Sonoma County’s Approach to Career and Technical Education and Pathways

On this episode of the Getting Smart podcast, Shawnee Caruthers speaks with Kathy Goodacre, Principal Gabe Oliveira, and Vice Principal Erika Raffo about the transformative work happening in Sonoma County through the CTE Foundation and its partnership with Elsie Allen High School. Kathy discusses the foundation’s mission to invest in and expand career technical education (CTE) programs across the county, emphasizing the importance of connecting classroom learning to real-world applications and high-demand careers. 

The CTE Foundation of Sonoma County is a critical part of the Sonoma County California Accelerate ED cohort, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Accelerate ED is built on the idea that high schools can provide early access to quality higher education in ways that incorporate work-connected learning and have long-term benefits for students. This initiative helps state-based groups plan and build accelerated pathways between K-12 education, postsecondary education, and careers. 

Gabe and Erika share insights on how these initiatives have evolved their school’s curriculum to ensure students are prepared for college and careers. These efforts align with community talent gaps, including bilingual healthcare professionals and educators. The conversation highlights the impact of significant funding from initiatives like the American Rescue Plan and the Golden State Pathways Program, which have provided resources to support these innovative educational models. Erika elaborates on how these funds have enabled professional development and curriculum changes, making education more relevant and engaging for students. Gabe emphasizes the need for continued investment and policy support to sustain and expand these programs, ensuring students are equipped with the skills needed to thrive in their communities. The discussion underscores the importance of integrating pathways into core curricula and fostering a connected learning experience that prepares students for the future.

Outline

• Introduction to CTE and Sonoma County’s Vision
• Building Pathways: Elsie Allen High School’s Transformation
• Accelerate ED Initiative and Community Connections
• Funding and Policy Support for CTE Programs
• Future Directions and Policy Recommendations

This transcript has been edited and abridged for readability.

Shawnee Caruthers: You’re listening to the Getting Smart Podcast. I’m Shawnee Caruthers. We must bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications by integrating pathway models that provide equitable access to early college credit earning opportunities. By doing this, we can ensure that all students have the chance to succeed. These models connect education to high-demand careers, helping students develop relevant skills and knowledge, making their learning more engaging and purposeful. By exploring how integrated pathway models address the skills gap, we can create a seamless transition from high school to college to careers, ultimately empowering students to become contributing members of their local communities.

Today we’re joined by Kathy Goodacre of the CTE Foundation of Sonoma County and two leaders from Elsie Allen High School, part of the Santa Rosa City Schools District, Principal Gabe Oliveira and Vice Principal Erika Raffo. The CTE Foundation of Sonoma County is a critical part of the Sonoma County California Accelerate Ed Cohort, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Accelerate Ed is built on the idea that high schools can provide early access to quality higher education in ways that incorporate work-connected learning and have long-term benefits for students. This initiative helps state-based groups plan and build accelerated pathways between K-12 education, post-secondary education, and careers. Kathy, Gabe, Erika, welcome. Thanks for joining us today on the Getting Smart Podcast.

Kathy Goodacre: Great. Thanks. Nice to be here.

Shawnee Caruthers: Yeah, thank you. I’m looking forward to chatting with you all. And first, we mentioned the CTE Foundation of Sonoma County, but we need to learn a little bit more about it. So Kathy, can you tell us what the CTE Foundation of Sonoma County is?

Introduction to CTE and Sonoma County’s Vision

Kathy Goodacre: Yeah. Thank you. We’re actually a unique asset here in northern California in that we were formed in 2012 as an independent organization, a nonprofit organization, as an economic development initiative really looking at ways that we can invest and expand career technical education programs across the county. With the regional workforce and economic drivers of the county, a lot of career technical education happens here in Sonoma County and in our 15 public high schools. But they’re not all relevant and they’re not all programs or classes that are helping young people get onto the high-demand, high-wage careers that are driving the economy and the workforce here. We really believe that all students, as they’re working through and in their education, really need to thrive for these rewarding careers that uplift their lives, our community, and the economy.

