Posts Tagged ‘CAR data’

ED Extends Comment Period for Perkins ICR | Legislative Update

Friday, October 11th, 2024

This week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that it would extend the deadline for one of the components of a recent regulatory proposal impacting the implementation of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V) in response to a formal request made by Advance CTE and partners. Elsewhere, Congress has remained on recess ahead of the upcoming November elections while the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes preparations for National Apprenticeship Week and announces new grant opportunities.

ED Modifies Comment Deadline for Perkins V ICR

This morning, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that it would extend the public comment period for a recently proposed Information Collection Request (ICR) with significant implications for the implementation of Perkins V. The two-week comment period extension will apply to feedback responses to proposed changes to Perkins V’s Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) while the existing deadline for comments related to the State Plan Guide component of this ICR remain unchanged and are still due November 12, 2024. This announcement comes in response to Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education’s (ACTE) formal request for an extension made in recent weeks. In addition, ED’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) hosted two town halls last week, providing further details regarding these proposed ICRs. Notably, ED confirmed during these events that every state and territory would be required to undergo a new comprehensive planning process required by Perkins V regardless of whether a state submits a new or amended state plan by program year 2026.

Congress Remains on Recess Amid Storm Damage

Capitol Hill remains in recess this week as the November elections draw closer. Over the last few weeks, severe storms have significantly impacted several states. Due to these circumstances, there has been increasing pressure for Congress to potentially reconvene, prior to the upcoming elections, to provide supplemental emergency funding for states impacted by these weather events. A bipartisan group of Senators recently sent a letter highlighting this need, and similar efforts are underway in the House. 

Despite this mounting pressure, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has thus far resisted calls to reconvene. The need to provide funding in response to these latest hurricanes is widely expected to impact future negotiations for long-term funding for federal programs, like Perkins V’s state grant program, for the current 2025 federal fiscal year (FY25). As a reminder, current funding—recently extended by a continuing resolution (CR) passed by Congress late last month—is set to expire on December 20, 2024. Advance CTE will continue to advocate for a robust investment in CTE via Perkins V as the FY25 process progresses.

Department of Labor Continued Federal Support for Apprenticeship Programs

This week, the Department of Labor shared details for the 10th annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), a week dedicated to celebrating 10 Years of Engagement, Expansion, and Innovation of impacting lives through apprenticeship programs. Spanning the week of November 17th through 23rd, the 2024 celebration features daily themes with ways to get involved listed on Labor’s NAW Fact Sheet. Advance CTE looks forward to celebrating Career Technical Education’s critical role and connection to apprenticeships later this fall.

DOL also shared a list of resources for outreach to businesses to support apprenticeship investment and implementation. A related list has links to federal, state, and industry-specific resources for outreach anywhere on the continuum of strategic partnership. The Department also conducted a series of Industry Focus Calls throughout the summer to support state grantees in expanding Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) to meet employers’ needs. The 2024 calls shared best practices and successes for launching RAPs in education, the public sector, green energy, and mental and behavioral healthcare. The calls and resources dating back to 2019 can be accessed here.

Earlier this fall, the Biden-Harris administration issued an executive order related to Investing in America and Investing in American Workers that highlights the importance of prioritizing federally funded projects that prioritize workforce development efforts, including the availability of career pathways and RAPs.

Department of Labor Grants Available for Work-Based Learning for Underserved Youth

The Department of Labor announced a fifth round of Workforce Pathways for Youth grants, authorized under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), available for out-of-school organizations that engage underserved youth ages 14 to 21. The grants are intended to help organizations introduce career-related services, work-based learning opportunities, and occupational skills training. Applications are open until December 3rd, 2024, and eligibility requirements are listed on the application page. Read more about Workforce Pathways for Youth, previous program recipients, and other resources here.

Rob Young, Communications & Advocacy Associate

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor 

By Rob Young in Public Policy
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Legislative Update: Congress in Recess Through the Midterms

Friday, October 28th, 2022

The last two weeks, lawmakers in Congress have remained in recess ahead of the upcoming midterm elections set to take place November 8. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released new CTE data while the agency finalized new rules for postsecondary education. 

Congress Focuses on Midterms, Will Return Next Month

Both the Senate and House are currently only holding pro forma sessions until after the fast-approaching midterm elections take place on November 8. Lawmakers will return to Washington, D.C. to resume debate regarding the federal fiscal year 2023 (FY23) appropriations process and other year-end priorities on November 14 as part of the “lame duck” session of the current 117th Congress. Advance CTE expects this year-end session to continue until December 16 when temporary federal funding legislation is scheduled to expire and could extend as far as December 24 before adjourning. 

