Sec. 31-11ff. State-wide plan for implementing, expanding or improving contextualized learning, career certificate, middle college and early college high school programs.

(a) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Contextualized learning” means education in a learning environment chosen or designed by educators to incorporate as many different forms of experience as possible, including social, cultural, physical and psychological experiences, to achieve the desired learning outcomes;

(2) “Early college high school” means a school in which persons who are underrepresented in higher education, including, but not limited to, low-income youth, first-generation college students, English language learners and minority students, may simultaneously earn, tuition free, a high school diploma and an associate degree or up to two years of credit toward a bachelor's degree; and

(3) “Middle college program” means a collaboration between a school district's high schools and a regional-community technical college or a four-year college or university where a student may (A) take core high school courses or courses for which college or university-level credit may be given, and (B) attribute all such credits earned toward a program of higher learning at an institution of higher education in which such student enrolls upon graduation from the middle college program.

(b) The Connecticut Employment and Training Commission shall develop, in collaboration with the regional work force development boards established pursuant to section 31-3j, a state-wide plan for implementing, expanding or improving upon contextualized learning programs, career certificate programs established under section 10-20a, middle college programs and early college high school programs to provide education, training and placement in jobs available in the manufacturing, health care, construction and green industries and other emerging sectors of the state's economy. Such plan shall include a proposal to fund such programs.

(c) Not later than January 1, 2015, the Connecticut Employment and Training Commission shall report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, on the plan developed under subsection (b) of this section, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to higher education and employment advancement. Not later than September 1, 2015, and annually thereafter, said commission shall report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, on the status of such programs to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to higher education and employment advancement.

(P.A. 14-217, S. 197; P.A. 16-15, S. 2.)

History: P.A. 14-217 effective July 1, 2014; P.A. 16-15 amended Subsec. (a)(2) by replacing “bachelor degree” with “bachelor's degree”, effective May 6, 2016.