So we invest. When we first started, we started by investing in career technical education new programs across the county through a grant-making process. In the first five years, we made a significant impact in driving programs around the health careers, manufacturing and STEM programs, and Sonoma County ag and ag tech, which is really big. And of course, hospitality. We were able to do that by funding and supporting CTE classes at individual high schools. Eventually, we were able to support sequence courses, so students not only had an opportunity to take one class within a CTE pathway, but maybe a second class leading to a capstone. While that was impactful and effective, we recognized the need to go deeper in schools. So in 2019, we started talking about whole school transformation, and that’s where our partnership with Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa City Schools started.

Building Pathways: Elsie Allen High School’s Transformation

Shawnee Caruthers: And as a result of the work you’ve mentioned, it started with one class, then the second, then the capstone. Then I’m assuming some credentials probably followed as well for students?

Kathy Goodacre: Certainly. We’re looking at programs that are leading to certificates, credentials, but also degrees. I think another role that we have played here in the community and have really been a driving force behind is that the problem with career technical education is it’s more than career technical education. It’s not just about certificate programs, associate degrees, or trade schools, but it’s really about that career-connected learning and providing those opportunities for all of our students to connect with their careers and aspirations. Getting that relevancy. I think you touched on some of these key words and points around our work. It’s so important that students are engaged, that they see the connection in their classroom learning with the outside world. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an English or math class or you’re in a culinary or shop class. We really believe that students need to make those connections throughout. By doing so, they’ll make better decisions out of high school and lead them to what’s most successful and suitable for them, but also aligns with what drives our local community and economy.

 Accelerate ED Initiative and Community Connections

Shawnee Caruthers: And Kathy, what drives you? How did you get into this work?

Kathy Goodacre: I think like a lot of people, I had two different learners in my household, two different children ten years apart in education. My first learner student went through four years of high school. In my mind, there was no other way but the four-year college path for her because that’s what we were all told as parents and students. We were so driven towards that and fortunate that was a path that she excelled in, pursued, and went through four years of college, launching into a career within the path that she chose. At the same time, I had this young person coming up that I could see was really going to be different. For me, I was very concerned. I knew he had a lot of skills and talents, but school had not engaged him, had not found a way to really tap into those talents, and in a lot of ways had presented a number of barriers for him. This was as a student and a family with the means, the tools, and the resources to throw at this young person to help him find his path. Yet he still struggled. For me, when I first learned about CTE and this organization being launched here in Sonoma County as a foundation, my background was in fundraising and nonprofit management. It was a perfect fit, and I was immediately turned on, and it’s what’s driven me in the last 11 years in this work.

Shawnee Caruthers: I want to understand how Accelerate Ed through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, how did you layer that upon this work that feels so important?

Kathy Goodacre: We launched this work that we called New School Model here in Sonoma County, which was a focus on taking high school and turning it upside down, so a whole school transformation. In 2019, we had started to look at what it would take. First of all, who are the willing schools and partners in Sonoma County from the leadership at the top right down to the site level who would want to go down this journey with us? We knew it was a long game, and transforming education doesn’t happen overnight. It never has, and we knew that was going to be part of the challenge. So we set out a sort of a 10-year course and plan working with three specific high schools. I’m part of a national network of folks who are like-minded funders investing in skilled trades across the country led by Harbor Freight and the Eric Smit Foundation. We meet every quarter. In one of the quarterly presentations, a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, it was their turn to share their work and what they were doing. They started talking about the Accelerate Ed and the communities that they worked with across the country. I was busy writing down every word, every sentence, which was everything that we had been saying and that we had designed and that we were hearing from with our new school partners as this is our North Star. I’m hearing this really big, powerful foundation speak in the same language. We got really excited and reached out and said if you’re starting a new network, I’ve got the right team. We’d love to bring our folks to the table. A couple of conversations later, we were invited to be part of the national network.

Shawnee Caruthers: Gabe, I’ll start with you in terms of the Pathways Landscapes that are offered at Sonoma County. What are those and what are the opportunities and challenges that exist in that space for you all?

