CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

House Education Committee Hearing on Labor Department’s Apprenticeship Program

Last week, the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment held a hearing to examine the “policies and priorities of the Labor Department’s apprenticeship programs.” This hearing stems from committee Democrats’ concerns over funding and oversight of the newly announced Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP).

Committee Democrats’ concerns were two-folded. The first was the merits of using industry-recognized apprenticeships instead of the more traditional and proven registered apprenticeships. They argued that replacing government oversight with industry-run oversight authority would result in an untested program lacking the wage, safety, and civil rights protections that the registered apprenticeship system has maintained for more than 80 years.

Ranking Member Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), in his opening statement countered the Democratic concerns by stating that, “Registered apprenticeships are one tool we can use to strengthen the workforce, but it’s important to give recognition to increasingly innovative and growing employer-led apprenticeship programs.” He continued by arguing that employers know best what skills their workforce needs to excel and that Congress must do what they can to “cut the regulatory rep tape” that prevents them from participating.

The other issue extensively covered by Committee Democrats in the hearing was the Department of Labor’s (DOL) misuse of funds in excess of $1.1 million that were appropriated for registered apprenticeship programs, on outside contracts that financed IRAPs. The witness, John Pallasch, head of the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), reassured members on the subcommittee that he became aware of the funding issue shortly after joining the department in July, and immediately directed the ETA to “take appropriate corrective action.”

About IRAP System

The IRAP system, a White House priority, was established to incentivize companies to play a larger role in training workers by giving them more say in what skills are needed in their respective industries. President Donald Trump outlined the initiative in an executive order, and the administration said it intends to release a final regulation in April 2020 to create the program. Click here to read ACTE’s coverage of the announcement from June.

Research Round-up: Equity Edition

Over the past few months, there have been a number of new resources and research papers released on equity in CTE or related education and workforce development programs. See below for more details:

• Making Good on the Promise: Ensuring Equitable Success Through CTE
  The fifth brief in Advance CTE’s “Making Good on the Promise” series, this report examines ways that states can help more students complete their chosen career pathway. It explores three state strategies, including using data-driven support systems to meet learners’ needs; providing integrated support services to secure wellness, academic preparation and financial stability; and creating the enabling conditions for successful transitions. 
  
  
• Practitioner Perspectives on Equity in Career and Technical Education
  MDRC’s Center for Effective Career and Technical Education released this brief over the summer to share insights from practitioners in innovative CTE programs around the topic of equity. The brief shares the results of practitioner discussions on barriers to equity within CTE and ways to address those challenges in order to achieve more equitable access and outcomes.
  
  
• Ensuring Equity in Evolving High school Career and Technical Education Policies
  This research/policy brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) presents key takeaways from a research workshop hosted by the IRP at the University of Wisconsin–Madison involving researchers, practitioners and policymakers. Suggestions include making equitable access a policy goal, addressing rural challenges and investing in data collection.
  
  
• Unlocking Potential: A State Policy Roadmap for Equity and Quality in College in High School Programs
  This report, from the College in High School Alliance and Level Up coalition, provides policy recommendations and state examples around increasing equity within six key components of college in high school programs: (1) equity goal and public reporting, (2) program integrity and credit transfer, (3) finance, (4) course access and availability, (5) instructor capacity, and (6) navigational supports.
  
  
• Funding for Equity: Designing State Dual Enrollment Funding Models to Close Equity Gaps
  This report, also from the College in High School Alliance, presents a breakdown of funding models for dual enrollment programs, which states are using those models, policy questions to consider and best practices. A goal of the paper is “to help states identify a dual enrollment funding model that maintains a focus on equity while taking leaders’ programmatic aspirations and a state’s funding predispositions into account.”

• Passively-sensed Behavioral Correlates of Discrimination Events in College Students
  A new study from researchers at the University of Washington and University of Michigan examines the short-term physical and psychological impacts of discrimination on college students (with engineering students a particular focus of the study) that have the potential to impact educational outcomes. The study found that incidents of discrimination led to acute changes in students’ sleep and social patterns.

