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Legislative Update: CTE Month Resolution and DeVos Testimony to House Appropriations Committee

February 28th, 2020

This week, the House introduced a resolution for CTE Month. Read below to learn more about the resolution, a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal, a stackable credential opportunity and new efforts to modernize federal student aid.

House Introduces Bipartisan Resolution for CTE Month 

On Wednesday, Representatives Jim Langevin (D-RI) and Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-PA) introduced a resolution (H.Res.854) recognizing February as National CTE Month. Congressmen Langevin and Thompson are co-chairs of the Congressional Career Technical Education (CTE) Caucus, and have long supported high-quality CTE policies. The resolution also recognizes 100 years of state leadership in CTE, as Advance CTE celebrates its centenary. 

You can read the full press release, including a quote from Advance CTE’s Executive Director Kimberly Green, here. 

Secretary DeVos Testifies to Congress on Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testified before the House Committee on Appropriations’s Subcomittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies about the administration’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal. The hearing showed bipartisan support for an increase in federal funding for CTE. Secretary DeVos spoke of the need for the $900 million increase in CTE funding that the administration requested. Subcommittee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Ranking Member Tom Cole (R-OK) both discussed the importance of CTE in their respective opening remarks.

The Secretary also voiced support for the Second Chance Pell Program. Many members asked questions about the functionality of the proposed consolidation of 29 programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into one block grant. In addition, concern was shared by members about the elimination of the GEAR UP program, with Secretary DeVos responding that the intention is the program would ultimately be part of the Federal TRIO Program.  

Secretary DeVos’s testimony can be viewed here, and a video of the full hearing can be viewed here. 

U.S. Department of Education Launches Pathways to Credentials Project

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) announced the technical assistance phase of its Pathways to Credentials project. The purpose of the initiative is to support community and technical colleges in including stackable industry recognized credentials within degree programs. Up to ten community and technical colleges will be selected from the pool of applicants to receive technical assistance in developing and implementing stackable credential opportunities. A webinar will be held on March 5, 2020 that will provide additional information, and applications are due on April 2, 2020.

Secretary DeVos Announces Updates to Federal Student Aid Customer Experience

Earlier this week, Secretary DeVos announced substantial updates to StudentAid.gov that provides students and their families with new tools and information to help guide them in choosing from student loan and aid programs. Specifically, some of these new features simplify the display for total aid options, including grants and loans. It also provides a loan simulator tool to help ‘test-drive’ what repayment plan would work best for them. Finally, a pilot program was included to simplify student loan payments by having a centralized location where payments could be made. Currently, payments must be made to each loan servicer – but the hope is that having a centralized location for payment will simplify the experience for those with loans.

This rollout is part of the Education Department’s Next Gen Federal Student Aid initiative, which is tasked with substantially changing and simplifying the federal student aid program.

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate and Samuel Dunietz, Senior Associate for Federal Policy

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Spring Meeting Early-bird Registration Closes Wednesday!

February 26th, 2020

This year’s Spring Meeting, taking place May 13 – 15 in Arlington, Virginia will bring together state Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders lo learn from each other and national experts on today’s pressing CTE topics. The meeting will feature exciting panels led by national and state leaders, informative breakout sessions on critical issues to the field and plenty of networking and cross-state sharing opportunities. We will celebrate the major accomplishment of Perkins V states plans being submitted while focusing on how states can be BOLD as they begin implementation. Register here today to receive the early-bird registration price.

On the fence about joining the meeting? Here are what attendees had to say about last year’s meeting:

 

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Welcome Brian Robinson to Advance CTE!

February 25th, 2020

My name is Brian Robinson and I am incredibly excited to join the Advance CTE team! In my capacity as a policy associate, I will be supporting several ongoing initiatives including supporting Advance CTE’s work to improve the use and quality of CTE data. and exploring the reach and impact of area technical centers across the country. I will also manage our Learning That Works Resource Center and our CTE Research Review Blog.

My work in education is centered around equity in access and opportunity, particularly for low-income, Black and Latinx students. I began my career in education as an elementary school teacher, first in Prince George’s County, Maryland, then in Washington, D.C., and later Fairfax County, Virginia. Recognizing the need for practitioners in the education policy and research space, I left the classroom to pursue my doctorate degree in education policy and leadership at New York University. Currently, I am working to complete my dissertation researching inequitable access to high-quality schools in Washington, D.C. For this research, I am examining how parents across racial, geographic and economic status experience school choice in Washington, D.C.

