October has brought with it crisp weather, falling leaves and updates to national education data, as well as a host of new resources:
Growing Grad Rate: The high school graduation rate continued its rise to 83.2 percent in the 2014-15 school year, an increase of four percentage points in four years.
Student Loan Debt Increases: According to the Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), 68 percent of graduating seniors in 2015 had student loans, with an average debt load of more than $30,000.
Work-based Learning: Connecting at-risk and disconnected youth back into the education and workplace pipeline through work-based learning is the topic of a new brief from the National Skills Coalition. To succeed, the brief recommends that this work-based learning be paid and facilitated by an intermediary organization to recruit, coordinate training and take on liability issues. The brief emphasizes that the best programs connect to career pathways. On a companion webinar, Guilford Apprenticeship Partners noted that a strength of their initiative is partnership with high school CTE programs.
More Work-based Learning: Advance CTE has created A Comprehensive Guide to the State’s Role in Work-based Learning to help states develop and implement a statewide vision for work-based learning. The guide provides key considerations and guiding questions to walk states through the steps of building and scaling a high-quality work-based learning system, drawing on examples from several states.
Women and Middle-skill Jobs: The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has launched a website, womenandgoodjobs.org, dedicated to research and data on middle-skill jobs, relevant education pathways and recommendations for how to help more women into these worthy, family-sustaining careers.
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