Gabriel Albavera: Just to piggyback on what Kathy said, when I took this position back in 2018, I remember one of our superintendents said you’re going to go to the CTE Foundation with the possibility of getting $50,000. I didn’t even know what the CTE Foundation was at the time, and I was lost. I said, $50,000? I’ll show up. Let’s go see what we can do. Ironically, at that time is when we started not only talking about our CTE and our pathways, but also the thought had come about of creating a dual language high school that we had not had here in Sonoma County. It all came together. We had an interview with some folks, and then we got the grant at the time. We were very pleased with that at the time. It gave us the ability to expand a little bit and do some professional development. This was all new back in 2018. I had a superintendent at the time who basically said to me and to our team, create the school that best fits your community. We got together, we had some ideas, and when you have been in education for so many years and you’ve been educated in the same way, you don’t know how to think out of the box. That was our main problem. Initially, we didn’t know. We had our ag, we had our public safety. I know for myself, I didn’t know how to connect that with not only the students that we were having involved in those programs but also how to reconnect it into the community that they work in, that they participate in, that they’re a part of. We dabbled a little bit with some of that funding with some professional development. The CTE Foundation thought it was a great idea, my four-year plan of a dual language high school and kind of building that in with the needs of the community, right? In our community, not only do we need paramedics that are bilingual, we need police officers that are bilingual, we need fire people that are bilingual, we need people in health and sciences that are bilingual. As we continued to speak to industry partners, they said we need that workforce. It’s a huge need. Not only were we looking at the vocational part of it, but we’re also looking at expanding education for our students where they can come back to the community and be able to help their community.

Shawnee Caruthers: Erika, anything you want to add to that? I’ll just say that the part that stuck out to me that Gabe said was when the question was asked, what is the school you need to create that works for your community? Why is that such an important question for a school system to ask its leaders?

Erika Raffo: I think that is the question to ask, truthfully, because Gabe said we’re in the education box. We have an answer that the system tells us, but really, we need to ask our community what they need and what they want. Gabe and I did that. When we started working on our graduate profile, we went to the community. We asked, and parents said that they really wanted their kids to be able to give back and to use their language skills. We’ve had agriculture pathways at our high school. We have public safety, as Gabe mentioned, and just this past school year, we added health sciences. This coming school year, we’re adding an education pathway. In particular, education and healthcare are really high-demand sectors in our county. There are lots of good jobs out there for students if they’re interested in that. Beyond that, it’s giving kids opportunities to work within their own community to solve problems in their own communities. We have an incredible community with amazing assets that the traditional education doesn’t tap into.

Shawnee Caruthers: Kathy, as I was listening, especially when Erika was just really honing in on the notion of community and how do we keep kids in the community from a maybe more of an overarching perspective. What are some things from a county perspective that you all are doing to ensure that when students get all of this knowledge, that it doesn’t go away?

Kathy Goodacre: Yeah, as in leave the county. We have significant challenges here in our region, and it’s probably no mystery or secret that we experienced some of the highest cost of living and housing in the nation. In particular, in the North Bay, we had a very significant firestorm here in 2017, where we lost more than 7,000 housing units that we have yet to still recover from. We’re an aging community. We have declining enrollments across the county, and yet we have an aging workforce. We have some industry sectors here. One of them in our skilled trades, construction trades area, where for every five retirees, there’s one entering the workforce. We’re looking at all the infrastructure we’re trying to build here and the housing. How are we going to really build that up? So it’s really all about strengthening our community. I really appreciate what Gabe said, or maybe it was Erika, what they learned through their portrait of a graduate. That’s how students and families want their students and students want to be able to contribute back to their community. As much as we hear and see young people say, “Oh, I want to go somewhere else. I don’t want to come back to my hometown,” I think ultimately they really do. They want to come back here. But through a lot of surveying across the county, we have a really great tool called Youth Truth, a national program for collecting students’ perceptions directly into the community. In the schools, we’ve learned that particular high school students have the highest levels of stress and anxiety about their future than their peers across the nation. We know that in part it’s because they’re trying to see themselves living here and not just a living wage living here because they see their own parents struggle. But how are we going to help them see the careers that are going to help lift them up into family-sustaining wages, income, and growth so they can thrive here and contribute back to the community? So we’re in a grow-your-own mentality and focus, and that’s ultimately the work that we’re all doing here together.

