Illinois « Advance CTE Blog

Legislative Update: Lawmakers Set to Meet Next Week on the Debt Ceiling

Friday, May 5th, 2023

This week lawmakers have continued to struggle to find consensus on how to lift the nation’s borrowing authority. In addition, significant legislation regarding postsecondary data and apprenticeships has been introduced in the House and Senate with implications for Career Technical Education (CTE) while the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a new round of funding for state longitudinal data systems.

Lawmakers Agree to Meet Next Week on Debt Ceiling

Since the beginning of the 118th Congress lawmakers have struggled to agree on whether and how to raise the nation’s statutory borrowing authority (known informally as the debt limit or ceiling). In recent weeks, House Republicans have advanced legislation that would dramatically cut investments in domestic programs, including the primary federal investment made in CTE by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling through the spring of 2024. However, the legislation contains several policy provisions, including these significant funding reductions, that congressional Democrats and President Biden have indicated they will not support.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in a Dear Colleague letter this week, re-emphasized Democrats’ position that the debt ceiling should be extended without preconditions and shared plans to hold hearings in the coming weeks to draw attention to House Republicans’ recent legislative proposal.

As the impasse continued this week, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote to lawmakers indicating that she expects the federal government to reach this limit as soon as June 1 of this year. Following her letter, President Biden invited top Congressional leaders from both parties and chambers to meet on May 9 to further negotiate a path forward.

As these efforts continue, Advance CTE will continue to closely monitor this situation and engage with partners to ensure that this process does not adversely impact federal investments in CTE as part of the ongoing federal fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget and appropriations process.

House Lawmakers Introduce Apprenticeship Proposal

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers led by House Education and the Workforce Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the National Apprenticeship Act of 2023— legislation that would comprehensively update, for the first time since 1937, the primary federal law that authorized registered apprenticeship programs (RAPs). If enacted, the law would codify and update existing RAP regulations while providing more than $3.8 billion in funding for the expansion of these, and related programs, for new occupations and a wider array of learners. Notable for the CTE community, the legislation would also formalize expectations for pre- and youth-apprenticeship programs which often serve as on-ramps from education into RAPs. More information about the bill can be found here, including a related factsheet and bill text. Advance CTE has endorsed and supported versions of this legislation in previous Congresses.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Department of Labor is hosting a listening session today, May 5, to receive input from the public regarding improvements and enhancements that can be made to the existing RAP system. More information regarding this opportunity can be found here.

Postsecondary Data Modernization Bill Reintroduced

Earlier this week a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, led by Reps. Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Joe Wilson (R-SC), reintroduced the College Transparency Act (CTA). This legislation would make much needed reforms to the nation’s postsecondary data reporting system.

Advance CTE has long supported and endorsed this legislation, which would overturn an existing ban on the creation of a postsecondary student unit record system– a feature of current law that greatly diminishes the ability to understand postsecondary outcomes for many learners. The legislation would make several other data improvements that would increase transparency, improve the timeliness of this information and enhance the accuracy of the data that is collected from postsecondary institutions. These improvements would ensure that consumers, and the wider public, have better access to the data to make more informed decisions regarding postsecondary education and training. A factsheet on the bill can be found here and the full text, as introduced this week, can be found here.

In other postsecondary data developments, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has recently updated the College Scorecard. This year’s scorecard now features four years of earnings data for program completers, includes new demographic data and expands data collection to cover graduate programs. A recent ED blog further details these updates here.

ED Announces New Rounds of SLDS Funding

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced the availability of a new round of State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) Grant program funding. These resources are intended to support states in developing and modernizing SLDSs to improve the utility of student-level data and develop more cohesive and comprehensive P-20W (early education through workforce) data systems. This latest round of grants will promote four priorities for proposals and projects that seek to improve data infrastructure and interoperability, college and career, school finance and those that support various state-level policy concerns. Only state education agencies may apply for funding and they must express interest in doing so by May 19. More on how to apply for funding can be found here.

In addition, the Data Quality Campaign, in partnership with Advance CTE and many other national organizations, released a new vision for transforming SLDSs this week, which includes actionable use case examples and provides policy suggestions for improving state data systems and promoting integrated, interoperable and linked data.

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Jodi Langellotti in Public Policy
Tags: 118th Congress, College Scorecard, College Transparency Act, debt ceiling, debt talks, House Education and the Workforce, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Postsecondary data, Postsecondary Education, RAP, Registered Apprenticeship, SLDS, South Carolina, Virginia, youth apprenticeship

State CTE Policy Update: Addressing Learners Experiencing Homelessness in Illinois

Friday, April 28th, 2023

Advance CTE is committed to supporting states as they build cohesive, flexible and responsive Career Technical Education (CTE) ecosystems. With that responsiveness, comes a responsibility to provide quality CTE programs and interventions for learners that exist on the margin of society. One important group of learners that exists on the margin is students experiencing homelessness.