• CTE in the Juvenile Justice System (recording will be available soon at https://careertech.org/webinars)
  Advance CTE, the Council of State Government (CSG) Justice Center, and Oklahoma’s CareerTech program hosted a webinar to discuss how state leaders can leverage Perkins V funding to improve CTE programs in juvenile justice systems. CSG discussed findings from their most recent publication “On Track: How Well Are States Preparing Youth in the Juvenile Justice System for Employment,” which included: states lack necessary workforce development for successful programs, many programs lacked partnerships with workforce development agencies, and most states do not have enough workforce data on incarcerated youth. Oklahoma also showcased best practices from their CTE program involving incarcerated youth.
  
  
• The Roadmap for Racial Equity: An Imperative for Workforce Development Advocates
  This report, from the National Skills Coalition, addresses “issues of racism and exclusion in the workforce and education systems, as well as potential solutions for remedying these persistent problems.” The report presents nine recommendations to advance racial equity through workforce and education policy.
  
  
• The Equity Equation
  McGraw Hill has released a paper outlining strategies to address the college completion gap that persists for first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color. The paper focuses on adaptive learning solutions and provides examples from various colleges.

DC Digest: November 18-24

Though Congress was mainly focused on impeachment hearings this week, there were a number of CTE-related activities as work wrapped up leading into the Thanksgiving holiday recess. The most significant activity occurred on appropriations, where significant movement occurred for the first time in weeks. You can read more about that on the blog here, and see other news below:

• Briefing on Access and Equity in CTE: The House CTE Caucus held a briefing on advancing access and equity in CTE, which ACTE attended. Career and Technical Education Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Glenn Thompson spoke at the briefing, along with other panelists to discuss the challenges that many special populations, such as low-income earners, students with disabilities and nontraditional students face. See photo and read more from our partners at Advance CTE!
  
  
• 2020 House Floor Schedule: Majority House Leader Hoyer (D-MD) has released the 2020 House Floor Schedule for the Second Session of the 116th Congress, which begins on January 7 and will meet for 113 days. Hoyer says the 2020 schedule will continue addressing health care costs, infrastructure investments, climate change and expanding economy opportunity. Take a look at the schedule to identify congressional recess times when Congress is not in session. These are great times to invite Members of Congress to visit programs or to schedule meetings with your representatives while they are back in their home districts!
  
  
• 90/10 Rule Veterans Legislation Gains Key Support: Senate HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) backed the Protect VETS Act, a bipartisan bill aimed to protect military and veteran students from predatory institutions by closing the 90/10 loophole. Currently, military and veteran education benefits do not count towards federal aid portion of the 90/10 rule, so this bill would reclassify all federal aid under the 90%. This concession, one the Chairman has historically pushed back on, could signal that he is looking to make a compromise on Democratic priorities in order to gain traction on a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA).
  
  
• DC Organizations Release “Green Economy” Policy Principles: A group of national policy organizations, including the National Youth Employment Coalition and Center for Law and Social Policy, released “Building Pathways, Inclusive Economies, and Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults: Principles for Green Economy Legislation and Investment.” These principles outline how to ensure that opportunity youth are connected to the green economy through targeting resources, building policy frameworks on a racial and gender equity lens, involving young people, building career pathways and focusing on quality jobs.

Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Process Moves Forward

Last week, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law, a second continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriations bills that extended funding through December 20, 2019. The CR will continue to fund the majority of government programs at FY 2019 levels, while providing some programs additional funds to meet specific demands, like an increase in funding for the Census Bureau in the lead up to the 2020 Decennial census.

In addition to the CR, over the weekend, House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) came to an agreement on the 302(b) allocations for the twelve spending bills. The 302(b)s are the top-line numbers for each of the twelve bills (such as the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill), with specific program levels still being negotiated at the subcommittee level. The deal sticks to the defense and nondefense caps agreed to as part of the two-year budget deal passed back in July. Under the deal, total nondefense spending was set at $632 billion, while total defense spending was set at $738 billion.

While this marks a major breakthrough in the appropriations process, which has been at a standstill for much of the fall, it still does not clear the road for easy passage of FY 2020 appropriations bills. Congressional leadership still need to address a myriad of policy issues before these bills are signed into law, including border wall funding and the ability for President Trump to reprogram funds under emergency powers; several abortion provisions; the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds; among other partisan sticking points.

