CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

DC Digest: October 19-25

The second and final presidential debate took place on Thursday in Nashville, TN. Education played a minor role in the debate, with several mentions of reopening schools within the context of the coronavirus pandemic.. With the election right around the corner, make sure to keep up with ACTE’s Election Watch 2020 on the CTE Policy Watch blog. On the Hill on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the full Senate. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on Barrett’s nomination on Monday, October 26. Here are a few other notes from the federal education policy realm last week: 

• Additional Funding for the Earn-and-Learn Initiative: The Department of Education announced additional funding for the Federal Work Study (FWS) Experimental Sites Initiative, which launched in 2019 with participants announced earlier this year . This initiative, one of several Pell experiments underway, allows students to work more hours off-campus under the work-study program, and permits institutions to pay students for work-based learning such as apprenticeships, externships and clinical rotations, among other flexibilities
• Virtual Hill Briefing Featuring Principals Thoughts on COVID-19: On Thursday, the American Federation of School Administrators, the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National Association of Secondary School Principals hosted a virtual Capitol Hill briefing to hear from principals on COVID-19 related challenges and the federal supports that would help schools and students during this time. 
• Senate COVID-19 Relief Proposal Fails Cloture Motion: The Senate failed to move forward the $500 billion COVID-19 relief package that was proposed on Wednesday by Senate Republicans. Among the major provisions, the proposal included more than $100 billion for schools, although these funds were largely conditioned on in-person reopening. Talks remain ongoing between congressional leaders and the White House to try and get another relief measure passed before the November 3 election.
• New Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide: The Department of Education’s Office of Technology released a Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide to help parents and guardians understand digital learning tools, particularly while students are learning from home. Some of the topics the guide covers include how to leverage the flexibilities and innovations that technology and digital tools provide, online safety, competency-based learning, federal laws concerning student privacy and safety, and more.  

Why Voting is Important to Me

I vote to honor those who came before me, and fought so valiantly for their franchise, and to help make a better life for those will come after me.

The presidential election grabs the most headlines, but the decisions that predominantly impact my children’s education options and shape the workforce they will enter are made by state and local officials and decided by bond issues and ballot referendums. While education has been a minor topic on the national stage this election, your ballot may feature school board member candidates and questions about using funds to construct new education facilities. How voters weigh in on these issues will shape local education curriculum and delivery and impact learner opportunities for the next several years.

You, as CTE educators and advocates, have important expertise on your local education and workforce systems to help you decide where you stand on these critical issues. Whether you cast your vote on Election Day, through early in-person voting or with a mail ballot, please vote—and remember to pay as much attention to down-ballot candidates and issues as you do to the top of the ticket.

ACTE is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.

Tell Congress to Investment in Skills Training to Jump-Start the Economy

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the United States has lost 20.6 million jobs. That's nearly 15% of American workforce.

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely upended our daily lives - from the way we receive education to the way we work and socialize. It has fundamentally changed our entire economy. In order to get those 20.6 million Americans back to work in good-paying jobs and restore our economy, they will need skills training. Skills training is a critical part of the solution to our current economic crisis, and without dramatically increasing resources for skills training programs, we face the prospect of not only a growing skills gap, but a prolonged economic downturn.

Join us in signing a petition from our partners at Voices for Skills and tell Congress that skills training should be a critical piece of our country’s inclusive economic recovery plan in order to support individual’s real career aspirations, support employers' need for skilled workers, and kickstart our country’s economy.

About Voices for Skills

Voices for Skills, powered by the National Skills Coalition, is working people, students, teachers, and business leaders coming together to call for a national commitment to significantly increase our investment in skills training.

Tonight 9PM: Final Presidential Debate

The final presidential debate between President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden will take place tonight at 9 p.m. ET at Belmont University in Nashville. The debate is scheduled to be 90 minutes long with no commercial breaks and is going to be moderated by Kristen Welker (NBC). Like the previously held debate, it will be split into six 15-minute segments. The six topics are the fight against COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership.

For more information about the debate or its format, please visit the Commission on Presidential Debates. To watch the debate on TV or stream online, please visit C-SPAN for live coverage.

