Narrative: b. 2. C.

Each new local consortium, as part of its overall planning efforts, must consider the following to ensure smooth transitions, from secondary into postsecondary education; in and out of postsecondary education; and, between education and employment:

• Initially Minnesota used the term brokering of services and made special reference to the fact a situation might arise, when, in a local consortium, either the secondary or postsecondary components of a given program of study is absent, but consortium students have expressed an interest in the missing component. It is then incumbent on the local consortium to facilitate the movement of CTE students from high school to college, by identifying, and expediting the transfer into, another local consortium that has the complete program of study. The concept of brokering of services has been expanded to include other situations in which two or more local consortia might have reason to pool funds to provide services in a manner that ensures a continuum of service provision (hence the acronym CSP). See also Section Five below.
• Continuum of Service Provision (CSP) is one of the five goals to which funds have to be targeted and educational programming and support services provided to students within the local consortium (see Section Five below). CSP arises when a local consortium is unable to provide adequate service to its own CTE students. In such situations, the local consortium that is in need of adequate services should engage in formal and informal relationships with other local consortia to ensure that educational programing and support service requested by the student(s) are provided. Minnesota expects the application of the CSP concept to be a key ingredient in forging new articulation and dual–enrollment agreements that extend beyond a single consortium, and set the stage for regional and statewide agreements that help CTE students move from secondary into postsecondary education, in and out of postsecondary education, and between education and employment.
• Using the term articulation more expansively, the State has decided to make some of the permissible activities under Perkins IV required activities, particularly, articulation and dual enrollment. Minnesota has a long established state–supported dual enrollment program. For 11th and 12th grade high school students to enroll in postsecondary education at the state’s expense and under certain conditions, they can do so under the Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) Act (M.S. 124D.09). The PSEO or concurrent enrollment program has thus far had limited application when it comes to high school students enrolling in college–level CTE courses. Nevertheless, as Minnesota’s new CTE consortium structure gets more firmly established and local consortia begin exploring the different ways in which a high school student can participate in college–level coursework, PSEO and concurrent enrollment certainly becomes one of the choices offered to a CTE student within a particular local consortium. It also creates opportunities for consortia to begin engaging in continuum of service provision (CSP).