Patricia Oliva: Hi, good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us. I am going to start by giving you an overview of our program, then we'll move forward and introduce our panelists and our team, and then we're going to share with you how we collaborate via workgroups to develop and implement strategies, offer high quality programs, and basic skills, ESL, and adult secondary education, and CTE as well.

How we help students transition, and how we support our region, and our area. The Capital Adult Education Consortium includes 10 school districts, 2 county offices of education, and 4 community colleges. And you can take a look at our visual right there for you. CAERC's Organization Infrastructure consists of protocols and processes that are the framework that support its members and regional priorities.

The resulting collaboration produces consortium level activities, member roles and functions, and a venue for discussing ideas, challenges, and strategies that promote learning equity and achievement for adult learners. Let's see, before I move on. So looking at this graph, if you notice, the correct infrastructure it's comprised of two co-chairs, it's co-chaired by Los Rios, vise chancellor, and Insco HPD superintendent.

If we look around as well, you'll see that we have officially designated members and partners, and CAERC director, and fiscal agent, a CAERC coordinator, admin assistant, workgroups, and subject matter experts. It's important to note that the community college chancellor and superintendents in the region do provide oversight to our consortium through the leadership oversight panel.

So today, we will center our conversations around the director, data and accountability, transition navigator in Canvas workgroups. And like us to maybe go around and introduce ourselves if that's OK before we move forward with our discussion. And our panelists are, and let's start with Carla, would you like to introduce yourself?

Carla Slowiczek: Yes. Hi, everyone. I'm Carla Slowiczek, and I am the Coordinator with CAERC, thank you for joining us today.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you. Kiu, would you like to introduce yourself please?

KIU CHUONG Hi there. My name is Kiu Chuong, I am the Fiscal Agent for the CAERC Consortium.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you. Rhonda, would you like to introduce yourself?

Rhonda Balmain: Good morning. I'm Rhonda Balmain, I'm the Principal for Folsom Cordova Adult School.

Patricia Oliva: Nakisha.

Nakisha Woods: Good morning. My name is Nakisha, and I'm the academic intervention specialist for Twin Rivers Adult School.

Patricia Oliva: Miranda.

Miranda Currie: One I'm Miranda Currie, and I am the ESL Department Lead at Elk Grove Adult and Community Education.

Patricia Oliva: And Lydia.

Lydia: Good morning. My name is Lydia, and I am the subject matter expert for the data and accountability workgroup.

Patricia Oliva: Very good. Thank you so much. Carla, do you want to move to the next slide? OK, so just to provide a quick overview of our leadership work group and their activities, if you look at the graph. In the middle, it's directors work groups, but it's comprised of our admin members, partners, we have some subcommittees, and then the staff that supports CAERC as well.

Our priorities are to sustain and expand adult education programs like most of you in this group. I'm sure all consortiums have that as one of their priorities. We coordinate and expand our marketing and outreach efforts that is something that's of extreme importance for our group, especially after the pandemic. We need to make sure that our community understands that we're open and ready to serve.

We offer professional development opportunities, expand career pathway courses, and we align those with high demand markets in the regions. And then we also strengthen regional partnerships to increase funding and leverage our resources and our structures. So those are our main priorities in our work group. We typically work in two. We have two avenues for that. So throughout our business meeting and our directors work group meeting.

So our business meeting meets for 2 hours once a month. So that 11 meetings in a program year, we do take a break I think, it's December. Our meetings at this point are online because we want to make sure that everyone is able to attend. Things we do in this work group include going over our updates and deliverables. Anything related to complying with what we need to do.

We do have a select topic section. And that's where we discuss things that are of importance in our region, and make sure that we all understand how that affects our programs. We talk about professional development opportunities. And then also we provide a space for questions, and then to troubleshoot issues and to just share concerns and challenges and best practices. Our directors meeting and business meetings are we have all our leadership attending, including partners.

For our directors workgroup meeting, that is mostly comprised of admin members in our consortium. We also meet for 2 hours. There's 10 meetings scheduled throughout the year, some in line and some in person. And we have kind of a rotating topic structure there. So it's like little mini work groups throughout our directors work group meetings. So some of these are marketing and outreach, budget, annual plan, for sure, and WIOA.

