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U.S. Department of Education Announces Highest-Ranked i3 Applicants

November 13th, 2012

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week the results of its third round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. The 20 potential grantees, chosen from more than 700 applicants, have until December 7th to secure matching funds to receive i3 federal funding.

The 2012 i3 applicants submitted proposals based on one of six priorities:

  • Supporting effective teachers or principals
  • Promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education
  • Supporting the implementation of high academic content standards and high-quality assessments
  • Increasing parent and family engagement
  • Turning around persistently low-performing schools
  • Increasing student achievement and high school graduation rates in rural schools

Competitive preference was given to applications focusing on other key areas of reform, including college access and success and using technology.

The Department of Education’s Web site includes information on the highest-rated applicants. Several applicants are focusing their projects on Career Technical Education (CTE) or related areas. For example, LEED Sacramento’s project will focus on Project Lead the Way, and Jobs for the Future proposed a project on an Early College Expansion Partnership.

Kara Herbertson, Research and Policy Manager

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Legislative Update: Education Community Anticipates Progress on Key Issues with Obama and New Congress

November 7th, 2012

After an intense election campaign, President Barack Obama won his second term for president last night. In the process, he was supported by battleground states — Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Wisconsin — to secure at least 303 electoral votes over Mitt Romney’s 206 electoral votes. With the election period over, the education community will be watching to see if key legislation moves forward.

In Congress, Democrats kept control of the Senate, winning a total of 54 seats including two to be held by Independents. Republicans kept their majority in the House with 218 seats. With no change in congressional control in the House and Senate, the current leadership for education – U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and U.S. Representative John Kline – will stay the same. However, there will be 11 new Senators and 76 new House members. View House and Senate election winners here.

Over the last four years, a divided Congress has not made much progress on education policy. Committees from both the House and Senate have approved bills to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, but it is unclear whether both sides will agree on the terms of the act. The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 is due for reauthorization next year along with laws for higher education, special education, and workforce development.

With Obama in the White House for another four years, the President and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will likely continue with the Administration’s major education initiatives. The Department’s CTE Blueprint, introduced earlier this year, therefore still has the possibility of influencing Perkins reauthorization.

We will keep you updated as we learn more about the election results and possible implications for CTE.

Kara Herbertson, Research and Policy Manager 

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Report: “Indispensable” Role of Transfer for Community Colleges

November 2nd, 2012

Recently, the nation’s education agenda has placed considerable focus on increasing college completion rates. While this worthy goal is critical to the country’s economic success, a new report implores the education community not to lose sight of other valuable functions of community colleges, namely transfer, as schools work toward graduating all students.

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) released this month an issue brief on the “indispensable” role of transfer for community colleges and students. More than one-quarter of those who earn a bachelor’s degree began their college experience at a community college and transferred to a four-year institution along the way. Nearly half of bachelor’s degree recipients take at least one course at a community college.

Research shows that transfer from a community college to a four-year institution not only works, but also saves money. The AACC brief states that students who start at a community college and transfer to a four-year university are just as successful as those who begin at a four-year institution. For the nine institutions studied in this case, an estimated $22 billion were saved by students who first attended community college first and then transferred.

Part of what makes transfer work, the AACC brief shows, is that the receiving institution prioritizes the success of transfer students. Eighty-two percent of transfer students earn a bachelor’s degree on time when their receiving institution accepted all of the student’s community college credits. When colleges accept some community college credits, forty-two percent of transfer students earned a bachelor’s degree on time.

The AACC brief also takes into account questions to consider as post-completion measures and program effectiveness are evaluated, such as “Should an institution that provides just the last few credits before earning a degree be considered the institution of record for the student’s ultimate ‘success’?”

Click here to access the full report.

Kara Herbertson, Research and Policy Manager 

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October CTE Monthly: Secretary Duncan Talks CTE, New Georgetown Report on CTE

October 16th, 2012

CTE Monthly, a collaborative publication from the Association for Career and Technical Education and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, features the latest news on Career Technical Education (CTE) from across the nation for CTE stakeholders and Members of Congress.

