What quality factors are N/A for Business/Marketing Education middle school programs?
N/A's for Business/Marketing Education middle level or junior high one-course programs are the same as the N/A's noted in the BIC document for 7th/8th grade Agriscience students. I.e. Middle level or junior high programs that only deliver Business Technology Essentials or Computer Essentials.

Can like programs within a system use the same advisory committee?
No. Different programs have different goals and needs for their community and the students served.

How much teacher experience should the educator on the team have?
The educator should have three years (or be in the third year) of teaching experience in the area being reviewed.

Can the LEA extend the core course beyond one-half credit?
No. Additional content standards may be added to the 70-hour course, but the course time and/or credit cannot be extended.

Should coop records be kept separate from student records?
Yes. Coop records (training agreement, wage & hour, visitation documentation, evaluation forms, etc.) are required to be available to the on-site review team; therefore, they should be kept in a separate file from student records.

Will the review team look at daily schedules for a full year?
The review team will look at the current and previous year's daily schedule for each full credit course to determine if a complete program is being offered.

If a teacher in a high school is teaching one course of a program and the remaining courses are taught at a career/technical center, does the teacher become part of the review at the career/technical center?
Yes. The course taught at the high school will be a part of the program being reviewed at the career/technical center.

Can equipment be articulated with business/industry?
Yes. Documentation of articulation must be provided for review team.

Can the local education agency be required to purchase new textbooks since textbook money is not budgeted from the state?
No. Teachers are encouraged to use project-based lessons, bringing real world experiences into the classroom.

Are local education agencies expected to have equipment listed on the revised equipment list?
Yes. Equipment can be purchased with federal funds.

Will review teams be allowed to accept purchase orders as documentation of equipment, supplies, textbooks, etc. purchased for the program?
No. Equipment must be in place and functional. Equipment lists are available from the program administrator.

Are career/technical student organizations required for middle school programs?
Yes, middle school programs are reviewed as stand-alone programs therefore this requirement must be met. Local management options are recognized relating to joint programs of work between high school and middle school programs.

Are daily schedules required to be entered before the on-site review?
Yes, the website is open for all teachers to enter their daily schedules.

If a teachers teaches a program that is unique to only their school, is that program and it's related courses required to have courses of study approved by the State Department of Education oversight committee?
Yes, an on-site review team cannot review a program for business/industry certification without a course of study.

To obtain the 20% required to meet the benchmark for the report card formula, do LEAs round up or down. (Example: If an LEA has 7 programs to review over a 5-year period. 7 divided by 5 equals 1.4.) Are LEAs required to have on-site reviews for one or two programs in the first year?
LEAs must have 20%. In this example the LEA cannot get 20% with 1 program, therefore they have to have two programs certified to industry standards.

According to T9.1, teachers should have Business/Industry Awareness hours completed within past 12 months (July 1-June 30). For those teachers who are certifying during 2003-2004, do we use July 1, 2002-June 30, 2003 or July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004?
Technical update hours should be for 2003-2004. If the BIC review occurs early in the school year, technical awareness hours must be documented for the on-site review. If required numbers of hours are not documented, a deficiency will occur and must be cleared according to procedures for clearing deficiencies.

Will programs that are reviewed prior to December 31, 2003, use the old equipment list or the new equipment list draft?
New "draft" because it goes with the required implementation of the Courses of Study. The official documents will be distributed in December 2003.

When will the Coordinated Studies lesson plans be reviewed in the following scenarios: A. Career/Technical teacher who is not a cooperative education coordinator teaches Coordinated Studies all day and has students from several different program areas. B. Career/technical teacher teaches occupation preparatory courses and Coordinated Studies.
In each case, Coordinated Studies lesson plans must be reviewed when the first program area with a coordinated studies component comes up for review. Example: A teacher has students from agriscience, business/marketing, and welding, and agriscience and welding will go through their on-site review for BIC this year. If agriscience is scheduled as the first review of the year, the coordinated studies lesson plans are reviewed when the agriscience program is reviewed. Coordinated Studies lesson plans will only be reviewed once over the five-year cycle for any teacher.