I am originally from Charm City — aka Baltimore, MD — home of the Maryland crab cake, old bay seasoning, and the Baltimore Ravens! In my personal life I enjoy running, spending time with friends and family, cooking and community service.

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Legislative Update: Federal Work-Study Pilot and New Senate Bill

February 21st, 2020

This week, the U.S. Department of Education announced the 190 participating institutions in a Federal Work-Study pilot program. Read below to learn more about what this pilot entails, a new community college and career training bill in the Senate and a site visit for CTE Month. 

U.S. Department of Education Announces Participants in Federal Work-Study Pilot

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the 190 institutions that have been selected as part of a pilot program to support private sector employers in the Federal Work-Study program. This initiative is an experimental site, and participants will be granted waivers to use Federal Work-Study funds for work in the private sector. These experimental sites will also be able to pay low-income students for work-based learning required by academic programs- such as student teaching. Participating institutions will receive additional Job Location and Development program funds, as well as expanded allowable uses of funds.  

Senate Introduces Community College Innovation and Career Training Grants Legislation 

Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced the Assisting Community Colleges in Educating Skilled Students (ACCESS) to Careers Act, that would create a community college and career training grant program. These grant programs would provide funding to states and community colleges to be responsive to evolving labor market demands. The goal of the legislation is to support learner success and career readiness through work-based learning, support services such as career counselors and career pathways that address skills demands. 

CTE Month Celebrates T.C. Williams High School 

As part of CTE Month, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) led a visit to T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia to learn about high-quality CTE programs. Attendees included representatives from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), Capitol Hill staff and organizations. The visit included a panel of learners from different CTE programs within T.C. Williams. The school offers students a variety of CTE opportunities, and during the site visit participants were able to tour the following programs: Cybersecurity; Teachers for Tomorrow; Introduction to Health and Medical Sciences; Technical Drawing and Design; Television & Media Production and Academy of Finance: Economics and Personal Finance. 

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate

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This Week in CTE

February 21st, 2020

Tweet of the Week

Career Technical Education (CTE) expands deep into the communities we serve. Thank you Greenville Senior High School in Greenville, Ohio and the Career-Tech Center for giving back to your community! G-CTEC, @GreenvilleCTC, and FCCLA is a rewarding example of how CTE offers a real high school experience while adding more value to students. 


Announcement of the Week

To make sure you get the latest news and resources about federal policy that affects CTE, sign up for our Legislative Updates!

Video of the Week

This week in video, Advance CTE highlights a third-year cosmetology student at Central High School of Phenix City Schools, @PCBOE. The cosmetology program at Central High School provides real-world skills for students by offering courses in salon safety and sanitation, and fundamentals in hair, skin, nail, and spa techniques.

“Cosmetology is important because you can express who you really are…”

Watch the video here.

Resource of the Week 

Milton Hershey School located in Hershey, PA, led a Twitter chat this week using the hashtag, #MHSChat discussing the importance of youth apprenticeships. One resource mentioned by The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeships (@NewAmerica) offered a visual of how the educational needs of each learner can be met while meeting the talent needs of a high-skill and high-wage career. View the infographic here.

Brittany Cannady, Digital Media Associate

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Where Do the Presidential Candidates Stand?: Elizabeth Warren

February 20th, 2020

Advance CTE is posting a series of blogs on each 2020 presidential candidate who has released an education or workforce development platform and is polling above one percent. Check our website to catch up on previous posts!

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign platform has touted the Senator’s broad and detailed platform has “Got a Plan For That,” regardless of the topic. Her platform for education and workforce issues are no exception as these priorities are laid out in great detail on her website. With her background as a special education teacher, and later as a law professor, it is no surprise that education issues are a focal point of her campaign.

Warren’s entire platform places a high value on the role of public education. – “Every kid in America should have the same access to a high-quality public education – no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or how much money their parents make.”.

Specifically, Warren’s K-12 strategy includes:

  • Quadrupling Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Title I funding – an additional $450 billion over the next 10 years (on the condition that states are required to contribute additional funding consistently); 
  • An additional $20 billion a year to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants;
  • An additional $100 billion over ten years for “Excellence Grants” to public schools; and 
  • $50 Billion to support school infrastructure.