And another one that we also touch on is CalWORKs. And then we also provide questions, a time for questions and for discussion in that area. It's really important to highlight that these two meetings are where we do the bulk of our first year and three year planning, so it's very, very important for us to maintain that communication and that collaboration, and it's worked really, in my opinion really well when it comes to working as a group to move forward our plans. Thank you Carla.

Carla Slowiczek: OK, so we'll begin the discussion portion of this section. And I'll begin with Rhonda. So Rhonda, as a CAERC member and school administrator, can you tell us what your agency's role and responsibilities are?

Rhonda Balmain: Yeah definitely. So our roles and responsibility is definitely to participate in the scheduled meetings that CAERC has developed for us throughout the year. The meetings are very intentional, they as Patricia pointed out, we have varied topics that we talk about. And what's really great about it is, there's a lot of times in adult education where you might get a new administrator coming in or an administrator who is managing a school by themselves without any other assistance like an assistant VP or any of that.

And so by the collaboration that we have in our consortium, we have a very dedicated team, and we do everything in fidelity. So it's pretty remarkable. Those topics, everything is aligned with our annual plan, our three year plan, which we developed and decide and agree upon together. We identify those strategies and those plans so that we are working across the consortium in our region, and all of the adult schools sort of doing things together, which really lends itself to partnering, to having a team and not feeling like you have to do everything yourself.

There's a lot of discussion, a lot of refinement, a lot of improvement, a place where we can discuss the issues that are coming up. Sharing ideas, we learn from one another, it's pretty remarkable. The other thing is just professional development along the way and being able to learn in the implementation of things. Setting up CTE courses, implementing Canvas. All these big ticket items that we're all trying to achieve at our schools.

Everything in our consortium, in our meetings, as a participant is by consensus. And it's just part of our month, it's what we do, it's those meetings are, we need to attend, we have to be there, and we want to be there. And it really guides, it guides how we improve our programs.

It guides what we offer at our school, especially, when we analyze the demographics in our area, and who we're serving year to year, and how that changes, and ebbs and flows with enrollment. And we're able to share that information together and come up with best practices for our programs. So yeah, it really has made an impact in the quality of our program. And the collaboration is just, it's pretty remarkable. So yeah.

Carla Slowiczek: Thank you, Rhonda. So you mentioned consensus. Patricia Oliva, can you talk a little bit about how consensus is reached within the consortium?

Patricia Oliva: So again, all the topics we address our shared in advance, we do provide an opportunity for members and partners to voice what needs to be done when it comes to our annual plan and our three year plan, we do all work together to identify what strategies we need to work on, the activities, who's going to lead it, and who's participating. So then we decide you know what? We move forward or not. And sometimes we all agree, and sometimes we have different ideas of how things are implemented.

So when Rhonda says consensus, I mean, it's almost unanimous most of the time because we provide that opportunity for people to share their expertise and their concerns, and then to troubleshoot whatever concerns we might have. So I would say, for the most part, it's a little bit more than consensus. Again, we don't start agreeing but by the end of the conversation, the group does agree on what they want to do.

And that we do strive to make sure that everyone is in a place where they're comfortable with what we're doing. We don't impose anything because we all have the same weight when it comes to deciding how we're going to implement our activity strategies or plan, and policies and so on.

Carla Slowiczek: Thank you Patricia. My next question is for Kiu. So Ki regarding compliance and fiscal reporting, can you describe how you support the consortium's members?

Kiu Chuong: Absolutely. As fiscal agent, I am responsible for anything fiscal related. And how I support members and compliance and with fiscal reporting, is that we have quarterly fiscal meetings. In these meetings we talk anything fiscal related, we invite our members, we invite their fiscal team, their staff, anyone who may be touching their reports whether it's the budget report, expenditure report, or even the general ledger at the district level.

They are all invited, we had since the pandemic moved it from an in-person meeting to an online meeting. Evidently, we found that we had more people joining our meetings because they hold different positions at different capacities. So it was easier for them to do participate in online meetings, which is great because we were able to disseminate these information, state updates, and all those other good stuff.

So I want to make sure all our members know what new state rules are, and what the due dates are. So in our meetings we discuss everything, we discuss everything from members allocation, COLAs, regional strategies, and if necessary, reallocation at the end of the fiscal year. Again, any new state information that was trickled down to CAERC and the other consortia, I present that to our members. So they are up to date with any kind of state regulations and new rules.

