CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

OCTAE Equity Webinar Series Discusses Career-connected Education

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) recently held its second webinar series on equity titled Equity in Career-Connected Education: Advancing Economic Mobility.

The first webinar in the series, Work-based Learning Opportunities for Native American Students, featured guests from the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) Employment and Training Services Department such as Megan Mielke, the organization’s Youth Services Manager. This series opener covered how CITC provides work-based learning opportunities to learners through its Youth Services Program, which serves individuals aged 14-24 by assisting them in finding employment, furthering education and identifying leadership development opportunities. More specifically, this program provides students with the opportunity to engage in a 10-to-12-week paid internship in which they are employed by Cook Inlet or with a partner employer. Other services provided by the Youth Services Program include assistance with postsecondary education, GED completion, work-readiness training, career assessment, resume and cover letter writing, and interview coaching, among other activities.

The second webinar of the series titled Second Chance Pell and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) featured Kathie Stromile Golden, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Rochelle McGee-Cobbs, Ph.D., Lead Official of PEPP at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU). In this webinar, speakers discussed MVSU’s Prison Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) with the federal government designed to offer incarcerated students the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree. MVSU will be the first HBCU in the state to provide postsecondary education to incarcerated learners. The program aims to advance enrollees’ educational attainment levels to improve employment prospects once released from prison, reduce their odds of recidivating and increase their levels of civic engagement and self-esteem. Students can pick from one of three majors with different concentrations: Business Administration, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Technology.

Lastly, the third webinar in the series was titled Michigan Vocational Village and the Second Chance Pell Grant and featured Heather Gay, the Education Manager for the Michigan Department of Corrections. This webinar focused on Michigan’s unique model for prisoner education, rehabilitation and preparation for release. Michigan uses vocational villages for its skilled trades training program, a first-of-its-kind format that aims to provide learning opportunities through CTE. Currently, three facilities throughout the state have a vocational village on-site. Prisoners who participate in the vocational village are housed together to create a positive learning environment. They have full days of training and classroom instruction to mimic a typical workday and upon completion of their courses, they receive state and nationally recognized certifications in their trade of choice. A total of 1,580 villagers have been paroled since 2016, with a 70% employment rate for graduates and only 193 recidivists.

House Small Business Committee Holds Hearing on Strengthening Small Business

On April 26, the House Committee on Small Business’s Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development held a hearing titled “Help Wanted: Exploring How Alternative Paths to Student Debt Can Help to Strengthen Small Business,” featuring workforce development advocates that discussed a variety of career opportunities for students, , and how CTE can help provide these opportunities.

Subcommittee Chairman Marc Molinaro (R-NY) opened the hearing with a reminder of the value of CTE. “In addition to being shorter and less expensive than a traditional four-year degree, CTE represents a complete range of career fields across the entire economy, and is driven by the needs and demands of employers, said Chairman Molinaro. “Preparing students with the technical skills needed to obtain high-paying, in-demand jobs will prove to be crucial to bridging our nation’s skills and workforce gap.”

Subcommittee Ranking Member Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) called attention to the significant workforce needs created by new federal investments. “It is estimated that in 2023 alone, the construction industry will have to recruit 546,000 workers on top of its regular pace of hiring – just to keep up with demand. As we implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act over the next decade, the demand for workers will continue to grow,” said Ranking Member McGarvey. “Whether we are talking about apprenticeships, CTE or any other workforce development initiative, it is imperative that we look for ways to incentivize their use and make them more attractive to new demographics of workers.”

Meloni Raney, President and CEO of TEXO, which aims to unify, advocate and advance the construction industry in North and East Texas said in response to Chairman Molinaro that "There's a perception issue with construction.” TEXO is working to change these perceptions by providing salary ranges for construction trades jobs and offering examples to students that construction is an inclusive career field. Raney also emphasized the importance of industry partnerships and Perkins funding.

“CTE programs are expensive to administer and fund, with cost-intensive classrooms and equipment, and quality CTE instructors in short supply. This is especially true in construction where there is a shortage of quality instructors, as they are often recruited to work in the private sector at higher salary levels than school districts can provide. The modest funding increases for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) in recent years is a good start, as it’s the primary source of federal support for CTE programs.”

“If we’re active in the schools and we build relationships with these students for four years, they are coming into our industry,” said Raney. “We have a school that sends us about 25 welders every single year that graduate and they come into our industry. But that is a very specific school that we targeted and that we are in partnership with for four years to get those graduates. So, we are seeing glimmers. What we have to do is get a scalable approach.”

Additionally, other witnesses spoke of the challenges of finding qualified workers to fill positions in vital industries in their states, labor regulations and the immense benefits of apprenticeship in the construction trades.

You can watch the full hearing here.