According to the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), students experiencing homelessness are entitled to the same CTE services as all other students, including programs and services that are designed to prepare students for high-skill, high-wage and in-demand careers. CTE programs provide an additional pathway for these students to achieve success in the workforce that can help reate the stability they need. Illinois seeks to address this issue through S.B. 0190, which passed in 2021.

S.B. 0190 or The Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act is a sweeping piece of legislation that requires a designated staff member at any “publicly or privately operated university, college, community college, business, technical or vocational school, or other educational institution offering degrees and instruction beyond the secondary school level,” to serve as liaison to youth experiencing homelessness and youth in the care of the state attending their institution.

The institution must create a separate liaison position dedicated to providing the wraparound support those students need to matriculate successfully should, after three years of tracking and reporting the homeless youth attending, that population be two percent or higher. The law defines homelessness as not having access to a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. On-campus housing is excluded from this definition.

The liaison’s main roles are:

To provide support with applying for Federal and state financial aid or other programs.
To identify services and resources that are available to and appropriate for a student experiencing homelessness.
To track and monitor the graduation rate and retention rate of learners defined by the law as “homeless students and students in care” enrolled at the institution.
To report annually to the Board of Higher Education or the Illinois Community College Board, as appropriate, the number of students experiencing homelessness and students in care enrolled at the institution.
To act as an intermediary between a student experiencing homelessness or student in care and the office of financial aid, student support services and campus housing services.
To connect a student experiencing homelessness or student in care to a local continuum of care program.
To develop a plan to provide access to on-campus housing or to suitable off-campus housing between academic breaks to students experiencing homelessness or students in care enrolled at the institution.
To train the institution’s employees to identify students experiencing homelessness and to refer those students to the liaison.

The Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act also requires The Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board to provide access to a training program that was developed by a homeless advocacy agency to ensure staff has the capacity to serve these students. They must also provide yearly training for liaisons and collaborate with the State Coordinator for McKinney-Vento Homeless Education to facilitate the transition of students experiencing homelessness from secondary to postsecondary education.

Finally, the law requires institutions to prioritize students experiencing homelessness or students in care when it comes to on-campus housing, including housing that is open during breaks (and to waive fees for on-campus housing during breaks.) This also includes allowing part-time students experiencing homelessness access to on-campus housing and the mandate to include their services to these students in their financial aid packets.

Illinois has managed to create a robust law that will serve a population that often gets overlooked in discussions of access and equity. With designated staff and liaisons invested in their care, students experiencing homelessness will have a stronger chance to succeed in the CTE programs they enroll in.

This legislation is designed to provide CTE learners of Illinois with better opportunities of entering the workforce and move past the housing insecurities they may have experienced. States can use this as a model of their own; creating a dedicated staff member to serve as liaison to these learners, creating reporting and accountability models and building in immediate responsiveness to the need for a permanent position to provide supports for students experiencing homelessness.

For more information on identifying common barriers to high-quality CTE and for additional strategies on how CTE and education leaders can work together to increase access and success in CTE programs for youth experiencing homelessness, read Making Good on the Promise: Improving Equity in and Access to Quality CTE Programs for Students Experiencing Homelessness.

Brice Thomas, Policy Associate

By Jodi Langellotti in Public Policy
Tags: Access and Equity, Illinois, special populations, state policy, youth experiencing homelessness

Research Round-Up: Analyzing Enrollment Gaps in South Carolina’s Health Sciences Career Cluster

Monday, March 27th, 2023

Advance CTE’s “Research Round-Up” blog series features summaries of relevant research reports and studies to elevate evidence-backed Career Technical Educational (CTE) policies and practices and topics related to college and career readiness. This month’s blog highlights findings from a replicative study that explores educational inequity within the South Carolina CTE Health Science Career Cluster®. These findings align with Advance CTE’s vision for the future where each learner can access CTE without borders.

CTE programs offer learners the opportunity to build their awareness of different career options through exposure to activities that promote early exploration to more explicit skill development through work-based learning and apprenticeships. When well designed, these programs achieve robust and equitable enrollment that supports local and state economic growth by aligning with relevant and high-wage industries.

One recent dissertation, Educational Equity Patterns within South Carolina Career and Technical Education (CTE): A Replication Study, authored by Nickolas Sumpteris describes the outcomes of replicating a previous study by Fuller Hamilton. Fuller Hamilton analyzed STEM CTE enrollment patterns in Illinois by the racial/ethnic make-up and sexual characteristics of all students within the state. Since no CTE educational equity research exists in South Carolina, Sumpter sought to apply this same analysis to South Carolina’s CTE Health Science Career Cluster.