We talk about, it's not just fundings we talk about WIOA, we talk about Calworks. Anything that may affect their adult education funds. We discuss deliverables, we talk about year end processes. I know our members are probably tired of me beating into their head, encumbrances, accruals, things to close up the books, what forms I need to certify their expenditure reports.

So I try to keep the different meetings that we have the quarterly meetings that we have, very specific to what our needs are at the moment. For instance, we schedule our quarterly meetings strategically around due dates and state release of funds, such as the January governor's report and the May revision. So then that way we're at that meeting for specific topics. So I'm not discussing this for something that's going to happen six months from now, so it's clear and fresh. But yeah, that's how I try to keep our members up to date about compliance and fiscal reporting.

Carla Slowiczek: Thank you, Kiu. We do have a quick question in the chat from Karima. And she asked, do you hold Brown Act meetings online? And that is probably for Patricia Oliva.

Patricia Oliva: We do. We do. They are online. We do have one meeting a month that aligns with the Brown Act. All our information is posted on our website ahead of time, and it is open to the public. Zoom links and agendas are there, as well as minutes.

Carla Slowiczek: Thank you, Patricia. And I'm going to throw the last question for this particular section to the leadership group here. And the question is, how are challenges dealt with at the consortium level?

Patricia Oliva: Rhonda you want to take that one?

Rhonda Balmain: Can you be more specific, Carla?

Carla Slowiczek: Well, let's say, for reallocation, how is something like a reallocation? And I consider that a challenge because it's unexpected. So maybe the word is not challenged, but how do we deal with something that comes about unexpectedly?

Rhonda Balmain: Excellent. Yeah, OK. So it's brought to our attention, it's put on, it's an agenda item in one of our director meetings. It's carefully presented and sometimes what do you call it? We're able to decide what we want to do in order to solve whatever issues or whatever's going on. A reallocation, how do we want to divide up the extra funding or whatever? So we decide as a group.

Sometimes Patricia, our director, can make some recommendations for us, or Kiu, our fiscal oversight will make recommendations for us to get the conversation going, which is really great. One example a few years ago, we had a reallocation where it was decided that the members of the consortium would sort of apply for it, and put forth a proposal for how they would spend that money if they were to get an additional allocation.

For example, if it wasn't divided up evenly among the schools, and we decided that just specific schools would get it based on what are their goals with the money? How are they going to serve students? How are they going to improve the program? So we were able to pitch it, basically. But that was just one example. Most of the time we just decide whether a school wants to opt in or opt out of a particular reallocation.

And then we just vote on it, and we divide it up appropriately as discussed. So that would be for like a fiscal issue. We really don't have too many issues when it comes to our decision making with our annual plans, our strategies, our marketing and outreach, we're pretty agreed, we agree upon how we're going to go about those items. So all in all, it's I don't-- the issues are actually good issues because it's more like reallocations and opportunity. I say it more like opportunity.

Patricia Oliva: And if I can just add it quickly. We do have a fiscal agreement that was designed years ago and gets revised, where all members took part in what that looked like. And that also helps with things like funding, reallocation. And Kiu, I don't know if you have anything else to add about that?

Kiu Chuong: I will say it was a little struggle in the beginning because we were just learning our footing, we were getting our footing basically. But once we had the reallocation process in place, we are a, and I know this is going to sound annoyingly too sweet, but I love our group. They are very selfless, they make my job a lot easier. And they will tell you, they can't spend their money, they will put that money back into the consortium to be reallocated to other members.

It's not grab what I can grab, I can honestly say all our members work collaboratively whether or not we have the reallocation policy. They've come together in times of need, whether it's for some of the smaller districts or larger districts. We have always came together to work everything out, whether it's fiscal related or a problem related. The pandemic has taught us how to work online.

And I saw a lot of our administrators stepped up and hand-held some of the smaller districts to guide them on how to map out this pathway for this uncharted territory. I mean, we were just learning as we go. So again, our members are really great at working together. So I wouldn't say they're challengers, I think, it's more opportunities to learn really. So I do add to what Rhonda was saying.

Carla Slowiczek: Thank you, Kiu. Thank you everyone. I am going to move us on to our next strand in this particular presentation today. And let me go from here. And Patricia to you.