Apply Now: CTERN 2023 Research Training Institute

The Career and Technical Education Research Network (CTERN) is now accepting applications for the 2023 CTE Research Training Institute, which will be held virtually August 7-11. 

The training institute takes place over the span of five days and supports researchers with an interest in CTE and quantitative experience. Early-career researchers and individuals from underrepresented backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Those who are selected to be a part of the training institute will
receive a $500 stipend and a Certificate of Training from the Institute of Education Sciences upon successful completion.

The deadline to apply is May 22, 2023. A doctoral degree or enrollment in a doctoral program is preferred but not required. Further requirements for eligibility include the following:

• Possess some training in quantitative research methods (for example, linear regression)
  
• Have experience using Stata and/or R for statistical analysis 
• Work in academia (faculty or graduate student) or at an organization that conducts education research (for example, an applied research organization or state agency) 
• Show a demonstrated interest in CTE evaluation research 
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident 

The course will cover topics such as an introduction to CTE policies and theories, randomized control trials for CTE research, causal research design, regression discontinuity designs and many more. To learn more and apply, visit the CTERN Research Institute application page.  

ACTE is one of the Network leads, supporting CTERN’s goal to increase the number and quality of CTE impact evaluations and strengthen the field’s research capacity. 

DC Digest: April 15-21

Congress returned from recess on Monday, April 17, and most of their focus was on appropriations hearings, judicial nomination issues and congressional Republicans’ debt ceiling proposal, which you can read more about below. Both chambers will be back in session next week as well, where the House in particular is expected to continue discussions on the debt limit proposal and potentially hold a vote. As we wait to learn more, here are some news and notes:

• FY 2024 Appropriations Update: Earlier his week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released House Republicans’ debt limit proposal. It would raise the national debt limit in exchange for significant cuts to non-discretionary defense spending and limiting future spending. Specifically, it would roll spending back to at least FY 22 levels and limit growth to 1% per year over the next 10 years. These cuts could have detrimental impact on education and workforce development programs, including Perkins. Speaker McCarthy plans to hold a House vote on the bill by the end of next week. You can read a copy of the debt limit proposal here.

• Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Secretary of Education Cardona at Axios Summit: Earlier this week, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona attended Axios’s Skills Summit, where they discussed their respective focuses on skills-based hiring. Both Secretary Cardona and Chairwoman Foxx shared that institutes of higher education, including two-year colleges, must evolve to meet workforce demands amid changing economic conditions. Both also emphasized the importance of industry partnerships. Read more from their comments at Axios here.

• Federal Register Publishes Notice on National CTE Research Study: The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has released the second draft of two surveys that will be conducted in 2023 to collect information about CTE policy and program implementation under Perkins V: a survey of all state directors of CTE, and a nationally representative sample of district coordinators of CTE. Comments on the surveys must be submitted by May 22, 2023. Read more from the Federal Register notice here.

• Introducing Senator Ted Budd, New Co-Chair of Senate CTE Caucus: On April 21, ACTE and Advance CTE announced that Sen. Ted Budd will become the new co-chair of the bipartisan Senate CTE Caucus! He will be taking the place of former Sen. Rob Portman, who retired at the end of last Congress. He had helped to lead the Senate CTE Caucus for 11 years. Read more about the announcement here.

• Secretary of Education Cardona Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee: Earlier this week, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. Cardona was also asked about his support for extending Pell grants to short-term workforce programs. Read more about the hearing here.

• National Science Foundation Director Emphasizes Workforce Development in Budget Hearing: During testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan emphasized the importance of rapid workforce development investments and scaling training programs to fill jobs created by investments in key industries, such as manufacturing, semiconductor research and development, and infrastructure. Read more about the hearing here.

• OCTAE Blog Recognizing Community Colleges: Assistant Secretary Amy Loyd of the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) published a blog post celebrating community college during National Community College Month. Read the blog here.

• Department of Labor Announces Funding to Attract and Retain Women in Registered Apprenticeships and Nontraditional Occupations: The Department of Labor Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced a $5 million funding opportunity during the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America tour. Funding would be available to help increase gender equity in apprenticeships and nontraditional occupations for up to 14 grant recipients. Read more about the funding here.

• Department of Labor Announces Job Training Grants and Services for Rural Communities: The Department of Labor has announced $44.2 million in funding in Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) initiative demonstration grants. The WORC initiative seeks to address persistent economic distress and create pathways to high-quality careers for people living or working in the Appalachian, Lower Mississippi Delta and Northern Border regions, helping them to remain and thrive in these communities. In concert with community partnerships, the initiative aligns with existing economic and workforce development plans to support local and regional workforces’ employment and training needs. Read more about the funding here.

Introducing Senator Ted Budd, New Co-Chair of Senate CTE Caucus

On April 21, ACTE and Advance CTE announced that Sen. Ted Budd will become the new co-chair of the bipartisan Senate CTE Caucus! He will be taking the place of former Sen. Rob Portman, who retired at the end of last Congress. He had helped to lead the Senate CTE Caucus for 11 years.