Fuller Hamilton et al. (2015) showed considerable differences in enrollment of male participants in the STEM career cluster compared to females and how these enrollment patterns correlated to other enrollment patterns within career clusters at the state and national levels. The original study also showed that all racial/ethnic groups in Illinois, except white students, were generally underrepresented in CTE programming. In addition, learners within marginalized groups identified as special populations under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) experienced significant success in obtaining high-demand skills as a pathway to college or the career of their choice when enrolled in CTE courses.

The population represented in Sumpter’s paper consisted of high school learners enrolled in CTE within South Carolina during the 2018-19 school year. Secondary data was collected from a sample of 196,318 CTE enrollees and examined using descriptive analysis procedures. Sumpter’s research questions for this replication study were:

RQ1. What are South Carolina students’ CTE enrollment patterns, by sex, in both Health Science and Non-Health Science career clusters?
RQ2. What are South Carolina students’ CTE enrollment patterns, by race/ethnicity, in both Health Science and Non-Health Science career clusters?
RQ3. What are South Carolina students’ CTE enrollment patterns, by region, in both Health Science and Non-Health Science career clusters?
RQ4. What are South Carolina students’ CTE enrollment patterns, by socioeconomic status, in both Health Science and Non-Health Science career clusters?

Findings

The study in South Carolina found inconsistencies in the levels of equity that existed within race, ethnicity, and sex. These inequities were also present regarding regional effects and socioeconomic status.

Sumpter concluded with recommendations for future research:

Conduct a qualitative or mixed-method study to explain further the enrollment patterns of CTE programs in South Carolina.
Address the inequities in South Carolina by:
- improving the underrepresentation of educators by sex and race/ethnicity;
- recommending equity audits;
- examining access and availability of opportunities within CTE programs;
- encouraging all educators to actively adopt and advance the equity agenda from the original study.

Additional Resources

Analyzing the Health Science Career Cluster was significant because the healthcare field represents a major employer in South Carolina and is one of the largest growing fields nationally. By improving the enrollment of underrepresented groups in the Health Science Career Cluster, South Carolina can improve the quality of life and the labor market for its residents.

State, local CTE and career pathways leaders can learn more about effectively harnessing learner group data using Advance CTE’s Achieving Inclusive CTE Goal-Setting Tool. The Achieving Inclusive CTE Goal-Setting Tool strives to equip state and local CTE and career pathways leaders to approach program participation, outcomes data, and goal setting with an inclusive and representative lens. With this goal-setting tool, leaders can more intentionally plan to recruit, engage and support underrepresented learner groups to increase access to high-quality CTE programs and career pathways.

Amy Hodge, Policy Associate

To read more of Advance CTE’s “Research Round-Up” blog series featuring summaries of relevant research reports and studies click here.

By Jodi Langellotti in Research
Tags: Career ClustersÂ®, CTE Data, Equity and Access, gender equity, Health Science, Illinois, South Carolina

Legislative Update: Bipartisan Spotlight on CTE This Week

Friday, February 10th, 2023

This week the President delivered the annual State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress, while the House held its first hearing of the new 118th Congress. Elsewhere Career Technical Education (CTE) champions in the House introduced a resolution designating February as CTE Month while lawmakers reintroduced legislation that would greatly expand postsecondary CTE opportunities for learners across the country.

President Biden Delivers State of the Union

On Tuesday, February 7, President Joe Biden delivered the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The speech focused on the President and Congress’ accomplishments over the last two years, including significant investments in advanced manufacturing, the nation’s infrastructure, and other domestic priorities, while also reiterating a need to “finish the job” in the 118th Congress—a recurrent theme that the President returned to throughout the evening. Ahead of the address to the joint session of Congress, First Lady Jill Biden’s guests included Kate Foley– a 10th grade computer-integrated manufacturing student who the First Lady had met last year during a visit she and other Administration officials made to CTE programs in Rolling Meadows High School. In addition, Rep. Glusenkamp Perez (D-WA) brought Cory Toppa, a construction, engineering design, and manufacturing teacher at Kalama High School and the director of CTE for the Kalama school district as her guest during the speech.

During the speech, the President touched on a wide range of issues, including universal preschool for three- and four-year olds, raising teacher salaries, and calling on Congress to provide greater resources for digital connectivity. However, the President consistently highlighted the centrality of education and workforce development as part of America’s ability to compete within the wider global economy. Notably, the President touched on Career Technical Education (CTE) saying, in part, “Let’s finish the job, and connect students to career opportunities starting in high school, provide access to two years of community college, the best career training in America, in addition to being a pathway to a four-year degree. Let’s offer every American a path to a good career, whether they go to college or not.”

Reinforcing the Biden Administration’s sincere and growing interest in CTE, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited high school career academies in Omaha, Nebraska the following day to discuss students’ experiences in these programs. Advance CTE was proud to honor this program as an Excellence in Action awardee in 2015, highlighting the program’s exemplary performance which was on full display as part of the Secretary’s visit this week. As shared by the U.S. Department of Education (USED), the visit was also intended to reinforce Secretary Cardona’s recent speech outlining his Department’s priorities for the coming year, which include a focus on strengthening CTE pathways for students. A full transcript of the President’s State of the Union Address can be accessed here.

