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CTE: A Gateway to the Middle Class

June 19th, 2009

In his remarks at the Green Jobs Summit (June 17, 2009), Vice President Biden commented “a job is more than a paycheck. A job is about pride. A job is about dignity. A job is about respect.”  He made these comments in the context of sharing information about the Middle Class Taskforce  he is leading.

After the summit, the word respect kept lingering in my mind and inspired me to write this blog post. Remember Rodney Dangerfield’s infamous saying  I get “no respect.”  CTE also doesn’t get the respect that it deserves.  Still burdened with the yoke of the image of dirty shop class where you send other people’s kids, CTE is too often portrayed in the sterotypical way.  And then there is Arthea Franklin’s toe-tapping song “R-E-S-P-E-C-T“; what do we have to do to earn “just a little bit?”  Perhaps we in CTE can use this opportunity to rally our efforts, be proactive and help the Vice President achieve his goal for more Americans to gain access to the middle class and earn ‘a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T’ while we are at it.

So here is what I propose –  a message to Vice President Biden —

Mr. Vice President, 

We agree with your comments made at the Green Jobs Summit. We must help more Americans realize your goal of finding jobs that offer pride, dignity and respect and give them a chance at being part of the middle class.

Career technical education (CTE) has helped millions of Americans find pride, dignity and respect through a career that provides a family sustaining wage. We stand ready to do more but we need your help.

Help us change the perception of the careers that keep America strong. Careers like those in fields of transportation, manufacturing, construction, and health care. These are all careers that support our nation’s security, ensure quality of life and stimulate our economy. Help us help more Americans achieve your goal by investing in CTE! 

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Spotlight on CTE Month: Celebrating the creative ways states engaged with stakeholders

March 7th, 2023

February’s Career Technical Education (CTE) Month celebrations illustrated CTE’s continued spotlight in both federal and state communications and policymaking. This post recaps some of the inspiring activities from across the nation elevating both the value of CTE and the learners it serves.

Spotlight on CTE in the Nation’s Capital

CTE Month started strong this year with a major policy speech by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, during which he highlighted the importance of Career Technical Education (CTE): “We must challenge our myopic view that emphasizing the importance of career pathways is about limiting students, or the view that its four-year-college or bust. Advancing career pathways in high schools is about more options for students, not less. What it does is prepare them for the careers of today with options, and in some cases, their employer will pay for their future education. If we do this well, our graduates will be able to compete on a global stage. It’s my intention to Raise the Bar so we can lead the world in advanced career and technical education.” 

Just two weeks later, First Lady Jill Biden’s guests for the State of the Union (SOTU) address included Kate Foley– a 10th-grade computer-integrated manufacturing student who the First Lady had met last year during a visit 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. 

During the SOTU, President Biden highlighted how the intersection of education and workforce development is integral to America’s ability to compete within the wider global economy. The President mentioned career-focused education 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.” 

Finally, support for CTE  extended to Capitol Hill, with both the House and Senate passing resolutions supporting CTE that achieved a high water mark for the number of co-sponsors.

Spotlight on CTE in State Capitols and Beyond

Outside of the U.S. House, 25 states and at least 1 U.S. Territory had proclamations designating February as CTE Month, and many state capitols hosted CTE students for showcases and meet and greets.

 

Spotlight on engaging with CTE stakeholders

Many states used CTE Month as an opportunity to connect with learners, families, employers and other stakeholders.

Louisiana hosted a roundtable discussion featuring panelists from K-12, postsecondary and industry professionals at their annual conference. Michigan hosted a Value of CTE virtual conference for employers and Missouri launched their CTE Perceptions Survey to learners, families, educators and business leaders.

 

States used a variety of marketing channels to share stories and promote CTE. Wyoming released a CTEZine published in local newspapers. South Carolina created My CTE Story videos featuring learner stories. North Dakota shared tips for maximizing messaging during CTE Month in their monthly newsletter. Oklahoma created a week’s worth of suggested activities that fostered pride in and self-promotion of local programs during #ILuvOKCTE week.

Through social media posts, many states shared information on the power and purpose of CTE as well as success stories and celebrations of CTE learners.

