 We are going to be recording this morning's session so we just wanted to let everybody know that we're really excited to have everybody back for our first user group meeting of 2023. We are dropping the link into the slides in the chat. We will send out this link to the slides as well as some of the links that are in the slide in an email later today that'll come from either bill or myself at some point this afternoon. But we're also recording as I mentioned, and that the video will be available next week on YouTube channel early next week and we'll send out a note when that's up. There's a link to the sign in form as well in the chat. If you didn't see that we will be sure to drop that in probably a few more times we'll also drop the link to the chat in, excuse me, the link to the slides in the chat. A few more times as we go. I do want to as we get started, make an acknowledgement that as everyone knows Heather lukin from the Illinois State Board of Education's career and technical education and innovation team is co facilitating the career pathways user group. Heather cannot be here with us this morning due to a family commitment all is well there. And so we are going to be offering this presentation without Heather we have planned it with her, including multiple meetings this week and over the last few weeks. What we're going to be doing today is taking a deep dive into the course sequence elements and so we'll also be talking and gathering some feedback on professional learning needs. We've done some planning based on data that we've collected data that is be has collected as well as the information that Heather has gathered through the office hours sessions about where questions are coming in for upcoming months and so we will be sharing that with you towards the end of this morning's meeting and looking for feedback related to that from all of you on the chat on your microphones, etc. But for now is people are in the planning stages with so many pathways this seemed to be the most important thing to hit first and a number of the slides that will be sharing today will be slides that were shared last month, during this be career pathway approval process update webinar month ago and so but with some additional details based on questions additional discussions that have resulted inside the agency and so we're really excited to share that and while this meeting is is guaranteed here because again the rules have not been published for public comment, let alone adopted yet at this point. This is the best information we know now and as things change by being part of the career pathway user group you will literally and truly be the first to know that and have opportunities to provide input into that. So, before I dive into the agenda and some quick announcements I'm going to again drop in the link to the slides and the sign in form, right in the, in the chat there if you've not yet signed in if you can please take just a second to do so. And again if you'd rather have the zoom up then the slides, we will be sharing out the link to the slides later today so our agenda, quick announcements. Then we're going to talk about core sequences we're going to go really deep. Keep an eye on the chat try to be answering as many questions as we can. We will probably not have all the answers here and with with Heather not joining us today. We will air on the side of not answering a question that we're unsure of where the agency's answer might go, but we'll be bringing those back to other I'll be honest we actually already have time blocked out early next week for the follow up from today. You know, just as a call out to Heather, who does has done so much work on making the career pathway endorsements, a reality at the state level trying her best to support all of you at school district level. Heather is celebrating a birthday this weekend and she will be watching this over the weekend before it even goes public so you got anything you want to say in the chat, you know, feel free to she'll have access to it so I won't say what it is, I think I know with that said, let's dive into the, to the content. So we have some quick announcements some new ones here some old ones we're going to start with this a reminder and we will be sharing all of these links in the email we send later today to the professional learning calendar is out there we're actually excited we're going to be making some updates to that coming up. We are already working on the calendar for this summer and for next school year we're actually very far along in that process. But those, those are especially the school year calendars that's never a final, a final calendar because we can always add or make changes based on the needs in the fields and so we're excited to do that. One of the updates will be adding to the calendar coming up and probably offering a couple of times will be based on feedback that came in about post secondary institutions from school districts during that webinar last month, when we were all together and so again that those questions. I promise lead to action. We want to call out here is two things on the college and career pathway endorsement is the website which we include the link for yesterday. Office hours continue to be updated with windows of time, typically at least once a week for a couple hour window, please take advantage of those for individual questions. I can assure you that the content we're talking about today is being posted here we're discussing it here because of individual questions there, and I can assure you that the best place to get individual questions for your district, would this early college class count in this pathway. It is definitely in the office hours so if you can bop into those it's also a great chance to listen to what other people's questions are, even just as a as a listener as a lurker. Also, the state agency has posted on the website there, the recording and the slides from last month and so those were shared also yesterday apologize we should have shared those previously those have been up for, I think, about two weeks now. Right, but just about. And so we should have posted those but that recording is on the is the YouTube channel so if you follow that YouTube channel, you know, hit the like button if you don't subscribe to the is the YouTube channel. There's lots of stuff, especially if you're in a curricular role that cuts across a wide range of curricular areas. We want to also send out a reminder that coming up on February 15 in normal is the is the career connections conference. This is the link for that. And then following that on the 16th and the 17th is the annual acting conference these are being run in conjunction with one another. There will be lots of sessions related to the career pathway endorsements. And both conferences they will certainly make an appearance, as well as related