Patricia Oliva: Yes. OK, so just a quick overview of what our program development or group does. In this case, we're going to focus on transition navigators, our transition navigator workgroup. All our members have identified at least one person in this role. And as you was mentioned earlier, some of our members are larger districts, some are smaller, and funding does vary.

So for some sites there are a couple of navigators, and for other sites the navigators wear a couple of hats. So they might be doing two or three things or they're part time, so it varies. So we want to provide support for the group in general because it's such a challenging task. And so it varies from one school to another, from one region to another, even from year to year student populations are always ever changing.

So our priorities are to strengthen the development of transitional activities, not just for AAC, high school diploma, and GED into college, or training, or work, but also our ESL population. We are focusing a lot of our new efforts in helping that group move forward in there as they navigate education, so they can reach their goals. We engage in activities to build consortium wide capacity.

Again, why do things in silos? Let's work together to see what works for us. And another is to align transition support across the consortium because we do really strive to work as one. So we make sure that we're all providing services to all our students. So if my particular, for instance, agency does not have that wraparound service or that course that that student needs, we know where to send them and how to support them.

Our transition navigator workgroup meets monthly for 2 hours. Right now, we're doing both in-person and online. Before the pandemic, it was all in-person which was great because we did them at various sites. So we got to see programs like real life. With the pandemic, we had to go online and now we're moving back into doing some in-person.

And then part of that like I mentioned is just being able to actually see and experience what transitions looks like at those different agencies. We share our best practices, we talk about how we support students enrollment process, goal setting process, where our students transitioning to. And then we do provide time to just make sure that there's a space where we can share what's going on, what we've learned, and challenges and successes. So that is what we do in most of our meetings with the transition group. OK, Carla you want to move forward?

Carla Slowiczek: Questions for the panel?

Patricia Oliva: I'll do questions, but do you want to pull down the slide, so you can see people? Thank you. All right. So Nakisha, thank you so much for being in our panel. Well before, yes, can you tell me about your experience at the transition group?

Nakisha Woods: So first it's an honor to be a part of the panel. And my experience with the transition group has been amazing. In my role as an academic intervention specialist at Twin Rivers Adult School, I come in contact with our high school students as soon as they enter in. So that means as soon as they are enrolled with us, I set up an appointment with them, we do intake, we review their goals.

And because I'm a direct connect with the transition navigators, I'm able to pull from those resources, say if they're wanting to go back to college after they or go to college after they graduate if they're wanting to get a job during their time with us, being a part of the transitional navigators group has allowed me direct information to support our students to the best of our ability. And not only our students but, during our staff meetings we're able to report back what we learned from our transitional navigators work groups.

I'm actually one of four transitional navigators at our site. So we all are engaged and involved in the work space, and what we're learning, and what's being shared in the work group.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you, Nakisha.

Nakisha Woods: You're welcome.

Patricia Oliva: Carla, can you describe some of the tools and resources supporting the transition navigators?

Carla Slowiczek: Yes, so we have what we call the asset map. And that's a website that houses a career exploration tool, a program locator. And it helps students identify occupations and connect them to programs within the consortium, educational, and training programs. So each member has designated a manager for the asset map, and they have access behind the scenes of that website to add, or delete, or change school information, including contact information and course listings.

And also CAERC hosts a one hour, monthly, one hour open office hour to assist our member agencies if they have a little trouble updating that information. We also have another resource for our transition navigators, we call it the infographics. And we have two versions of this, and one for the academic program sponsored by the or supported by the consortium members and the other one is for career and workforce programs.

And basically, there are graphical representations that include all the members' names and all their course offerings with icons that depict instructional modality or icons that depict whether it's free or fee based. So these are some of the tools that CAERC supports to help our navigators move students along in their journey.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you, Carla. Nakisha, do you have anything you'd like to add regarding those resources or how you use them?

Nakisha Woods: The resources are very helpful. With our students we're able to provide them a leader, a servant leader type of assistance. So it's really accessible when we use it and it's really we're really able to help our students transition and get to the next level. Once they get their diploma, they're ready to go to work, they're ready to go to college, they're ready to engage and really just absorb all that life has for them. So they've been great resources for us.

Patricia Oliva: Nakisha, let me ask you one more question.

Nakisha Woods: Yes ma'am.

Patricia Oliva: It's going to be a long question, I guess.