What’s Next?

Now that the top-line numbers have been set, the subcommittees are able to go to work on the line-item funding decisions for each program, like Perkins Basic State Grants. Sources close to the process have said that Chairmen Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) have expressed a desire to pass all 12 appropriations bills before the CR expires on December 20. This means Congress has less than a month, and only 15 session days, to work out the details in the bills, get them through both chambers, and signed into law by the president. Failing to do so would more than likely result in one of two scenarios – either an additional CR into the new year, or the passage of a “crominbus.” A crominbus is a spending bill that combines a short-term continuing resolution for some federal programs and a long-term omnibus to cover all remaining federal spending. As the process moves forward, it is important to continue to emphasize the importance of federal funding for CTE to your Members of Congress!

New Features on College Scorecard

On November 20, the Department of Education (ED) released a redesign of the College Scorecard, which now includes data on debt levels and potential first-year earnings, broken down by program level. The new earnings data in the College Scorecard is obtained from federal tax records.  Approximately 41,000 programs across the nation are covered, including apprenticeships, certificate programs, 2-year and 4-year programs, and some graduate programs. Specifically, the debt data comes from students who graduated in 2016-2017 and the earnings data comes from students who graduated in 2015-2016.

ED emphasizes that the new design of the College Scorecard allows students to make more informed and personalized decisions when trying to find a school that is the best fit for them. Some of the features they highlight include that students can now make comparisons for up to ten different school options. Also, ED now differentiates between full-time, part-time, first-time and transfer students. Other features allow students to search for potential schools by acceptance rate, ACT/SAT scores and location.

Some have questioned the relevance of the earnings data since it is based on a graduate’s first year in the workforce, which does not account for the fact that students’ earnings gradually increase over time at rates that often vary with occupation. However, the ED has said it will update the data annually and provide ten years of post-graduation earnings data. Other concerns have also been raised regarding the effectiveness of the data since it is taken from different samples of students, which could potentially skew some of the findings.

Overall, providing more readily-accessible information to students about postsecondary programs is a good thing. However, it is important to ensure students are aware of how the data were collected, what is actually measured and any potential shortcomings, which is inherent in any large-scale data project. ACTE will continue to monitor the new college scorecard and future updates to it.

Strengthening Relationships Between CTE Coursetaking and Labor Markets

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) found a positive relationship between recent CTE coursetaking and labor market characteristics in their latest report, “An Examination of Career and Technical Education Course Taking and Labor Markets Across Two High School Cohorts.” The researchers used national data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to complete the study, including longitudinal studies following high school graduates from 2004 and 2012.

The researchers looked at several different questions to determine the relationship between high school CTE coursetaking and the needs of the labor market, as well as whether students with baccalaureate-degree aspirations engage in CTE coursetaking differently than those without baccalaureate-degree aspirations.

Specifically, the study showed that for the high school students that graduated in 2004, CTE course taking in specific Career Clusters was for the most part not correlated with the number of people employed in industries within those Clusters in the state economy. However, for the high school students who graduated in 2012, the relationship between employment rates in state industry sectors and CTE course enrollment in those Career Clusters was stronger overall, with significant correlation particularly in Business, Health, Finance, IT, STEM and Human Services. This could suggest that the changes made in CTE programs over the last two decades have created better alignment between courses available and labor market needs.

Researchers also found that there was no significant difference in the amount of CTE courses taken, or for the most part the type of CTE courses taken, between students with baccalaureate aspirations and students without those aspirations. The only two exceptions were students planning on attending a four-year university earned more credits in IT, and those students in the 2004 cohort earned fewer CTE credits in Agriculture (although this finding was not replicated in the 2012 cohort), and those in the 2012 cohort earned more credits in STEM.

Because Perkins V emphasizes the use of labor market information through Comprehensive Local Needs Assessments (CLNAs) and in the creation of recognized postsecondary credentials, we expect that the positive trend between CTE course taking and local labor market needs will continue to grow. For more information about how to better align CTE course taking and local economic needs through the CLNA, read more here.