House Education Committee Hosts First Hearing

The newly renamed House Education and the Workforce Committee, Chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) held its first hearing this week titled, “American Education in Crisis.” Witnesses included Virginia Gentles, Director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, Scott Pulsipher, the President of Western Governors University, and Monty Sullivan, the President of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. The wide-ranging hearing was intended to highlight aspects of the committee’s likely agenda over the next year ranging from K-12 and postsecondary education to workforce development. During the hearing several CTE topics were discussed at length, including the need to greatly expand postsecondary CTE opportunities by enacting legislation that would expand federal Pell grant eligibility for high-quality, shorter-term CTE programs.

Hearing witnesses, along with an array of committee members on both sides of the aisle, also voiced support for these much needed reforms to the nation’s postsecondary education system. “The single most important step Congress can take in helping address our nation’s skill shortage is to immediately authorize the use of Pell Grants for workforce programs. . . [I] strongly urge Congress to come to consensus on legislation that, when passed, will enable a significant increase in the number of students across the country who will have a new opportunity in how they improve their skills” Monty Sullivan shared as part of his testimony.

Beyond short-term Pell reform, the hearing also touched on the need to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Higher Education Act (HEA), most notably by more tightly aligning these federal investments in future legislative updates. In particular, witnesses spoke about the importance of wrap-around services and developing integrated systems of education and workforce development that more effectively ensured learner and worker success. Witnesses also voiced strong support for expanding work-based learning opportunities, particularly apprenticeship programs and called for a broadening of federal support for multiple postsecondary pathways that lead to opportunity. An archived webcast of the more than three hour hearing can be found here.

House Lawmakers Reintroduce the JOBS Act

Late last week, a group of bipartisan lawmakers including Reps. Bill Johnson (R-OH), Lisa Blunt-Rochester (D-DE), Michael Turner (R-OH), and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), reintroduced the Jumpstarting our Businesses by Supporting Students (JOBS) Act (H.R. 793)– legislation that would expand federal Pell grant funding eligibility to high-quality, shorter-term CTE programs that meet certain criteria. The bill is the House companion to legislation also reintroduced in the Senate last week, which is currently supported by just under half of the upper chamber. Advance CTE is proud to support this legislation and encourages members to reach out to their Representatives to encourage them to co-sponsor the legislation this Congress. More on the reintroduction can be found here.

House CTE Caucus Introduces CTE Month Resolution

On Wednesday, February 8th, House CTE Caucus Co-chairs Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) introduced a resolution recognizing and designating February as National CTE Month (H. Res. 110). The resolution was co-sponsored by a broad bipartisan coalition of 71 Representatives– a new high watermark of support for the annual resolution. Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) were joined by more than 50 other organizations who also supported the introduction of the resolution this week.

“We are proud to support the 2023 Career Technical Education (CTE) Month resolution as a celebration and recognition of the impact CTE has for learners as they explore and find their career passions, secure meaningful credentials of value aligned to in-demand careers and provide employers with a highly skilled workforce that is responsive to rapidly evolving industry needs,” said Advance CTE Executive Director Kimberly Green. More on the introduction can be found here.

Senate HELP Organizes

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee– the entity with responsibility over CTE policymaking in the Senate– met for the first time this week to formally organize and adopt rules for the Congress. New HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) emphasized his desire to focus on a wide range of healthcare issues, including a focus on the workforce shortages within the sector. Chair Sanders noted that “We desperately need plumbers and carpenters and electricians and yet we don’t have the training capabilities of doing that.” He highlighted apprenticeships as a potential strategy to address these needs and emphasized that he hoped to work together with Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and his colleagues on these issues in the coming Congress.

During remarks, Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) emphasized his desire to reauthorize WIOA and HEA, while also identifying reducing the costs of postsecondary education as being another potential area of bipartisan consensus he hoped to pursue over the next two years. The brief organizational meeting also featured high-level remarks from other committee members who highlighted their priorities for the coming Congress. As part of the meeting HELP members adopted rules for the committee unanimously, as well as a budget, before adjourning. An archived webcast of the meeting can be found here.

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Jodi Langellotti in Public Policy
Tags: Congressional CTE Caucus, cte funding, CTE Policy, Education and the Workforce Committee, excellence in action, HELP Committee, Illinois, JOBS Act, Louisiana, Nebraska, President Biden, SOTU, U.S. Secretary of Education, washington, Washington State, WIOA

Making Good on the Promise: Addressing Three Major Challenges for English Learners in CTE

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

Without Limits: A Shared Vision for the Future of Career Technical Education (CTE Without Limits) calls on each level of leadership to create systems and structures that offer every learner access to high-quality Career Technical Education (CTE) opportunities that lead to career success. This requires dismantling systemic and institutional barriers that limit equitable access to and success in CTE for learners from special populations.