Warren’s detailed higher education plan calls for a broad investment in our postsecondary institutions and support to help learners and their families with the rising cost of higher education. She notes that her in-state tuition at the University of Houston “was just $50 a semester” and that current student debt is holding back learners and their families. Her postsecondary proposal includes:

  • Eliminating up to $50,000 of debt for household income under $100,000, and tiered debt cancellation amounts up to households earning $250,000 a year.
  • Eliminating the cost of tuition and fees at every public two-year and four-year college in America. This proposal also includes investing an additional $100 billion over ten years in Pell grants, to help support non-tuition expenses.

Her platform intends to pay for these programs through an “Ultra-Millionaire Tax,” a two percent annual tax on families with $50 million or more in wealth. Warren notes that it’s “time to give our schools the support they need to ensure that every student has access to a meaningful, high-quality public education.”

In regards to the workforce development system, her platform similarly has a broad array of topic areas. If elected, Warren plans to:

  • Dramatically scale up apprenticeship programs, which will be supported in part by a $20 billion commitment to apprenticeship programs over the next ten years that can “bring together community colleges, technical schools, unions, and companies.”
  • Institute new sectoral training programs to “help align training with the local job market, leverage the
  •  community college system…” and “…ensure that workers gain skills that are transferable across employers.”
  • Create the Department of Economic Development, which would replace the Commerce Department and many smaller agencies to have a single goal, “creating and defending good American jobs.”
    • This department would create A four year strategic plan called the “National Jobs Strategy” which would specifically address “regional economies and trends that disproportionately affect rural areas and small cities.”
  • Create 10.6 Million Green Jobs.

To learn more information about Warren’s education and workforce platforms, you can visit her platform plans page.

Samuel Dunietz, Senior Associate for Federal Policy

 

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Where Do the Presidential Candidates Stand?: Bernie Sanders

February 13th, 2020

Advance CTE is posting a series of blogs on each 2020 presidential candidate who has released an education or workforce development platform and is polling above one percent. Check back for the next blog in this series, and catch up on previous posts!

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign platform places importance on increasing equity and access in postsecondary attainment. This is outlined in his “College for All” plan that would make all public colleges and universities tuition free and cancel all existing student debt. Some of the strategies to achieve this include: 

  • Make Public Colleges, Universities and Trade Schools Free to All
    Sanders commits to passing the College for All Act that would allocate at least $48 billion annually to cover tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, trade schools and apprenticeship programs. 
  • Make College Debt-Free for All
    Sanders outlines a number of measures that he would take as president to ensure that students graduate college without debt, such as providing Pell Grants to cover all non-tuition fees and expenses. He would also require participating states and tribes to provide funding to low-income students for any remaining college costs. The federal government would then match any of the additional fees that are funded by states and tribes. Sanders also makes the campaign promise that he would cap student loan interest rates at 1.88 percent. Finally, Sanders states that he would triple the funding for the Federal Work-Study Program. This would allow the program to grow from serving 700,000 students to 2.1 million students. Funding would be targeted to colleges that have large numbers of low-income students enrolled.  
  • Invest in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions
    In his platform, Sanders commits to putting $1.3 billion into private, non-profit Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). This funding would either eliminate or reduce tuition and additional fees. 
  • End Equity Gaps in Higher Education Attainment
    Sanders calls out the need to support students before and during college so that they can be successful. Sanders plans to do this by doubling the funding for Federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) and increasing the funding for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). This expanded funding would allow 1.5 million students to participate in TRIO and GEAR UP participation to grow by over 100,000 students. 

Sanders also outlines a “Jobs for All” proposal that would essentially be a guarantee from the federal level that each individual is able to have a stable job that pays a living salary. The campaign also promises to create 20 million jobs, coinciding with the Green New Deal, that would be needed to build infrastructure and create a sustainable energy system. New jobs would also be created in healthcare services and early childhood education.

To learn more about Sanders’ education and workforce development plans you can check out his campaign platform.

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate 

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Legislative Update: White House Releases Fiscal Year 2021 Budget Proposal 

February 11th, 2020

Yesterday the White House released the Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) budget proposal that asks for a $900 million increase in federal funding for Career Technical Education (CTE). This includes approximately:

  • $680 million allocated to the Basic State Grant; 
  • $83 million for National Programs, including the Innovation & Modernization Grant with a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) focus; and
  • $100 million in additional funds from H-1B visa fees.

This is the most significant increase in federal funding that has ever been proposed for CTE, and is aligned with Advance CTE’s Board of Director-led campaign to double the federal investment in CTE. You can read Advance CTE’s full statement on the budget proposal here. 