 

 

While CTE Month is a great opportunity to promote and educate those not familiar with the opportunities within and successes of CTE, our advocacy and education efforts should continue year-round. For information on how you can more effectively communicate CTE, check out the following resources in our Resource Center:

Communicating Career Technical Education: Learner-centered Messages for Effective Program Recruitment

Beyond the Numbers: A Toolkit for Communicating CTE Data

Making a Winning Case for CTE: How Local Leaders Can Communicate the Value of CTE

Jodi Langellotti, Communications Associate

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Announcing our new name, Advance CTE!

February 16th, 2016

Print

We are thrilled to announce the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium has launched the new name, Advance CTE: State Leaders Connecting Learning to Work.

Advance CTE, the sole organization dedicated to representing state leaders of Career Technical Education (CTE) for nearly 100 years, will continue the tradition of serving as the voice for our state CTE leaders, as well as carrying out our overall vision of an innovative CTE system that prepares individuals and the U.S. economy for success under this new brand.

Thank you for your continued work in CTE and support of our organization. We hope you enjoy the new name and look.

Vision & Mission
Our name may be different, but our Mission and Vision remain the same. Our current name and tagline strongly reflect our:

Vision: Through leadership, advocacy and partnerships, we support an innovative CTE system that prepares individuals to succeed in education and their careers and poises the united states to flourish in a global, dynamic economy.

Mission: Support visionary state leadership, cultivate best practices and speak with a collective voice on national policy to promote academic and technical excellence that ensures a career-ready workforce.

What’s Changed?
While our logo and name have changed, the majority of our resources, our membership structure, our Board structure and staff all remain the same. We have revamped and retooled a few sections on our website including the CTE: Learning that works for America section to make information more easily accessible and up-to-date.

Learn More
We’ve developed a variety of resources to further explain what the new brand means and how it will impact the organization. You can find more information on our updated About Us page, FAQ and Press Release, and, please reach out with any questions or comments.

2015 Annual Report
2015 was an amazing year of growth and change for the field and for us – of which our new brand is a reflection. From the continued interest in CTE on Capitol Hill, in state houses across the country, by major national reform organizations, and even in the media, CTE is very much in the spotlight as a strategy for and solution to addressing many of our education and workforce challenges. Learn more about our many accomplishments throughout the year in our 2015 Annual Report.

Katie Fitzgerald, Communications Associate 

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Getting to Know … Florida

March 25th, 2015

Note: NASDCTEc is introducing a new blog series called, “Getting to Know …” We will be using this series to help our readers learn more about specific states, State CTE Directors, our partners and more.

State Name: Floridacte-logo-florida

State CTE Director: Rod Duckworth, Chancellor, Division of Career & Adult Education, Florida Department of Education

Postsecondary Counterpart: Chancellor of the Florida College System

About Florida CTE: Florida uses 17 Career Clusters — the original 16 Career Clusters® as well as one for energy. The Career Cluster with the highest enrollment is business management and administration. The state has 67 counties, each with its own school district. In addition, there are two university lab schools, the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and the Florida Virtual School, which also offer secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

About the State CTE Office: Mr. Duckworth’s office is responsible for the administration of CTE (secondary and postsecondary clock-hour certificate), adult education, apprenticeship, the farmworker career development program, among others. The Division of Career & Adult Education is responsible for distributing the roughly $61 million in federal funding from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins).  In addition, the office is responsible for state funding of more than $200 million for district postsecondary CTE programs.

Programs of Study (POS): In Florida, POS are primarily delivered through the state’s career academies, a structure codified in the 2007 law, the Florida Career and Professional Education Act (CAPE).  Florida has leveraged its Perkins State Plan to develop additional requirements, which must be met by eligible secondary and postsecondary recipients.  Those requirements include the following:

  • A written articulation agreement for each Program of Study (POS).
  • Articulation agreements signed and approved by the agency head of each participating secondary and postsecondary entity.
  • Must include a locally endorsed sequence of core academic and CTE courses (Grade 9 through postsecondary).
  • Must lead to a postsecondary credential, which may include a certificate, diploma, associate or baccalaureate degree, an industry certification, or a licensure.
  • Each POS is expected to be guided by the workforce and economic development needs of business/industry, the community and employment opportunities for students.