Note: ACTE is a nonpartisan organization that does not—and will not—support or oppose any candidate for public office.

Downward Trends for Postsecondary Institutions

Over 16% fewer first-year students are enrolling in postsecondary institutions compared to last year, according to new data from The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Inside Higher Ed published a helpful complimentary analysis explaining the findings. The declines are not as prevalent in public and private non-profit four-year institutions as they were in community colleges, where enrollment is down 9.4%, with an even steeper 23% enrollment drop in first-year students at community colleges. Certificate and associate degree programs across all institutions are also experiencing a decrease in enrollment. 

Typically in a recession when unemployed or displaced workers are looking to reskill or upskill, community college enrollment is expected to spike. Community colleges are closer to home for displaced workers and often the most affordable postsecondary option. During this economic downturn due to COVID-19, it was predicted that the trend would follow the same pattern, but so far it has not. 

Douglas Shapiro, the executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse, listed students’ lack of access to the internet in order to complete online courses and the difficulty of translating hands-on learning to a remote setting as some of the potential factors for decreased enrollment. Due to the lack of enrollment and potential budget cuts because of the economic downturn, community colleges are worried about steep cuts to their funding allocations, which could have large, lasting implications, potentially exacerbating equity and access gaps among disadvantaged students who access higher education through community colleges. 

Why Voting is Important to Me

I first wrote the post below as part of our Election Watch series back in 2016, but all of the sentiments remain true today! In fact, the importance of voting and down-ballot races has never been more evident to me than in the last six months. The decisions impacting education during the COVID-19 pandemic have largely been made by local policymakers. I’ve never sent as many emails to my local school board as I have in the last few months! Every election gives you the opportunity to impact who sits in those critical seats for the next few years, so make your voice heard by voting!

Living in a swing state during this election cycle, the average number of political calls I’m receiving every day has climbed to about a half dozen. They include public opinion polls, recorded celebrities urging me to vote for their preferred candidate, requests for donations and more. I’ve gotten much better at screening them, but will be relieved when the deluge ends! Like many others around the country, I’ve grown weary of the drawn out election cycle, the increased partisanship, and the negative tenor of this campaign season—which seems worse in many ways than any I’ve ever experienced. These feelings make it easy to forget about the important implications of this, and every election, and of the privilege we have in this country to help shape our collective future through voting.

Years ago as a high school student, I had the opportunity to help our local supervisor of elections in the office on election night. I helped track the delivery of ballot boxes from around the precincts, and as each set of ballots was counted, I had the task of tallying the results on a large white board in a conference room designated for those running for local office and their supporters. Thirteen votes, twenty-two votes, seven votes from a precinct—in a local race in a rural county, every individual vote was critical.

During a national election where constant polling results and the sheer magnitude of votes being cast can be overwhelming, I think it is vital to remember the impact of these local and state races and ballot initiatives. These “down-ballot” races can often have a more direct impact on local education and workforce policy than anything that happens in Washington!

I recently heard that one of the candidates for school board in my old home town visited every single family in her district during her campaign—forging a personal relationship and educating herself about constituent concerns. Whether she wins or loses, that’s the image that sticks in my mind this election when I think about engagement in the political process and the importance of voting. Educate yourself about all of the important issues and candidates on the ballot this election season, not just those getting the most national attention, and don’t pass up your opportunity to vote!

ACTE is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.

Why Voting is Important to Me

With only two weeks to go before Election Day 2020, now is a great time to reflect on the reasons why voting is important to you. Maybe you view voting as a civic duty—a part of being actively engaged in your community. Maybe it’s the issues that will drive you to the polls, education being among the critical national issues that will be impacted by the results of this election. And maybe you vote because you want to ensure the best possible future for the next generation by supporting CTE at the ballot box. No matter the reason, it is important to make your voice heard by participating on Election Day or through an early voting option.

Let us know why voting matters to you, and check out the CTE Policy Watch blog in the coming days to read some of the reasons why voting is important to us. 

ACTE is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.