In the October edition, read more about:

·         Secretary Duncan’s recent comments about CTE

·         Launch of Industry Workforce Needs Council

·         Exemplary CTE programs and students in CA, NY, and NC

·         New Georgetown report on CTE

View archived CTE Monthly newsletters and other resources on our Advocacy Tools Web page.

Kara Herbertson, Research and Policy Manager

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Sequestration Updates

October 16th, 2012

New Sequester Report

 

The House Appropriations Committee Democrats recently released a new sequestration report – A Report on Consequences of Sequestration – that examines the impact of sequestration on a number of federal programs. In the education sphere, the report does not discuss Perkins or CTE, but does say that Title I Grants would be cut by more than $1 billion, impacting over 4,000 schools serving nearly 2 million disadvantaged students. In the Labor Department, cuts to Job Corps would reduce by approximately 4,300 the number of at-risk youth served.

 

Bipartisan Group of Senators Working on Deal

 

The so-called “Gang of Six,” which has been meeting to devise a bipartisan grand bargain on deficit reduction has added two more members to their ranks – Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE). It is unclear what kind of leverage the group will have during the lame duck session when Congress re-convenes to find an alternative to sequestration.

 Nancy Conneely, Director of Public Policy

 

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New NASDCTEc Brief: Promoting Work-Based Learning: Efforts in Connecticut and Kentucky

October 10th, 2012

NASDCTEc has partnered with the Alliance for Excellent Education to co-author Promoting Work-Based Learning: Efforts in Connecticut and Kentucky, which details what work-based learning looks like at different learner levels, and the benefits that students gain from their participation in work-based learning opportunities. The brief also highlights the potential obstacles facing states that can limit both the access to and quality of work-based learning opportunities, and looks at efforts from two states to define work-based learning opportunities for students, educators, and employers, and to create policies that provide greater access to these opportunities.

Nancy Conneely, Director of Public Policy

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New CRS Report Highlights NASDCTEc Work

October 9th, 2012

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), which provides reports and analyses to Members of Congress on a variety of policy issues, recently released a new report on Career Technical Education. The goal of the report, Career and Technical Education: A Primer, is to “support congressional discussion of initiatives designed to rationalize the workforce development system.”

The report provides an overview of CTE, walks through the delivery and structure of CTE at the secondary, postsecondary, and adult learner levels, and raises several issues facing CTE stakeholders. For example, according to the report, there are four concerns that may hinder CTE delivery at the secondary level: (1) what is the goal of CTE – to broaden the students’ education and provide early exposure to several career options or to ensure students are prepared to enter the workforce, (2) the expense of maintaining and updating the instructional resources and equipment, (3) whether CTE adds value to a college preparatory high school curriculum, and (4) that the common core standards do not define career-ready and thus may not provide immediate career preparation.

While explaining the National Career ClustersTM Framework, the report references data from NASDCTEc’s 2011 issue brief, Career Clusters and Programs of Study: State of the States. The data for this issue brief was culled from the 2010 State Profile survey. We administer this survey to our members every other year to collect a wealth of information to be used in updating the State Profiles, and to provide the basis for a number of issue briefs. We are pleased that CRS was able to utilize our data in their report!

In the section “College- and Career-Ready Standards and CTE Standards” the report highlights NASDCTEc and NCTEF’s work around the Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) as one of the two set of standards impacting CTE students. As stated in the CRS report, the CCTC was developed by 42 states, the District of Columbia, Palau, business and industry representatives, educators, and other stakeholders, and it provides standards for each of the 16 Career ClustersTM and their career pathways.

Nancy Conneely, Director of Public Policy

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First Presidential Debate Addresses Economy, Education and Deficit

October 4th, 2012

Last night President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney met in Denver for the first of three presidential debates. This debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer, focused on domestic issues, with both candidates frequently citing the need to improve public education in order to prepare students with the skills they need to succeed. When asked about how he would go about creating new jobs, President Obama stated that we have improve our education system, hire more math and science teachers, keep college affordable, and create two million more openings at community colleges so that people can get trained for the jobs that exist today.

