Project activities have focused on updating and introducing new curriculum needed for the ten clusters representing the seventy-two TOPs codes in the Business/CIS discipline. Faculty workshops and conferences have and will continue to help colleges implement the new and expanded curriculum. A major focus of the project is statewide improvement in the VTEA Core Indicators of student performance. Business partnerships are significantly aiding this effort. Improved student service structures and activities are being piloted.

Ten curriculum development teams are working to accomplish these goals. Under the direction of a statewide chair, each team has addressed requirements in one of the ten TOPs code clusters. Team members are business and educational leaders in their fields, well qualified to develop and implement these goals.

The defining outcome of the project is stronger and more effective educational support for workforce development to help California employers succeed in an intensely competitive business environment. This project will help the community college system enhance the preparation of its students for productive careers in today’s increasingly technical and global marketplace.

SCOPE OF PROJECT
The project represents statewide coverage, business and industry participation, and occupational breadth:

• Geographic range — Joined in the project collaborative are colleges ranging from the populous counties of Southern California, such as San Diego City College, Coastline Community College, and Los Angeles Valley College, to institutions in the very different environment of small counties in the rural north — Butte College, for example, and Feather River College, and Lassen College.
• Industrial range — Business members of the Project Advisory Committee, situated from Southern California to the Bay Area, mirror the extraordinary diversity of California enterprise. Firms committed to the project include multi-billion dollar computer companies, a large publisher, small high-tech startups, and other small businesses.
• Occupational range — The project addresses the needs of educators and employers ranged across seventy-two TOPs codes in business and computer occupations. Whatever the forecasts, no one can say with certainty which jobs will offer the best opportunity for the most Californians in the decades ahead. By building curriculum and services for many occupations in growth sectors, this project offers a high probability of delivering significant educational value over the long term.

Effective Practices in the Five Priority Areas
The project is developing effective practices in the five priority areas outlined below:

1. Performance Accountability Including Research and Assessment
   The essence of the project is to produce curriculum and services for students, faculty, and counselors that deliver results in community colleges throughout California. Products of project activities are being field tested at colleges in different parts of the state. Test results will be fed back to the curriculum development teams for evaluation and implementation. Improvement of student outcomes, as measured by VTEA Core Indicators, is a key goal of the project.
   
2. Curriculum Development and Improvement Including Dissemination
   and Public Relations
   The project is developing new content for the ten cluster areas representing the seventy-two TOPs codes that define Business and Computer Information Science disciplines. The dissemination plan includes a project website where curriculum is posted; marketing literature is being distributed to all Business/CIS cluster Deans; and presentations are being made at major educator and counseling conferences throughout the state.
   
3. Professional Development
   A shortage of qualified faculty in Business/CIS disciplines is one of the needs driving this project. Professional development products include a number of face-to-face workshops for faculty and counselors. Some of the workshops have been and will be presented online.
   
4. Student Support Structures Including Student Leadership, Counseling
   and Other Support Services
   The project is student-centered by design. Curricular activities focus on delivery methods aimed at special student populations, including individuals with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, single parents, displaced homemakers, and students experiencing barriers in language or nontraditional career choices.
   
   Tasks aimed at enhancing student leadership include piloting student leadership organizations that will be replicated statewide. Curriculum development and project dissemination tasks include measures specifically to the benefit of counselors.
   
5. Partnership Development / Improvement Including Linkages, Public
   Relations, and Resource Development (Funding)
   The project is a large partnership in itself. The collaborative embraces twenty-eight community colleges and forty-six business organizations — a total of seventy-four separate entities. Linkages between business enterprise and the colleges, in both Northern and Southern California, provide a real-world perspective that a wholly academic approach might lack. Project-developed marketing materials are ensuring public exposure of project outcomes.

Collaborative Statewide Planning Effort
In all activities —project outcomes flow from a statewide planning effort. Seventy-four colleges and business organizations are participating. Planners analyze VTEA Core Indicator results and make recommendations for improvement. Employment Development Department projections and other labor market forecasts are studied at length. Program review invokes the expertise of the concerned professionals from business and educational communities.

CORE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:
Objective #1: Organize Curriculum Development Teams

The Project Executive Committee, consisting of the project director and three senior faculty members from community colleges in different parts of the state, has launched the project. The three faculty are designated Professional Experts on the project organization chart on pages shown below.
The executive committee has convened ten Curriculum Development Teams (CDTs). The CDTs include business and industry experts, representatives of labor and government, students, and academic and vocational educators. Each team was assigned a group of TOPs codes from the Business/CIS cluster. CDT occupational areas and team chair assignments follow.

CDT tasks, according to the needs of the occupational area, may include one or more of the following:

• Developing new techniques for online class design and delivery
• Developing new course content
• Developing instructional techniques for onsite and online classes emphasizing SCANS competencies and academic integration
• Developing effective collaborative approaches to the delivery of state-of-the-art instruction
• Developing strategies and implementation methodologies to offer relevant learning experiences
• Developing instructional methods focused on diverse student populations
• Developing effective assessment strategies for measuring student outcomes based on VTEA Core Indicators
  

  Benefit — The CDT concept has enlisted a cross-section of occupational experts to develop new curriculum, the heart of the project. Assignment of TOPs codes assures that each team works on what it knows best.