Nakisha Woods: Oh, no.

Patricia Oliva: A two part question.

Nakisha Woods: I'm doing good Miss Patricia, you know I'm long winded.

Patricia Oliva: So Nakisha, what are some of the things you focus on in that transition navigator work group? And this is the second part, how does that benefit you as a navigator? And then how does that help students too? So there's two parts to that. How does it help you do your job, and how does it help students?

Nakisha Woods: So I focus on-- also, I did not mention the collaborations and the partnerships that are engaged in these meetings. There's all type of people, Sacramento Library, food banks that come. So I really like to focus on the partnership and the collaborations because that allows me to provide a direct resource like I said, for our students because a lot of our students are dealing with serious issues.

Some may need food, some are dyslexic, and we can't provide that direct service to maybe tutor and support them, but Sacramento Library has a direct resource for them. So those are some of the things I like to focus on. The collaboration and building that network and that relationship. So then if I do call Sac Library, or I do call the food bank, they know who I am, they know our agency's name, and they're better to serve our students.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you Nakisha. Carla.

Nakisha Woods: Yeah. That definitely is right. Sorry guys.

Patricia Oliva: Carla would you like to show the next slide, please?

Carla Slowiczek: Yep, let me. There we go. So we have our newest work group supports program development via Canvas implementation. So CAERC's Canvas work group comprises Canvas coordinators, program leads, teachers, and CAERC staff. And then the resources available to the Canvas workgroup include the subject matter expert, and that would be Miranda Currie. The California distance learning cooperative trainings and resources, as well as CAERC's very own Canvas instance.

And the priorities that align themselves to this particular work group include, aligning and strengthening the development of courses to support transitions, supporting the use of Canvas across the consortium, supporting members that are participating in the cooperative, exploring adult education Canvas shelves, and facilitating the implementation of those shelves, and then enabling members to pilot at least one Canvas, of Canvas with one adult education class at their side.

The workgroup meets quarterly for right now, and so we have three meetings, four meetings scheduled for this program year, they meet online. And when they meet, they share best practices, they assess their own needs. What do we need help and support with? They identify quarterly goals, participate via the Canvas instance, the CAERC instance. And then the long term goal is to develop resources and shells for the consortium. Each meeting will have time allotted to troubleshoot issues and share concerns, challenges, and successes.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you Carla. Let's see, well, Miranda, as the leader of the newest CAERC work group, can you talk about your role and the overall goals for this group? I know Carla mentioned a bit of it, but is there something you would like to add to that?

Miranda Currie: Yeah, sure. So I am the subject matter expert for the workgroup because I have years of experience using Canvas as both a student and as an instructor. So our goal is really we have so many schools in the consortium and everybody is at these different phases of implementing Canvas in their programs. Some schools are just getting started, others are a little farther along.

So we want to just work together, be able to collaborate and share resources, so we can support each other as we all figure out this program that's new for many schools, new for many instructors and administrators, and how to best use it to serve the students. So it's really a place to problem solve, to collaborate on some shared training opportunities.

And then ultimately, what we'd like to do is create shared modules, and resources, and course shells, that we can use throughout the consortium. So we are just getting started now. So we are still in the brainstorming phase and figuring out how we can all work together to best support each other using Canvas with our students. Yeah.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you Miranda. So can you also talk about the benefits of having a consortium wide Canvas support group? I know you touched on some of this, but can you elaborate on why is this so important for us to do as a group?

Miranda Currie: Yeah, absolutely. So we did a survey of the schools and the consortium as we're getting started with putting together this work group, just to see where people are at in their implementation of Canvas. And like I said, people are really at really different levels. And a really common theme is, schools, administrators, teachers are so busy that it's hard to find the time to really devote to learning and developing a new program like Canvas.

So if we can work together and share some of that load, share ideas, work together to create shared resources, work together to problem solve and share our experiences, I think, it benefits everybody, and makes the job a little easier and a little less overwhelming for schools versus if everybody's just individually trying to figure out this program and figure out how to implement it with their classes and with their students.

So as adult education, often we have limited resources, limited time, so working together to pool our knowledge, pool our resources I think really benefits everybody. It benefits the teachers, and benefits the administrators who are trying to coordinate Canvas, and it's ultimately going to benefited our students as we're able to offer them more of these online learning opportunities.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you Miranda. Rhonda, I see you nodding, is there anything you would like to add in regards to this group?