Every secondary and postsecondary recipient of Perkins funds offers at least one CTE POS and documents that through the annual Perkins application process.

 Issue in Focus: Industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) have long been an area of focus for Florida, due in part to the CAPE Act, which created statewide planning partnerships between business and education communities to expand and retain high-value industries and support the state economy. During the 2013-2014 school year, more than 60,000 high school students participating in registered CAPE career academies earned a total of 66,167 IRCs.

In recent years, Florida has put in place a number of incentives to support student attainment of IRCs, including incentives in the K-12 funding model and inclusion in high school and middle school grading formulas.  More recently, legislation has addressed counting IRCs in a student’s weighted grade point average and awarding teacher bonuses for certain high-value credentials.

The approval process for IRCs requires that industry certifications for non-farm occupations are recommended by the state’s workforce board (CareerSource Florida), which is comprised of business, industry, and education representatives.

Andrea Zimmermann, State Policy Associate

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Legislative Update: Appropriations, Sequestration

April 27th, 2012

House Sets Spending Levels

The House Appropriations committee this week released their FY13 302(b) allocations. Their allocation for the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee is $150.002 billion. This is more than $6 billion below FY12 levels, and approximately $7.8 billion below the Senate’s allocation. Such a large divide between the House and the Senate likely means that we will see another series of continuing resolutions this fall.

Sequestration Hearing Highlights Harmful Impact on Education

The House Budget Committee held a hearing this week on sequestration. Daniel Werfel of the Office of Management and Budget told of the impact of sequestration on security and domestic programs:

If allowed to occur, the sequester would be highly destructive to national security and domestic priorities, and core government functions. The Administration believes that taking action to avoid the sequester in full in a balanced and fiscally responsible manner must be the primary focus of Congress’s deliberations in the coming months… For non-defense, the cuts would be equally harmful and wide-ranging, for example, cutting funding for education, law enforcement, infrastructure, and research and development.

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (OR) also raised the point of how harmful the cuts would be to education.  Her question to the witnesses was an especially important one for CTE: “What is going happen to our efforts to rebuild the economy and our long term competiveness in a global market when we are doing this to our future leaders?” Mr. Werfel responded that the approximate 8% cut to non-defense discretionary programs would result in a loss of educational services for students, as well as a loss of educator jobs, for districts that are already struggling.

Unless Congress acts to stop it, sequestration will take effect on January 2, 2013.

Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager

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NASDCTEc Webinar Today – Keeping Adult Learners Competitive for High-Demand Jobs

December 8th, 2011

In today’s turbulent economy, how can adult workers best position themselves to succeed in rewarding careers in high-demand fields? Further, how can employers aid in up-skilling current employees to meet increasingly complex job demands?

To explore these questions in greater depth, we will be hosting a webinar this afternoon called “CTE: Keeping Adult Learners Competitive for High-Demand Jobs.” The webinar accompanies the release of NASDCTEc’s latest issue brief of the same title.

Click here to register for today’s webinar.

When: Today – Thursday, December 8th from 3:00 – 4:00 pm EST

Dr. Ron Duggins, Director of the Center for Business Development at Oklahoma’s Meridian Technology Center, will discuss Meridian’s Business Incubator program and how it helps adult entrepreneurs to launch successful businesses.

Mr. Harry Snyder, Adult Workforce Development Supervisor at Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development in Ohio, will describe how Great Oaks’ Aviation Maintenance – Power Plant Technician class is preparing adults for high-demand jobs and meeting the needs of area businesses.

We hope you can join us this afternoon!

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

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NASDCTEc Webinar Today on “Investment in CTE” – Register Now!

September 27th, 2011

Please join us this afternoon, Tuesday, September 27th from 2:00 to 2:45 pm ET, for a webinar: “Investment in CTE Investment in CTE: Linkages to Greater Earnings, Higher Employability, and Positive Benefit-Cost Ratio.” The webinar will accompany the release of our final vision issue brief of the same title.