topics and so we hope to have many people we've got people coming from across the state for both and we're very excited to to be there as a team, over those few days in normal. This is an event also in normal that we want to call out that some of you are already well aware, but others of you may not be and it may be relevant for students and a and a teacher in your in your school is the ed rising conference. And Jennifer I'll come right back to that I actually conference hotel thing in just a second let me mess. Let me finish this statement. So the ed rising conference is a chance if you have an ed rising group to bring your students down with teacher they the teacher sponsor teachers, they do not have to participate in the competitions as I understand it but they can. Kim, or, and I'm going to mispronounce her name and I apologize about that Kim read it's this who's a teacher at Oregon High School Spanish teacher there will be the keynoter I heard Kim's keynote address multiple times already this year with high schoolers. It's awesome I know we have some people in the call who've been in the room for that and so if you have anything to say, go for that. So this is a really cool event. There will be all kinds of people that I know are in this call that are already going but if not it's something to put on your radar and if not for this year, then then maybe for the 2324 school year to start thinking about it now. Michael took the words right out of my mouth going back to the conferences, full disclosure. Our team is staying at the height across the street, where we are able to get the state rate, and one recommendation is again, if you should be asking at hotels for the state rate for the governmental state rate. Basically, this is in in uptown normal. So staying at those hotels is most convenient but it is not inconvenient to stay at another hotel, either along veterans Parkway, or along 51 in either Bloomington or normal so plenty of hotel space available but as as I understood it a few days ago, there were still rooms at the Hyatt right across the street in in uptown normal. So, and also thank you Joe, we've got Joe here from my empty offering that thanks so much. So just some tips there on hotels, hopefully we'll see people for that. This is almost a pre announcement at this point and I expect that hopefully in the P 20 network newsletter two weeks from today, we have a newsletter that should have just hit your inboxes a few minutes ago, we will have a more detailed pre announcement. This is a free event on the NAU business Olympics. It is a competition. There are multiple categories ranging from entrepreneurial, an entrepreneurial category to mobile app development. It is very, very cool our team will be there. This is an older picture these students are probably off college graduates now, but really a cool opportunity. We have teams from from out of state that have attended this event in the past from Iowa and Wisconsin teams from the city, the suburbs, and other parts, including downstate and so really cool event in DeKalb Hall, the College of Business building, which, as many universities is a pretty cool building. So, it's Saturday, April 1. And so we will be sharing out more information will do our very best to remember to also drop that link as it's updated with details for this year into the career pathway user group. Google group lists serve as well so we want to put that on your radar. If you want to be talking about that with business teachers or computer science teachers information technology teachers in your district. Last link here, this was sent out directly to the user group by our colleague at Education System Center one Jose Gonzalez, the career pathways dictionary survey, looking to update this and looking to update this from feedback from the field. So if you want to call out very important. Well, survey is not lengthy it does close early next week so this is something to squeeze in today or over the weekend if you haven't already done this. So, if you can take that yourself share with others that would be relevant in your district or neighboring districts if he directors maybe something to share with the districts in your region. That would be awesome. So, that is all we have for quick announcements with that we're going to get to the main event I will ask. If you are able to redrop the sign in link and the link to the slides into the chat in the next couple minutes, as I start talking about the course sequences. If you have not signed in. Please go ahead and do that. So again, we're going to do our very best here this morning to capture the information about the course sequences, where there are good questions that we don't feel comfortable answering on our own we're going to defer those to make sure that we have the agency voice speaking directly on this, but we will try and answer as many questions as possible that that you've got right now. But also remember for your individual, a lot of these questions and this kind of the overarching theme. Not necessarily for most courses, a right or wrong answer for does this course count in a course sequence for a career pathway endorsement. It depends on the context of the career pathway endorsement. So there's one overarching theme and again the office hours are a great place to dive into that the second overarching theme and this is something that Rodrigo and Bill and I have all discussed within our team recently over the last few days. And we know that we have high schools and community colleges of all different sizes and with all different kinds of focuses given the cultural geographic and economic realities and needs of their communities. And so, these have been, these, these have been designed with flexibility in mind for those differences across spaces and so again, what works in one place, maybe different than, than what what works in a different place. And that may depend on, like what classes of community college offers what programs of community college offers when it comes to dual credit classes so those are two overarching themes that we want to offer as we dive into this. Speaking of overarching themes, this slide appeared in the slide deck in the webinar last month and this is very, very important and there are actually some people that are in today's meeting who conversations with them and the agency and the Illinois CTE project team really helped drive the importance of getting this out there. So, the vision of the career and it sounds contradictory but it all fits together into a neat package the vision of the career pathway endorsements college career pathway endorsements is of quality for individual students rather than the quantity for schools or districts and achieving this goal, college and career pathway endorsements should raise the quality relevance and authenticity of instruction for all students, and