In the first BIC cycle, some program areas (middle school AG, BE, FACS, FACS Family Life, and Technology Ed) were not required to maintain records of former students. If these programs are up for review in 2003-04, is it sufficient to have student records for this year only, with plans to begin keeping the records for the required three years? How should this be documented in the notebook?
Yes, the teacher should document in the BIC notebook (in T 5.1) that records were not required for the previous BIC cycle, but are now being maintained.

When will teachers know when their BIC review will take place?
The local career/tech director/administrator submits requested dates for the BIC review to the SDE. The SDE BIC Team Leader/facilitator will confirm dates. Once the date has been secured, the career/tech director/administrator is to notify the teacher(s).

When will the new BIC equipment list be available?
A "draft" copy is available by contacting the SDE staff in your program area. The official document will be released by December 31, 2003.

Why are we going through BIC?
Business/Industry Certification (BIC) is a means of assisting career/technical education programs to improve by setting standards against which all programs can be measured. BIC demonstrates commitment to quality, enhances the program's image, reflects achievement of teachers and students, establishes professional credentials, improves the opportunity for career development and advancement for program graduates, and validates quality. Over $20 million in bond money has been spent in the last five years to update equipment in career/technical education classrooms and labs.

Do we secure our own evaluation teams, and how far in advance?
Yes. It is suggested that team members be contacted at least a month in advance to determine their willingness to participate in the review process. Confirm their participation one week before the review. It is suggested to have a "back-up" team member ready to participate in the event that someone cancels.

What is the definition of live work?
Live work is work done by students as a learning experience and when deemed useful as a part of the instructional program. The instructor assigns live work to individual students. The work is performed on specific projects for the public. Live work, whether for pay or not, must correspond to the appropriate curriculum component and at the appropriate time within the instructional unit. Examples: family and consumer sciences program provides a banquet for the football team; business education provides the printed program, etc.

There are three teachers in the FACS department (one teaching Family Life courses, one teaching Culinary Arts, and one teaching Early Childhood Education). Does each program need two business/industry representatives plus three educators, equaling nine members?
Yes. BIC awards program certification, not department certification. In this specific case, there are three different program areas being taught, requiring each teacher to have a separate team for her review. The two business/industry representatives should have experience directly related to the program area being certified. The educator should have expertise in the program area and should be familiar with the course of study for the program being reviewed.

Do the BIC records need to be in a folder or notebook?
Documentation should be aligned with the BIC review instrument in one notebook/box/folder plus one lesson plan notebook per course. The type of management system used is up to the teacher.

I am a new teacher and do not have an advisory committee. What do I need to do?
Appoint the members of your committee and plan the first meeting. The advisory committee consists of at least five members, convenes at least two times a year, and provides counsel, assistance, and information from the community served by the program. The committee is broadly based and includes employers and representatives for consumer's interest and may include former students employed in the field. A booklet, Program Advisory Committee Guidelines for Career/Technical Education Programs, is available from the SDE. This publication provides information on the purposes, organization, and management of a program advisory committee.

What is a CTSO?
Career/Technical Student Organization (Ex. DECA, FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, HOSA, SkillsUSA-VICA, and TSA).

What happens to the individual programs if the administrator does not pass the review?
The individual programs cannot receive their business/industry certification until the administrator has completed their section.

When will the daily schedules be available to be added to the database?
October 1

Are teachers required to have lesson plans for the entire year if the BIC review is done in the fall?
Lesson plans for 2003-2004 must be available for each course on the teacher's daily schedule from the beginning of the course up to the BIC review date plus two weeks. After 2003-2004, lesson plans must be available for the full year, except for new teachers and new course offerings.

Do lesson plans have to be hard copy or can they be in electronic form?
Electronic files are acceptable as long as all are available to be reviewed and are in easily accessible form.

Does the class average of 12-29 OR the previous three-year class average for each teacher of 12-29 refers to individual count or adjusted count?
The class average can refer to the adjusted count but remember that students should only be counted twice if the student receives significant modifications. This means that the curriculum has to be significantly modified for the student and a Career/Technical Implementation Plan and IEP are on file.