DC Digest: November 11-17

DC Digest: November 11-17

The House returned to session on Tuesday, however, it has continued to be relatively quiet for federal education policy as Congress remains busy with other issues. Members of Congress and the Administration did take time to celebrate National Apprenticeship week though, which you can read more about below! In other news:

• Career Counseling Bill: House CTE Caucus Co-chairs, Reps. Jim Langevin (D-RI) and Glenn Thompson (R-PA) have introduced a bill to invest in career counseling opportunities at the secondary level. ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson was quoted in the press release.
• Senate CTE Caucus: Tom Cotton (R-AR) has joined the Senate CTE Caucus. This brings the total caucus to 30 members, the largest number of senators to be a part of the caucus since its founding! Continue to encourage your Members of Congress to join the House and Senate CTE Caucuses.
• Short-term Spending Bill Update: Congressional leaders have tentatively agreed to an additional short-term spending deal in the lead up to the November 21 funding deadline. The deal, expected to be voted on soon, will extend funding to December 20 in an effort to give both chambers more time to pass year-long appropriations bills.
• National Apprenticeship Week: In recognition of the National Apprenticeship Week, over 980 events were hosted across the country to display the importance of apprenticeships. Other recognitions included a White House proclamation in support of apprenticeships, a Department of Education video featuring OCTAE Assistant Secretary Scott Stump discussing opportunities and benefits of apprenticeships, and speeches on the House floor, including one by Representative Foxx (R-NC), ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee, and one by Representative Bonamici (D-OR), also a member of the House Education and Labor Committee.
• Perkins Implementation: Work on Perkins implementation continues as state leaders and data experts gathered in Baltimore this week for the national CTE Data Quality Institute. States discussed the new Perkins V core indicators of performance, measurement approaches and setting performance targets, sharing best practices and innovative solutions to key data challenges.
• International Education Week: The Department of Education celebrated International Education Week on November 12th by hosting a panel of government representatives from the United States, Brazil and China to share ideas on apprenticeship programs and career and technical education. Watch the whole video here.
• National Summit on Literacy: On November 13, the Barbra Bush foundation hosted the inaugural National Summit on Adult Literacy. Scott Stump, the Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education, was one of the speakers to highlight best practices in adult education.

 

DC Digest: November 3-10

It was a relatively quiet week on the federal education policy front, with the House on recess and no major Committee activity. The House returns this week though, and Washington will be celebrating National Apprenticeship Week, so there is likely more activity in the future! In the meantime:

• Progress on Education Appropriations: With the current November 21 funding deadline looming, congressional leaders have taken positive steps to ensure the government remains funded while working toward a longer term Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 solution. On Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) and House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) met to discuss the path forward. Also, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House is likely to introduce a new short-term CR that extends funding to December 20 to give lawmakers more time to come to consensus on funding the 12 appropriations bills for FY 2020.

• World Standards Week on the “Workforce of the Future”: On November 7, the American National Standards Institute hosted a conference on Building an Effective Workforce for the Future, which ACTE attended. During the day, there were two keynote speakers and four panel sessions which covered challenges to meet the workforce needs of the future and how education and trainings are going to have to adapt to meet those needs.
  
  
• National Day of Action for ESSA Title IV: On November 6, ACTE joined other national associations and advocates for a National Day of Action to support awareness of and funding for Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Student Success and Academic Enhancement Grants, which can be used for career development activities and other parts of a “well-rounded” education. You can view our tweet and others that were part of the campaign!
  
  
• Federal STEM Investments Reviewed: On November 8, the Trump Administration reported on $540 million dollars that has been allocated to support STEM education to expand opportunities in the STEM workforce. This is part of the five-year federal STEM education strategic plan in which all Americans will have access to lifelong STEM education, as well as to make America a leader in the STEM field.
  
  

Department Announces Final Regulations on Accreditation and Distance Education

On October 31, The U.S. Department of Education (USED) published the 519-page final accreditation and state authorization distance education regulations, which were the product of a yearlong negotiated rulemaking process between USED and higher education stakeholders. According to the Department’s press release, these regulations, which are a part of Secretary Betsy DeVos’ “Rethink Higher Education” agenda, are designed to “expand educational options for students, lower the cost of education post-high school, and ensure occupationally-focused education meets current workforce needs.”