increase the opportunity for all students to learn and become proficient with the essential skills. So, while not all students, maybe not even large numbers of students will earn a college and career pathway endorsement, they should have a really positive knock on effect in schools that moves. The CTE and work based learning to the center of the experience for more students that moves career and college readiness counseling for all students to the center of the experience and again not only in high school but as I know many of you are already talking about your districts and regions in middle schools and even into the into the intermediate grades into the upper elementary grades and so we're super excited about that and we're super excited about the agency's vision for that. So rules are being created now we've talked about this before and they are working through that process there are legal elements that process this, these are rules that do have to be worked through across multiple agencies before they can even be made public for comment. So I do understand that that is in the process of happening. I don't have a timeline to give you when will we see the draft rules when can we comment on them publicly. What I can promise you is again, if you are part of the career pathways user group, you will be notified in the career pathways user group when when the rules are available for public comment. Obviously, there will also be notifications I'm guessing through the is be regular weekly state superintendents newsletter through the is be CTE newsletter. We will probably publish that I'm sure through the Illinois P 20 network newsletter so if you're if you're paying attention to those things and you're part of this group, you should see it multiple ways and as we have more if we if we get more information on timeline. At some point we will share that out. Not going to go into this in great detail now but ultimately in a nutshell why are the rules being created now. Not only because HP 3296 which was signed into law at the end of last May by Governor Pritzker now requires the implementation of the college and career pathway endorsements or the opt out I do want to acknowledge that I know there are some districts out there asked about well how do we opt out what does that process look like. I can tell you, I do know that that is also being developed as part of the writing of the rules. So, again, that process for districts that want to do that should be coming out upfront. So, excuse me, at the same time as the as the rules. I don't know if that will go through the same comment commenting requirements or not. But that that is all forthcoming. I think I want to say about the rules before we go on, especially for the handful of districts that have been real pioneers and leaders in this work that already have students who've earned endorsements or set to have your first students who've been earning endorsements this year current 12th graders, maybe your plan was approved last year. Yes, I want to acknowledge that from your perspectives, it is understandable when you look at the things we're going to talk about right now in the course sequence and say, oh, well why didn't these come out before. The best answer I can give is, like, like most of our organizations, the agency is limited resources and has to prioritize and reprioritize what needs to be done when it needs to be done. And, and again, HP 3296 as I understand it, this may not be wholly accurate but as I understand it, triggered the we have to write the rules now so that is, I want to empathize with that thought. I do think many of those those districts that have already had students earn endorsements will not see these requirements make significant changes to what you're doing. I think there's a couple of key questions that you may need to answer that you haven't had to answer before. But I also think in the conversations I've had with with all of you in those districts. I think most if not all of you actually have answers to those questions already so with that said, the endorsement components. What we're really talking about here is the middle strand the career focused instruction that is part of the course sequence and that is what we're focusing on today in November, we focused on the individual plan. Today we're focusing on the course sequence. So diving into that. A couple of minimums for everybody to be aware of the minimums are two hours, two hours, excuse me, apologies, two years, or the equivalent of four semesters, and that becomes important. Potentially, if we're especially for an area career center some of the questions that I know have gone to the agency from there, as well as six early college credit hours. Those are the minimums. The key questions and we're going to look at these in more detail in a minute but there are now for each course. There are two key questions and so again we'll come back to those in a second. So the course sequence should be focused on the career pathway. And it, it should be a sequence that all students completing the pathway endorsement go through now. And there are districts that want to offer multiple course sequence options, and that is wonderful that tends to be districts with bigger high schools that can offer more of those options. One of the things that is important to note certainly in the current system, each must be uniquely recorded as here is this option here is this option so we know there's some redundancy and again keep in mind that and we've got some tips in here about how to develop into the current system. Heather is working with the data team on the development of the iOS form, when the iOS form launches it will launch in alignment with the new rules. I do not have a time frame I know one of the questions Heather has received from is, well, if we're not planning on current 12th graders earning endorsements this year, we're planning for our 10th graders should we just wait to enter it into into the iOS form and I don't have good advice for you there. Heather would say you can certainly enter it into this form, and we don't know what a data transfer will look like or an export where you can copy and paste your own stuff and put it into the iOS form in the future. And so what we are doing what Heather is doing is giving specific tips, knowing how this is shaking out to make sure that what you're entering into the form now is not necessarily aligned with the current form as it exists but where this is going. So that if you have multiple course sequences the bottom line, ultimately they will need to be entered as separate options, all leading to the same career pathway endorsement. And that's awesome. If your school is is large enough or has enough offerings that area to be able to afford that choice to students. Most schools in the state won't be able to do that. Again a reminder, minimum of two