In support of the CTE Without Limits vision, Advance CTE recently released the Improving Equity and Access to Quality CTE Programs for English Learners brief. This resource explores English Learner (EL) enrollment in CTE and three major barriers that English Learners face in accessing and succeeding in CTE programs, concluding with recommendations on how state leaders can take the lead in addressing these barriers and expanding access to high-quality CTE opportunities.

1.Barrier: Irrelevant or Impersonal Curricula and Assessments

In both general education and CTE courses, English Learners are frequently exposed to one-size-fits-all curricula that are not personalized to their unique interests, career goals and learning needs. Additionally, ELs may need to take remedial classes that take time away from credit-bearing courses that lead to certificate or degree program completion or limit opportunities to enroll in CTE courses. Finally, many forms of assessments, including entrance and placement exams and state standardized tests, place ELs at a disadvantage by simultaneously testing both content knowledge and language skills. These assessments typically do not recognize the unique value that ELs offer as emergent bilinguals with a wealth of cultural and linguistic knowledge.

Addressing the Barrier: Providing adaptive instruction and relevant skill-building opportunities are critical for ELs. The state of Washington’s Integrated Basic Education Skills and Training (I-BEST) team-teaching instructional model supports these learners by teaching both basic language skills and career readiness skills. Studies from the Department of Health and Human Services have confirmed the effectiveness of I-BEST at improving educational outcomes. Additionally, states should make an effort to make assessments more accessible. Virginia created a catalog of industry credentials with testing accommodations for ELs, with direction on how districts and schools should notify ELs about these accommodations prior to taking tests.

Another avenue for addressing the educational needs of ELs is leveraging federal funding – a program provider in Ohio utilized funds from Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act to expand culturally responsive career counseling and career exploration opportunities for ELs. Finally, professional development for CTE educators is necessary to ensure that instruction is culturally responsive and adaptive. Arizona’s Department of Education has initiated a collaborative interagency project to develop professional learning opportunities for instructors across the state, centered on identifying and deploying strategies to address barriers for special populations in the classroom.

2.Barrier: Competing Priorities and Time Demands

Many ELs have family and work demands that often result in class scheduling conflicts. ELs disproportionately experience low-income, and many work in jobs with demanding, unpredictable work schedules and low wages. Further, ELs may face additional barriers to accessing child care and transportation to get to class.

Addressing the Barrier: Wraparound services are essential for this population to access and succeed in CTE programs. States and local leaders can work together to braid different funding streams and leverage federal grants to coordinate community services and address barriers to accessing CTE. Local education agencies must also provide timely interventions and long-term supports. Georgia provides targeted guidance for ELs and other special populations at risk of dropping out of high school through the Coordinated Career Academic Education and Project Success support services. Additionally, Georgia’s technical colleges employ Special Populations Coordinators to support these learners.

3.Barrier: Few Avenues for Elevating Learner Voices and Outcomes

While K-12 schools are required to collect and report data on learners’ language proficiency, guidance for collecting and reporting these data at the postsecondary level is extremely limited. States typically do not provide any direction on how postsecondary institutions can best serve ELs. Additionally, there are few mechanisms for elevating the voices and lived experiences of ELs within decision-making processes, exacerbating the lack of knowledge on learners’ participation rates and outcomes in CTE programs. In order to truly understand the scope of institutional barriers and create meaningful solutions, state CTE leaders must find ways to access crucial data on this learner population.

Addressing the Barrier: The Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) process required under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) can be a critical avenue for collecting and reporting data on ELs. Special populations are a required stakeholder to consult when developing CLNAs, and state plans must address learners’ access to CTE programs, as well as their performance levels. The Illinois Community College Board developed a CLNA template with specific fields for describing how the equity needs of each learner group are being met at every stage of the process.

This resource is part of the Making Good on the Promise series, which defines key challenges that different learners face and explores solutions that State CTE Directors can implement to help close equity and opportunity gaps in CTE. For more resources on supporting special populations in CTE, visit Advance CTE’s Learning that Works Resource Center.

Allie Pearce, Graduate Fellow

By Stacy Whitehouse in Publications
Tags: Arizona, CLNA, English language learners, Equity and Access, Georgia, Illinois, Making Good on the Promise, Ohio, Student Supports, Virginia, Washington State

State Policies Impacting Access and Equity

Wednesday, February 16th, 2022

State education agencies, legislators and educators faced significant challenges from the coronavirus pandemic, including adapting to remote and hybrid delivery of hands-on learning, and responding to local and national skilled labor shortages. The number of state-level CTE policies enacted that affect Career Technical Education (CTE) fell to the lowest number in 2020 since Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) began publishing these annual Year in Review reports.

