula will result in such a distribution.  (Section 132(b) of Perkins V).

There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

Also indicate if this is a waiver request for which you received approval under the prior Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV).

               There is no proposed alternative allocation formula to be used in Alabama.

​​​​​​​7. Provide the State’s fiscal effort per student or aggregate expenditures for the State that will establish the baseline for the Secretary’s annual determination on whether the State has maintained its fiscal effort, and indicate whether the baseline is a continuing level or new level. If the baseline is new, please provide the fiscal effort per student, or aggregate expenditures for the State, for the preceding fiscal year.  (Section 211(b)(1)(D) of Perkins V)

STATE MAINTENANCE of EFFORT for PERKINS-NARRATIVE

Program and accounting staff members from the Alabama Department of

Education (ALSDE) and Alabama Community College Systems (ACCS), formerly

the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education (DPE), reviewed both State

budgets, the Education Trust Fund and the General Fund, to determine if

appropriate expenditures from a line item should be included in the maintenance of

effort (MOE) calculation. There are no General Fund expenditures included in the

MOE calculation. Items included in the calculation are as follows:

Only expenditures occurring during the fiscal year, 10/l/2018-9/30/2019, are included. There are issues with certain Alabama Industrial Development & Training (AIDT) funds that cause us to make an exception to how the amount reported as MOE is calculated. The portion of AIDT funds that do not revert back to the State Treasury at the end of the fiscal year is included in the MOE calculation as the budgeted amount. This is necessary because the amounts expended fluctuate greatly from year to year---enough to cause Alabama to fail to meet the MOE requirement. The expenditures fluctuate this way, because they are affected by the level of economic development or new industries entering the state. This should not be a problem since all funds allocated will not revert and will eventually be expended on MOE allowable activities.

 Alabama’s estimated MOE for SFY 2019 (10/1/2018 - 9/30/2019) is $98,576,174, approximately 2M more than SFY 2018. As Alabama has significantly increased CTE allocations for SFY 2020 (10/1/2019 - 9/30/2020), we expect to meet the MOE requirement and are not seeking a 5% reduction to our MOE baseline for SFY 2020.