CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Data Driven: CTE Dual Enrollment Success

An analysis of CTE students in Florida and New York found consistently positive outcomes for CTE students who participated in dual enrollment. For instance, data from 18,000 Florida CTE students demonstrated that those participating in dual credit were more likely to graduate, enroll in postsecondary education and persist into the second year.[i]

Research on dual and concurrent enrollment has demonstrated positive effects for all students, including CTE students.

The data point above illustrates that CTE students are more likely to pursue and persist in postsecondary education when they have the opportunity to earn college credit while in high school. This study also examined students in New York and found that CTE students earning dual credit who later enrolled in the City University of New York were 9.7 percent more likely than their peers to pursue a bachelor’s degree, had a .13 higher GPA in their first semester and had earned 10.65 more credits 3.5 years after enrolling.

When sharing this information with policymakers, the media and the public, follow it up with student success stories that demonstrate how your students have benefited from dual enrollment.

Remember, you don’t have to wait for a new entry in our Data Driven blog series to access CTE data and research. The information you need is available at any time with ACTE Fact Sheets.

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[i] Karp et al., The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States, NRCCTE, 2007.

ED Releases Competency-based Education Guidance

Last week, the Department of Education released long-awaited guidance for experimental sites who wish to award federal financial aid for competency-based education (CBE) programs. The Department first announced the competency-based experiment in 2014, but as it was implemented, realized that additional guidance was necessary for both institutions and accrediting agencies on areas such as modified payment periods and aid calculations. The new CBE Experiment Reference Guide is designed for institutions participating in the CBE experiment, but also sheds light on how other institutions might structure high-quality CBE programs to focus on learning outcomes rather than time spent in classrooms.

Upon release of the guide, U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said, “Competency based education (CBE) is one example of a promising new delivery model with the potential to improve degree completion, reduce costs to students and improve transparency and alignment of learning outcomes to the needs of employers and society.” He also reported that the current CBE experiment will be expanded by the end of this year in order to offer more institutions an alternative method of financial aid disbursement that is applicable to CBE. We’ll be posting information about this expansion on the blog as soon as it is available.  

Speaker of the House Announces Resignation

On Friday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced his resignation from Congress effective October 30.  The office of speaker is the highest position in the U.S. House of Representatives, and serves as the de facto leader of the majority party in that chamber. Boehner, who has served 24 years in Congress, first assumed the speakership in 2011. His decision to step down before the end of his third term as speaker will leave a vacancy in the House’s top job, and will likely result in a reshuffling of other leadership posts. The current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) have so far declared their candidacies for the position. However, no date has yet been announced for the House to elect its next speaker.  

Speaker Boehner previously served as the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, which has jurisdiction over education and workforce training legislation. During his tenure as committee chair, Boehner oversaw the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act—the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. He was also a central figure in last reauthorization of the Perkins Act in 2006. Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the current chairman of the committee who has announced his own departure from Congress at the end of 2016, said of Boehner, “His leadership of the committee made a positive difference in the lives of countless students, workers, employers and retirees.”

For continuing updates on the leadership changes coming Capitol Hill, as well as analysis on how these shakeups will impact CTE policy and funding going forward, be sure to check back to the CTE Policy Watch Blog.

White House Weighs In on Licensing

Occupational licensing has surged in recent decades, largely owing to an increase in the number of professions that require licensing.

While acknowledging its necessity for certain jobs, an Obama Administration publication questions whether requirements for licenses and the lack of portability of licenses are overly burdensome to workers, and whether the quality of goods and services are worth the higher prices charged by licensed workers.

State certification, rather than licensing, is offered as a potential solution, as are best practices such as limiting licensing to occupations where health and safety is a legitimate concern and collaborating on licensing requirements between states.

LEGISLATIVE ALERT: Tell Your Senators to Join the CTE Caucus!

Today, Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH), co-chairs of the Senate CTE Caucus, circulated a letter to the full Senate formally inviting their colleagues to join the Caucus. This bipartisan caucus calls attention to CTE as a proven method for promoting America’s continued economic growth and ensuring that our students have the skills they need to succeed. Current members of the Senate caucus are:

• Senator Tammy Baldwin (Co-Chair) (D-WI)
• Senator John Boozman (R-AR)
• Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY)
• Senator Al Franken (D-MN)
• Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
• Senator John Hoeven (R-ND)
• Senator Johnny Isakson (Co-Chair) (R-GA)
• Senator Mike Johannns (R-NE)
• Senator Tim Kaine (Co-Chair) (D-VA)
• Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
• Senator James Lankford (R-OK)
• Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
• Senator Patty Murray (D-WA)
• Senator Rob Portman (Co-Chair) (R-OH)
• Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
• Senator Mark Warner (D-VA)

ACTE encourages you to contact your Senators if they are not already a member and encourage them to join. Click here to contact your Senator through the CTE Action Center!

Senate CTE Caucus Highlights Postsecondary Opportunities

On Tuesday, September 22, the Senate CTE Caucus hosted a briefing for congressional staff titled “Postsecondary Pathways to Success: Strengthening Career and Technical Education in the Higher Education Act.” The briefing was moderated by ACTE Deputy Executive Director Stephen DeWitt and featured an expert panel of practitioners and policy leaders, including:

• Harry Snyder, the President of Great Oaks Career Campuses (and ACTE member),
• John Cech, Deputy Commissioner for Academic and Student Affairs with the Montana University System,
• Kermit Kaleba, Federal Policy Director for the National Skills Coalition, and
• Jennifer Stiddard, Senior Public Policy Associate with the Association of Community College Trustees.