CTE has been chronically underfunded, and even in inflation-adjusted dollars funding is far below levels from decades ago. Over the past 40 years, CTE funding has increased by only 1.6 percent. CTE is one part of the education and workforce continuum, and robust funding for all education and labor programs is vital.

The Department of Education budget was proposed at 7.8 percent lower than the amount enacted in FY20, and included: 

  • Level funding for adult education programs;
  • An increase of $137 million for the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program;
  • An increase of $100 million for the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA); 
  • Expansion of Pell Grant eligibility to short-term programs and incarcerated individuals;
  • A cut of of over $600 million to Federal Work-Study;
  • Elimination of 11 programs, such as the State Longitudinal Data System and GEAR UP;
  • Elimination of Public Service Loan Forgiveness; and
  • A consolidation of 29 programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into one block grant, and a decrease of Title I funding by $4.8 billion. 

The Department of Labor budget was proposed at 10.7 percent lower than the amount enacted in FY20, and included:

  • Level funding for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Adult Employment and Training Activities; 
  • Level funding for WIOA Youth Activities; 
  • An increase of $25 million to registered and industry-recognized apprenticeship programs; 
  • A cut of $110 million to WIOA Dislocated Workers Employers and Training Activities; 
  • A cut of $10 million to YouthBuild programs; and
  • A cut of $5 million to Reentry Employment Opportunities program.

Next, Members of Congress will review this budget request and write their own FY21 appropriations bills. The President’s budget proposal may not necessarily be incorporated by the House or Senate, but it does signal what areas the administration deems as high priority. 

Below are additional resources: 

Meredith Hills, Policy Associate

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Learning from CTE Research Partnerships: Building a Collaborative Data Culture in South Dakota

February 11th, 2020

As part of our ongoing blog series aimed at increasing state research on Career Technical Education (CTE), Austin Estes, Senior Policy Associate at Advance CTE, and Corinne Alfeld, Research Analyst at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), are conducting interviews with individuals who are part of successful CTE State Director research partnerships. The second interview was with Laura Scheibe of the South Dakota Department of Education and Marc Brodersen of REL Central at Marzano Research. [Note: this interview has been edited for length; you can find the full interview transcript here].

Could you both talk about the project(s) that you have worked on and your research questions? How did the relationship start, and who approached whom?

Marc – When we were doing needs sensing with the states in our region, particularly with South Dakota, CTE emerged as a pretty high priority area. We needed to determine what the research questions were, what questions we could actually address, and what data were available that could be used in those research projects. So, this work started off as a technical assistance project where we were working with South Dakota pretty closely and getting all of the relevant players around a table and going through and mapping their data. And it was quite a long process.

Laura – There’s huge support in South Dakota behind CTE, but there wasn’t state-level evidence behind why CTE is such a good thing for students. So, the value that Marzano provided to the project in helping us walk through “this is the data that can help you, this is the process that we are going to go through to help you get to the answer” has been incredibly helpful and not something that we, as a pretty small department of education, could ever have undertaken on our own.

Can you talk about what research questions you ultimately came to and where you are in the process of answering those?

Marc –We have three main questions: 1) What is the impact of being a CTE concentrator on high school graduation, two- and five-year postsecondary enrollment, and completion status? 2) What is the impact of being a CTE concentrator on two-year and five-year employment and quarterly wage status? 3) How do the two-year and five-year outcomes vary by the various CTE Career Clusters®?

Connecting education to workforce data is really difficult, and we’re talking about collecting data over a five to 10 year span for an individual student. Many state data systems don’t go back that far, or data systems have changed, so it’s difficult trying to identify one data system that has 10 or more years of data for an individual student. We’re making it work, but it takes some time and some finagling.  We haven’t even begun to analyze the data so, unfortunately, we can’t talk about any preliminary findings.

What were some of the early roadblocks in building this relationship and starting to examine and compile some of the data?

Laura – One of the roadblocks was just getting everyone around the table and bought into the idea. We’re a fairly small state, so it wasn’t hard to reach out to my counterparts at the other agencies who would need to be involved, but this project was, and continues to be, something that is on top of the day to day work that we do. It’s not driven by any specific policy initiative but rather by everybody around the table acknowledging and recognizing that “yeah, this would be really useful for us.” But, in that sense, it’s hard to get everyone’s commitments to the time it has taken and takes to pull this off and making sure that we’ve got the right people around the room as well. We’ve involved not just the Board of Regents but the technical college system and the people with the workforce data.

