ECMC Foundation Launches Collaborative to Support Research and Leadership in Career and Technical Education
October 01, 2018
PRESS RELEASE
LOS ANGELES — ECMC Foundation, a national philanthropic organization working to improve postsecondary educational outcomes, announced today the launch of the CTE Leadership Collaborative—an initiative focused on bringing together diverse perspectives and equipping postsecondary career and technical education (CTE) leaders with the tools, resources and skills needed to advance the field.
"Many current CTE programs have been developed based on anecdotal evidence that doesn't adequately prepare learners to meet the needs of today's employers," said Peter Taylor, president, ECMC Foundation. "In addition to the lack of research, there are concerns about the rising number of retiring CTE leaders and the lack of professional development opportunities for practitioners. To be successful, we need to not only better understand postsecondary career and technical education, but develop a pipeline of leaders to guide the field into the future."
The initial $2 million grant-funded program of the initiative will support CTE research conducted by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The NC State College of Education will facilitate the three-year program, CTE Fellows at NCSU Sponsored by ECMC Foundation, working with 30-40 ECMC Foundation Fellows from colleges and universities across the country.
The NC State College of Education project team will work with a national advisory board, comprised of leaders and researchers at leading colleges and universities, as well as business and industry leaders, to recruit and select fellows and recommend research content. Discoveries will be compiled and shared as they become available.
"This program has the potential to provide evidence to impact CTE that will improve student success and the quality of the workforce," said James E. Bartlett, II, Ph.D., the project's principal investigator and associate professor of workforce and community college education at the NC State College of Education. The co-principal investigator Michelle Bartlett, Ph.D., further affirmed support for the program, "From serving as associate editor of the Career and Technical Education Research journal, I have seen a lack of submissions on postsecondary CTE and see the program as a means to increase research in this critical area."
The ECMC Foundation CTE Leadership Collaborative will employ a proactive grantmaking approach, offering competitive funding opportunities to identify solutions that address specific challenges faced by postsecondary CTE. Grantees and sub-grantees will commit to sharing their research, experience and best practices with the field in an effort to marry research and practice.
"We are excited about the work ECMC Foundation is doing to improve the state of postsecondary career and technical education, which is consistent with our overall mission of helping students realize their potential by investing in, creating and providing innovative solutions that support schools and improve student educational outcomes," said Jeremy Wheaton, president and CEO of ECMC Group, parent organization to ECMC Foundation.
About the NC State College of Education
The NC State College of Education leads the way in preparing professionals, conducting research and engaging communities to improve educational outcomes for all learners across North Carolina and beyond. As a research-driven college of education grounded in its land-grant mission that enrolls over 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students, the college is North Carolina’s largest producer of STEM educators and master’s-level literacy specialists, graduates teachers who rate among the best on statewide performance measures, and has created a pipeline of leaders for schools, community colleges and higher education institutions. In addition, with two-thirds of its faculty engaged in active research, the college ranks No. 1 in education research productivity in North Carolina and in active grants. U.S. News & World Report also ranks the college in the Top 12 percent nationally among 385 graduate colleges of education and No. 1 in North Carolina for its online graduate programs.