CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Research Roundup: Career Planning and Exploration

Career Exploration in Middle Grades: Stride Learning Solutions released a brief discussing the importance of career exploration in the middle grades. It highlights how career exploration in middle school can engage students during a transition period in their lives and help them learn about careers and about themselves. The brief also outlines four key elements to a successful middle school exploration program: offering a wide range of career options, incorporating project-based learning, providing opportunities to learn and practice 21st-century skills, and offering extended learning experiences such as job shadowing and career technical student organizations. The publication references ACTE’s report, Career Exploration in Middle School: Setting Students on the Path to Success.

 

Impacts of Education and Career Planning: The Institute of Education Sciences recently released a report about the effect of education and career planning on high school students’ postsecondary-going behaviors, such as submitting the FAFSA or enrolling in a postsecondary institution. Using longitudinal survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics, researchers concluded the following:

• Most public high schools required students to develop an education and/or career plan (ECP). About 56% required a combined education and career plan, 21% required an education plan only and 6% required a career plan only.
• Schools that required ECPs were more likely to be rural, have a higher percentage of Black students and have a higher percentage of students facing economic barriers.
• Most students created an ECP in the fall of grade 9, but only 44% of students received adult support to develop their plan and only 22% reviewed their plan annually with an adult.
• Students that developed an ECP with adult support and reviewed their plan annually were more likely to display postsecondary-going behaviors.

Implementing ICAPs: Advance CTE published a brief highlighting best practices for implementing individual career and academic plans (ICAPs) at the state and local levels by drawing on examples from states like Colorado, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin. When implemented equitably and collaboratively, ICAPs can connect education with a student’s career and life goals. Below are Advance CTE’s recommendations for states to implement effective ICAPs:

• Implement ICAPs systematically by incorporating ICAPs into graduation requirements and curriculum and by involving multiple stakeholders, such as employers and community partners.
• Introduce ICAPs in middle school and support technology that allows students to transfer their ICAPs from high school to postsecondary and the workforce.
• To ensure ICAPs are high quality and equitable, create data-driven accountability systems and provide targeted supports and interventions to students who face additional barriers.
• Use state levers to build local capacity by investing in advising professionals and cross-system data and reporting systems, disseminating best practices and providing training to districts and schools.

Helping Young Adults Build Careers: Disruptions to schooling and employment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could have lasting impacts on young adults due to lost career development opportunities. Recently, JFF released a report discussing how community-based talent development organizations can assist young adults in gaining high-wage jobs and embarking on successful careers while the U.S. economy recovers. The following are four strategies for organizations to implement outlined by the report:

• Use recent labor market data to identify high-wage, high-growth jobs and incorporate those occupations into career advising and workforce development opportunities.
• Create career pathways based on transferable skills that allow young adults to enter better paying jobs with opportunities to advance internally or move into different career areas.
• Establish wide-reaching and strong employer partnerships through cross-sector collaboration and understanding employer needs.
• Advocate for policies supporting young adults’ economic advancement such as short-term Pell grants, work-based learning and investments to programs serving underrepresented adults.

Learn more about the benefits of expanding Pell grants to short-term CTE programs.

New Resource: “Pell Grants & Short-term Programs: Unlocking Careers and Educational Opportunities”

Today, ACTE released a new fact sheet on expanding access to high-quality short-term postsecondary CTE programs. High-quality short-term postsecondary programs can help individuals earn credentials at an affordable cost and enter the workforce in high-wage, high-demand CTE industries.

Since 2010, the number of certificates awarded by public colleges has increased by nearly 30%. While the prevalence of short-term education programs is growing, Title IV of the Higher Education Act limits Pell grant eligibility to postsecondary programs that are at least 600 hours of instruction over 15 weeks, excluding students enrolled in some programs leading to valuable credentials from receiving federal aid.

This fact sheet advocates for the expansion of Pell grants to include high-quality short-term postsecondary programs by defining the issue and providing evidence about how these programs, paired with financial assistance, can lead to higher enrollment and completion rates, continued education, workforce opportunities and wage gains. Additionally, the sheet also features state-level examples from Iowa’s Gap Tuition Assistance Program and Virginia’s New Economy Workforce Credentials Grant.

We encourage you to share this fact sheet with federal, state and local education and workforce development leaders, policymakers and the media to advocate for expanding Pell grants to high-quality short-term postsecondary CTE programs!