Rhonda Balmain: No, not really, I just I'm excited about Canvas, and I think that our plans and our goals for it across the consortium are just great. We all know that Canvas is important and that it is widely used, especially with the community colleges, and it's something that it's going to become required to learn and to access. So I just get excited about it, I'm glad Miranda has such great knowledge and expertise, and able to help our consortium.

And that is, this is a great example of the work that we're doing right here is, in the middle of everything, OK, how can we support all of us together with Canvas? And again, like Miranda said, we're all in it at different places, we all are. Some people are just starting, some people haven't started, some people are starting to build classes in their Canvas.

My school is piloting one class, we're just trying to figure it out, but we have a long way to go, and I see it as a journey not really a marathon, but more of a journey, and to do it right and to do it well. And I love the fact, again, that we have support.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you Rhonda. Carla, would you like to show our next slide?

Carla Slowiczek: Yeah, let's move on. And there we go. So this is our last strand. And for program evaluation we'll be focusing on CAERC's data and accountability workgroup. And the workgroup comprises of data managers, administrators, program lead, support staff, and CAERC staff.

The resources available to this work group include, a subject matter expert, and that would be Lydia Jones, data and accountability resource binder or as we call it, the binder, and a monthly CAERC e-newsletter, and a data and accountability workflow checklist. The priorities that align to this workgroup include support data collection and reporting efforts across the consortium, aligning our outcomes, understanding CAERC support services, and developing a common policy for reporting them. Of course, analyzing data and developing guidelines to enable consistent data collection and outcome reporting.

The workgroup meets monthly, two hour session. So there are 10 meetings program each year and the group meets online or via Hi Flex. And our typical meeting includes reviewing deliverables, we do have hands on activities, and some of those include studying that binder, looking at quarterly DIR reports, and analysis, and action plans, looking at data, walking through intake and update scenarios.

We have a demonstration either by our subject matter expert Lydia, or by a CASAS representative or an ASAP representative, who also attend these meetings. And of course, each month we allot time to troubleshoot issues, share concerns, challenges, and successes.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you, Carla. So Lydia, I'll start with you if you don't mind. As this me for the data and accountability work group can you talk about your role and the overall goals for the group?

Lydia Jones: Sure. I look at my role as more of a support. And especially for the data managers in CAERC. Making sure that if they have questions, they can reach out at any point, am I on the right track? Does this sound right? Because so often using a third party system, whether it be ASAP, whether it be something else, when you're dealing with data making that call of does this look right, does this not look right, sometimes you just want to ask someone.

And so my role is more of a support system, that's how I look on my role within CAERC. And then with regards to the binder, and some of those activities that go on during the data and accountability meetings, I meet regularly with the coordinator of CAERC and make sure that we're working together and in unison.

And it's become a really great safe space for some of the questions to come up, and a real collaboration so that every school in the CAERC Consortium has its own way of doing things, but it's all aligned. So they're working really, really well as staff may find other positions and someone else comes in.

There is a wonderful structure in place so that no one is drowning, whether that's an administrator, whether that's a data manager, whether that's a support staff picking up the phone for the first time in that particular position, there is a wonderful structure in place, so that nobody is drowning. And that's a wonderful thing to see happening at CAERC.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you, Lydia. So I'll ask the following question. What are the benefits of meeting on a monthly basis to discuss collaboration in the consortium data accountability like discussing the requirements as well? And I'll open this up to Lydia, you please. But Carla and Rhonda, chime in.

Lydia Jones: Well, I would say that, again, when you're meeting regularly with the same people and you're getting that shared understanding of what it is that you're looking for, and when you're looking at the same reports or requirements change, you're not afraid to ask questions. What does this mean? Oh, I didn't know, that's what that meant. Oh, I didn't know the ramifications of not clicking that button on an update record.

And then because it's the same group of people, you're not afraid to ask questions. And questions are welcome, so you get that team feeling, you get that collaboration, a true sense of collaboration. And so meeting regularly, it does create that environment, and that ability to ask those questions without a negative impact.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you.