However, with a new commitment to upskilling and reskilling American learners and a CTE without limits, 41 states enacted 138 policies impacting CTE and career readiness in 2021. Advance CTE and ACTE have witnessed the return of pre-pandemic numbers in state policy actions in 2021 with policies affecting the secondary, postsecondary, adult and/or workforce systems, and including legislation, executive orders, and budget provisions that significantly changed funding.

Each year, Advance CTE and ACTE publish a yearly state policy tracker and categorize each state policy action by topic. In 2021, the top five topics that state policy most frequently addressed were:

Funding;
Access and equity;
Data, reporting and/or accountability;
Industry partnerships and work-based learning; and
Industry-recognized credentials.

Access and Equity

Policies that address each learner gaining access to and being successful in high-quality CTE programs have been categorized by this topic. Twenty-seven states enacted 45 policies related to access and equity that implement changes aimed to expand access to CTE for historically marginalized learners, including learners of color and learners with special population status such as learners with disabilities, learners who are economically disadvantaged, participants in fields of study that are non-traditional for their gender, single parents and out-of-workforce individuals. This category also includes middle school CTE programming and diversity in the CTE educator workforce. Below are a few state policy actions aligned to access and equity:

Illinois directed districts and community colleges to ensure access for individual learners with disabilities to postsecondary CTE and dual credit courses. The law requires that dual credit opportunities be supported under the learner’s Section 504 plan or in their Individualized Education Plan.
Virginia expanded the conditions for receiving benefits under the Virginia Initiative for Education and Work, a program for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients, and benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to include participation in educational activities that lead to a postsecondary credential from an accredited institution of higher education or other postsecondary school.
Washington required that all state community and technical colleges develop, in collaboration with diverse stakeholders, strategic plans to achieve diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges must develop a model faculty diversity program to aid in the recruitment and retention of faculty from diverse backgrounds.

State Policies Impacting CTE: 2021 Year in Review marks the ninth annual review of CTE and career readiness policies from across the United States conducted by Advance CTE and ACTE. This report does not describe every policy enacted within each state but instead focuses on national policy trends.

View the full report and 2021 state policy tracker here.

Dan Hinderliter, Senior Policy Associate

By Brittany Cannady in Advance CTE Resources, Resources
Tags: Access and Equity, Illinois, state policy, Virginia, Washington State

Getting to Know the Advance CTE – ECMCF Fellows

Tuesday, January 4th, 2022

In November, Advance CTE and ECMC Foundation announced the inaugural cohort of The Postsecondary State Career Technical Education (CTE) Leaders Fellowship at Advance CTE—Sponsored by ECMC Foundation. The Advance CTE – ECMCF Fellows include representation across multiple demographic categories which emphasizes the Fellowship’s goal of intentionally building a postsecondary leadership pipeline for underserved populations in CTE that closes racial representation gaps, and removes equity barriers to postsecondary leadership advancement.

Over the next few months, this blog series will introduce each Fellow participating in the inaugural cohort of emerging leaders from 12 states, including 13 professionals of color.

Donald Walker (Michigan) has over three decades of experience in broadcast and digital media production and education, and currently serves as Director of Multimedia at the Detroit School of Arts in Detroit, Michigan. He earned multiple credentials from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts, a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Detroit-Mercy and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Heather Covington (North Carolina) began her CTE journey as a National Board Certified business and marketing instructor and career development coordinator, and currently serves as Assistant Principal at Alston Ridge Middle School in Cary, North Carolina. She is a first-generation graduate with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Information Technology and Business Education from East Carolina University, an Education specialist degree from Old Dominion University, and two master’s degrees in Instructional Technology and School Administration from North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina, respectively.

Janelle Washington (Illinois) previously held multiple positions in the criminal justice system prior to pursuing a career in higher education, and currently serves as a Director for Career and Technical Education at the Illinois Community College Board. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and master’s degrees in Public Administration and College Student Personnel Administration from University of Illinois Springfield and Illinois State University, respectively.

Click here to learn more about the Fellowship and each Fellow.

Brittany Cannady, Senior Associate Digital Media

By Brittany Cannady in Uncategorized
Tags: Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, postsecondary, PSCTE Fellowship

State of CTE: Dual Enrollment in Perkins V State Plans

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021

In October 2020, Advance CTE released “The State of Career Technical Education: An Analysis of States’ Perkins V Priorities,” which examines how states have leveraged the development of the Strengthening Career Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) state plans to expand quality and increase equity within their Career Technical Education (CTE) systems.

