The Mississippi State Board of Education voted Feb. 15 to send a one-year revision of the state Perkins V plan out for a 30-day public comment period and to submit the plan to the U.S. Department of Education in May. The limited revision is intended as a bridge while state staff prepare a combined Perkins/WIOA plan due in March 2025.
Board staff from the Office of Career, Technical and Education said the changes are modest: the plan will retain performance indicators such as four-year cohort graduation rate, proficiency in English II, Algebra I and Biology I for CTE concentrators, postsecondary placement, nontraditional program enrollment and national certifications. The principal programmatic change is expanding an existing embedded work-based learning indicator — previously used in agriculture and health science programs — to include educator-preparation and teacher-academy pathways.
"Embedded work-based learning is not new, but what we will be doing is pulling in our educator prep programs...they are already doing this across the state," the presenter said, explaining the plan will count students who complete at least 35 hours of hands-on experience as meeting that indicator. Staff also described the target-setting method required by federal guidance: the state uses the two most recent years of data to set baselines and requires targets at least one-tenth of a percentage point above that baseline for this one-year plan.
The board heard questions about regional comparisons and whether performance-target changes carry a tied budget; staff replied that federal funding levels are determined separately by formula and that targets do not directly change the federal allotment. Board members were told the plan will be posted for 30 days of public comment, the governor will have 30 days to review, and any substantial revisions based on feedback would come back to the board before final submission.
The board approved the motion to publish the one-year Perkins V revision for public comment. The next procedural step is the public-comment period and then, unless substantive changes are required, submission to the U.S. Department of Education in May.