The event also was attended by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), two of the caucus’ co-chairs. Both provided introductory remarks for the event, during which Senator Baldwin took the opportunity to highlight her introduction of the ACTE-endorsed CTE Opportunity Act earlier that day.

The panel discussed several of the biggest issues affecting postsecondary CTE students in the Higher Education Act, including expanding access to federal financial aid, improving data systems to acknowledge the achievements of CTE students on non-degree paths (such as in pursuit of certificates or other credentials), and identifying ways that the federal government can strengthen connections between postsecondary institutions and the labor market.

To learn more about ACTE’s priorities for HEA reauthorization, click here! If you aren’t sure if your Senator is a member of the CTE caucus, click here to check and here to send them a message encouraging them to join through the CTE Action Center!

Credentials Dominate the Discussion

Education and workforce leaders are abuzz about the promise and the challenges of different credentials. A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education describes the increasingly fragmented credential universe of degrees, certificates, industry certifications, licenses and digital badges.

Research shows that degrees are still the primary, preferred credential by employers. However, a recent analysis by Burning Glass of online job ads (excluding health care fields) found that 20 percent of ads requiring a bachelor’s degree also want applicants to have an additional credential certifying a particular skill. Industry certifications that are mostly likely to appear in online job ads include the Project Management Professional and Certified Information Systems Security Professional certifications.

At the heart of the credential conversation is the question of value. Which credentials lead to positive employment and earnings outcomes for students? ACTE is involved with several efforts to examine the value of credentials, including our Certification Data Exchange Project, which is sharing data between third-party industry certifiers and state education and workforce systems; the Lumina-led Connecting Credentials dialogue; and WorkCred, a nonprofit seeking to improve the credentialing system through research and other activities.

Department of Education Visits Kentucky Career Academy

The U.S. Department of Education concluded its 6th annual back-to-school bus tour last week, which spanned seven states and 11 educational institutions. The tour was intended to showcase communities that prioritize access to opportunity for students, and included a stop at Jeffersontown High School Magnet Career Academy in Louisville, Kentucky.

The school structures its classes around four career academies, and features programs in everything from web design to robotics or fine arts to business. The common thread throughout all four academies, however, is a strong emphasis on both college- and career- readiness for all students as well as the opportunity to earn college credits and specialized certifications for careers.

A critical component to the school’s success has been the buy-in that it has ensured from local businesses that understand their future workforce depends on students’ access to high-quality CTE. The Department of Education noted, for example, the partnership that Jeffersontown’s Design Academy has built with Ford Motor Company to connect its students with careers in their community.

In addition, the visit highlighted the value of contextualized and hands-on learning opportunities in engaging students with curriculum. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a video about the visit that, “The students there are – hands-on learning, project-based learning – they know why they’re coming to school. They know the importance of what they’re learning and the relevance to the real world.”

To access more photos from the event, click here to visit the Jefferson County Public Schools on Facebook. To learn about more opportunities to conduct your own outreach and build awareness of CTE, click here to visit the Advocacy Toolkit!

ACTE Publishes TANF Reauthorization Priorities

This spring, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee held a hearing on the Improving Opportunity in America Welfare Reauthorization Act of 2015, a discussion draft that signals many of the ideas the Committee would like to see implemented in a reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Because of the TANF program’s effects on many postsecondary CTE institutions ability to serve adult learners in poverty, ACTE has solicited feedback from members on how the legislation can be strengthened in future iterations and incorporated these ideas into our association’s Reauthorization Priorities document. It can be accessed on ACTE’s Policy Agenda page, or directly here.

TANF provides needed educational opportunities to individuals struggling to support themselves and their families, which advances their career potential and economic independence by equipping them with the skills they will need for careers in high wage, in-demand sectors. These opportunities are a critical component in federal strategies to reduce poverty nationwide.

ACTE’s TANF priorities are targeted to specifically address the existing barriers to education and skills training within the program, and to ensure that federally administered workforce development systems are aligned and coordinated. These include steps to:

• Extend the lifetime limit for education and training opportunities.
• Eliminate the TANF program’s barriers to education and training caused by the “Work Participation Rate” measure.
• Ensure meaningful and coordinated reporting and accountability systems.

These priorities reflect the principals articulated in ACTE comments on the draft legislation, which were submitted to the committee in early July. ACTE will continue to advocate for these priorities in reauthorization of the TANF program and other measures to strengthen CTE learning opportunities for all students! 

EdWeek Praises ACTE’s Work to Define Credentials

ACTE’s fact sheet defining and differentiating the increasingly complex world of credentials, “What is a Credential?” was the focus of a recent EdWeek blog post.

Author Catherine Gewertz discusses the confusing array of certifications, certificates and other non-degree credentials that can help individuals validate their skills and gain employment. ACTE’s brief, which defines the terms “certification,” “certificate,” “license” and “degree,” is cited as a helpful resource. Gewertz concludes that students need help determining which credentials will best help them meet their goals.  

ACTE is also shedding light on the complex landscape of non-degree credentials through the Certification Data Exchange Project. This project is sharing data between state education and workforce data systems and third-party industry certifiers, to determine if students are earning certifications from industry and, when they do, how it impacts their employment and earnings. If you’re in New Orleans for ACTE’s VISION conference, we’ll be presenting on this topic Friday, November 20 at 11am.