Perkins V is an important federal education statute that charges states to develop high-quality programs of study that build coherent, options-rich connections between middle, high school, college and careers. A high-quality program of study should offer on and off-ramps for learners along their pathways and create seamless transitions between K-12, postsecondary institutions and the workforce. One key aspect of quality that is a priority within states’ plans is the expansion of dual/concurrent enrollment. These early postsecondary opportunities are critical because they help CTE learners understand their post-high school options and earn degrees or credentials faster, saving them time and money and prioritizing their individual needs.

Approximately one-third of high school graduates take courses for postsecondary credit at some point during their educational careers. Historically, about a third of all dual credits earned have been in CTE courses. Participating in these opportunities can lead to higher rates of college enrollment and success, as they demonstrate to learners that they are prepared for college-level work and enable them to get a head start on their credential or degree. Ensuring there is equitable access to these programs is an important part of building educational cultures where each learner, especially learners of color, can see college as a viable option.

One foundational way that Perkins V elevates the focus on dual/concurrent enrollment is through the introduction of a new secondary program quality indicator. States can choose from three options — work-based learning, recognized postsecondary credentials (credentials of value) and postsecondary credit attainment (dual/concurrent enrollment and articulation).

Advance CTE’s analysis of state Perkins V plans found that states largely took up the mantle of supporting and expanding early postsecondary opportunities. Generally, many of these state decisions represent a continuation of prior commitments to programs of study and ensuring seamless transitions between secondary and postsecondary.

More than half of the states (28 total) include dual/concurrent enrollment or articulation as part of their CTE program approval process.
About a quarter of states (13 total) have selected postsecondary credit attainment as at least one of their secondary CTE program quality indicators within their Perkins V accountability system.
Forty-one percent of states (21 total) are prioritizing dual/concurrent enrollment and articulation within their comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA) or local application for Perkins eligible recipients.
A quarter of states (12 total) are leveraging Reserve Funds to advance dual/concurrent enrollment.
A third of states (17 total) are leveraging Perkins to develop statewide articulation agreements.

State Strategies to Advance Dual/Concurrent Enrollment and Articulation

Key Innovations

Illinois will utilize disaggregated data to identify and provide targeted technical assistance, more effective resource allocation and enhanced continuous quality improvement efforts to address equity gaps in dual enrollment. This will require better communication to underrepresented learners and their families regarding dual credit options, including the courses offered, the impact on a student’s career trajectory and the related career opportunities that align with each program.
Connecticut’s College Career Pathway (CCP) program provides high school learners with the opportunity to complete postsecondary coursework before graduation. The state requires its Perkins eligible recipients that have a CCP or another similar articulation agreement with a postsecondary institution to dedicate, at minimum, 5 percent of their local Perkins grant to support these efforts. Further encouraging collaboration in this area, postsecondary eligible recipients in the state must use a minimum of $20,000 of their local Perkins grant in support of these partnerships.

The Work Ahead

Most states’ focus within their Perkins V plans was around providing secondary learners early postsecondary credit opportunities. While these efforts are critical to help learners transition from secondary to postsecondary education, more can still be done to facilitate transitions at the postsecondary level. States should continue efforts to develop additional pathways to help postsecondary and adult learners translate experiences in non-credit programs to pathways that provide credit, through efforts such as credit for prior learning.

Similarly, state Perkins V plans rarely included efforts to support transitions from two-year institutions to four-year institutions. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is through statewide articulation agreements to ensure full transferability of any credits that are earned by learners. Yet only a third of states are prioritizing the creation of statewide articulation agreements in their Perkins plans, including some states that previously had such agreements in place.

Finally, states need to continue to ensure that dual/concurrent and articulation opportunities are meaningful, equitable and fully aligned to a learner’s program of study. For instance, only about half of states that are using postsecondary credit attainment as their secondary CTE program quality measure explicitly require that these credits be related to a learner’s CTE program of study or wider career pathway, which is required by the law. States need to make intentional decisions about which courses count and how many credits are earned and collect and use the data on which credits are actually articulated, by which learners, across institutions.

Resources

Christina Koch, Policy Associate
Amy Williams, Executive Director, National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships

By admin in Public Policy, Research, Uncategorized
Tags: Connecticut, dual enrollment, Illinois, Perkins, Perkins V

States Passed At Least 208 Policies to Support CTE in 2019

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020

On the federal and state levels, 2019 was an important year for Career Technical Education (CTE). In addition to creating their four-year state plans for the federal Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), at least 45 states and Palau enacted at least 208 policy actions related to CTE and career readiness.

Today, Advance CTE, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) and the Education Commission of the States released the seventh annual State Policies Impacting CTE: Year in Review report, examining 2019 legislative activity, including legislation, execution orders, board of education actions and budget provisions. To develop the report Advance CTE, ACTE and Education Commission of the States reviewed state activity, cataloged all finalized state action and coded activity based on the policy area of focus. In 2019, states most frequently addressed the following topics:

Funding;
Industry Partnerships and Work-based Learning;
Industry-recognized credentials;
Governance; and
Access and Equity.