Rhonda Balmain: I can add to that a little bit, just to comment. And say that I believe that the data and accountability meetings have been transformational. Seriously, I think that is one of the most behind budgets in fiscal, I think, it's probably one of the most important activities that we're doing in our consortium because we rely on our data. We're tied to our data, we have to have clean data, we have to submit our data, we really have to be looking at our data.

And so this is your dedicated time to not only collaborate and to ask those questions, but also to verify that your data is meeting the state averages, or your consortia averages, or whatever averages you're comparing it to, basically, just to make sure that you're on target. I could not ask for a better thing for our school, it really takes a huge weight off my shoulder to know that our data looks great. So yeah, just wanted to say that, it's a really great meeting. And Carla, thank you for everything you do for that meeting, and everybody involved, you too Lydia, everybody.

Patricia Oliva: So Rhonda-- oh go ahead, go ahead.

Carla Slowiczek: Go ahead, I just want to say that one of the things, the benefits that the workgroup provides is looking at resources that are available. I mean, and I'm going to talk about the binder because I love the binder, but there are so many resources available at the CASAS website, at CDE website, at the NRS website, at Cape website, that sometimes where do you go?

So we've called everything, put everything into this one binder, and separated it by category. I have the experts vet the binder, the resources that are in there, are in there, are they in the right order? Have they been updated because we update this resource yearly? And then each month, we will study a section, and we get in there and we create scenarios, we create-- we treat it like a lesson plan almost.

So let's look at this textbook, and we're going to study chapter 1, and get our hands dirty and look at all the policy, the guidelines, the what ifs. And I think that's really, really valuable because a lot of times, I'll hear managers say, oh, I didn't know that was there. That's one of the greatest benefits.

I also think and this was a suggestion from Lydia, that we reached out to ASAP and CASAS, well CASAS as part of a contract, but to ASAP, and Cindy Lou, and Kevin, have generously included themselves in our work group, and they've been attending for a couple of years already. So there are wonderful resource, troubleshoot questions, provide training resources and insight as to where to find help regarding third party application.

So it's a strong, it's a very strong work group. And I have to acknowledge that our predecessors, Bethany, Eli, they built that. And so we're just continuing on and expanding it and making sure that we maintain that.

Patricia Oliva: Carla and when you say the binder, yes, we do have a physical binder but it's also electronic. So it's virtual and it's you can hold on to it as well. Thank you for that Carla. Rhonda, I want to go back to you were sharing the importance of this for your agency particularly. Can you tell us who from your agency participates in the group?

Rhonda Balmain: Great question. So I definitely open it up. I open up this meeting to absolutely everybody in the office who wants to attend. But specifically, we have assigned our data manager attends, as well as our administrative assistant attends, our office clerk attends, and our instructional assistant attends because they all have a role in the data for something.

And also, I think, it's important like for example, we just recently hired our front office clerk, and I feel that if she attends these meetings, she's just going to learn about our systems and our organization, and how our agencies work. And so she's just basically a fly on the wall learning, listening, what's this about? I remember eons ago when I first got into adult education, the data was difficult, it was confusing, there was a lot of it.

And so it's a way for everybody to be on the same page. So I feel like, if you have a really strong office staff and you can support them attending these types of collaboration, it's well worth it. But it's mandatory that at least two of our staff attend being, the data manager and the administrative assistant. However, again, I think I have four people that are attending on a monthly basis, including myself, I like to go as well, I think it's really useful. It's great.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you. Thank you, Rhonda. And one last question for this particular group. How are work group needs determined and met? How do you decide what you're focusing on?

Carla Slowiczek: I'll get that answer rolling. Well, we do administer a needs assessment at the beginning of the year. We did so last year, and we did so this year as well. And one of the questions, and this is a lot of information for Lydia Jones primarily, and because she's the expert here. And it's basically, what do they want to learn more about? What areas are challenging? What areas are not as challenging?

So we get information directly from our data managers. So that drives part of the work group meetings. Another part that drives it is just having an avenue to ask questions, and I think this has been mentioned already in various groups, but each month we allot time, and I always send out a reminder to our work group saying, please send me questions, about a week before. And the questions trickle in that week, the week before our meeting.

And we have about a 30 minute section where we just tackle last minute questions. And they are incredibly enriching because we have many data managers. We also have administrators who are wearing multiple hats, and do part of the data management. So they're approaching that area, not only from the perspective of data manager but also from the perspective of an administrator.