Marc – Having somebody at the policy level, the data level and the leadership level in the room at the same time is almost essential, particularly when you’re at the brainstorming phase. You can have the leadership that’s going to say “yes, this is important, and I want you to devote time to this,” and then the data person is saying “well, that data just doesn’t exist,” and the policy person may not know about that piece. And having all three of those perspectives at the same time can save a lot of time and effort.

How do you plan to use this research project to further policy in South Dakota?

Laura – First and foremost, this particular project is demonstrating the value that CTE has to the secondary students. This project pre-dated Perkins V [the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act], but as we’re moving into implementation of Perkins V full force in the coming calendar year, with the new requirements that Perkins places on states — and therefore on schools — to be an approved program, we’re seeing school districts question if it’s really worth it. This project is really coming in at a good time where we will hopefully have some data where we can say, “yes, CTE is worth it.” Being able to message that is hugely valuable from the perspective of a CTE Director in a state where almost every single public school district runs an approved program. Now that we’ve got Perkins V and the [comprehensive local] needs assessment, it will be just one more bit of evidence for schools to be able to examine whether they’re providing the best opportunities for our kids.

What advice would you give to other researcher/ State Director partners for conducting CTE research or establishing similar partnerships?

Marc – From my perspective, as far as establishing a partnership, I think face-to-face interactions are invaluable. It takes a while to trust each other or establish a positive working relationship.

Laura – My advice to State Directors would be to really plan for it and make it a priority. And don’t make it something that isn’t part of the day-to-day because then I think the thread can get lost. I would also say getting that higher-level buy-in is really important. It’s important to make sure that you’ve got that policy-level partner to keep things moving along. The benefits will be there in the end, it just has to be woven into the day-to-day of what you’re doing in order to make it all come together.

Going through this process has helped me form partnerships with my colleagues in other agencies even more strongly than I had before. Just the exercise of having gone through all of that and understanding their work and their data and everything they do, having them understand my role and my constraints better, has just made us a more effective CTE/ workforce team in our state. As we move forward with Perkins V and WIOA [Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act] state plans and all of this other stuff coming, it just benefits us and enables us to work more effectively and work faster now that we have those strong relationships. They were there before, but they’re definitely stronger now as a result of this project.

Marc – One of the things I thought was really neat was getting all these folks together and thinking deeply about data. It might not be the most exciting topic for a lot of folks, but going through the process gave everyone a better understanding of what they can do and how they might be able to work with others. And I think in the day-to-day, not everyone spends that much time thinking at the data and variable level. But doing that will increase everyone’s capacity to be able to do this kind of work moving forward.

One other thing to add just as a side note. Throughout this process, we also collaborated with Nancy Copa at the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) when we were doing the data mapping piece. We did not officially map the South Dakota data to that, but we used the CEDS as kind of a template to provide us with a common dictionary to have these conversations across departments. And that was really useful. In fact, all of us – the different departments in South Dakota and the CEDS folks –co-presented at the last STATS-DC conference, which I thought was a very positive experience.

The full transcript of this interview can be accessed on Advance CTE’s website. Other blog posts in this series can be viewed here.

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CTE Month: New Resources and State Shoutout

February 7th, 2020

Happy CTE Month! Each Friday in February we will showcase tools and resources to use during CTE Month and highlight the great work states and organizations are doing to get the word about CTE Month. 

NEW RESOURCES 

Advance CTE developed a number of resources to help you communicate about the value of CTE. Supported by the Siemens Foundation, Advance CTE worked with states to pilot innovative and effective models to communicate about CTE with key stakeholders, students and their families, to guarantee career success for each learner. Learn about model strategies and approaches in three new briefs:

We also created a number of templates including a ready-to-use brochure, flyer, banner, postcard and ad for you to use to make the case for CTE in your community. The materials are designed so that you can plug in photos and information about your school, district or state reinforced by nationally tested messages that we know resonate with students and families. 

STATE SHOUTOUT 

Utah State Board of Education released five videos highlighting CTE pathways to in-demand and high-wage careers such as aviation and aerospace, health science, Information Technology and more. 

South Carolina Department of Education released a statewide social media calendar and resource guide to help districts communicate about their successful CTE programs. 

The Arkansas Division of Career and Technical Education launched a social media campaign: What CTE Means to Me where students and school district accounts are posting what CTE means to them alongside facts making the case for CTE using the #WhatCTEMeans hashtag. 

https://twitter.com/micwells1/status/1224850469111115778

 

 

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