years for the course sequence or the equivalent of four semesters, or really and very importantly the equivalent of whatever that means in your district if you're if you're using a competency based education approach. The early college credit must be equivalent to a minimum of six college credit hours. There's nothing wrong if it turns out it's a three hour course in a four hour course and equals seven that is, that is fine and again, as I just mentioned a moment ago competency based districts, you will determine the equivalent number of semesters. So, this is one of the places that there are some some changes that are in place for this year and I will be perfectly honest, I have not made a big enough deal about this with districts up until now. And this is not entirely new, but the legislation that is out there governing all this work does require that beginning with this school year students must actually earn the credit hours. They just take the courses. So, I want to talk about what that means here. So, earning the credit hours and dual credit or dual enrollment courses that's pretty cut and drive they are in an A, B or C. They, they earn, they earn that credit, those credit hours, both actually earning the credit hours and for the purposes of the career pathway endorsement. Second of all, the articulated credit, this looks a little different. So for articulated credit courses to really earn the credit in, in a, with community college, for example, you have to get an A or B in the course and then enroll in that community college in the fall or later on to earn that credit. In this case, for the endorsements, the definition and this will make more sense probably when I give the similar AP exam option for the endorsements. So, earning the A or B in the articulated credit course, where you enroll, and whether or not you actually end up getting that credit does not actually is not a requirement of earning the endorsement as, as is be as developing it right now. And the reason for that is because let me give you the next example. You have to earn a score of a three, four or five on an AP exam if there's an AP early college credit course in the course sequence now. Different colleges and universities give different amounts of credit for different scores, ranging from no credit at all, even for a five on certain exams for certain courses to no credit for a three but credit for four or five. And so, given all of that, the decision was previously made that earning a three, four or five on the AP exam constituted the equivalent of earning the early college credit because there are certainly post secondary institutions, awarding credit for that. And that may or may not include the one that that particular student will end up enrolling in after they've graduated from high school. And so to not have these decisions be delayed until the following fall, or three years later when a student first enrolls in a post secondary institution that for articulated credit advanced placement and as I'll mention in a moment for IB exams. The, the ultimate enrollment location of the student does not matter for purposes of the career pathway endorsement. Finally, on the IB exam students need to earn a score for hire. And again, regardless of whether they enroll or where they enroll in a post secondary institution following high school graduation. So right now, these are the definitions as they stand at this moment. I know the, I believe, since I know I believe that the intention of the agency is to have these be the definitions. And again, I think those of you, the many of you working in high schools, the many of you who will be keeping track of whether or not individual students have qualified, I would imagine appreciate the fact that even in this scenario. This requires maybe not knowing who earned an endorsement until as late as July, when you receive exam score results back to the district. And so certainly delaying that any further is will also cut off opportunities for currency for students, and so forth I mean in the perfect world this is Jason's two cents. We would know when students walked across the stage earning their high school graduation diploma if they've earned the endorsement or not. And so exactly. Thank you. And there are districts this past year and you will see when we get to professional learning needs. We have an upcoming month where we've identified how should we what our strategies for keeping track of whether or not individual students who qualified and we'll talk more about that at the end and about some of the details of this so one of the things that we all need to keep in mind is the implementation of laws related to instruction can be really challenging for us in schools. Yeah, I'm a teacher and administrator, I get that our team gets that the is the team is filled with teachers and administrators and counselors and so. I think that's an important thing to keep in mind legislatively when we are engaging with our legislators is is helping them understand, you know what this what this looks like on the ground, as we try and implement it and ways to maybe preserve all the benefits for and the intent with with making the implementation align more with some of the things that are also out of our controls instructionally as schools. So now we get to these questions. These questions are new they were presented in December, and these questions really get at the purpose of having courses in the course sequence and I'm going to real quickly go back a couple slides real quickly to this graphic that is up on the is the website. And this graphic shows again the career focused instruction is part of a larger plan that leads to the endorsement, along with professional learning or work based learning career development experiences, being academically ready to perform and a post secondary environment reading and mathematics and then using those skills across other content areas. And so here the key is that the course sequence is, is preparing you to understand really what their career pathway looks like and to prepare you for the professional learning experiences while also preparing you for success in the post secondary environment. And so thinking in those terms, these, these questions are really aligned with that. The first question is, how does the course teach students skills and or content that is needed to be successful in the career pathway. Part of what's not said there's, if the student is successfully learning those skills and content that is need to be successful in the career pathway that should also enable the student to be successful in a post secondary environment in course work aligned with that pathway. As a matter of fact, it's probably going to put them ahead of their peers who didn't have those experiences in a high school environment. The second question is equally important. And that's