Back in late 2014, I shared with you the Workforce3One portion of the U.S. Dept. of Labor and how it ties to the U.S. Dept. of Education as well as the CCSS Machine. How? The Career Pathways, Career Tech Education (AKA: Career and Technical Education), and all the other workforce related tracks our students/teachers/schools are being placed in.
Today, we will look at what has been made over or is the process of being made over to continue the alignment to the WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act), the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), the HEA (Higher Education Act), and any other related law. Workforce3One is sure to be involved!
The Previous Article:
Here is an excerpt from the 10/14 article, ““Workforce3 One, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (ETA), is an on-line interactive communications and learning platform designed to build the capacity of the Workforce Investment System. Members include the public workforce system and its strategic partners, such as employers, Federal agencies, community- and faith-based organizations, and educators. Workforce³One supplements other technical assistance provided by the Employment and Training Administration’s national and regional staff to build the capacity of the workforce investment system to successfully meet the employment needs of America’s workforce and employers.” ”
Other things revealed in the article include the CCSS Machine members involved, their financial backings and/or research studies. You will be able to learn how the Workforce3One uses schools for Career Pyramids, Ladders, Tracks, and/or Pathways. (This will include schools on all levels) You will find out how your local job/career centers are involved. Here is an excerpt to explain what I mean, “Workforce 3 One is SO complete they have on-line tools for you to use to build your career..of course it will be aligned. The first one is the ‘CP’ or Competency Pyramid.”
See and read: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2014/10/30/tech-thursday-workforce-common-core-style/
Once you read it, share it! Once you learn which CCSS Machine members are involved, see what new steps they have taken to help make over our workforce based education reform.
Another Vitally Connecting Article:
In January 2015, I published another related article about the National Career Pathways Network. In it, you saw the evidence of the over-arching systems in place to bridge K-12 education to post-secondary education-to workforce employment. Below is an excerpt,
“According the the Network’s website there are 10 agenda points for POSs (Programs of Study) for Career Pathways. So every time a student takes a CP course, you’ll know these 10 are woven into it:
1) Legislation and Policies (ie: from federal, state, and local levels)
2) Partnerships (ie: more P3s or public/private partnerships)
3) Professional Development (ie: career tech alignment courses)
4) Accountability and Evaluation Systems (ie: more data mining)
5) College and Career Readiness Standards (ie: more Common Core disguised as ‘not’ CCSS)
6) Course Sequences (ie: aligning the track between secondary and post-secondary schools)
7) Credit Transfer Agreements (ie: keeping the alignment accountable)
8) Guidance Counseling and Academic Advisement (ie: can’t have trained workers without trained guidance)
9) Teaching and Learning Strategies (ie: more project based, collaborative learning)
10) Technical Skills Assessments (ie: assessments from federal, state, and local levels)”
What else you will find in the 2015 article: the 6 key elements of a workforce based education; the slick sales pitches we are subject to; social policies interwoven; key CCSS Machine members, and more.
See/read: https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/01/08/tech-thursday-national-career-pathways-network/
Once you read this information, investigate where your State is along in the 10 priorities, the 6 key elements, and anything related to them. Then share it!
The Present Makeover:
The name change is just the beginning. Gone is the Workforce3One (or their logo where the 3 looks like an algebraic number). It is now ‘Workforce GPS’. See below for their own words.
The website has also had a makeover. When I last saw it, there was a Career Model with stackable, crunchable competencies with the Workforce3One Logo. It is now:
https://www.workforcegps.org/
Here is the snappy short video explaining how great the new makeover is going to be:
[vimeo 162573264 w=640 h=360]
From another short video on the website is their guide to signing up for Workforce GPS. Be sure to watch it as well. You will learn much. I will include the link, but here is the screen shot you need to see, it is the most revealing:
To see the video this is from:
https://www.workforcegps.org/resources/2016/04/18/16/09/How_To_Create_A_WorkforceGPS_Account
What else has been made over? When you click on the ‘Communities’ tab, you will see all the interconnecting agencies involved in the career alignment. Think back to the P3s involvement as evidenced both above, and it my last published article (featuring the peas in a pod picture). These interconnecting agencies are full of the public private partnerships!
Also new are the ‘Workforce Innovation Funded Projects’. These will give you a close up look at the local level of WIOA in action. See: https://innovation.workforcegps.org/
Part of the makeover includes ‘Workforce Strategies’! So if you are into evidence based, best practices (subjective to CCSS/CTE) and such, this is for you. See: https://strategies.workforcegps.org/ (*Note: look to the right hand side of the page. For example, there will be research from the SBA {Small Business Administration}. To see how connected the SBA is to the CCSS Machine, see my article, https://www.commoncorediva.com/2015/02/10/ftf-the-sba-and-common-core/)
You, as an anti CCSS Warrior, need to take a look at the ‘Staff Picks’ for informational resources. Among them are how to involve those with special needs, gathering more data on the state and local levels, the competency modeling clearinghouse, the monitoring of our States, and more! See:
https://www.workforcegps.org/resources/StaffPicks
As an anti CCSS Warrior, I know the data mining is a huge concern, especially when you remember that not only have I shared with you HOW the data is ‘married’ between the U.S. Depts of Education and Labor for workforce based education, but others as well.
Want to see what data is used and how it is collected?! Workforce GPS has the tutorial. While you will be able to access the visual information, the audio has been disabled. You should also know this presentation is a P3 one. I was given the notice before I accessed it from the Workforce GPS website. I cannot stress to you how important it is for all of us to investigate this presentation slide by slide. There are very important pieces of information for us to learn and use as weapons of truth.
See: https://spra.adobeconnect.com/_a148408/wiasrd_menu/
Lastly, if you are wondering where the global workforce ties are, try this search page:
https://www.workforcegps.org/search?q=global+&searchAll=false
For example, here is just one of the articles Workforce GPS has on the global economy and workforce, https://strategies.workforcegps.org/resources/2014/08/11/16/34/a-shaper-focus-on-technical-workers-how-to-educate-and-train-for-the-global-economy
Closing:
Warriors, since the workforce based education is to encompass every grade level, it stands to reason that the WIOA, ESSA, and HEA are included. Much of what I have shared with you since my blog began has repeatedly proved this. What you see above is just the latest.
I thank you for helping get the word out about this. Currently, I am being banned on Facebook from sharing this nation wide. As you can see this information MUST be shared. Not because I wrote it, but because it is the truth. While we are seeing an increase in censorship when sharing the truth, we must press on in spite of the silencing efforts.
Thank you for standing with me.
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