CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Research Round-up: Community College Outcomes

Recently, researchers with the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE) measured the wages of former students who had earned short-term certificates from community colleges in Virginia and North Carolina and found significant positive returns on employment and earnings, but with much variation across career fields.

In addition, CAPSEE researchers have released a study examining the qualities of North Carolina community colleges based on student employment outcomes. The analysis concludes by focusing on two community colleges that were found to be high performing for student outcomes, and two that were low performing. The high-performing schools are in urban areas, with multiple campuses and serving areas with lower unemployment rates. They have relatively few students taking remedial courses, offer wraparound and veterans’ services, and have strong industry partnerships. On the other hand, the lower performing community colleges are in rural areas with high unemployment, are smaller, have higher remediation rates, and offer fewer degree and certificate programs as well as fewer support services.

Short-Term Funding Bill Includes Reduction in Perkins Allocation

As we previously reported, Congress passed a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) to provide temporary funding for the federal government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 through December 11. While the CR effectively maintains current funding levels during this period, it did include a .0554 percent across-the- board reduction. Due to complexities in the way Perkins funds are budgeted and distributed, this reduction has impacted Perkins Basic State Grant advance funding from FY 2014 that became available for allocation to states on October 1. ACTE has created a new table to reflect the revised state allocations for FY 2014 that is available here. For most states, the difference in the revised allocation is very small—less than a few thousand dollars—and it is possible that this reduction will be restored once the final FY 2015 funding bill is passed.

In July, the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations subcommittee approved an FY 2015 funding bill that would increase the Perkins Basic State Grant to $1.123 billion (up from $1.118 billion in FY 2014)! However, neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives were able to pass a Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill before the end of the fiscal year, prompting the short-term CR to keep the federal government running. ACTE has called on Congress to complete its work on a full-year appropriations bill that includes an increase in Perkins funding. With so much uncertainty about the future of funding for CTE, now is an important time to reach out to your Members of Congress to let them know that investing in CTE can’t wait!

Department of Education Launches Virtual Community for Educator Collaboration

The Department of Education recently published a blog inviting America’s educators to submit ideas and best practices from the field to its new virtual community, Commit to Lead. The platform, which is a component of the larger Teach to Lead initiative, allows innovators from the education community to share their great idea for improving America’s schools in just 300 words or less. Users can then provide input and vote for their favorite ideas, helping to promote those that are most effective or learn from others in the community.

In the blog, one CTE educator from Mississippi’s submission was quoted:

All teachers benefit from collaborative interaction, so I am starting a collaborative learning group among the CTE [Career & Technical Education] teachers I work with at my high school. Because our planning times do not coincide, I am using Google classroom to share professional readings with my colleagues, opening up discussion threads, and encouraging them to post articles and reading suggestions as well.

ACTE encourages our members to take advantage of this opportunity to share their ideas and make sure that the CTE voice is heard! Click here to visit the Commit to Lead website, or visit ACTE’s Educators in Action blog to help get your wheels turning.

Most Students Pursue Postsecondary Education

Twelve percent of 26-year-olds with a high school diploma have never attended postsecondary education, according to a new report, indicating that more grads take advantage of postsecondary education in early adulthood than previously thought. These young adults earned fewer credits in high school than their peers, with a ratio of 16 academic to 5 CTE credits, as compared to college-going students who were more likely to earn 19 academic credits and 3 CTE credits (the typical number needed to complete the secondary portion of a program of study).

Demographically, those 12 percent who had not enrolled in postsecondary education by age 26 are more likely to be from a lower socioeconomic status, with parents whose highest level of education is high school or less. In addition, they tend to be male and from southern states. In their coursetaking, they were more likely to take less rigorous academic courses and perform less well academically.

Most of these young adults expected to attend college while they were in high school, and at age 26, more than a quarter expect to make it to college at some point in the future. Their reasons for not pursuing postsecondary education were related to finances, family obligations or to having a good job already. As the report notes, some may have pursued job training through a non-academic institution.

ED Launches Career Pathways Exchange

With the storm of activity following the passage of WIOA and the release of the Vice President’s Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity report, the national effort to advance economic opportunity through career pathways is more important than ever.

ACTE was recently selected by the U.S. Department of Education as a partner in its new three-year career pathways initiative: Moving Pathways Forward: Supporting Career Pathways Integration. Throughout the next two years, we will contribute to the project’s free information service—the Career Pathways Exchange.

Launching in October, the Exchange consolidates and distributes career pathways-related resources, events and information from federal and state agencies and partner organizations. Subscribers can select to receive email digests on their topics of interest, including: Building Cross-Agency Partnerships, Identifying Industry Sectors and Engaging Employers, Designing Education and Training Programs, Identifying Funding Needs and Sources, Aligning Policies and Programs, and Measuring System Change and Performance.

In addition to signing up to receive digests, you can follow the Exchange on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to stay current on all the latest career pathways events and resources, as well as adult education and WIOA updates on the go.

