This week, the Senate continues to debate and amend the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177)—a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As we previously reported, the House approved its ESEA reauthorization bill, the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), by a razor thin 218-213 vote last week. While the Senate is expected to complete its work later this week, here is an update on some of the important CTE provisions that have been considered so far.
When the Every Child Achieves Act was brought to the Senate floor last week, it included new provisions on promoting integrated academic and CTE content in the classroom and expanding college and career guidance programs--ACTE has been promoting these provisions and working with Members of Congress to ensure their inclusion in the bill. In Title I of the bill, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) championed the inclusion of language that allows local educational agencies to support programs that promote integrated academic and CTE content through coordinated instructional practices, including opportunities for experiential learning. Additionally, his language highlights the need for dual or concurrent enrollment opportunities that enable students to earn postsecondary credit or a credential and access comprehensive career counseling to facilitate their transition from secondary to postsecondary education, and ultimately into the workforce.
The Title II educator professional development section of the bill features a new section that encourages states and school districts to support specialized professional development opportunities focused on integrating academics and CTE. It will allow school districts to offer professional development that helps teachers to identify linkages across subjects, while providing common planning time to coordinate lesson plans and pedagogy. A new section of Title IV of the bill allows school districts to offer college and career guidance programs, which may include career awareness and exploration activities. It also provides schools with the opportunity to develop personalized learning plans and train counselors on how to best utilize labor market information in counseling students. Both provisions were added with the support of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
In addition, we have been working on several other amendments. The Senate adopted an amendment offered by Sens. Kaine, Merkley, Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Tim Scott (R-SC) to recognize CTE as a core academic subject. Along with English, science, math, foreign languages, art, history, music and others, CTE will be counted among the critical subjects that contribute to the college and career success of all students. The chamber also approved an amendment sponsored by Sens. Kaine, Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Rob Portman (R-OH), co-chairs of the Senate CTE Caucus, to allow states to include career readiness indicators in state accountability systems that will give schools recognition for preparing students for postsecondary education and the workforce. Both amendments were approved with unanimous support and are key portions of ACTE's efforts to better incorporate CTE into ESEA. We will continue to provide updates on ESEA reauthorization on the CTE Policy Watch blog. Contact your Senators to urge support for CTE in ESEA!
Thank you Sen. Kaine and colleagues for your tireless work to provide meaningful career options for our students. CTE can be a powerful tool when used to demonstrate the real-world applications of academics, resulting in greater student engagement. Every student should have access to timely and accurate career resources as well as one-on-one career guidance throughout middle and high school.
Posted by: Brian Sarvello | 07/15/2015 at 08:24 PM