Along with the regulatory changes, the final regulations included a summary of the few hundred public comments the Department received, along with their responses to the comments. Some of the regulatory changes most relevant to CTE include:

• Allows accreditors to have separate faculty standards for instructors teaching courses within dual or concurrent enrollment programs, or career and technical education courses, if the instructors, “in the agency’s judgement,” are qualified to teach by either their education or work experience. The department contends that an agency should not have to choose between setting rigorous standards for faculty that may be appropriate, for example, at comprehensive or research institutions, and allowing other kinds of institutions to hire the faculty that will provide students with the best opportunities possible.
• Provides a three-year grace period that accreditors can propose in order to allow programs to comply with the accreditor’s faculty standards for dual or concurrent enrollment. This grace period is able to be extended. 
• Allows agencies to have separate standards regarding an institution’s process for approving curriculum with the goal of better aligning certain programs with specific industry or occupational demands. These separate curriculum standards, which are intended to give employers and industry a stronger voice in curriculum development, can include using recommendations from industry advisory boards that employers who hire program graduates participate on; including employers who make hiring decisions in a given field or occupation in the approval process; or aligning the curriculum with widely-recognized industry standards, credentialing, or other occupational registration or licensure. The Department argues that a traditional faculty governance process for approving curriculum, while widely used, is not the only governance process currently in use by institutions or allowed by the HEA, and in some instances it may be inappropriate to give faculty a stronger voice than employers.
• Includes a requirement that institutions disclose to students whether their educational programs meet the requirements for licensure across States. This will allows students to know if their investment in an educational program will lead to the career the student intends to pursue.

The regulations will go into effect on July 1, 2020. The Department’s press release can be found here and final regulations can be found here.

Additionally, the Department has recently announced that they will be publishing proposed rules on distance education and innovation, TEACH grants and faith-based institutions shortly. ACTE will continue to monitor the Department’s actions and update the Policy Watch Blog accordingly.

DC Digest: October 27-November 2

The biggest education news this week on Capitol Hill was the House Education and Labor Committee’s marathon mark-up of its Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, which lasted for three days! You can read more about that markup on the blog at https://ctepolicywatch.acteonline.org/2019/11/democrats-pass-hea-reauthorization-proposal-out-of-house-committee.html.

In other news:

• Work on Education Appropriations Remains Stalled: On October 31, the Senate rejected a procedural motion that would have allowed for debate to start on the four-bill minibus, H.R. 2740 (116), that includes the Fiscal year (FY) 2020 funding for the Department of Education. The vote, 51-41, failed to reach the 60 vote threshold needed to advance. Democrats voted against motion on the grounds that their Republican colleagues did not engage them when they set the overall spending levels, which were much lower for education than the House bill.
  
  
• Regulations on Accreditation and Distant Education Finalized: On November 1, Secretary DeVos released the final accreditation and state authorization distance education regulations. These regulations, a part of the broader “rethink higher education” agenda, are aimed to “expand educational options for students, holistically lower the cost of education post-high school, and ensure occupationally-focused education meets current workforce needs,” according to the Secretary, but have been met with some concern. Check back on the CTE Policy Watch Blog soon for a more detailed summary.
  
  
• Senate CTE Caucus Briefing: On October 31, the Senate CTE Caucus, in partnership with the National Skills Coalition (NSC), hosted a briefing on the importance of aligning Perkins V and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and how they can work together to drive economic success. Organizations who participated on the panel include: the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), Advance CTE, Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation (Rural LISC) and NSC.
  
  
• Nation’s Report Card Results Released: Significant attention in DC was placed on the release of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results, which were released on October 30. While these results are not specific to CTE, as they are based on assessments in fourth and eighth graders’ reading and math scores, they do have implications for educational policy overall. Unfortunately, the overall news was not positive. The results for reading were lower for both grades compared to 2017, and the results for math were one point higher in fourth-grade students and one point lower for eighth-grade students compared to 2017. Department of Education Secretary DeVos said in a press release that the results were “devastating” and proposed support for school choice initiatives to help counteract the results.