DC Digest: October 12-18

Last week was the beginning of the Supreme Court nomination process for Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett testified in front of the Senate for four days, and the Senate Judiciary Committee set a vote for Thursday, October 22, to send the nomination of Barrett to the full Senate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. On the campaign trail, both President Trump and Joe Biden held town hall meetings on Thursday in separate locations since the second presidential debate was canceled. The common topics that were discussed were COVID-19, taxes and the Supreme Court, with education playing a minor role. With only 15 days until the election, make sure to keep up with our Election Watch 2020 series to follow ACTE's continuing coverage of the 2020 election on our blog. Here are a couple other notes from DC last week: 

• New CDC Guidance for Testing in Schools: New guidance from the CDC provides a framework for schools to use when testing for COVID-19 in schools. The CDC currently recommends testing staff and students who are showing systems of COVID-19 or who have had close contact with confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients. Schools that are at a moderate-to-high level of risk of transmission of the disease may consider repeated or expanded testing. They also recommend prioritizing testing for communities with a disproportionate rise in cases, limited testing availability or with moderate-to-high proportions of racial groups that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus.
• Civil Rights Data Collection Released: The Department of Education released the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection on Thursday. These data are self-reported from 17,604 public school districts and 97,632 public schools and educational programs. It covers a range of topics including enrollment, advanced placement, school characteristics and more. 
• COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Update: Negotiations on another COVID-19 stimulus bill have continued between Congress and the White House, with some reported progress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the White House and Congress a 48-hour window to come to a compromise to get a COVID-19 stimulus bill passed before the election, and has mentioned that the two sides were close to a deal. Even if they agree on a deal, this does not ensure that the bill will be passed by the Senate. Separately, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced a vote on a $500 billion bill this week,
  which contains the same education funding and provisions as in the bill considered by the Senate several weeks ago. However, no details about the specifics of the education funding, including if it is conditioned on school reopening or not, have been released. 

Research Round-up: Community College Transfer Rates, Displaced Workers Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Dual Enrollment Snapshots

Report on Community College Transfer Rates: The Public Policy Institute of California researched transfers from community colleges to four-year institutions to examine progress and barriers to success. Some of the key findings from the report are: there is a gap between those wishing to transfer to a postsecondary institution and those that actually do; transfer rates are higher for students that complete 12 units and take an English or Math course within the first three years; equity gaps among Latino students and other student groups show that a higher rate of students hope to transfer to a four-year institution but do not.  

Data on the Race and Ethnicity of Teachers and Their Students: A new report from the National Center on Education Statistics (IES) uses data from the public school teacher data file of the 2017–18 National Teacher and Principal Survey to examine the race and ethnicity of teachers and their students. That year, 79 percent of public school teachers were White and non-Hispanic. Researchers did find that there were more Black and Hispanic teachers in schools  where the majority of students matched that race/ethnicity, however, numbers of minority teachers were still low.  

Dual Enrollment Snapshots: The College in High School Alliance is creating a series of policy snapshots to allow users to explore specific policy issues that are impacting college-in-high-school programs such as dual enrollment and early college high school. The first snapshot released provides an equity-based rationale for re-examining eligibility requirements for programs to adopt multiple measures for dual enrollment eligibility such as grade level, attendance, projects, teacher nominations and others, provides examples from other states, and suggests action steps for state policymakers when considering changes to dual enrollment eligibility requirements.

Report on Displaced Workers Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions: A new report examines workers’ enrollment responses following mass layoffs using employer-employee-student matched administrative data from Ohio. Researchers found that only about 10% of displaced workers  enroll in postsecondary institutions, and many of those would have done so even without the displacement event. Of those that enroll, about 29% of displaced workers complete a degree.  

New Research on Technology-Based Career Advising for CTE Programs: There is limited research on schools adopting technology-based career advising for CTE programs in order for programs to equitably serve students. Because of the limited research, MDRC is partnering with Naviance and YouScience to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of technology-based career advising tools and complete a cost-effectiveness analysis. The study will assess the effect on student’s understanding of career pathways, CTE course-taking patterns, engagement with the school and progress toward graduation. 

