CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

New Perkins V Resources Available

As the dust begins to settle on the fast-paced end to the Perkins reauthorization process, ACTE is assembling more resources to help you move into implementation and ensure you are ready to meet all the requirements of the new Act.

Several new pieces have been added to our Perkins implementation page (www.acteonline.org/perkins-implementation). You can now find a one-page summary, in addition to our full-length, more in-depth summary document. A page of FAQs has also been developed, containing questions we have received along with their answers. Remember, if you have questions for us, you can ask them via Twitter by using #AskPerkinsV to tweet at our new Twitter account (@AskPerkinsV), which is dedicated solely to answering Perkins V questions. Alternatively, you can email questions to publicpolicy@acteonline.org with the subject line "Perkins V Question."

Since the text of the full, integrated Public Law isn’t available yet, we’ve also posted a “redline” showing changes made by the bill to current law that can help you to see where edits made in the bill fit with current requirements.

Finally, we are in the process of putting together our “Perkins V:The Official Guide” which is now available for pre-sale and will ship mid-October. You can find all the details about ordering this guide on the Perkins implementation page.

Resources are also in the works around the new local needs assessment, and will be available later this fall! If there are other tools and resources you’d like to have, please let us know!

Push for Perkins Funding Increase

This week, the Senate voted to approve the chamber’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education funding bill. The Senate bill proposes to maintain current levels of funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant at $1.192 billion and CTE National Programs at $7.4 million.

The Senate measure significantly differs from the FY 2019 education funding bill that passed out of committee in the House in July, which proposes to increase the Perkins Basic State Grant by $102 million above the current level—bringing the total to nearly $1.3 billion. That measure is expected to go before the full House in September, and the two chambers will then negotiate a compromise bill through a conference committee. It is an important time to let your senators and representative know that you want to see this much-needed increase in Perkins funding. Please take a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress.

TAKE ACTION

• Contact your Members of Congress using the CTE Action Center or by phone through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
• Let them know that the House FY 2019 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill proposes to increase funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant program by $102 million.
• Ask them to support this increase in funding for Perkins state grants in FY 2019!

CTE Survey in the Field

At the end of August, CTE educators nationwide will begin receiving packets with questionnaires for CTE students and teachers. These questionnaires are a collaboration between ACTE and myOptions^TM, and they provide ACTE with valuable research on CTE program elements and student outcomes that informs our work and helps us develop advocacy tools. In addition, educators benefit by receiving customized reports about their students’ postsecondary and career goals, while students receive personalized information connecting them to postsecondary information and planning resources.

You may receive survey requests from other companies that do not have a relationship with ACTE. It is important that you select the package that is branded with ACTE's logo. It will come from the address 3651 Ralph Powell Road, Lee's Summit, MO 64064.

Participation is voluntary, although if you receive the questionnaires, we hope you and your students will fill them out! If you did not receive any questionnaires but would like to participate, or need additional forms, please visit http://MyOptions.ACTE-sign-up-request-2018-19.sgizmo.com/s3.

MyOptions, a nonprofit education organization, is the nation’s largest college and career planning program. Through specialized platforms such as MyCollegeOptions^®, myOptions offers free assistance and resources to millions of students, their parents, and high school faculty and staff nationwide. Learn more about myOptions student planning profiles and privacy protections with the Frequently Asked Questions. 

Research Round-up: Program Quality, Community College Partnerships, Employer Perceptions

Read up on the latest publications addressing postsecondary CTE program quality and student outcomes as well as externships, education-workforce data sharing and how manufacturers use credentials in hiring.  

Ensuring Postsecondary CTE Quality: How can states promote postsecondary CTE program quality? A new report from Advance CTE examines strategies for encouraging quality on the postsecondary level with examples from California, Florida and Wisconsin. The publication describes a spectrum of governance structures for postsecondary CTE and the resulting variety of program approval and review processes among states. It shares strategies for ensuring quality based on various levels of state control, including by using Perkins funding as a lever; requiring publicly funded programs to justify their existence with labor market data and/or employer partner commitments; harnessing accreditation policies; and developing state resources such as program approval and review manuals.

Ensuring Pathway Quality: Advance CTE recently produced another resource emphasizing quality assurance, this one aimed at quality in career pathways overall. This practical tool incorporates questions for programs of study and career pathways leaders to ask themselves as well as specific steps to take for reviewing, transforming and phasing out programs.

Employer Needs: Local business leaders surveyed by Business Forward reported the importance of school quality to their ability to hire and retain employees, and endorsed practical skills and technical training as a strategy that would help address their workforce needs.

Externships for OK Teachers: Participation in an Oklahoma teacher externship program in STEM subjects has dramatically increased in its second year. Educators are spending their summer with businesses such as an oil and gas control manufacturer. They report developing their own skills and learning more about career pathways for students.

