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About OCTE

Responsibilities of the Office of Career and Technical Education include:

• The State Plan for Vocational and Technical Education;
• High Schools That Work ;
• Perkins Annual Monitoring;
• N.J.A.C. 6A:19,Vocational-Technical Education Programs and Standards;
• Fiscal tracking;
• Vocational Education Data System (VEDS);
• The Consolidated Annual Perkins Report, and
• Other important responsibilities administered through individual bureaus and innovative programs, which include:

Bureau of Adult Education & Family Literacy / GED:

Administration of General Education Development (GED ) testing for New Jersey, including: Establishment of new testing sites; oversight and monitoring of existing testing sites; test center compliance to national guidelines established by the General Education Development Testing Service (GEDTS) of the American Council on Education; security of all testing materials; procurement and return of annual testing materials; training of GED Chief Examiners; the annual Chief Examiners conference; all fiscal responsibilities for GED testing; issuance of a Request for Proposals for GED scoring service providers; and the maintenance and retrieval of all New Jersey GED records. The Bureau also administers Adult High School programs and the Evening Schools for the Foreign - Born Residents program.

Bureau of Career Preparation:

• Administration of the Federal Tech-Prep program;
• Administration of Perkins State Leadership projects;
• Vocational Student Organizations (VSOs);
• The FFA Statewide Leadership and Administrative Services grant;
• Agricultural Education Development Initiative Grant;
• Occupational Education Safety and Health Training contract;
• Extraordinary Standards Incentive Program;
• Study to Profile and Evaluate Career and Technical Education;
• Structured Learning Experiences;
• Nontraditional Resource Center grant;
• Vocational –Technical Education Program Approval Process and Procedure;
• The annual Generation Next Conference;
• Career and Technical Education marketing and publications;
• Ford / AAA Student Automotive Skills Competition; Safety and accident reporting; and
• VTECS State membership and participation

Bureau of Program Review:

Local Career and Technical education program improvement through administration of the Perkins grants to high schools, secondary /postsecondary Career and Technical schools and community colleges, and New Jersey State Agencies. This includes technical assistance in completing Perkins Spending Plans for uses appropriate to the needs revealed by data, and review and approval of spending plans, multiyear plans and reports. Staff performs on-site monitoring visits as requested and as deemed necessary by the Department. Staff reviews data concerning grantee’s achievements in comparison to the state standards and measures to assist the grantees in making fiscal and program choices leading to vocational – technical education program improvement.

Review and approval of private vocational school curricula and staff credentials submitted by schools that wish to establish new private vocational school instructional programs or revise existing programs. Bureau staff coordinates the effort with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) in approving curricula, instructional, and administrative procedures of the private vocational schools in the state to insure compliance with New Jersey Administrative Code. The unit assists LWD in conducting on-site pre-approval and monitoring visits.

Charter Schools: Charter School preparedness and implementation and Charter School accountability, including: Annual reports; program review; charter renewal; and post renewal.

School Choice: Implementation of the inter-district public school choice program, including: Development, administration, evaluation, refinement, and reporting to the State Legislature and State Board of Education; and contact for all forms of school choice (such as magnet schools, home schooling, and cyber-schooling).

Teacher Recruitment: Recognizing that as many as one third of New Jersey's teachers may retire in the next ten years, the Department of Education established a Teacher Recruitment Initiative in 2000. The goal of the initiative is to improve both the quantity and quality of the teaching force throughout schools in New Jersey. The scope of the program includes partnerships with colleges and universities in New Jersey and out of state by building on traditional placement office programs, collaborating with other key higher education administration and faculty, and promoting careers in teaching to middle and high school students.

Troops to Teachers: Troops to Teachers (TTT) was established in 1994 as a Department of Defense program. The National Defense Authorization Act for FY2000 transferred the responsibility for program oversight and funding to the U.S. Department of Education but continued operation by the Department of Defense. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides for the continuation of TTT through Fiscal Year 2006. TTT is managed by the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES), Pensacola, Florida.

Advanced Placement: The Advanced Placement (AP) programs are designed to increase the number of low-income students participating in AP classes and taking AP tests by helping to pay test fees for low-income students in AP classes and expanding access to AP classes through increased teacher training and other activities. These are two separate programs. The AP Test Fee Program offers grants to states to pay for low-income students enrolled in AP courses. The AP Incentive Program offers one-to three-year competitive grants to state agencies, school districts and national nonprofit educational entities with expertise in AP services.

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