Native and Tribal populations « Advance CTE Blog

Designing Equitable Futures: Expert Insights for Advancing Equity in CTE

Friday, May 31st, 2024

With support from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V), Career Technical Education (CTE) policies and programs have increasingly focused on supporting the needs of underrepresented learners, pushing educators and policymakers to expand their focus beyond federal mandates to cultivate inclusive, dynamic, and diverse learning environments tailored to the needs of every student.

At Advance CTE’s 2024 Spring Meeting, we brought this conversation to the forefront with an expert panel including Dr. Brittani Williams, Director of Advocacy Policy and Research at Generation Hope, Joshua Rysanek, College, Career and Community Pathways Program Coordinator at the LANL Foundation, and Dr. Wil Del Pilar, Senior Vice President at The Education Trust. From navigating equity work in various state contexts, scaling high-quality opportunities for learners in special populations, and establishing effective cross-agency/organization partnerships to advance equity and access, we left with clear strategies to prioritize the needs of all learners.

Navigating Equity-Focused Work in Equity-Restricted States

The conversation opened up with advice for equity-minded leaders working in state contexts where equity-focused work is discouraged or, in some cases, prohibited. “While language differs from state to state, whether we are discussing it or not, it is the reality,” Joshua stated, and affirmed that we can build consensus on what equity gaps persist in disaggregated data; data can show that our systems are not equipping every student with skills, experiences, and opportunities that lead to family-sustaining wages.

Similarly, Dr. Del Pilar highlighted the persisting access and performance gaps across states and programs, noting that the approach to this work needs to be reconsidered, regardless of state political contexts, to better address learner needs. Dr. Williams affirmed that as our learner populations evolve, our system and supports should be redefined alongside them.

Scaling Opportunities for Special Populations

Despite single parents being an identified special population in Perkins V, few states are scaling strategies to support single parents in CTE. Dr. Williams expanded on how CTE can serve as a launchpad for parents’ learning through career development and advancement to ensure they have the employability skills required to achieve economic mobility. Further, she highlighted the importance of offering wraparound services, including flexible scheduling and virtual opportunities. “Inclusive and targeted support is important,” Dr. Williams stated.

Dr. Del Pilar emphasized the opportunity to leverage a two-generation approach that supports single-parent learners’ educational attainment alongside their young learners through local organizations or school settings.

Similarly, Joshua expanded on what he and his organization have learned when scaling high-quality CTE opportunities for learners in Tribal communities. “Approach Tribal communities with respect, humility, and a learning mindset,” Joshua said as he recalled many instances where Tribal communities become pigeonholed into specific heritages, assumptions, and harmful stereotypes. He remarked on how all Tribal and Indigenous communities are different. States need to meaningfully engage Native communities by learning about their cultures, assets, and challenges and address those needs rather than making assumptions about what they are in the first place.

Partnerships in Equity

We garnered some strategies to strengthen partnerships with community-based organizations to advance equity work in our states. Dr. Del Pilar suggested strengthening relationships with organizations that leaders already work with and co-constructing the partnership to ensure both parties can benefit and contribute. He stated that building new relationships upon already established ones may be as simple as asking, “Is there anyone else I can talk to who is doing this work?” at the end of community partner conversations.

Dr. Williams mentioned that inviting community organizations to the table and having a presence within the communities that leaders serve can create trust and buy-in to create long-lasting relationships. “Success in community engagement is being culturally responsive, culturally competent, and trauma-informed.”

Preparations are underway for Advance CTE’s 2024 Fall Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, October 21-23! Visit the event page to save the date and learn more.

Marie Falcone, policy associate

By Layla Alagic in Advancing Equity in CTE
Tags: Access and Equity, Career Development, Native and Tribal populations, Perkins V, special populations

Legislative Update: House Examines Skills-Based Hiring as Senate Sets Spending Toplines

Friday, June 23rd, 2023

This week, the Senate has continued to make progress on federal appropriations legislation while lawmakers in the House explored skills-based hiring efforts underway across the country. Meanwhile, federal agencies have announced the availability of new grants aimed at supporting tribal education.

Senate Appropriators Set Funding Framework

As previously shared, the legislative agreement Congress and President Biden reached in recent weeks, known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), extends the nation’s borrowing authority for the next two years. Of significance for the Career Technical Education (CTE) community, the FRA establishes new spending caps for that same period of time for federal fiscal years 2024 (FY24) and FY25. In a recent development last week, House Republicans announced their intention to move forward with individual spending bills that, taken together, provide much less funding for domestic programs, like the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins V)* than required by the FRA. This sets up a likely scenario where the House and Senate propose radically different funding levels for the upcoming federal fiscal year, set to formally begin on October 1, 2023.

Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME), recently met to establish topline spending caps, known as 302(b)s, that align with the FRA. The committee considered these proposed 302(b) allocations yesterday and advanced them along party lines as Republicans on the panel remained concerned regarding funding levels for defense programs. Broadly the Senate’s 302(b) allocations are intended to provide roughly the same amount of funding for education and workforce development programs, like Perkins V, at current federal fiscal year 2023 (FY23) levels. In practical terms, however, the differences between the House and the Senate’s proposed visions for FY24 funding may prove challenging to reconcile as the October 1 deadline for FY24 draws nearer.

As these efforts continue to take shape, Advance CTE will be closely engaging with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to ensure that the significant funding needs of the CTE community are realized as part of the ongoing budget and appropriations process for FY24.

*As amended by the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act

House Explores Skills-based Hiring

On Thursday, June 22, the House Education and Workforce Committee held a hearing titled “Competencies Over Degrees: Transitioning to a Skills-based Economy.” The hearing focused on changes that could be made to reorient systems of education, workforce development, and employment to strengthen approaches and programs that provide skills needed for further economic opportunities and to better reward the attainment of these competencies in the labor market. The hearing also highlighted the issue of the “paper ceiling”–the issue of increasing numbers of workers being overlooked for jobs they would otherwise qualify for because they lack a four-year degree.

Witnesses and lawmakers explored a wide array of issues in this context, including potential changes to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and federal apprenticeship legislation to facilitate this vision for the future. In addition, House CTE Caucus Co-chair Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA) highlighted the need for further investment in CTE and noted that many programs in his district have waiting lists for learners– indicating that demand for CTE pathways is continuing to exceed current supply. An archived webcast of the hearing, including witness testimony, can be found here.

ED Announces New Native Language Grants

Last week, The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced the availability of approximately $8 million in new funding intended to support several federal initiatives aimed at better supporting Indigenous learners. “Our efforts to Raise the Bar for multilingual learners includes strengthening and revitalizing Native languages and the recruitment, retention, and leadership of Native educators,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said as part of the announcement. The new grantmaking is aimed at three separate ED initiatives that together are aimed at increasing the capacity of Indigenous communities to serve learners, preserve Native languages, and promote educator recruitment and retention efforts through the nation. More information regarding these grants can be found here.

Steve Voytek, Policy Advisor

By Layla Alagic in Public Policy
Tags: Fiscal Responsibility Act, House Education and the Workforce, Native and Tribal populations, Perkins V, Senate Appropriations Committee, US Department of Education, WIOA

Getting to Know….Alaska

Thursday, May 28th, 2020

Note: This is part of Advance CTE’s blog series, “Getting to Know…” We are using this series to help our readers learn more about specific states, State CTE Directors, partners and more.

State Name: Alaska

State CTE Director: Deborah Riddle

Before becoming the State CTE Director for Alaska, Deborah Riddle was a teacher. She taught math, Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) and robotics in rural Montana. During her time as a teacher, she worked closely with high school teachers to create alignment between middle school and high school. After receiving an administrative certificate to become a principal, she decided to move back home to Alaska. Deborah became a School Improvement Title I Specialist before beginning her work in Career Technical Education (CTE).

About Alaska:

At the state level, CTE in Alaska is supported by a small but mighty team of five. The work of the state CTE office in Alaska is guided by the state’s commitment to address the education challenges in the state. A few years ago, the State Department of Education brought together a group of over 100 stakeholders, including legislators, educators and business and industry, to examine the educational challenges the state faces. From that gathering, Alaska’s Education Challenge was born. The initiative focuses on three commitments related to enabling student success, promoting the safety and wellbeing of students, and cultivating responsible and reflective learning.

Core to Alaska’s work is promoting access and equity for each learner. Alaska has a robust Native and rural population that can face unique challenges when trying to access high-quality CTE programs. Alaska has leveraged approaches such as virtual learning to meet the needs of learners. Additionally, Alaska has taken a culturally responsive approach to addressing equity and access issues for Native populations.

In the past, Native learners were removed from their communities and sent to boarding schools that failed to serve them equitably. This was done in part because of the lack of opportunities available in Native learners’ communities. Recognizing the importance of allowing Native learners the option to continue to reside in their communities for the majority of their time, Alaska created short-term residencies. During the short-term residencies, Native learners are able to travel to urban areas for short periods of time to participate in programs that require equipment not available in their communities and that allows them to earn credit or certifications. The short-term residencies allow learners to interact with business and industry and gain critical workplace skills.

Looking forward, Alaska plans to continue to focus on advancing equity and access in CTE and ensuring that each learner is on a path to obtain a high-skill, high-wage, in-demand career.

Brianna McCain, Policy Associate

By admin in Uncategorized
Tags: Access and Equity, Alaska, Getting to Know, Native and Tribal populations, Rural CTE

Posts Tagged ‘Native and Tribal populations’