Sen. Budd represents North Carolina in the U.S. Senate. First elected to the Senate in November 2022, he previously represented North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District from 2017-2023. He is a member of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, and a strong supporter of workforce development and expanding access to CTE programs in Congress.

The Senator also currently serves as a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University, Dallas Theological Seminary and Wake Forest University.

ACTE looks forward to a strong relationship with Sen. Budd and his staff as we work together to provide more opportunities in CTE for learners across the country. Read our press release announcing Sen. Budd as the new co-chair here.

Research Roundup: CTE Equity and Special Populations

NCES Digest of Education Statistics: The National Center for Education Statistics recently released an update to its Digest of Education Statistics showing that 85% of 2019 public and private high school graduates earned at least one Carnegie credit in CTE coursework. Additionally, the data shows that participation in CTE was higher for graduates from schools in rural areas (92%) and towns (91%) and lower for graduates from suburban areas (83%) and cities (80%). Participation was also higher for students in the southern United States (91%) than for any other region. White students, Black students, and Native American and Alaska Native students participated at about the same rate (86%, 86% and 87%, respectively), while 83% of Hispanic students and 77% of Asian American students earned at least one Carnegie credit. The most common CTE courses in which students earned credit were IT (29%), human services (28%) and business and marketing (21%).

Prior to the release of this dataset, earlier data showed that among 2013 public-only high school graduates, 81% had earned at least one credit in CTE subjects and 92% had earned any credits in CTE and related subjects like career exploration. Owing to differences in data sources and definitions, these datasets are difficult to compare; however, both demonstrate that a majority of high school students are taking part in CTE.

Rural Community College Excellence: A Guide to Delivering Strong Opportunities for Students and Communities: The Aspen Institute’s College Excellence program – an initiative aimed at advancing higher education practices and leadership that significantly impact and improve underserved and underrepresented student learning, completion and employment after college – recently published a guide covering the successes and opportunities of community colleges in rural areas. The guide is aimed at highlighting how community colleges are essential hubs to the communities and regions that they serve by generating opportunities for economic mobility and talent development and oftentimes providing health care support. This guide draws on data from analyses of student outcomes, interviews with college leaders, as well as virtual and in-person site visits to rural colleges to share examples of high-achieving rural colleges.

Unlocking Opportunities: Supporting English Learners’ Equitable Access to Career and Technical Education: A recently released report by the Migration Policy Institute looked at CTE participation and concentration for students categorized as English learners (EL). Researchers found that, on a state level, English learners participate and concentrate in CTE at rates that are relatively representative to their share of the high school population. However, they note that a lack of access to district-level data means that there may be more variation on the local level. Where local systems observe underrepresentation of English learners, the authors discuss strategies such as co-teaching between an EL specialist and content teacher; employing student and family advisors; and developing CTE programs in translation and interpretation, which could be a draw for bilingual and multilingual students.

Unpacking Financial Disincentives: Why and How They Stymie Degree-Applicable Credit Mobility and Equitable Transfer Outcomes: The Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board recently released a white paper on credit mobility policies and challenges as a part of its “No Easy Answers” series exploring postsecondary education outcomes for economically disadvantaged students. The advisory board chose this focus of research to raise awareness of the problematic default approach where institutions opt to reject credits until they are evaluated and approved for equivalency, which often results in classes having to be re-taken. Shifting this default, according to the paper, would be imperative to achieving equity since students who transfer and are more mobile tend to be from underrepresented learner groups by race, ethnicity, age and/or income. The report includes examples from Northern Virginia Community College and George Mason University as well as The Ohio State University and various Ohio community colleges. It also recommends strategies such as using funding formulas to incentivize policies that better serve transfer and mobile students and requiring institutions to have an evidence-based rationale for rejecting credits or risk financial consequences.

National Science Foundation Director Emphasizes Workforce Development in Budget Hearing

During testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan emphasized the importance of rapid workforce development investments and scaling training programs to fill jobs created by investments in key industries, such as manufacturing, semiconductor research and development, and infrastructure.

As one portion of the NSF request for FY 2024, the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) will help cultivate new education pathways leading to a diverse and skilled future technical workforce comprising researchers, practitioners, technicians, entrepreneurs and educators that is fully prepared to enter the STEM workforce. Experiential Learning in Emerging Industries (ExLENT), a work-based learning model, and NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) will also support business and economic growth in underserved regions through equitable research, entrepreneurship and workforce development.

In response to questions about proposed budget cuts for fiscal year (FY) 2024 (as part of their debt limit negotiations, Republicans have proposed cutting discretionary spending back to FY 2022 levels), Panchanathan said such cuts could harm NSF workforce development efforts and hamstring implementation of new initiatives.