2014 State Elections Will Have Impact on Education

Along with the 2014 congressional midterm races, state-level elections and ballot measures will have a large impact on CTE issues in the coming years. At the top of the statewide ticket are a number of gubernatorial races that will be decided on November 4. As the chief executive, governors will set the education and workforce development agenda in their state for the next four years. There are 36 states that will hold gubernatorial elections this year, including tightly contested races in Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas and Wisconsin. Governors must work with the state legislature to implement the state’s CTE policies and establish a budget to funding CTE programs, and governors have become increasingly involved in federal education issues as well. Nearly every state will also hold state legislative elections in 2014, as well as many races for statewide offices like secretary of state, treasurer, state superintendent and board of education.

In addition to elected offices, education ballot initiatives will be decided on Election Day in several states. Ballot initiatives allow voters to weigh in directly on proposed changes to state policy. The most common types of ballot initiatives include popular referendums, state constitutional amendments, bond funding issues and tax proposals. Colorado, Illinois, Nevada and New York will have ballot measures to increase funding for public education through the sale of state bonds or tax increases. If approved, a proposed state constitutional amendment in Oregon would create fund for students pursuing postsecondary education, including technical, professional and career training. Voters in Missouri will decide on a proposed teacher evaluation system based in part on student performance. Visit the Election Watch 2014 page on our website for more information on ballot initiatives and all other election-related issues. 

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is a nonpartisan organization and does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.

Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to Speak at ACTE Awards Banquet

ACTE has announced that U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez will provide an address during the ACTE Awards Banquet at CareerTech VISION. His remarks will include a discussion on the importance of CTE in providing students with the spectrum of skills essential to be work-ready in today’s global economy.

“I am ecstatic that Secretary Perez has accepted our invitation to speak during the ACTE Awards Banquet,” said ACTE Executive Director LeAnn Wilson. You can read her full remarks in ACTE’s press release here.

During his tenure, he has overseen the Administration’s efforts to expand Registered Apprenticeships, worked with other federal agencies to promote career pathways, administered the Ready to Work Partnership and Youth CareerConnect grant programs and is now leading the implementation of the new Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

To learn more about the ACTE Awards Banquet or to register for VISION, click here.

Chicago Community College Graduation Rates Double After Aligning Curriculum to Workforce Needs

A recent Hechinger Report article detailed the success of the City Colleges of Chicago’s recent decision to overhaul its struggling community college programs. When newly-tapped chancellor Cheryl Hyman began work with the city’s schools, local community college graduation rates were in a crisis – just seven percent of students were graduating in a timely fashion. To overcome these challenges, Hyman instituted new policies to ensure that programs were teaching students skills sought by local employers. Since instituting the new curriculum, the college’s graduation rates have doubled.

Hyman has also headed up a robust effort to reach out to local leaders from business and industry to engage them in her work. She states in the article that “It was not hard to get conversations with industry going. They were very happy. In many cases, they came to us once they heard what we were doing.”

The change has had its challenges, however. Gerald Chertavian, Founder and CEO of Year Up, describes in the article the obstacles these and other workforce training programs have had in shifting the way that HR departments and the public thinks about professionals who have chosen not to obtain a four-year degree.

ACTE works on behalf of its members to help share best practices and examples of successful programs that prepare students for workforce success and align with employer demands in their communities. Do you know of a CTE program that has worked with local employers to align its curriculum to in-demand skills? Let me know in the comments!

Tracking Noncredit Education: A New Data Frontier

A report from the National Center for Innovation in Career and Technical Education (NCICTE) finds much variation between states in the data available about noncredit postsecondary programs, and little data available on these students’ attainment of industry certifications.

Conducting a review of 29 state data systems, the researchers found that 23 states collect data on noncredit enrollment, but the data fields collected vary and states differ on how they categorize noncredit workforce education. In addition, states often are unable to track noncredit workforce education offered directly to an employer. Plus, few states are able to report on noncredit student outcomes.

In addition, the NCICTE researchers found that while some states are reporting industry-recognized certification attainment for for-credit students, no states are tracking industry certifications earned by noncredit students.

As attention turns to data deficits and how to combat them, several projects are working to improve data availability. For instance, one of the goals of the Certification Data Exchange Project, a multi-state initiative led by ACTE, is to improve linkages between industry certifiers and state longitudinal data systems, including noncredit education.

Work-based Learning Leads to Engaged Employees

College-graduate employees who, while in college, participated in real-world learning and felt mentored are more likely to be engaged workers, according to a Gallup-Purdue index.

Fifty-nine percent who held a meaningful internship or job, took on a long-term project and actively participated in extracurricular activities are engaged at work, compared to 30 percent without those experiences. Unfortunately, few students strongly agree that they had these experiences—less than 3 in 10 college-graduate employees described having a meaningful internship or job in college. The type of institution they attended—public or private, selective or open—had little impact on employee engagement, although for-profit school attendance did seem to negatively impact engagement.

Associate degree earners are equally likely to be engaged employees as bachelor’s degree earners, but much less likely to cite experiential learning opportunities.

Work-based learning is critical to helping students gain workplace skills that will benefit their careers and make them valuable to their employers.