CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Report Urges Engaging CTE Community in Common Core

On May 24, ACTE and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) partnered with Achieve on the release of a report providing a blueprint for increased engagement between state education leaders and the career and technical education (CTE) community. Read the full press release issued by Achieve, ACTE and NASDCTEc here. 

The report, titled “Common Core State Standards & Career and Technical Education: Bridging the Divide Between College and Career Readiness” outlines a set of strategies state and district leaders can leverage to ensure the implementation of Common Core State Standards engages, informs, and benefits from the career and technical education (CTE) community, a critical partner in the broader college- and career-ready agenda.

Janet Bray, executive director of ACTE said, “Common Core State Standards implementation presents tremendous opportunity for CTE and academics to better align to improve student career readiness, but too many states and school districts are neglecting this important connection point. This paper is a key tool that will help guide state and local leaders and improve understanding about how to include CTE in the Common Core implementation process. Our hope is that all school leaders will follow the good examples provided by these leading states.”

ACTE has been focusing on providing additional Common Core support for CTE professionals. On May 29, I will participate on a Webinar featuring the Achieve paper that will be hosted by the American Diploma Project Network. Sign up here.

TIME Magazine Article Recognizes CTE as ''Learning That Works''

By: Ashley Parker

In the TIME Magazine article “Learning That Works,” Joe Klein, TIME Magazine’s political columnist, presents us with a compelling snapshot of CTE today, highlighting much of CTE’s strongest evidence of the positive impacts for students, businesses and communities.  Mr. Klein contacted ACTE after his visit to Arizona where he met ACTE members Clyde McBride and Sally Downey and toured programs in Kayenta and Mesa, Arizona. We spoke with him as he worked on completing his story, providing him with the national data and context to round out his experiences visiting the different CTE programs. The article will print in the May 14^th edition of TIME Magazine.

The process in which this article was developed underscores the importance of CTE practitioners’ participation and engagement with the media at every opportunity. The school visit’s impact on Mr. Klein is evident in his story; school visits are one of the most powerful ways to communicate the importance of high-quality CTE programs.

In his blog on TIME Magazine’s website, Joe Klein wrote this about his article: “My latest print piece–longer than a column this week–is about the revival of what used to be called vocational education, but is now called Career and Technical Education. It’s probably the best way to train young people for skilled jobs that actually exist, especially when done in partnership with local businesses–but more than that, it turns out to be a great way to motivate kids who aren’t very interested in traditional schooling…and a head start for advanced placement sorts of who want to go to professional careers in medicine, science, engineering and law.”

Revised FY 12 State Perkins Allocations Released

Earlier this week, the Department of Education released revised estimates of state Perkins allocations for FY 2012 (July 2012 and October 2012 distributions). These new estimates replace state allocations originally sent to states on April 9 due to administrative errors that were discovered in the original estimates. Approximately half of states received a different allocation (either higher or lower) in this new estimate.

If you, as a local Perkins recipient, had already received your estimated allocation for the 2012-2013 school year, you may be receiving a revised allocation from your state to use as you prepare your budget for next year. If your state had not yet issued local allocations or if your overall state allocation did not change, you will likely notice no impact of this revision.   

It is important to note that this is not related to funding for this school year, to any change to the overall Perkins allocation, or to any reduction of funds available for the coming school year. It is merely a re-estimation of the funds available to each state based on the federal-to-state formula and the most recent population and per capita income information available. If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected].