A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Exhibit I

Recommendation for Key Stakeholder Groups to Build a National Infrastructure to Support a Standards Driven Education Enterprise

Federal Facilitating Support -- Working with State Networks

There are an array of state based consortia organizations recognized in the paper that should be engaged in the following efforts. The work of NSSB should inform these efforts.

1. Develop common glossary of standards related terms to be used by the education enterprise.

2. Support the expansion of current consortia and networks to promote the development of integrated (academic and occupational) standards based materials into curriculum frameworks and instructional materials with particular emphasis on workplace readiness skills for the K-12 system.

3. Promote standards driven staff development efforts that cross agency lines including the development of materials targeted to different stakeholder groups and develop a dissemination strategy for the materials. The federal and state government will need to reach into array of networks, including the second chance programs to promote staff development opportunities.

4. Infuse standards requirements into career guidance materials, placing special emphasis on working with employer networks to develop materials to promote an understanding of career pathways.

5. Enhance the collection on information collected by federal government (e.g., National Center for Education Statistics) to document the use of occupational standards material in the education system.

Promoting the Development of Voluntary Skill Standards System

NSSB when establishing criteria for Voluntary Partnerships should:

1. Recognize lead role education and training provider representatives have to assist in the design and development of education and training related products and services, derived from the industry identified standards.

2. Develop a roadmap that will help education enterprise understand the equivalencies between the requirements of the workplace and the needed levels of education, such as exists in Australia.

3. Use International Standards Organization (ISO) processes as a guide to establish program quality assurance standards.

4. Consider developing interim criteria to recognize existing standards until further work can be incorporated by emerging voluntary partnerships.

1. Identify and work with education networks to develop materials for program on studies based upon current skill standards.

2. Develop support materials, in concert with the National Occupational Information Coordinating Council (NOICC), for education providers by cross-walking the 16 economic sectors with education program information for the purpose of developing programs of study.

3. Sponsor, in concert with the Department of Labor, multi-year cross sector validation of core academic and workplace readiness skills for use by all voluntary partnerships, O*NET, and workforce development education and training providers.

4. Develop, in concert with Department's of Labor and Education, processes to promote the development of nationally recognized assessment tools to assess workplace readiness skills.

5. Convene an assessment technical support group composed of federal agencies, federally funded assessment research and technical assistance providers and state based organizations representing the agencies responsible for education assessment to focus on the technical issues required to make an assessment system that promotes portable credentials become reality.

6. Design a framework, with Department's of Labor and Education, that will promote the use of relational data bases that incorporates skill requirements information for use by all national and state standards setting bodies and public and private users.

State Responsibilities

States should:

1. Incorporate generic workplace skills and contextual learning materials based on nationally validated standards into curriculum frameworks.

2. Ensure that approval of institutions program of study include standards driven criteria for both secondary and post-secondary institutions.

3. Establish a "single point of contact" panel for skill standards development. The panel should build its work to meet the needs of all workforce preparation programs in the state.

4. Elect industry/occupational clusters (making every attempt to have these clusters fit into NSSB) national framework that can be used to:
   1. develop curriculum frameworks for use in programs of study with particular attention given to industry/occupational core skills;

   2. develop articulation agreements between different levels of education institutions;

   3. develop career pathway information services based upon the clusters for use by all workforce development organizations and most specifically for career counseling services.

Business Community Leadership

1. Hold a mini-summit in order to clarify messages to the education and training providers about the utility of both types of standards for the workplace.

[Executive Summary]

[Purpose]