how does this course help students learn what the actual work is like in the workplace and help them determine if this work aligns with their interest so of course, this is designed to help students think through. This is something I really want to devote the time to focusing on exclusive to probably focusing on other things in a post secondary environment is this what I want to spend limited financial resources including limited financial aid resources on. And as everybody in this, in this meeting knows what we want to avoid is students earning a four year degree and not having had the experiences to understand what the actual work looks like in the workplace, and then moving out into the workplace and then discovering that I shouldn't have said for your degree, whatever the post secondary degree or certification is excuse me, but and then discovering at that point after investing whatever length of time and whatever amount of money and energy. Oh, I don't like this. The earlier we can have students identify that that is not something they want to do that is a success and again, we don't right now at the state level have a way of categorizing those successes in this process. But, but I know that many of you believe and talk about locally that that is a success when students have figured that out and if we can figure out how to quantify those kinds of successes and put them alongside the successes of students who have been able to figure that out. That would be awesome. That is something we would love to engage with. So here's a pro tip, given the fact that currently we're entering into the PWR online system that was created three or four year four years ago. When you are entering the course description in the current system, be sure to answer these questions in the same text, then you'll permanently have those answers in the move to I was additionally is B is now, as those of you who who've engaged in the application process know they are expecting to see these answers in that text so so be sure to be answering these questions in the future as I understand it. These questions you'll you'll list all the details about the course and as part of that, you will specifically answer each of these questions in their own text box. It will be harder to to skip one or miss one on your own so please be conscientious of these questions, as you're working in the in the current system, and so forth. So, in the future, these are the course details that I was the form and I was is likely to ask for it's being built based on on these details so the course name that be your local course name, the is the CIS course code that it aligns with the course duration me multiple options there how many course credits, the location at which the course is delivered and any of these locations are fine they're all equally good. Early college credit if so what type of credit, and then the two questions that we just discussed. So here are some examples that we that the agency, I should say believes to be true at this point for courses that would and these are these are designed not as as fully definitive black and white answers but as trying to give some examples of mostly center around English and math, general education style courses. So some examples of some courses that would typically not meet the requirements of the answering fully answering those questions aligned to a specific career pathway, our AP English dual credit college algebra dual credit English one on one a cal Tom 101 course. On the other hand, there are math and English courses that may meet those requirements for a specific course pathway so for example, AP computer science may or may not be a math course in your school districts but in a number of school districts in the state it is a math course, and in an information technology career pathway see course sequence that would likely meet the requirements. A dual credit journalism one on one class probably going to be classified as an English class in the high schools course catalog. And again, in an arts and communications pathway that would likely meet the requirements. An AP psychology course in a human and public services pathway that is likely, but may not always meet the requirements depending on the focus of that, and a dual credit environmental biology course. Again, in a few different course sequences potentially that could be in in agriculture food and natural resources that could even be in manufacturing engineering technology and trades as anybody who's watched our career pathway virtual trail heads videos with micro biologists knows there is all kinds of environmental biology going on in all the all kinds of what I would have assumed until learning about that manufacturing processes that that I did not know about so those are some examples. So, and I'm going to, I'm going to delay on answering questions because I know I have not been able to keep up with the with the chat right now so again knowing that we're also taking those together and we will get answers to questions, even if I don't answer these questions right now. How will it be determined that, of course, is or is not appropriate for the early college credit component of a career pathway focused course sequence well first of all, the answers to the questions on slide 20 will be really, really important. Second of all, it will also be considered within its alignment to the requirements of the post secondary partners related degree program so one of the things that was talked about previously in the December is be webinar is there is a requirement to identify a post secondary partner that is a requirement from the legislation. And so we know different post secondary partners will have different degree programs that is the reality. And so that is actually why on this slide, the word related was very carefully selected here, because what you're really preparing students for maybe not exactly worded in a community college, locally's course catalog or program offerings as as the way you're kind of envisioning it, especially if it's the kind of course sequence that and career pathway that might require degree. And so, we, there's a recognition on the agency, certainly on our part on the NAU team that there's got to be some flexibility built in there to find that best fit and so what's the closest related degree program and how does, how does that course fit within that in terms of alignment and again, if those are typically falling in in the gen ed space that is is less likely is unlikely to be to be counted because these questions really become critical and that's not just how our students learning certain content that they may need to take later courses. It's how are they learning skills and or content that is needed to be successful in the career pathway. And secondarily, how does the course help students learn what the actual work is like in the