Register for today’s webinar here.

NASDCTEc’s Education Policy Analyst, Kara Herbertson, will frame the conversation by highlighting state and organization examples that aim to show the value of CTE and education to the community and the economy.

We are pleased to have Kevin Hollenbeck, Vice President and Senior Economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, join us for this discussion on return on investment (ROI) and CTE.

Click here to view our new issue brief on this topic.

For more information, please contact Kara Herbertson at kherbertson@careertech.org.

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2011-2012 NASDCTEc Officers Take Helm Amid Budget Cuts, Challenges, New Initiatives

July 8th, 2011

Officers of the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) commenced their one-year term this month. The officers take the helm at a significant time as tough economic circumstances threaten career technical education (CTE) funding, the U.S. Secretary of Education challenges the CTE community to provide proof of positive outcomes in its programs, and NASDCTEc launches a national initiative to re-brand CTE.

“The National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium faces great challenges, yet great opportunities as well,” said Dr. Patrick Ainsworth, NASDCTEc President and Assistant Superintendent and Director; Secondary, Career, and Adult Learning Division; California Department of Education.

“Our nation is clamoring for aid in improving the outcomes of our students, the competitiveness of workforce and the overall health of our national economy. While funding constraints will certainly offer challenges, I am confident that we can demonstrate how CTE can be a significant resource in helping our nation recover and succeed. NASDCTEc officers will help spearhead that effort to showcase the incredible value of CTE and advocate for investment in what works.”

In the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act – the primary federal source of funding for CTE — was cut by $140.2 million (11 percent), bringing the total appropriations to $1.1 billion. For FY 2012, the President proposed cuts to Perkins that would bring the total FY12 appropriations to $1 billion.

The funding cuts have fanned the flames behind NASDCTEc’s recently-launched CTE: Learning that Works for America ™ campaign. The campaign puts in a clear voice a unified message about the success CTE programs across the nation have demonstrated through low high school dropout rates, above-average college-going rates and evidence of return on investment, and more. NASDCTEc aims to help mobilize and strengthen the CTE community with this campaign to address funding threats and the investment in quality CTE programs that align to the brand.

NASDCTEc officers include:
• President Dr. Patrick Ainsworth, Ed. D., Assistant Superintendent and Director; Secondary, Career, and Adult Learning Division; California Department of Education
• Vice President, Marie Barry, New Jersey Director of the Office of Career and Technical Education
• Secretary/Treasurer, Division Administrator, Career Development and Preparation, Illinois State Board of Education, Mark Williams
• Immediate President Dr. Phil Berkenbile, State Director of Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education

President: Dr. Patrick Ainsworth –Dr. Ainsworth oversees secondary education, adult education, college preparation and postsecondary relations, career and technical education, and workforce preparation programs. He also serves as the Superintendent’s Designee on the California Workforce Investment Board, Joint Boards Advisory Committee, Community College Economic Development Policy Advisory Council, and other groups.

Secretary-Treasurer Mark Williams: Mr. Williams is a former high school teacher and administrator who has served for six years as Illinois State Director of Career and Technical Education. During his tenure, he has been a founding member of the Coalition for Illinois High Schools, a member of several Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Taskforces devoted to addressing the critical skills shortages of Illinois. Most recently, he has focused on the Illinois Curriculum Revitalization Project as well as the development of STEM Learning Exchanges in Illinois.

Vice President Marie Barry: Ms. Barry administers all activities and plans related to Perkins serves as the state director for career and technical education for secondary and postsecondary CTE programs. She is also a member of the department’s cross-divisional team addressing secondary education transformation, and, specifically, provides leadership for the pilot program on the development of personalized student learning plans.

Immediate Past President Dr. Phil Berkenbile: Dr. Berkenbile is a former agricultural education instructor, Mr. Berkenbile serves on the Governor’s Taskforce on Aerospace and Information Security, the Governor’s Taskforce on Healthcare, the Oklahoma Manufacturers Alliance Board, the State Insurance Advisory Council, and the State Workforce Development Board. Mr. Berkenbile also serves on the CareerTech Administrative Council and is a member of the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education.

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