How Do States Form Perkins Consortia?

An analysis of consortia formation under Perkins Title I conducted by the National Innovation Center for CTE (NCICTE) found that consortia—collaborative groups of Perkins subgrantees—are more prevalent on the secondary level and, in 2009-10, received 22 percent of Perkins Title I grants on the secondary level.

The current Perkins Act allows local school districts and postsecondary institutions to join with other grantees in consortia if they are not large enough to qualify for a minimum grant or if they feel they can more efficiently deliver CTE services by partnering with other grantees. Authors Sandra Staklis and Steve Klein found that almost 60 percent of secondary and about 10 percent of postsecondary subgrantees were part of consortia in 2009-10. In addition, consortia are more likely to be in rural areas, to have fewer students than stand-alone subgrantees and to include a mixture of secondary subgrantees with higher and lower allocations.

The report also explains that almost all consortia are either on the secondary or the postsecondary level; only two states require or encourage consortia with secondary and postsecondary participants. The Department of Education has proposed that, in future reauthorizations of Perkins, secondary-postsecondary consortia be mandatory to receive Perkins funding. However, many in the CTE community are concerned that mandatory consortia could undermine partnerships that have already been developed.The NCICTE researchers note that states and programs have created effective partnerships outside of Perkins consortia for collaboration, secondary-postsecondary alignment and responding to industry needs.

You can learn more about this issue with the NCICTE’s Training Center module on consortia formation. Three of 5 units in this training module are published, with two more to come. Unit 1 provides a national overview, while units 2-4 profile six states that are taking differing approaches to allocating their Perkins IV funds. The last unit will be a live webinar with researchers and state representatives.