workplace and help them determine if this work aligns with the course. So, these two questions and your answers these questions become really important, along with the fit with your post secondary partner and you can identify your post secondary partner. And remember, you may have different post secondary partners conceivably for different career pathways. So, for example, and this certainly doesn't apply to everybody across the state not everybody is, is lucky like Chicago land schools to have such a density of schools and school districts and community colleges, but there are school districts that work with two different community colleges their community college within which whose boundaries they said that they're working with for most of their dual credit courses for most their career pathway course sequences, but then a different community college for this particular career pathway course sequence because their community college does not offer that and I know of schools and other parts of the state school districts and other parts of the state that are doing that exact same thing with multiple community colleges and again, we know that's more difficult when when distance makes that harder and less density makes that more challenging. But those are options and so just bear that in mind. Finally, couple really critical details. Yeah, thank you, Josh, I was actually thinking about you guys when I said that second part. So awesome. Thanks for calling that out. And so by Anna does work with three different community colleges very successfully. So the area career centers, there have been great questions asked by area career centers. I know that Heather is actually presenting to the area career centers coming up like maybe as early as next week to talk about their role in supporting the career pathway endorsement process and and where they fit and how they can help and I think that is that is awesome work that is taking place and we're all collectively at both the agency and on our and I will know ICT project team excited to keep doing that work. So first of all, a more compressed timeframe is possible. And again that that equivalent of four semesters that's listed in the third bulleted item here. That's, that's how you, you may be doing the equivalent of four semesters into semesters potentially, or, or even, you know, less depending on how the program is structured. And so the intensity of the experience is really critical and we know that looks different in the area career centers and so there is flexibility intended from the agency here to allow them to meet that so that the experience is still really the same experience, even though the time duration may look different. And that that intensity and depth of experience is what allows students to be like, Yeah, I know what this looks like I know what parts about this job are cool and that align with my interests, and the things I'm good at or I'm learning to be good at I know which parts about this job. I'm not really going to like but I can do it and I get it and and I understand that that's part of the deal. And so that's really the critical pieces that the, the core sequences are providing a nice pathway into probably not the right word to use but a nice runway into that for students so that when they move into those work based learning experiences, they're not shocked with that range of skills that they're using. So, so in the current system, this is what the course sequence. The course entry looks like in the current system and so I just want to call out one thing here and that's in the course description box here in the lower left corner. This is the place where you would answer those questions for right now. Where they're not answered separately so again if, if you have already submitted and you're like oh I haven't answered those questions cool, go back in edit this you want to answer those questions in that course description box is the is going to be looking for answers to those there. And, and those are really, really critical for ensuring alignment. So you'll check box here for as early college credit all most of the fields here are the same, like the local code this is where you can put in your school districts course code that's in skyward or infinite campus or power school or whatever you use. It's not a required field do put in the is b course code again that is not listed as a required field, but I, I promise you that will be really, really important and, and one of the things here really is probably to start. These are the courses that are the required courses in the course sequence. When you don't have to do you don't get a, there's no special recognition for school districts who put in that there are nine other courses, a student could take that all line with these four courses that the student has to take. That's awesome and if you have students taking those. That's, that's great. Most school districts as we all know it's a struggle to find the space and the time to do this with everything else we know there's no shortage of requirements. And we certainly know that the is b cte team, many of you know this and if you don't want to say this is increasingly interested in supporting school districts and having conversations about how courses can be two things at once. For example, that's, that's tricky that's not easy work, but it is a good potential solution to allowing students to take advantage of all these things that I would make the argument. I believe my, my teammate bill would make the same argument that instructionally, some of that other content they they're likely to learn better in that more authentic environment in which you're embedding it, maybe alongside the cte content. So, we will try and come back to questions and, and bill I may be calling on you to shout some out that that we can answer but before we do that we want to make sure we have time for this. So, again, Heather is meeting with school districts all the time through the office hours and we find individual questions. Certainly there are questions coming into our team. We also have data that we've looked at certainly previously from the CNA process. We look at the data from our evaluations, literally within 24 hours of every event we do. And so what we've done is put together kind of a framework. And you can see this goes into next school year, where we've already started identifying what we've asked ourselves is, what are the big hot topics that people are asking about. And when do we need to talk about those either based on where many districts are at with their development, or is it relates to just normal school year functions that we know happen at certain times during the year. So, we are going to be reaching out. And I have seen the faces of people who will, we will be reaching out to some want one of you in particular will be getting an email from you