Arizona accepts $100K federal grant aimed at connecting student credentials with employers

By Stacy Mantle
Mail

Arizona education officials are moving forward with a federal grant designed to help students translate what they learn in school into credentials employers can understand.

The State Board of Education unanimously approved the Arizona Department of Education's acceptance of a $100,000 Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge award Aug. 24.

The Connecting Talent to Opportunity Challenge is a $15 million U.S. Department of Education competition helping states build digital systems that connect students' and workers' verified skills and credentials with education, training and employment opportunities.

The U.S. Department of Education announced in June that Arizona was one of 10 semifinalists selected from 28 applicants, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

The money represents the first stage of what education officials described during the meeting as a potential three-year initiative.

The first-year award is $100,000. If Arizona advances, officials said the second year could bring $400,000 and the third year could provide $1 million.

The project would help Arizona build a registry for educational and workforce credentials and explore a digital system allowing students to collect their courses, skills, competencies and credentials in one place.

"We think this is a great opportunity to build a credential registry where our curriculum will sit," said Dr. David Borofsky, president of the Arizona Community College Coordinating Council. "Where students can put all of their credentials, their courses, their skills, their competencies into one, for lack of a better word, wallet where they can then get them and send them to employers to demonstrate what they actually know."

Students could then share that information with employers to demonstrate what they know and can do.

The idea moves toward giving employers a more detailed picture of skills students acquire through career and technical education and other programs.

The project could connect with Arizona's Education and Career Action Plans, or ECAPs, which help students begin mapping education and career goals while in high school.

"One of the pieces of what we're going to be doing in phase two is to create career pathways," said ADE Associate Superintendent Colette Chapman. "From K-12 up through the university and beyond. And we will be involving employers. We need to get employer validation."

Board members also discussed the importance of ensuring credentials offered through career and technical education actually correspond to jobs employers need filled.

All eight members voted in favor of the federal award. 

Editor’s note:   A grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation made this story possible. The foundation awarded 15 newsrooms to pay for solutions-focused education reporters for two years. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

Stacy Mantle
Education Solutions Reporter

smantle@iniusa.org

Meet Stacy
Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.

Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.

Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!

Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.

Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.