Minnesota's Rationale

Minnesota is making some significant changes in the way it addresses Perkins IV, especially in five areas: 

1) A single Consortium: Moving towards a single consortium model involving both secondary and postsecondary partners is unique in the nation

2) Combining Perkins Basic and Tech Prep: The Perkins IV legislation has a strong emphasis on the types of programs and services Tech Prep implemented over the past seven years. In order to effectively capitalize upon the success of Tech Prep initiatives, it is important for it to be infused into the larger Perkins family. It is not Tech Prep vs. Perkins, it is Tech Prep and Perkins working together for Career and Technical Education in Minnesota.

3) Funding and the Secondary/Postsecondary Split: Minnesota’s 35:65 split under Perkins III was calculated using the following participation elements:
•First Year Experience student count (50%)
•Population with disabilities (10%)
•Economically disadvantaged (15%)
•Limited English proficiency (10%)
•Nontraditional students (5%)
•Single parents (10%)
Resulting in a Transition Year split of 42% Secondary and 58% Postsecondary.

4) Programs of Study: Like 48 other states, Minnesota prides itself in its local control. As such, there are no state-defined curricula in career and technical education. Using CIP codes, career clusters and career pathways can be crosswalked with MnSCU programs in community and technical colleges and a similar crosswalk to secondary programs is being developed. We have focused on excellent materials from Nebraska as a model to guide further development within Minnesota.

5) Technical Skill Attainment: Like many states, Minnesota has measured technical skill attainment using either program completion or level of participation as prima facie evidence of a student gaining technical skills. Even if there is some logic to this practice, it does not meet the new requirements for validity and reliability in Perkins IV.