Are teachers required to take the NOCTI test again to be recertified in the new BIC cycle?
Teachers are not required to re-take the NOCTI test once they have successfully passed it. The required technical awareness hours will serve to keep teachers current regarding new technology and business and industry practices.

Can a program that was not certified during the first BIC cycle (Aug. 1998-July 2003) and therefore closed be reopened?
A non-certified program must remain closed for a minimum of one year. If it is to be reopened after one year, a BIC review must take place during the first year that the program is reopened and certification must occur within a two-year period to maintain funding.

Will funding exceptions regarding maintenance of effort, local maintenance, and travel be made for BIC under proration?
No, funding exceptions will not be made. Maintenance of effort and local maintenance are legislated. Travel funds are available from the Program Improvement Grant that each system is eligible to receive.

How many technical enhancement hours are required for a part-time teacher?
The required amount for a 9-month teacher is required. It is not appropriate to prorate teacher preparation in the technical areas down to an amount that is not worthy of the effort.

In the first BIC cycle, the Business Program and the Marketing Program at the same school may have been reviewed in different years. Since Business/Marketing is now one program, when will they schedule their review date for re-certification?
Business/Marketing will be reviewed as one program. They will schedule their review during the year that the first program (either Business or Marketing) obtained certification. Example: If Business was certified in school term 2000-2001 and Marketing was certified in school term 2002-2003, the review for the Business/Marketing Program will be scheduled for 2005-2006-five years from the first certification (2000-2001).

How long does a new program have to become certified?
All new career/technical programs have three years (including the first year of implementation) to become certified to industry standards. Example: If a program begins in 2003-2004, then it must be certified to industry standards by the end of 2005-2006.

Are CTE teachers required to complete career profiles this year?
No, career profiles are not required this year for any program going through BIC, whether under the existing or revised BIC process.

Are teachers required to do 20 hours of business/industry awareness (formerly technical update training) this year as the original BIC process requires, or are teachers to earn 16 hours as required under the revised process?
All CTE teachers will follow the number of hours outlined in the revised process, regardless of whether they are certifying their program under the original or revised process. The revision requires 16 hours annually (July 1-June 30) for 10- to 12-month employees and 8 hours annually (July 1-June 30) for 9-month employees.

When does the revised BIC process take effect?
The revised BIC process is available for programs going through BIC in 2002-2003. The revised process will take effect as a requirement in 2003-2004. The rationale for using the revised BIC process in 2002-03 is that the new courses of study are complete and teachers are to develop lesson plans for the new courses, rather than for the programs as outlined in the prior courses of study. By developing lesson plans for the new courses of study this year, teachers will only need to update lesson plans next year when the courses of study are required to be implemented.

Will programs that are being re-certified under the revised BIC process be required to provide all the documentation for BIC from previous years in a centralized place when the on-site review committee comes to visit?
No, the documentation must have been reviewed and compliance verified by the CTE administrator in each LEA. This is done through the local application for funding.

Is the revised BIC process going to be piloted before it is officially implemented?
The revised BIC is in place and may be fully implemented by any LEA that chooses to use it in 2002-2003. There will be a pilot process in selected programs for the purpose of gathering data regarding the validity of the revised process.

Does the revised BIC process reduce paperwork?
Yes. The revised BIC process has a more clearly defined division of labor. Only documentation that is required will be accepted. No extra documentation will be reviewed.

Are programs certified for five years beyond completion of the BIC process or five years beyond the time that the BIC process was identified?
Programs are certified to industry standards for five years from the time the program was identified for the business/industry certification process in the Local Application and Accountability Plan, not from the time that the process was completed.

Will the on-site review continue if the Administrator's Section has a quality factor that is not in compliance?
Yes. The program cannot, however, be certified to business/industry standards until all quality factors are in compliance.

If a school system does not have a bona fide cooperative education program, will CTE teachers who are assigned to provide cooperative education services to AOD students be required to complete BIC requirements for cooperative education?
In this special situation BIC will only be required when there are 12 or more AOD students assigned to CTE teachers. If this number of AOD students is assigned, then the teacher's schedule should be adjusted to fulfill the requirements for cooperative education.