The comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA) was an exciting and innovative change under Perkins V introduced to support data-driven decision-making and more closely align planning, spending and accountability activities. As the second CLNA process ramps up, Advance CTE and ACTE interviewed state and local CTE leaders to identify what worked during the first CLNAs and what can be improved. Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment describes state perspectives on CLNA successes – including stronger alignment between local needs and funding decisions, more collaboration among local recipients, improved data capacity and literacy, and better informed state-level programs and processes – as well as state perspectives on areas for improvement and examples of CLNAs driving transformation on the local and regional levels.
Local CTE leaders that we interviewed reported similar benefits from the first CLNAs as state leaders: increased collaboration, enhanced use and understanding of data, and improved alignment and prioritization of needs and budgets. For instance, CTE leaders at Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Colorado shared how CLNA encouraged more collaboration and sharing of best practices; helped level the playing field across larger and smaller entities within regional CTE consortia; and led the district to take a more strategic approach to Perkins investments and aligning those investments with state and local CTE goals and funding.
This improved alignment of CTE programs to learner and labor market needs — including the development of new programs and the closure of programs that do not prepare students for high-skill, high-wage or in-demand careers — is one of the major ways in which the CLNA effects change. In Rhode Island at the William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School, input from stakeholders and data analysis led the school to develop its own education program to encourage its largely minority learner population to enter the field of teaching. The program began in January 2022 and takes place in a converted building on campus, part of which hosts a satellite YMCA preschool and part of which has classrooms for the high school education and training program. The goal is for learners to experience teaching across the PK-12 spectrum, so they will not only observe and do clinicals with preschool staff but also shadow Davies CTE and academic high school instructors to learn about different subjects they could teach.
Stay tuned for more blog posts unpacking lessons learned from the first CLNA and explore how you can use ACTE’s high-quality CTE framework to support CLNA.
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