Senate HELP Committee Approves Education Sciences Reform Act Reauthorization

On Dec. 12, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted to approve S. 3392, the Advancing Research in Education Act. This bill amends the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), last updated by Congress in 2002. ESRA is the law that authorizes the federal government to collect information and conduct research on the U.S. education system, including through agencies such as the Institute of Education Sciences.

Historically, CTE has been underrepresented in many of these federal efforts, although CTE research efforts have been increasing in recent years. The new ESRA bill makes strong strides toward including CTE more overtly and focusing on both education and workforce outcomes of students. For example, the bill:

• Uses common terminology and definitions from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) to ensure alignment and coordination.
• Includes an explicit focus on postsecondary education, workforce development, and CTE as specific research topics for the National Center for Education Research’s development centers and as priorities in the Institute for Education Sciences’ data collection and statistics efforts.
• Supports the provision and coordination of technical assistance to support the implementation of Perkins V and other important federal education and workforce development legislation.
• Promotes voluntary guidelines to standardize data and information and ensure interoperability which would greatly increase the utility and usability of this information for a variety of stakeholders.
• Includes significant and much-needed reforms to the State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) grant program, including a more explicit incorporation of workforce data and related labor market outcomes, especially as it relates to the generation of accurate and timely data needed to support the implementation of Perkins V and other critical federal education and workforce development legislation.

ACTE endorsed the bill and will be working with Members of Congress to encourage its passage!