that will start with an apology, and then come with a hey and ask. And I see that person smiling so that's cool. We will be reaching out to people to co facilitate these or to share what they've done. There are so many great examples out there and again we want you sharing those, even without the meetings. Like, hey, we tried this here's a form we made to do this. Please don't be shy about emailing those out to the group. Again, it was awesome that one who they got the career pathways dictionary survey form link right out to the group. I think that's, that's the kind of, of thing we want everybody doing it doesn't just have to come from from is the year from NIU that we want everybody asking questions answering questions, much like your chief school business officials do in their listserv, or your your district tech leaders do in the various listservs that they're in. Those are kind of our examples for how we want this group to support one another. There are all kinds of challenges with work based learning that probably could be a separate monthly meeting we know that our colleague, Heather Penzak and systems has been running I win which seeks to answer lots of those questions. So we want to encourage people to take advantage of that, but we also want to specifically in the context of the specific requirements for the career pathways while we've continued to say, you know, we'll lean on the work that is happening through I win. We know about work based learning and share great examples and support people with that. We're looking at next month really wanting to focus on that. And to kind of help people with that. I will add this is not something that you know certainly our friends. It is we would say and I say this as an apolitical statement as a state employee during the work day, but this also may be a good time there may be some some places where there's legislative solutions for example or some things that that the state can help with and and this is a group that can have those conversations and certainly our EFE directors statewide do have those conversations all every month. They're having those conversations and doing really good work there but this is a great chance to have a larger statewide group that includes districts from across the state to maybe engage with that as well as some of the community colleges that are here. We've got some really good examples of how do I know if individual students qualified. We've got one district in particular that had kind of a real handful to deal with and came up with its own system. That system is is very accurate and pretty detailed and may feel a little overwhelming, but we're going to engage and see if they're willing to share that out in March and get some questions answered. And for those of you who are not looking to have your first group until the class of 24, that will actually be great timing for you to start thinking about what should I get in place this summer. And it's still early enough that for those of you who have 12th graders that will you're hoping to have earned their endorsements this spring. It's a tough time to to get that sorted through before before you hit May. And so that's the idea of the timing there this is a question again that Heather's gotten repeatedly and and one of the times Heather has seen it is is at the end of the school year and so we're anticipating some of the decisions. We've got a few people we want to tap on there's some, some school districts that have really done some great work with honoring honoring and recognizing endorsements and other related career pathway kinds of movement from secondary to post secondary and so we'd like to share those. And then, as, as many of you know there's all kinds of work that's been done that continues to be done about post secondary currency into an April we want to be able to talk about those things. We know team based challenges is is always an ongoing hot topic we are currently working with this be to put together some specialized focus team based challenge trainings particularly looking towards summer to offer those up and we're going to kind of kick that off with an overview and really refocusing on that. Thank you bill bill just dropped the link for the signing into the chat if you've not done that please do so. We've got June as an open time chunk where we can again play with what might be needed. So we're kicking off the year, it really is not very long between September and when high schools start talking with their middle school students and families about the transition process, the first selection of courses, and so there's also work that has to engage middle school students in, in pre career pathway work and career development experiences there's lots of districts doing incredible work with that and lots more districts talking about it and so one honor that. We got a placeholder with a question mark here, the application process. Hey, what if the new I was form is up I mean, obviously, as soon as the iOS form is up, Heather will make a video Heather will make a guidebook Heather will probably hold a webinar. And so there's all of those things on the NIU team. And so there's also these open slots now, some of what we identified here from the data may not be right. So what we want to do is get your feedback here you can unmute or or drop ideas in the chat like hey, this is what we really need and again I know I went through a lot and I didn't answer any of the questions about the course sequences today but we have them all say, we can actually put those today into a separate document, where we just have the questions to make our time. Next week, more efficient to start getting answers to those put together and get those answers out to not only all of you but everybody in the user group, and beyond, as quickly as possible. So, what ideas do you have are these the right things are these the right times are there other different needs. It doesn't just have to happen through the career pathway user group again as part of our work with this be, we can create new dish, new or additional sessions, we can also redo sessions that we've already done on that note on our professional learning period calendar coming up at the beginning of February and less than a month. We are re offering the career pathway overview administrator Academy that is a three hour online workshop in the morning, get full Academy credit for that if that's important to you and if you do the follow up dissemination activity. And, and that is open though to teachers and counselors and what's really cool about that admin Academy is we've had community colleges attend we've had people from other interest groups that are involved in work based learning that is free and open to everybody and so that link is is in the in the calendar as well and we hope to have a lot of people signed up for that so throw into