So it's just allowing time to ask the questions, giving them the opportunity to provide feedback and input. And I don't know Lydia, what's your take on how we meet the needs of the group?

Lydia Jones: I think that's exactly right on. And then two, throughout the month, if there are specific things that are popping up as people are reaching out with specific needs that are a little more concerning, then I'll reach out to Carla, and say there seems to be a pattern here. And that will get blended into the next data and accountability meeting.

But then having said that, that's one of the things that's really great about the data and accountability meeting, is those meetings are set for the entire year. So there's no surprises, everybody knows when those meetings are. And so they can block it out on their calendar and the agenda is already set, so it's very well thought out.

Patricia Oliva: Thank you. We're getting close to our time, but before we move forward I wanted to see if there are any additional comments from the panel, something you want to add or share before we move on? Is there something you're like, I really want to share this and I didn't get a chance? This is the time to do that. A little wait time. OK. Thank you. So Carlo would you like to show our next slide?

Carla Slowiczek: This is the Q&A section. So instead of just throwing up a slide that says Q&A, I'm going to read a question that's in the chat box, if that's all right with you.

Patricia Oliva: That's great.

Carla Slowiczek: The question comes from Anne Gonzalez, and she says, my consortium is exploring how we can measure or represent a participation in our working group or workgroup meetings. Has CAERC looked at this? Are there any nuggets to share? Exploring how to measure participation.

Patricia Oliva: So repeat, who this?

Carla Slowiczek: Anne Gonzalez.

Patricia Oliva: Anne Gonzalez, can you be a little more specific?

Anne Gonzalez: Hi, everybody.

Patricia Oliva: Hi.

Anne Gonzalez: Specifically, I was asking if you have 10 school districts, four colleges, and two county offices at your workgroup table, and a majority of those numbers are probably in your data task force, and your Canvas group, and things like that, do you ever measure participation for each one of those individuals? I mean, so this is a broader question.

Some people are very engaged and they will sit there, and be quiet, and they might not participate orally but they are bringing information back to their institution, they're doing, other things others are very vocal. Some might not attend at all, even though they've been repeatedly invited. I was just wondering if you run into those problems and if you had any discussion on how you might measure participation or measure that representation? Not necessarily oral participation but that representation in those workgroups.

Patricia Oliva: I wouldn't say we have a formal way to assess this. But for instance, our business meetings are mandatory. So there is that expectation that our members will participate, our chairs as well. If someone cannot attend, they're pretty good about emailing us in advance. And then we make sure to connect with them either one-on-one to make sure that they get the information.

When we talk about actual participation, you're right people have different-- go about that in different ways. But I think that for this particular group, I think, that there's so much they're learning that there's really no reason why they wouldn't participate because they share resources, and it's all about leveraging your time and everyone has so little time. And the resources are limited that everyone kind of has that they're listening to what they can do to improve.

So no, I don't think we've had any challenges in having our members participate. Some members do wear many hats, and so then they can't participate in the same capacity but they're there and they do what they can. So I don't know if that answers your question, and maybe Rhonda, I don't know if you want to add to that?

Rhonda Balmain: No, well said. I mean, we got the more you get to know each other the easier it is to participate and to have a voice. So really, it's gone well, I don't see that as an issue.

Patricia Oliva: Yeah, and then and if I can add, I think, that because we do provide a space to develop those relationships and establish this community, that we're I mean, we know each other. So it's like we don't want to let each other down because we know that what we do kind of impacts someone else. But again, we can't take credit for that, full credit. This is something that has been developed throughout the years in CAERC.

And so work groups have always been an important part of our consortia. And I think, that that has helped build those relationships where we see each other as human beings, partners, friends, we respect each other. So that helps with, I want to say compliance, but just like our responsibility. Any other question?

Carla Slowiczek: Well said, Patricia, well said. Yeah.

Patricia Oliva: OK. All right. I think, that's our time. We have 1 minute. We do want to thank everyone for being here and for providing us the opportunity to share what we do, we're very proud of our consortia, our members and participants, our team. So I do want to thank all of you, and then thank you for hanging out.

We will share our emails at the end and please feel free to reach out to any of us if you have any questions or would like to discuss anything that we talked about and we just love making new friends, so thank you so much for your time. Special thanks to Patricia Black for the technology support, also a member of our team