Shawnee Caruthers: Yeah, and Erika, I’m sure some of what Kathy shared has influenced what you all offer at Santa Rosa City School District. So what options existed previously for you all, and then how has this new effort expanded options and opportunities for learners?

Erika Raffo: A number of years ago, and Gabe can fill in if I’m missing something, more than 10 years ago, our district adopted a pathway program where students had to complete at least two courses in a sequence as a graduation requirement. Those pathways were loosey-goosey. It could be two drama classes, two art classes, two agriculture classes. They didn’t include the certification. They were not the robust version that the CTE Foundation is assisting us with and that CTE is known for in general. We’ve always had agriculture pathways at our high school, and we developed public safety quite a few years ago. Working with the CTE Foundation, we’ve been able to add the health sciences and education pathways. The pathway requirement was often waived if a student wasn’t able to take two classes in a pathway, and then eventually it just really went by the wayside. I think the difference in what we have now is it’s college and career. So our district, in particular, is making an effort to ensure that any new CTE pathway courses are college preparatory. They qualify as what we call an A through G course to ensure that we’re preparing kids for both options because it’s up to kids to decide what they’re going to do after high school. It’s our job to prepare them for whatever options they might choose, and that’s something that’s really important to me. Kids have the options to choose. We’re not choosing for them in their freshman year and saying you’re going to go on the CTE career path. We want them to be on both paths because we know that they are capable of achieving that, and we just have to find a way to make education relevant for them. The CTE pathways do just that. People like to say stuff to kids, “Oh, wait till you get out into the real world.” Kids live in the real world. This is the real world. It’s our job, as Kathy was talking about before, to bring the real world to schools and to kids so that they can be prepared for what’s out there and they can get the opportunity to experience an internship, learn some work-based learning skills. If a student goes through our healthcare pathway and that’s not the field that they end up in, they are still learning incredibly important skills. I don’t know about anybody else, but when you have to sign up for health care through your employer, that’s a really challenging task. Knowing that our kids are getting some information about that is incredibly important to be an informed citizen.

Shawnee Caruthers: Gabe, do you have anything to add too? What you previously did and how the options are helping students today.

Gabriel Albavera: Yeah, I think more importantly right now the options that we’re offering our students, like we’ve stated earlier, are options that our community has asked for. I think of the health and science pathway as an example, just to touch on both of them. Our school is approximately 85-86% Latinx out of a thousand students, and health care is an important part. Back in 2021, our county did a study on the portrait of Sonoma County. In the portrait of Sonoma County, it stated that families on this side of town lived fewer years than on the east side of town. The education on this side of town, the families had fewer years of education than the east side of town. It was really about trying to balance it out and give opportunities for our students. I just happened to be able to go to a rehabilitation hospital this past year. Five of the nurses there that were LVN nurses were Elsie Allen High School graduates. They were graduates trying to get their RN to become registered nurses, but because of the language, they weren’t able to do that. So they were being LVNs. Now we can give those students the opportunities while they’re here at high school. Again, most of us in the Latino community, we already translate for our parents when we go to the hospital or when there’s somebody that’s not Spanish speaking there. It’s building on that. We already have the skillset not only to translate, we have that mindset that we can go from English to Spanish real quick and be able to not only facilitate but be able to control a conversation that involves some serious issues within our families. What better way for us to hone in on those assets of our students and be able to help them not only to support their families and help their families but also be able to get a profession or be part of a profession that’s going to be supportive to them.

Funding and Policy Support for CTE Programs

Shawnee Caruthers: As we think through just the different opportunities that are presented for students, one of the programs that I know that you all have is around the American Rescue Plan and the Golden State Pathways Program. Kathy, what are those programs and how are they truly beneficial to students? And then, Erika, I’ll come to you to talk about what then does the implementation look like at the high school level?