ED Releases New CAR Report Data

This week the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) published performance and enrollment data from states’ Consolidated Annual Report (CAR) submissions as part of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V). These data reflect learner performance during the 2020-21 program year and represents the first year that state performance data has been published under Perkins V since its reauthorization in 2018. Notably, these data make use of Perkins V’s new concentrator and participant definitions and also include new secondary CTE program quality indicators introduced by the legislation among several other changes. 

The data indicate a slight uptick in CTE enrollments, with 12 million CTE participants across the nation, including 8.3 million at the secondary level and 3.5 million at the postsecondary level. In addition, CTE concentrators had a graduation rate of 96 percent– substantially higher than the national average for all learners . The full set of data can be found here. Advance CTE is continuing to analyze and evaluate these data for other important trends and findings and will share those with the broader CTE community in the future. 

ED Publishes New Postsecondary Rules

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education finalized a new set of postsecondary rules intended to restrict proprietary school access to federal student aid and expand access to these funds for incarcerated learners. This final set of regulations was developed as part of a negotiated rulemaking panel tasked with finding consensus on these and several other issues of importance to postsecondary education. The first regulation– known informally as the 90/10 rule–stipulates that for-profit institutions cannot derive more than 90 percent of their revenue from federal sources. This new rule further limits what funding “counts” towards this calculation. The second rule focuses on whether and how for-profit institutions can convert to nonprofit status (known as change in ownership). The third and final major component of this rules package expands Pell grant program eligibility to include justice-connected learners. 

These new regulatory changes are set to go into effect July 2023. The full announcement can be found here

Nation’s Report Card Shows National Drop in Academic Achievement

On Monday, October 24, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published results from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Known informally as the nation’s report card, the NAEP is a nationally representative assessment that measures learner academic achievement in grades 4 and 8 in core academic subjects such as reading, math, science and other fields of study. The results released this week illustrate troubling trends in learner scores in math and reading between 2019 and 2022, with the majority of states reporting a decline in learner achievement in these subject areas for learners at both grade levels and across socio-economic and other learner subpopulations. 

Reacting to the NAEP results, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said, in part, “The results released today from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are appalling, unacceptable, and a reminder of the impact that this pandemic has had on our learners. The data also represent a call to action for the important work we must do now for our students—especially those who have suffered the most during the pandemic.”

Department of Energy Unveils School Infrastructure Grants

On Wednesday, October 26, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $80 million in new funding availability to support K-12 schools in making needed infrastructure upgrades and related improvements. The funding was authorized as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan which authorized a “Renew America’s Schools” program and allotted $500 million for similar activities. K-12 schools, charter school boards and local education agencies can all apply for this first tranche of funding ahead of a January 2023 application deadline. More information on the program can be found here

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Stacy Whitehouse in Public Policy
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Fall Meeting: Using Data to Drive Decisions

Monday, October 31st, 2011

At the NASDCTEc fall meeting last week, Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders from across the nation addressed many issues, including how data should be used to drive decision making in CTE. A panel of experts addressed relevant topics to CTE, such as diversifying the uses of CAR data, the return on investment of CTE, and how Career Clusters are addressing labor market demands.

Data Diversification in CTE

Matt Hastings from the Nebraska Department of Education described the role of subpopulations in the Perkins accountability data framework and the challenges with solely relying on subpopulation analyses.

Perkins accountability focuses on small groups of students so policymakers can see the return on investment (ROI) of Perkins dollars through CTE accountability measures. The system becomes a challenge, however, because CTE accountability takes on multiple roles; the success or failure of CTE programs is judged based on these accountability measures, while policymakers rely on these measures for ROI information to drive program and policy decisions.

Return on Investment in CTE

Pradeep Kotamraju of the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) described the overarching concern around CTE for policymakers and stakeholders as: is federal, state, and local investment in CTE paying off?

This presentation overviewed approaches and factors to consider when calculating ROI, and steps necessary to calculate ROI in CTE.

Career Clusters: Forecasting High School through College Jobs – 2008-2018

Nicole Smith from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce shared highlights from the Center’s latest report, which forecasts job opportunities by Career Cluster. Among other key findings, Smith shared that:

This report will be released on November 14, 2011.

Kara Herbertson, Education Policy Analyst

By admin in Uncategorized
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