Postsecondary Partnerships: A new brief from the National Skills Coalition highlights multi-stakeholder partnerships among employers, schools, community-based organizations (CBOs) and other entities. Case studies include the North Baton Rouge Industrial Training Initiative with ExxonMobil and Baton Rouge Community College; the M-Powered initiative involving Hennepin Technical College and the Precision Metalforming Association; and Mopar Career Automotive Program, a partnership of Fiat Chrysler and community colleges.

Community College Transfer: Only 5.6 percent of students who transfer from community colleges do so after earning a postsecondary certificate or associate degree, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The vast majority of transfers do not have a credential in hand upon changing institutions. Community colleges and states around the nation are addressing this challenge through reverse transfer policies that retroactively award credentials to transfer students.

Manufacturing Credentials: Credentials are not routinely required or used by manufacturing firms as a primary factor in hiring and promotion, according to a new report from Workcred, an American National Standards Institute affiliate. In addition, many manufacturers are unaware of what credentials are available or how they are relevant to the workplace. However, manufacturers report that credentials could be useful if they were better understood and more aligned with in-demand skills. The report features a number of recommendations, including aligning credentials with quality standards and adding more employability skills content to credentials.

Education-Workforce Data Sharing: A new brief from the Data Quality Campaign and the Workforce Data Quality Campaign lays out a roadmap for implementing quality data linkages between K-12 and workforce systems. The publication addresses steps for building cross-agency data governance structures, matching and analyzing data, and instituting security and privacy processes.  

Working Students: About 44 percent of school year 2011-12 first-time students in two-year colleges worked during their freshman year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with 18 percent working 35 hours or more per week. Students who worked 20 hours or less per week were more likely to earn an associate degree in two years than both full-time workers and students who did not work.

Employability Skills: Students’ level of confidence in their employability skills is much higher than employers’ perception of their employability skills, according to data from two recent surveys reported by McGraw-Hill Education. In addition, only about 40 percent of college students feel very or extremely prepared for their careers. More than half of students surveyed say that increased opportunities for work-based learning would have helped them feel more prepared for the workforce.

ED to Rescind Gainful Employment Rule

Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced a plan to rescind the federal gainful employment regulations. The regulations, developed in 2014 under the Obama Administration, established federal student aid eligibility criteria based on the ratio of debt-to-earnings among financial-aid participating students of all programs at for-profit colleges, as well as certificate programs at non-profit community colleges and other postsecondary CTE institutions. The department attempted a negotiated rulemaking session to tackle the issue earlier this year, but the process proved unsuccessful when the negotiators were ultimately unable to reach an agreement on rewriting the rules.

Alternatively, the department declared its intention to offer more data on student outcomes through the College Scorecard, which will include “program-level outcomes including, at a minimum, median debt and median earnings for all higher education programs, at all title IV participating institutions.” The Administration will also request public comment on a proposal to require institutions to publish information about program size, net-price, completion rates, withdrawal rates, accreditation, and whether the program meets the licensing requirements for the state in which the institution is located. The full notice is available here.

DOL Notice on Industry-Recognized Apprenticeships, Grant Opportunity

Following the president's executive order to promote apprenticeships, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued Training and Employment Notice 03-18 regarding industry-recognized apprenticeships. The aim is to encourage "trade and professional associations, employers, educational institutions, unions, labor-management organizations, states, and other third parties to collaborate to create new, industry-driven apprenticeship solutions." These industry-recognized apprenticeships would be an alternative to DOL registered apprenticeships, which some contend have a complex framework that makes it difficult for small players to establish apprenticeships, but which are known to benefit apprentices due to their high-quality, rigorous standards, and oversight.

The 11-page notice outlines "the policies and procedures that certifiers will be expected to have in place to establish standards, establish certification intervals determined by those industries, evaluate and certify programs focused on outcomes and process, report results, and maintain records." It cites the success of earn-as-you-learn programs as justification for the focus on apprenticeships, and notes the need to expand apprenticeship opportunities to emerging sectors as the workforce changes, including in sectors like information technology, health care, and financial services.

The notice defines industry-recognized apprenticeships as "high-quality apprenticeship programs that include a paid-work component and an educational or instructional component, wherein an individual obtains workplace-relevant knowledge and skills." It does not limit what entities may become certifiers. For more information, see the full notice here.

Separately, DOL is now soliciting grants for the Scaling Apprenticeships Through Sector-Based Strategies program. The complex grant is aimed at scaling apprenticeships in specific sectors and requires institutions of higher education spearhead the application and develop a public private partnership in concert with either a national trade organization or consortia of at least five employers.

A total budget of $150 million is allocated to the grant, with recipients receiving between $1 million and $12 million each. The amount allocated is a function of how many apprentices would be served, with a minimum of 800 apprentices for a $1-2 million grant. There is a mandatory 35% match for all grants.

The Corporation for a Skilled Workforce has prepared a summary of the grant, which identifies five main components of the grant. Those components include: (1) expanding or creating a new national apprenticeship program within an H-1B industry, (2) encompassing a large number of apprentices, (3) including earn-as-you-learn models, (4) consulting employers, and (5) developing an accountability system. The deadline to apply for the grant is October 17, 2018, at 4PM ET.

