Beginning in 2011, the Department of Labor awarded four rounds of grants under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program. This was designed to designed to support community colleges as they developed resources and programs for workforce development purposes. For full disclosure: I was employed under a TAACCCT grant as a part-time educational technology specialist for just over two years. In my time working under the grant, I worked with faculty to develop online, hybrid, and in-person courses for individuals to enter advanced manufacturing positions.
Under the conditions of the grant, any materials that were developed were to be published under a Creative Commons license that allows anyone to use the materials for any purposes as long as they attribute the original work to the grant. Further, the grant required materials be uploaded to SkillCommons. The result is an amazing repository of materials for educators.
The materials are diverse, including some that are “in-progress,: and others that can be slightly edited and used with any populations. Currently, I am preparing to return to the middle school mathematics classroom for the first time in 15 years in a few weeks. I have been downloading a rich supply of problems that will be adapted for my students to use.
