Feb. 11--Elgin-area School District U46's board approved a plan Monday night to contract out an audit of the district's career and technical education programs in order to identify inefficiencies and better prepare students for college and careers.
The $39,680 audit will be paid for via a Carl T. Perkins grant and will be conducted by NC3T, a company that provides assistance for entitles like the district in implementing college-career pathway systems.
Career and technical education programs, also known as CTE, encompass a gamut of district offerings, everything from precision manufacturing to culinary science, fashion and early childhood education, CTE coordinator Kinasha Brown told the board earlier this month.
"We want to make them more efficient," she said.
A recent internal audit of the district's CTE offerings found program inefficiencies and limited evidence of career pathways, according to a district memo provided to the board.
Certain courses are not aligned to career pathways, while others suffer from low enrollment, according to the memo.
"Students completing programs are not provided with the opportunity to earn industry recognized credentials and/or college credit," the memo states. "There is minimal communication between CTE faculty and counselors regarding students' career interests, program offerings and post-secondary placements."
The audit will help gauge the current quality and impact of CTE programs as it prepares to institute a more comprehensive college and career pathway program for students, according to the memo.
The review will include a review and revision of standards, administrator training, the implementation of online self-assessments, on-site visits and a report summarizing the firm's finding, the memo states.
While the exact timeline for the audit and reforms remains unclear, the audit will eventually provide standards, training data and analyses for the district going forward, according to the memo.
Sanders said other districts who have undertaken a similar audit have experienced a multi-year commitment to analyze and enact needed changes.
"It's not something you do overnight," he said. "We can provide a quality experience for our students while doing it efficiently and economically."
Brown told the board she expects the audit to uncover inefficiencies and cost-saving measures that will justify the current price tag.
"Let's look at the audit first and then we can strategically plan around that," she said.
More than 20 companies looked at the bid request for the project but NC3T was the only bidder and the only company capable of analyzing CTE's diverse array of programs, Brown said.
geoffz@tribpub.com