In total at least 41 states enacted policies that affected CTE, making funding the most common policy category for the seventh year in a row. Illinois increased funding for CTE programming by $5 million, while Massachusetts and Delaware both invested in work-based learning programs. For the second year in a row, industry partnerships and work-based learning was the second most common policy category with at least 35 states taking action in this area. In Connecticut, the legislature passed a law to require the Connecticut Department of Labor and the Board of Regents for Higher Education to jointly establish nontraditional pathways to earning a bachelor’s degree through apprenticeships, while Colorado enacted a law to launch a statewide resource directory for apprenticeships.

Most states have taken action relevant to CTE since the Year in Review report was launched and in total more than 60 policies passed in 2019 than 2018. This indicates a continued commitment from state leaders to advance CTE. To view previous years’ Year in Review reports, click here. Advance CTE, ACTE and Education Commission of the States will be joined by Texas to discuss these policies in more depth on February 18 from 3-4 p.m. EST- to register for the webinar, click here.

Brianna McCain, Policy Associate

By admin in Advance CTE Resources, Public Policy, Publications, Webinars
Tags: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, texas, Year in Review

Using Advance CTE’s Policy Benchmark Tool to Address Gaps in “Policy” and Practice

Wednesday, August 7th, 2019

Guest Post by Whitney Thompson, Senior Director for Career and Technical Education, Illinois Community College Board

As the third largest community college system in the country, Illinois community colleges serve over 600,000 residents each year in credit, noncredit and continuing education courses. The Illinois community college system, made up of 48 colleges, has over 4,265 active, approved CTE programs spanning across all 16 Career Clusters®, which provide high-quality, accessible, cost-effective educational opportunities to the entire state.

In early 2018, Illinois embarked on the Postsecondary High-Quality CTE Program Approval Project. The goals are to assess existing program development and approval processes, align approval and review systems, identify technical assistance needs across the system, and share lessons learned within the broader CTE community.

This project was initiated just after Illinois went without a budget for close to two years. To add, investments in higher education over the last decade have been decreasing, or at best stagnant. Yet, thriving, modernized CTE programs across Illinois are critical to meeting the state’s goal of 60 percent of all Illinoisans with a postsecondary degree or credential by 2025.

What We Found

Because of Illinois’ challenging fiscal predicament, the colleges were facing significant staff turnover. With this, the system was experiencing a hemorrhaging of institutional knowledge. One major goal of this project, although not as originally designed, became to document practices and processes to build institutional knowledge.

The loss of institutional knowledge was also recognized among Board staff. During the self-assessment of our policies using Advance CTE’s Policy Benchmark Tool, we found that in practice we were upholding quality metrics, but there were a number of critical gaps in “policy” – documented in our Program Approval Manual. In the end, these high-quality practices were being upheld by one to two staff.

In examining our policies at the state level, we found two areas that were “building” or “promising” but not “strong:” secondary-postsecondary alignment and experiential learning. After our state-level assessment, we brought together ten participating colleges to conduct assessments of their own program approval policies and practices, with an additional lens of how they went about developing programs.

While there was some initial resistance to a couple of the elements, namely requiring secondary articulation for all CTE programs and identifying a common set of statewide standards for CTE, largely, the colleges felt it to be a helpful exercise. Similar to our assessment at the state level, the colleges also found that secondary-postsecondary alignment and experiential learning did not meet the “strong” benchmark as desired. Additionally, a few colleges noted that the use of labor market information could be strengthened in the program development process, but more education and training may be needed for staff in retrieving and analyzing this data

Alongside these examinations of our program approval policies and practices, we embarked on research to better understand program development at the campus level. We engaged our partners at the Illinois Center for Specialized Professional Support to conduct fieldwork on each college’s program development process as well as identify needs for technical assistance. Their fieldwork produced a list of areas in which the Board can help the colleges be more systematic in their program development activities and documentation.

Next Steps

While the participating colleges were steadfast for change, we are finding that there may not be enough buy-in from the system at this time to completely revise the program approval policy due to its grounding in administrative rules. However, in the midst of our project, Congress passed Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21^st Century Act (Perkins V), allowing us to leverage several principles to encourage each and every college to take another step forward.

Specifically, we will be leveraging Perkins V’s calls for smooth transitions (including multiple entry and exit points in programs of study), equitable access and outcomes, alignment to secondary programs, and expanding work-based learning. We look forward to continuing this work well into the future as support for CTE is echoed nationally. Advance CTE has been instrumental in giving CTE a voice on the national stage and supporting states in fostering high-quality CTE programs across the P-20 continuum.

To learn more about Illinois Postsecondary CTE visit: https://www.iccb.org/cte/.

By Kate Blosveren Kreamer in Public Policy
Tags: Illinois, Perkins, postsecondary

Posts Tagged ‘Illinois’