Kathy Goodacre: Yeah. Gabe, I think, started off in one of his first responses today with talking about a $50,000 grant that got him to show up to a meeting. One thing we know is that funding is critical. It can be an opportunity. It can also be a barrier. It’s not the only tool in the toolbox, though, to really make this work impactful in the long term. However, when the American Rescue funding, ARPA, we call it here, came through to our county, the CTE Foundation, because part of our job is to really seek and look for funding both private as well as public and government funding opportunities to infuse this type of education and workforce education initiatives. We had been following and staying on top of how that funding was going to be distributed here in our county, and it was about $30 million. Of course, this is the federal fund coming through our county government. We had scoped in our mind a different program that we thought the CTE Foundation would be applying for and bringing that funding into an education workforce initiative that was more county-wide focused. But when the RFA came out, and the focus, as it should have been, was based on census tract data and really looking at people in communities or portions of our community who had some of the greatest disparate impacts from COVID. Elsie Allen just really spoke to us. This community that Elsie Allen serves in this portion of our county just really stood out as the fit. Because we were already working in really small ways, I think the largest grant at that point, three or four years into this work, that we had been able to give to Elsie Allen High School was this $50,000, maybe a $75,000 grant. But here’s an opportunity that we could apply for this funding and align with the objectives of ARPA in impacting this community with over a million dollars. We joined, of course, with them and some other consultants and wrote the grant and received the funding. We’re about 18 months into what was a 30-month funding program. Again, we were working with three different high schools all at the same pace. When we started this work, Elsie Allen Santa Rosa City Schools was the furthest behind in that 10-year vision we had to our North Star of the three schools. But now, because of this funding and the amount of resources we’ve been able to provide and fund with this school, they’re now ahead of the pack. I’ll leave it to them to tell you what that kind of looks like. The other piece of it, I think you did ask me about the Golden State Pathway. Another huge funding opportunity, the state of California legislature allocated $500 million in career pathway development across the state. This funding that was written in, it was actually proposed and approved back when our state had a $30 billion surplus. Over the period of a year and a half, we’re now in a $38-39 billion and counting dollar deficit. That new money that they allocated, $500 million, remained. So that tells you what the focus, the commitment from the state level is on developing these pathway models that are aligned with driving our workforce and economic development while we’re improving overall student outcomes. The funding is now lining up, I would say, around this work. So it’s really giving schools much more power to be innovative, creative, and redesigning and rethinking their schools.

Shawnee Caruthers: What can a million dollars do?

Erika Raffo: Well, a million dollars can do a lot. ARPA has allowed us to really learn from other schools, what their challenges were, what their successes were, how they managed to do this. I was able to go to a master scheduling for equity workshop that was over multiple days over most of a school year and really start asking the questions about what are we doing with our schedule? Are we serving students? Are we serving adults? Why do we schedule students the way we do? What does that look like? I’ve been able to make some changes in how we schedule and what we do. Thankfully, I work with Gabe, who’s a great principal, who’s really supportive of this kind of work and really encouraging to me. The other thing too is I think there’s a skill involved with really looking at pathways as not some extra elective thing that some kids do but looking at it as something that we want all kids to be able to do. We’re still on our journey with that because it is a complicated problem to solve. But I feel like because of ARPA, I have a lot of resources outside of our school district that I can rely upon, I can touch base with, I can get advice from and say, “Hey, how did you do this?” and get an answer. There isn’t anybody else in our school district doing it to the level that we are right now. There’s a level of expectation on us. I think that we’re leading the way and that we need to learn as much as we can so we can help the rest of the schools in our district as we move along. I’m just so incredibly grateful that the CTE Foundation saw this possibility here and thought of us to do this because it’s really opened doors for us, opened my eyes as a newer administrator to the power that I have and what can I do to serve students better.

Shawnee Caruthers: We know that for pathways to be as strong as possible that they’re integrated and that they really tie into the core curriculum and they don’t sit just alongside. Gabe, how has the core curriculum been impacted by your pathways work?

Gabriel Albavera: In education, generally speaking, it moves at a turtle’s pace. It’s very difficult at times to get any type of change. We’ve been able to take, for example, two trips to Lindsay, and it’s a school in the Central Valley that really focuses on not only transformational education but lets the students really evaluate their own work pretty much with rubrics that they utilize. Another great example, we’ve been looking at standards-based grading as a site too. That is very, for teachers, it’s very controversial because some of us are so used to a traditional way of grading. Just to be able to have these conversations right now has been excellent.