ED Announces Negotiated Rulemaking on Higher Education

Recently, the U.S. Department of Education announced that a new negotiated rulemaking panel will be formed to address some key aspects of federal higher education policy. Through the rulemaking process, the department has indicated that it will undertake a comprehensive review of the role that accrediting agencies play in overseeing postsecondary institutions, while also examining a number of related federal regulations.

Specifically, negotiators will discuss the rule governing arrangements between postsecondary institutions and non-traditional education and training providers. Currently, no more than half of an education program can be administered by a non-traditional entity, such as an industry association, labor organization or online training provider, in partnership with an accredited postsecondary institution. The panel will also examine the state authorization requirements for distance education programs, as well as a definition for “regular and substantive” interaction between instructors and students for such programs.

The negotiated rulemaking process was previously used by the Trump Administration in an attempt to rewrite the gainful employment rule in 2017. The panel was unable to reach a consensus, leaving it to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to decide the regulation’s fate.

House Dems Unveil Higher Education Proposal

Recently, the Democrat members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee unveiled the Aim Higher Act, a comprehensive rewrite of the federal postsecondary education law. The measure serves as a response to the Republican higher education reauthorization proposal, the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act, which passed out of the committee on a party-line vote last December and has yet to be taken up by the full chamber.

The bill includes a proposal to expand Pell Grant eligibility to students enrolled in short-term education programs that lead to a recognized postsecondary credential and are least 150 clock hours of instruction time. This provision mirrors the ACTE-endorsed Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students (JOBS) Act, which received bipartisan support from Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH).

Additionally, the bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $500, index the value of the grant in future years to inflation and extend the lifetime eligibility cap from 12 to 14 semesters. Unlike the PROSPER Act, the Democrat proposal would not eliminates interest subsidies on federal student loans and does not recommend consolidating the existing financial aid programs into a “one grant, one loan, and one work-study” system. It would phase out the existing Federal Work-Study formula for allocating funding to postsecondary institutions and replace it with one that distributes resources based on student need and the number of Pell Grant recipients served by an institution. The bill also recommends maintaining the TEACH Grant program, Perkins Teacher Loan Forgiveness program and Direct Stafford Loan Cancellation for teachers—all of which would be eliminated under the Republican plan.

The Aim Higher Act would remove the current “student unit record” ban, an ACTE policy priority, and direct the Department of Education to develop a secure system for evaluating student-level data. It authorizes a new grant program for community colleges to help institutions develop and implement evidence-based programs that increase degree completion through academic and financial advising and other student support services. The measure also proposes a new federal-state partnership grant that would provide states with aid in exchange for maintaining state funding for higher education and offering two years of free community college for all students.

President Signs New Perkins Law

On Tuesday, President Trump signed H.R. 2353, the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, ushering in a new Perkins law (Perkins V). While the president officially signed the bill in the morning, he held a ceremonial signing Tuesday evening at Tampa Bay Technical High School (TBT).

Declaring that he feels very strongly about "vocational education," the president went on to say that, "[w]hether you are a high school student or a late career worker, there has never been a better time to learn a trade, hone a skill, or pursue your dreams." The following is an excerpt of the president's remarks:

Just this morning I was very proud to sign a new and improved Perkins Career and Technical Education Act into law. That was a big deal. They've been trying to do it for many years, as I understand it. Many, many years… Now more than 11 million students will have greater access to better training and more jobs.

The president also called up two students, one current and one former. The former TBT student, David, is now a pipe welder, who touted his six-figure salary as a 23-year-old. The other student, Isabella, is an architecture and engineering student.

The provisions of the new law become effective on July 1, 2019. The first year of implementation will be considered a "transition year" and states will be able to submit a transition plan to cover requirements for the July 2019 - June 2020 program year. State four-year plans will likely be due in the spring of 2020 and will cover program years from July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2024. Over the coming months, the U.S. Department of Education should release guidance with more details on requirements for transition plans and full four-year plans, and states in turn will begin to provide more guidance to local recipients.

ACTE will also be providing a number of resources to help CTE stakeholders move toward implementation of the new law, which we are calling “Perkins V” for ease of reference. An initial summary is available here. A recorded webinar will also be available by the end of the week (live registration is full) and the link will be available on the ACTE website on our dedicated Perkins implementation webpage at https://www.acteonline.org/perkins-implementation/.  Over the next few weeks and months, more resources, including FAQs, a complete guide to the new law, and workshops will be announced. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please ask them via Twitter using the hashtag #AskPerkinsV. You can also tweet at us and follow the conversation on our new Perkins V Twitter account (@AskPerkinsV) dedicated solely to answering Perkins V questions.  Alternatively, you can email questions to publicpolicy@acteonline.org using the subject “Perkins V Question.”

As ACTE said in our joint press statement with Advance CTE, “While a new law always presents both opportunities and challenges, our organizations stand ready to work with our members and CTE’s stakeholders to ensure this law’s implementation is effective in advancing the great work already underway in states and local communities across this country.” We are looking forward to meeting your needs during the implementation process!