DC Digest December 7-12

With little time left until the holiday recess, Congress returned to Washington with a lengthy to-do list, including avoiding a debt-limit default, approving the annual defense authorization bill and continuing negotiations in the Senate surrounding the Build Back Better Act. As negotiations on Build Back Better continue, it is still critical for you to contact your senators – especially Democratic senators – and ask them to maintain the $700 million investment in Perkins, $5 billion for community college and industry partnership grants and the overall $40 billion allocation for workforce development included in the House-passed version of the bill. You can read more about how to get involved on the CTE Policy Watch blog here. In the meantime, here is the latest news from Washington: 

• Congress Approves Initial Measure to Raise Debt Limit: After House passage earlier in the week, on December 9, the Senate approved S. 610, the Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, which includes a one-time procedural change allowing the Senate to raise the debt limit without meeting the required 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster. The bill is the first procedural step in raising the debt limit to avoid a default, and was signed into law on December 10. The next step is for the House and Senate to formally raise the debt limit, which will require passing another bill that will be approved by both chambers early the week of December 13. 

• House Approves Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 National Defense Authorization Act: On December 7, the House approved a compromise version of the FY 2022 NDAA, the annual measure that authorizes defense spending. The Senate is expected to consider the bill the week of December 13.  

• Department of Education Completes Negotiated Rulemaking Session: The Department of Education’s Negotiated Rulemaking panel has agreed to regulatory language across several issues, including making it easier for borrowers with a severe disability to have their loans forgiven, loan discharges for borrowers whose school falsely certified loan eligibility and eliminating interest capitalization on federal student loans in some events. Negotiators failed to reach an agreement with the Education Department over how to structure the Biden administration’s new income-driven student loan repayment plan and how to expand the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, so the Department will continue working on regulations in those areas. 

• Department of Education Announces Grant Awards to Support Underserved Students: The Department of Education has announced $182 million in new grant awards to 30 school districts, institutions of higher education and nonprofit organizations across the country as part of the Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program. These grants will support local efforts to develop, implement and scale entrepreneurial and evidence-based projects that have the potential to improve academic achievement for underserved students.

• Department of Education Announces Perkins Technical Assistance: Earlier this month, OCTAE announced a customized technical assistance (TA) opportunity to support states in strengthening reporting on the new Perkins V quality indicators. The TA is intended to supplement, not supplant, state and local efforts to implement the new indicators. The brief application is available online. Requests must be received by December 17, 2021. Please review the attached letter for more details on this exciting opportunity, or contact co-project director Lori Meyer at lmeyer@manhattanstrategy.com.

Research Roundup: Community College Programs, Supports and Outcomes

Factors Impacting Community College Outcomes: A study by the Brookings Institution explores to what degree community colleges are accountable for their students’ outcomes or whether factors outside of institutions’ control, such as learner characteristics, play a greater role. Researchers investigated program-level data on earnings and loan repayment outcomes at over 1,200 community colleges. The study concluded the following:

• Earnings outcomes vary significantly by field of study. For instance, associate degrees in construction, engineering technology and allied health fields lead to higher earnings than associate degrees in consumer science, education and communications technology.
• Although institutions with the largest populations of underrepresented students tend to have worse earnings and loan repayment outcomes, these institutions also tend to offer fewer programs in high-paying fields. This suggests that field of study rather than demographics is the main cause for variation in student outcomes.
• At institutions with the lowest share of underrepresented students, nearly a quarter of learners are enrolled in the highest-paying fields of study, compared to only 16% of learners at colleges with the largest share of underrepresented students.

Relatedly, the Postsecondary Value Commission recently released the Equitable Value Explorer, which is an interactive tool that allows users to explore how returns on investment at over 4,000 postsecondary institutions vary by demographic groups. Using public data from the College Scorecard and other sources, the tool highlights the need for transparency and equity in postsecondary outcomes.

Education and Training Patterns of Working Adults: The Community College Research Center recently released a report discussing the patterns of community college participation among working adults. Using results from the 2020 American Training Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Corporation, researchers studied trends in enrollment, credential attainment, demographics and more to reveal the following findings:

• Approximately 48% of working adults attended community college at some point in their lives and about a quarter did so as adults. Black, Hispanic and female workers utilized community college at a higher rate than white and male workers.
• About 68% of those who attended community college obtained a credential and/or transferred to a four-year institution. Black respondents were more likely to obtain a degree or certificate than white respondents and females obtained certificates at higher rates than males.
• The study also examined the use of other training venues across a workers’ career and found that online training programs were the most utilized option, followed by community colleges. As respondents aged, community colleges were used less than almost all other venues.

Supporting Single Moms: While single mothers represent 10-11% of the postsecondary population, only 28% earn a degree or other credential within six years of enrolling. In response to this issue, Education Design Labs partnered with four community colleges to launch programs focused on increasing postsecondary completion rates by 30% for at least 6,000 single mothers by 2024. A recent report outlines each colleges’ program models and the following design recommendations for institutions interested in improving completion rates for single mothers:

• Create streamlined programs that provide career advising and connect mothers to essential resources, such as advisors that serve as both case managers and career coaches.
• Establish an inclusive space for single mothers by raising institutional awareness through student and faculty training as well as community groups and courses tailored for mothers.
• Implement flexible educational experiences through online learning, individualized career and academic plans and earn-and-learn opportunities.
• Collect data, such as surveys, to understand an institution’s single mother population as well as collaborate with community partners to connect mothers with resources for meeting basic needs.