Figure 2-2. Curriculum Development Teams
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Objective #2: Expand the Development Resources List
The Curriculum Development Teams are expanding the topically-organized list of nearly 200 resources, originally developed in spring 2002, that faculty can use to enhance and develop instructional programs in the Business/CIS cluster. In their research and development efforts, the ten CDTs are continuing to compile resources to help faculty bring creativity and relevance to their instructional efforts.

Benefit — The Resources List gives faculty and counselors a quick-access, pre-screened index to sources of information on topics related to occupational education. The list saves time and adds value to user participation in the project.

Objective #3: Adapt to the Needs of Special Populations
Curriculum development has focused on delivery methods aimed at special student populations: individuals from economically disadvantaged families, including foster children; single parents, including single pregnant women; displaced homemakers; individuals preparing for nontraditional training and employment; individuals with disabilities; and individuals with other barriers to educational achievement, including individuals with limited English proficiency.
In addressing the needs of special populations, the CDTs are continuing to:

• Explore the issues and considerations in instructional delivery to special student populations
  
• Identify resources that will help instructors meet Section 508 requirements
• Develop curriculum strategies that provide special student populations with increasing opportunities for achieving their career goals
  

Objective 4 also presents comprehensive curricular planning for special populations.

Benefit — The outcome will be high-paying jobs for people who might never have known they could qualify. Societal benefits could include relieving the burden on families and a reduced need for public assistance programs.

Objective #4: Field Test the Curriculum
The project will field test, and revise as necessary, the updated curriculum proposed by the CDTs.

• Colleges throughout the state will be asked to implement the newly developed curriculum and to provide feedback to the CDTs.
  
• Recommendations for additions, deletions, and modifications will be implemented before courses are disseminated statewide.

  
  Benefit — In addition to monitoring quality, field test will encourage wider adoption of project outputs. The knowledge that the material has been used in an actual class-room, perhaps in one's own institution, helps potential users build confidence.
  

Objective #5: Solicit Feedback from Advisory Groups
Project staff will solicit feedback on development efforts and resources from the Career Development Statewide Advisory Committee and the Regional Consortia.

Benefit — Provides an additional level of confidence that the development teams are setting and meeting the right objectives.

Objective #6: Prepare for Distribution
Curriculum development teams will make final revisions to new curriculum and make ready for dissemination.

Benefit — The people who know the product best are responsible for guaranteeing readiness for product launch.

Objective #7: Deliver Staff Development Activities
To introduce the new curriculum, with an emphasis on innovations for student success, project staff will deliver online and face-to-face workshops for faculty and counselors. Participants can attend the workshops in person or online. The workshops will:

• Be available throughout California
  
• Focus on sharing best practices that enhance student success in the Business/CIS area clusters
  
• Provide instructors and counselors with resources they can immediately implement in their programs

  
  Benefit — Provides a twofold benefit: 1) helps get the program off the ground quickly; 2) reassures potential users by demonstrating that knowledgeable help is available.
  

Objective #8: Market the Product
Project staff are taking a proactive role in disseminating project outputs. Beyond making the newly developed curriculum and supporting materials available, the project is undertaking a professionally prepared marketing effort. Business/CIS faculty in California Community Colleges are using project materials to improve student success and strengthen their links with the local business community.

Marketing activities include:

• Curriculum posted on the project website, http://calbusinessed.org
  
• The project presented at major California educator and counseling conferences throughout the state.
  
• Staff development workshops.
  
• Marketing literature on the curriculum development effort sent to all California Community College Business/CIS cluster Deans.
  
• Marketing templates focusing on the new curriculum made available to the colleges, together with suggestions on how to market these updated programs to their communities.
  

  Benefit — In the welter of concepts and products surrounding occupational education, the marketing effort is making this project stand clear as a well-planned, well-executed, and field-proven solution provider.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION

Short-Term Institutionalization
The number of participating colleges, faculty members, and counselors is so large that in the short term, the project is essentially self-institutionalizing. People involved in various phases of consulting, creating, testing, and marketing the project include:

More than half the community colleges in California have some involvement in the project, often through prominent faculty with wide influence in the college system.

In addition, all colleges have been invited to participate in all project activities. Professionally planned marketing materials stimulate participation, which promotes institutionalization of curriculum products, staff development opportunities, VTEA Core Indicator improvement strategies, and other project outcomes.

Long-Term Institutionalization
The successful implementation of this project should yield results consistent with the strategic plan of every community college in California:

• Growing enrollment in programs geared to expanding occupations
  
• Capture of market share from proprietary technical schools
  
• Improved response to public demands for institutional accountability
  
• Enhanced support from business, industry, and the professions
  
• New areas of high-paying opportunity for students from special populations

The products of this project are so manifestly beneficial that forward-looking college leadership will move toward institutionalization as the only logical course.