“A reduction of 22% will preclude NSF from being able to reach the estimated 10,000 individuals [entering engineering programs] in fiscal year 2024 alone, threatening this goal of the long-term competitiveness in semiconductors and other key technologies,” he said. “Our nation needs to train 280,000 new workers in semiconductors and microelectronics over the next five years.”

You can view the full hearing at the link here.

Secretary of Education Cardona Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee

Today, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education.

One key theme was the availability of high-skill jobs that will soon be available as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. To this end, Secretary Cardona described the Administration’s Career-Connected High Schools initiative, in addition to the $1.47 billion requested for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Grants program, an increase of $43 million over the fiscal year 2023 enacted level.

Notably, Sec. Cardona was asked by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) about specific plans for STEM and computer science education in low income and rural communities.

“There's a set aside, $100 million, just for rural communities to make sure that we're giving them the opportunities to innovate around STEM education,” said Cardona. This funding would be distributed through the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) followed by asking whether he supports efforts to expand federal Pell grants to short-term, high-quality workforce training programs, also known as “short-term Pell.”

“You know, I've been telling educators throughout the country, ‘evolve, you have to change your programing to meet the demand,’ and I think part of that is us also recognizing the benefits of short-term Pell and being open to the benefits of programing that gives students the skills that they need in a shorter period of time,” said Cardona. “And in the same breath, I want to share with you that if we are to consider that, we have to also make sure that we're not putting our students in a disadvantage where they're using Pell dollars, not having it later and not ensuring high quality or accountability for good programing there.”

You can view our coverage of President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget request here, our statement about the budget here, as well as the full hearing at the YouTube link here.

As the appropriations process continues, stay tuned to CTE Policy Watch for the most up-to-date information that may affect the CTE community.

DC Digest: April 8-14

Congress remained on recess this week so things in Washington were relatively quiet. However, there was a fair amount of conversation about the debt limit, with Republicans congressional leaders floating several ideas as part of ongoing negotiations. Several of those ideas could prove detrimental to education and workforce development funding, including across the board cuts to domestic discretionary spending, caps on non-defense spending and limits on spending growth for the next 10 years. As Congress returns on April 17, these debt limit conversations are expected to ramp up in the House in particular. In the meantime, here is some other news from the past week:

• 37 Senators Support Perkins Funding: The “Dear Colleague” letter led by Sens. Blumenthal (D-CT) and Kaine (D-VA) has been finalized and sent to the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee. A total of 37 senators signed the letter in support of robust funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant in the FY 24 appropriations bill. You can view the final letter and check for your senators here!
  
  
• Senators Reintroduce Bipartisan Bill on Early Postsecondary Opportunities: Peters (D-MI), Boozman (R-AR), Kaine (D-VA) and Braun (IN) have re-introduced legislation that would expand opportunities within the Higher Education Act to support dual and concurrent enrollment and early college high school programs. ACTE has endorsed this legislation.
  
  
• CTE Caucus Co-Chair Announces Re-election Bid: Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), co-chair of the Senate CTE Caucus, has announced her intent to run for re-election in 2024.
  
  
• Department of Education Delays Third-party Servicer Guidance: In a blog post on April 11, Department of Education Under Secretary James Kvaal announced that initial guidance on transparency and accountability for contractors who work with institutions of higher education on program management and delivery would be delayed.The Department is reviewing feedback received on initial guidance and will be reissuing revisions to the guidance letter, which will then take effect at least six months later.

DC Digest: April 1-7

Congress was on recess this week for the Easter and Passover holidays and will not return until April 17. That made it a relatively quiet week on Capitol Hill, but there was still a variety of activity within the Administration related to CTE. Here is a wrap-up of various news and notes:

• Department of Education Hosts Information Session on Career Z WBL Challenge: The first information session for those interested in applying for the Career Z Work-based Learning Challenge was held on April 4. Visit the website to view a recording, slides and more information.
  
  
• Department of Education Seeks Peer Reviewers: The Department of Education has released a notice seeking peer reviewers for various upcoming grant competitions, including competitions within the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education such as under the Perkins Act’s Innovation and Modernization Fund. Please register at g5.gov if you are interested in serving in this role!
  
  
• Administration Officials Visit CTE Programs: First Lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona were on the road during the week visiting CTE and other education and workforce development programs, including in Colorado, Michigan, Maine and Vermont. See more coverage on our ACTE Public Policy Twitter Account!
  
  
• Department of Labor Announces New Grant Program: $80 million is now available for the “Building Pathways to Infrastructure Jobs” grant program, which is designed to allow public and private sector partners to develop or scale workforce training programs in advanced manufacturing; IT; and careers in renewable energy, transportation and broadband infrastructure. Applications are due July 7, and more information is available at https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20230405.