Benefits of Wraparound Supports: The University of Chicago Inclusive Economy Lab published interim findings from an ongoing eight-year study on the impact of wraparound supports on community college students’ outcomes. Researchers focused on a non-profit program, One Million Degrees (OMD), which provides financial, academic and professional assistance to under-resourced community college students in Chicago through an application-based process. The following points are key findings from their study:

• Wraparound supports can significantly impact credential attainment. For example, students enrolled in the program were 18% more likely to earn an associate degree within three years, while those who were offered OMD but did not participate were 9% more likely to earn an associate degree.
• Program participants who applied during their high school senior year were 73% more likely to earn an associate degree, the greatest degree attainment increase out of all groups.
• The program also led to meaningful increases in full-time enrollment. OMD students were 29% more likely to enroll in community college full time, while those who were offered OMD but did not participate were 11% more likely to enroll full time.

DC Digest: November 22-December 6

With a short week prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and government funding soon to run out, Congress spent last week passing legislation to fund the government. Ultimately, President Biden signed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through mid-February 2022. The Senate is also working on bringing the Build Back Better Act to the floor for a vote, but negotiations are still ongoing regarding overall funding levels in the bill and other key provisions. To this end, it is still critical for you to contact your senators – especially Democratic senators – and ask them to maintain the $700 million investment in Perkins, $5 billion for community college and industry partnership grants and the overall $40 billion allocation for workforce development included in the House-passed version of the bill. You can read more about how to get involved on the CTE Policy Watch blog here. As we await the next steps from Congress, here are the key headlines from the last couple weeks: 

• President Biden Signs Continuing Resolution to Fund Government: President Biden has signed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded through February 18, 2022, avoiding a government shutdown and delaying FY 2022 funding decisions until next year. 
   
• ACTE Endorses Military Spouse Licensure Act: ACTE has endorsed the Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, H.R. 2650/S. 1084, legislation that would provide military spouses with professional license reciprocity in the state where their spouse is serving on military orders. The Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and passed the House of Representatives on September 23, 2021, but unfortunately was not incorporated into the final NDAA bill agreement this year.  
   
• President Biden Visits Minnesota Technical College to Promote Workforce Development Investments: On November 30, President Biden visited Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, Minnesota, to promote the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act and the Build Back Better Act, bills that contain funding that will benefit CTE students and programs. President Biden noted that schools like Dakota County Technical College will train the next generation of workers to do the jobs that the bills will help create. While the Infrastructure Jobs and Investment Act has already become law, the Build Back Better Act is expected to receive a vote in the coming weeks. You can read more about the bills on the CTE Policy Watch blog.

• Department of Labor Announces Grant Funding for Apprenticeships: The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of $90 million in YouthBuild program grants to provide occupational skills training, employment services and educational support to disadvantaged youth, ages 16-24, in communities where inequalities hinder basic academic and career skills development. These funds will also provide pre-apprenticeship services for in-demand industries including construction, healthcare, information technology and hospitality. Administered by the Department’s Employment and Training Administration, these grants will fund approximately 75 projects nationwide with individual grants ranging from $700,000 to $1.5 million.  
    
• Department of Education Launches Two Communities of Practice: The Department of Education has launched “Evidence-Based Interventions: Using American Rescue Plan Resources to Accelerate Learning Community of Practice” with the National Comprehensive Center, a community of practice that will work with states and communities to accelerate learning using American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding in sustainable ways. The Department of Education is also launching “Toward an Equitable Education and Recovery: Transforming Kindergarten Community of Practice” in partnership with the Campaign for Grade Level Reading and the Department’s T4PA Center, among other partners.  
   
• Department of Education Announces Grants to Support Tribal Education: The Department of Education has announced approximately $20 million in grants to Tribal Educational Agencies (TEAs) to meet the needs of students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Rescue Plan Act’s American Indian Resilience in Education (AIRE) grant program will fund culturally relevant projects to assist and encourage Native American children and youth to enter, continue or resume participating in school from Pre-K through grade 12, including education and workforce preparation activities. 
   
• Department of Education Approves Additional ARP-ESSER Funds: The Department of Education announced that it has approved ARP-ESSER plans for the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Washington and Wisconsin. ARP-ESSER funds are used to support schools and students as they reopen for in-person learning, and to help sustain the safe operation of schools.