the chat ideas you have what do you need for success in terms of professional learning with the career pathways, generally, Amy I will drop the link into the calendar, give me just a moment to do that. Oh, thank you bill will beat me to it. Okay, great question from Michael. And, and this is a good one for that we will get in front of Heather, before she works with the area career centers to make sure that comes up there portfolio samples. Tell us more about that, because that's really cool. You certainly have bill was just talking about portfolios. I believe just in the last week. So you can certainly unmute and tell us about that. One is just the portfolio that we're looking at is for freshmen through senior that a student when they finish their endorsements and getting all the requirements done to have them send them off with something that they can carry with them. I've heard that the state of Illinois was looking at something as last meeting I was in I can remember how long ago maybe his last year sometime that the state was looking at developing something that can help to the high schools with that. I'm not sure if that's still in discussion. So, so yeah there's a few things and Janice thank you for throwing that into the chat. Janice works with a number of districts in the soccer Valley Community College area at Dixon sterling area writ large. And they've done some really awesome work. We will be in the district on Tuesday where we will be talking about. Again, the, the essential skills, specifically, and, and what their students are taking with them, both internally as well as externally to be able to show. Hey, we, we've mastered the essential skills. And so I think that is room. For us to look at more closely and so thank you for for sharing a little bit more great call out on job descriptions for supervisors for workplace learning and internships. That is, that's awesome. I think that's something that first of all we can probably do some of that through through the email lists serve and probably should, but also I think there's some really important conversations to have maybe in developing that might be more appropriate for a meeting. The other group to keep in mind everybody and not all regions have this but it throughout the state there are these new college and career path pathway endorsement coordinators, and that group is also meeting regularly they'll be meeting coming up on February 15 actually is a group of the career connections conference. And the, some of those conversations. And again, I know this, this doesn't help all districts are all community colleges are all EFE is because not everybody has one. But in the many places that those exist that that group is starting to talk about some of those things but certainly the sharing of job descriptions for workplace learning coordinators internship coordinators. That's, that's a great call out. Yeah. And we'll have more to share about work based learning support and training to as many of you know there is a beta group testing a new online asynchronous work based learning course that is something that we are in the process of putting together and we will launch the first out of beta group for that the plan is this summer with information coming up this spring, those groups that we're doing just like a regular class will be limited in size to kind of a regular class size so that we can be providing feedback to people as they move through that and moving forward, we will be offering those kind of on the traditional semester cycle summers where it will be shorter but where teachers tend to have more more time available to complete the work in a shorter amount of time and then in the fall and in the spring and so once we continue finishing up the beta group, we will move forward with that. That's a great question to Terry I can't answer that question but again we will be sure to to ask that question and to figure that out that's a great, a great question. As people do sign off a couple of things number one we will be taking all of your questions and today we will be organizing just the questions from the chat into a document that we will then we've already got time blocked out to work on that next week. We do have this evaluation form that is as important to us as the sign up form. Please, please, please complete the evaluation form I know today was not super engaging and a lot of sit and get, but hopefully it answered questions and I apologize about the poor instruction today. We really do want your feedback so that we can make adjustments and provide what's necessary. As we move forward so please take a minute to complete that evaluation form if you can. That would be wonderful. And if you did not complete the sign in form, please, please go ahead and do that as well. Is that the wrong link. Hang on. I can solve that problem. Thank you, Kerry. Thank you, Terry. You got one region killing it on that. This should be the right link. Give me one second I am so embarrassed. Apparently, not copy and paste directly to the slide deck. Let's try this one for the evaluation. Again, if you have other ideas to while you're on before we, before you sign off for professional learning needs there's some great ideas there were excited to bring back to Heather and the SP team that you've shared this morning and some things that I think we can get going on as as early as next week. Thanks again everyone if you as you sign off for those who sign off we hope you have a great weekend thanks for all of your work on this we know how much how complicated it is. There's another great question in the chat. So legal agreements for partnerships. We're going to take that we'll add that to the list. I do not believe there is be approved ones but we can. That's a conversation that can be had but also, I don't know that that's likely but we can certainly start sharing out examples from districts. Great, great question. Yeah, as Terry wrote most most school district attorneys are going to want to look at agreements locally. And they, many of the firms do share with one another, but that's something that we can certainly have conversations about and meet with the if he's about to great question. Kerry, my answer that would be no but there are some things happening in that space. And Rigo is leading a meeting this afternoon that should lead to some exciting additional next steps from the Illinois P 20 networks dual credit think tank, and probably obviously our friends at Ilisap who provide leadership throughout the state on dual credit and do enrollment issues. So keep your eyes peeled on P 20 network emails, things like that for for next steps there. We will I should add we will be looking for engagement I believe that's my guess is what will come out of the meeting. So, yeah, be prepared to roll up your sleeves on on that dual credit question. Thanks, ready to go.