January 30, 2017
The NYS Education Department has released the Removing Barriers to CTE Programs for English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities Grant. This competitive 1-year grant offers funds to school districts and BOCES as lead agencies in partnership with institutions of higher education, and community and business organizations. There is $1 million available statewide with awards limited to a maximum of $200,000 each. The purpose is to “ensure that all students have a pathway that leads to college and career readiness, [funding] is available to provide Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs with support and resources to eliminate barriers to Students With Disabilities (SWD) and English Language Learners (ELL)/Multilingual Learners (MLL), encourage participation in and equitable access to CTE programs and activities, and promote gender diversity in non-traditional career paths.”
Via Evaluation would be a great match for your application as we are currently evaluating NYSED-funded grant projects focusing on improving access to CTE, and have specialized and focused on supporting projects to improve outcomes for ELL/MLL students since 1998. This and our substantial experience with needs analysis would help grant awardees complete the required outcomes for the grant such as: providing a “summary of barriers and challenges faced by SWD and ELL populations accessing CTE programs in school districts and BOCES gathered through a formal needs analysis…” Since the RFP requires surveys to be conducted and analyzed after the grant award is made, using experts in both conducting surveys and working with the target population would help improve and distinguish your application.
If you would like to hear more about how Via Evaluation can support your work with Career and Technical Education (CTE), or receive our newsletter, please call Gary Ciurczak at (716) 362-0627 or email us at [email protected] .