Future Directions and Policy Recommendations

Shawnee Caruthers: Yeah, you all are collectively doing a lot of work in your area to really make teaching and learning better for students in high school and then beyond. As you think about the work that national policymakers do around this work and then just teaching and learning in general, what advice would you individually give? Kathy, we’ll start with you, then Gabe, we’ll come to you, and Erika, we’ll end with you. What advice would you give national policymakers about the importance and the need for the expansion of these sorts of programs?

Kathy Goodacre: I think they got to keep going at it. Like I said, we’ve seen a lot of shift, certainly in the state of California and also on a federal level, this shift for investing in education based on our workforce and economic needs and seeing that correlation. Continuing to drive policy, write policy, advocate for more funding to do that work and to incentivize education. We need incentives. We’ve talked about this already, but we really need to have the policies and the funding in place to support and drive the work. Our employers, they’re on board, they’re ready to get on board. They want to partner with schools and educators and students and host students in internships and apprenticeships, but they may also need some funding and support for that as well. Any type of funding and policy that can continue to focus and drive on this connected learning format for students and alignment with our workforce and economic needs and staying relevant is going to be critical.

Shawnee Caruthers: Gabe, what are your thoughts?

Gabriel Albavera: Yeah, I think I know in California, I don’t know if it’s the same in other parts of the country, but in California, the prison system gets a lot of funding from the state based on situations that occur. If we could just utilize some of that funding towards, like Kathy says, incentivizing the work for our students, letting them know there are opportunities, I think not only will our attendance rates go up, but when there is something at the end of this journey for them, a job, something that they have connected with, possibly even a mentor that’s going to be able to guide them through that. Again, even giving them the opportunity that if they choose to go to college, that opportunity will still be there for them. If we could take some of that funding to be able to support students while they’re not, we’re talking high school, but I’d go as far down as middle school, probably even elementary school. I think if we start having those conversations and some funding and some incentivizing for our students, we will see a change in education for sure. It’s going to take some time, but like I said, in education, things go a little slow. But if we can start, I never thought that we’d have a dual language school or even health and a pathway or an education pathway, but here we are doing it. We’re building the bike as we go. The hope is that the funding is not only there but it can also be robust so we can even look at other pathways possibly in the future.

Shawnee Caruthers: And Erika, I’ll let you share the last thoughts.

Erika Raffo: I agree with everything that Kathy and Gabe have said. I also want to add that it’s not just students and administrators that we need to shift a little bit in education. Once students get to middle school and high school, subjects are siloed. You take English with your English teacher, then you go to science with the science teacher, and they don’t connect. The integrated pathways allow us to connect core subjects with the CTE pathways so that once again, CTE pathways are not some extra thing that we do. By integrating those pathways, not only do the teachers get to see how their subjects are all interconnected, because they are in the real world, they also get to make school much more relevant for students. We get to connect the dots for students so that they understand that even if they’re in a healthcare pathway that’s maybe a little bit more science-heavy, their English class can be about the literacy that they need in that pathway, which is directly connected to Common Core, which will get them into college. Once we as educators are able to make those connections, then students will start to see them. Without the funding that we’re seeing from these national policymakers, this isn’t going to happen. Having teachers go to other schools with us and see what happens when you integrate, see what happens when you’re much more student-centered, that changes things. Now we have teachers who are saying, “I want to get in on this.” This all takes a lot of money and a lot of time, but without that funding, it’s just not going to happen, and we need that.

Shawnee Caruthers: Thank you to each of you. I think collectively, the words that you all said that can really sum up our conversation is a relevant journey, like just ensuring that students know that it is truly a journey. Gabe, you say it does take time, but it often takes time to get things right. It’s important that we make all of the learning relevant for all students, not just some who are on particular paths. Thank you all for joining us today to share all of the great things that are happening in Sonoma County and at Elsie Allen High School. We really appreciate you all sharing.

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Kathy Goodacre

Links

• Watch the full episode here
• Accelerate ED Sonoma County
• CTE Foundation Sonoma County
• Kathy Goodacre
• Elsie Allen High School
• Vice Principal Erika Raffo