New Data on Massachusetts Early College Program: Data from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education show that students who participated in Massachusetts’ Early College Initiative were more likely to earn college credits while in high school, complete financial aid applications and to enroll in postsecondary institutions than the students who did not participate in the initiative. The goal of the initiative was to reduce equity gaps and increase postsecondary completion rates for students of color, first-generation college students and those from low-income backgrounds.  

Preparing Middle Schoolers for Rigorous High School Pathways: A new report from the Center for American Progress lays out the components necessary for middle schoolers to be effectively prepared for high school pathways that lead to postsecondary and career success. ACTE’s prior work on middle grades CTE was cited in this report, and the researchers recommend:

• rigorous instruction to ready students for high-quality high school coursework
• counseling and exploration for career pathways and college preparation
• opportunities for teachers to connect and learn from industry, secondary and postsecondary programs.
• information on college and career pathways and family engagement 
• exposure to role models who deviate from cultural and occupational stereotypes

COVID-19 Research Round-up (Part III)

Adapting the Workforce for a Post-COVID-19 World: AEI recently issued a report on how to adapt the current workforce system to meet the growing demand for training by unemployed workers as a result of the pandemic. The researchers emphasize flexibility and worker support as the key pillars of change that will be essential to moving forward.

Interest Rising in Short-term Credentials: This in-depth article from Inside Higher Ed explores the growing interest in short-term and online credential programs as a result of the pandemic. It includes links and references to a variety of research on the topic, and discusses the outlook for the future of alternative pathways to postsecondary credentials. 

COVID-19 and Rural Higher Education: In this “Issue Focus” report, MDRC conducted a series of virtual meetings with rural higher education leaders and stakeholders in the spring and summer to better understand what is working and where more research is needed for postsecondary institutions during the pandemic. Four key strategies emerged from these meetings:

1. Make courses mobile-friendly to allow students to complete their courses on their cell phones.
2. Provide internet-able devices to students and families.
3. Widen broadband access to all students.
4. Ensure students continue to connect to a community even when online.

Compilation of EdWeek Strategies for Leading Schools Through the Pandemic: Education Week recently published a new summary of their comprehensive coverage for helping to steer schools through the COVID-19 pandemic, including links to key resources on in-school safety and online learning. Suggestions are included for how these resources might be used now that schools have resumed.  

Bring CTE Programs Online: Though COVID-19 has caused many challenges for CTE programs, this EdTech article highlights some advantages to bringing CTE programs online. Online CTE programs allow students flexibility to learn from anywhere and at one’s own pace, to develop 21st century skills needed for the workplace, and take courses at a cost-effective rate. The article provides tips and resources on how to successfully teach remotely, and highlights ACTE’s Questions to Consider found in the “High-quality CTE: Planning for a COVID-19 Impacted Year” Guide, as well as ACTE’s High-Quality CTE webinar series.

Reskilling and Recovery Network Launched: The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, the American Association of Community Colleges, Lumina Foundation, Siemens Foundation and 20 states have collaborated to create the Reskilling and Recovery Network. This Network was formed to help reskill workers in the wake of COVID-19. The Network will work to build partnerships between community colleges and industry, create a collaborative network to learn from best practices and provide technical assistance for virtual activities. 

Bringing Access to CTE Programs by Adapting to Online Platforms: An article from Education Dive recognizes that COVID-19 has been extremely challenging for CTE programs, but adapting CTE programs remotely could expand access to students in today’s pandemic and in the future. Remote programs can provide students flexibility by allowing them the option to learn at their own speed and learn anywhere with a WiFi connection. Another long-term benefit the researchers mention is that students are learning 21st century digital skills needed for jobs in today's workforce.

Prioritizing Postsecondary Attainment for Economic Recovery: The Education Strategy Group created a resource that details how states are adapting and innovating efforts to increase higher education attainment in order to jumpstart the economic recovery in light of COVID-19. Researchers call for mass upskilling and training of displaced or low-skill workers in order to allow for these workers to adapt and pivot to new employment options. 

Resilient Skills: A recent report from EMSI highlights the skills that remain most in-demand even during the economic recession. By examining job postings, researchers concluded that the most resilient skills were a mix of “human” skills, such as communication, management and critical thinking; and technical skills, generally either in technology or core business operations.