Governor Romney explained that his plan for economic recovery would include streamlining workforce training programs. He referenced the finding from a GAO report that there are 47 job training programs (including Perkins, according to GAO) reporting to eight different federal agencies. Romney suggested that these programs would be better managed at the state level, saying, “Overhead is overwhelming. We’ve got to get those dollars back to the states and go to the workers so they can create their own pathways to get in the training they need for jobs that will really help them.”

Lehrer then moved on to how each candidate would tackle the growing deficit. Romney said that, firstly, he would apply the following test to all federal programs: Is the program so critical it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if not, he would eliminate it. Second, he would move programs that he believes could be run more efficiently at the state level and send them to the state. Finally, he would increase government efficiency by reducing the number of employees, and combining some agencies and departments. President Obama stated that, in addition to raising revenues, he would cut programs that are not helping the economy grow. He pointed out his Administration has already eliminated a number of federal programs, including 18 ineffective education programs.

In response to a question about the role of the federal government in public education, Governor Romney said that he thinks that federal education funds should follow the student, allowing parents to decide where to send their child to school. President Obama stated that the great work being done by community colleges with business support to train people for jobs, also requires some federal support.

Obama and Romney then sparred over budget proposals and how they can impact choices about support for federal education programs. Obama questioned how Romney would be able to pay for his support of education programs when his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan’s, budget proposal would cut federal education spending by 20 percent. Romney countered by saying, “I’m not going to cut education funding. I don’t have any plan to cut education funding and—and grants that go to people going to college…I don’t want to cut our commitment to education. I want to make it more effective and efficient.” However, if Romney were to implement Ryan’s budget plan, and keeps his promise to not cut education that would mean deeper cuts for other areas of the federal government.

The next Presidential debate will take place on October 16, 2012 and will focus on foreign and domestic policy. Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Ryan will meet for their only debate next Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST and will also cover foreign and domestic policy.

Nancy Conneely, Director of Public Policy

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Secretary Duncan Outlines Progress Made and Goals for the Future

October 2nd, 2012

This afternoon Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the National Press Club about the state of American education. Duncan highlighted the Obama Administration’s achievements and challenges over the last four years and offered his take on the obstacles facing public schools in the years ahead.

Chief among the Department’s endeavors are raising standards, improving student performance, reducing dropout rates, and strengthening the teaching profession. But, as we in the CTE community know, education also plays an important role in strengthening the economy and closing the skills gap. Said Duncan: “With more than three million unfilled jobs in this country, [the public] understand[s] that we have a skills gap that will only be closed if America does a better job training and preparing people for work.” The public supports investing in education, but as Duncan pointed out, they worry about where the money will come from.

Duncan laid out the areas where there is still work to be done, including reforming CTE programs in high schools and community colleges, state-driven accountability, recruiting more math and science teachers, and closing the skills gap.

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NASDCTEc Webinar: CTE Trend Analysis: Career Clusters/Programs of Study, CTE Teacher Shortages

September 21st, 2012

Every other year, the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) conducts a survey of the membership to gauge trends in Career Technical Education (CTE) across the country. Based on analyses of this year’s survey results from 50 states and territories, and comparisons to surveys administered in 2008 and 2010, NASDCTEc has authored a series of synopsis papers that describe trends in four key areas: Career Clusters™ and Programs of Study; CTE Teacher/Faculty Shortages and Recruitment Initiatives; Governance; and CTE Funding.

This month’s webinar will focus on the first two synopsis papers: Career Clusters™ and Programs of Study and CTE Teacher/Faculty Shortages and Recruitment Initiatives.

Kara Herbertson, NASDCTEc’s Education Policy Analyst, will give an overview of trends in these areas. Collie Wells from the Alabama Department of Education will discuss Alabama’s Business and Industry Certification, awarded from the International Organization for Standardization (IOS), and how the certification ensures high quality CTE programs. Also, a representative from New Jersey will discuss an alternate route for certifying CTE teachers.

Join us for this informative webinar on Thursday, October 4th at 3:00 pm ET. Register now!

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst 

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