Public Policy « Advance CTE Blog

Legislative Update: House Hearing on Higher Ed and Jobs

Friday, August 19th, 2011

On Tuesday, the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training hosted a field hearing in South Carolina, â€œReviving Our Economy: The Role of Higher Education in Job Growth and Development.â€ The hearing featured two panel discussions: The first examined the local economy and job opportunities, and the second focused on the ability of higher education institutions to successfully prepare graduates to join the workforce.

During the second panel, Dr. Keith Miller, President of Greenville Technical College, spoke about the importance of partnerships between education and employers to ensure economic success. His college is working with employers to bridge the skills gaps that exist industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and IT. Dr. Miller encouraged members to support WIA funding and talked about the benefit of dual enrollment programs. While he did not speak about Perkins specifically, it is important that the subcommittee heard about the skills gaps that exist and the need to train workers to fill existing jobs. Hearing this message from constituents reinforces the message that we take the Hill with us â€“ that Perkins funding and CTE programs are the key drivers in training these workers and closing the skills gap.

By admin in Public Policy
Tags: Congress, dual enrollment, Job training, postsecondary, Public Policy, Secondary, skills gap, WIA

NASDCTEc Signs on to Extended Graduation Brief

Friday, August 19th, 2011

NASDCTEc has signed on in support of a new brief that encourage statesâ€™ use of extended-year graduation rates in adequate yearly progress calculations and incorporation of these rates into their state accountability frameworks/systems. Written by the American Youth Policy Forum, Gateway to College National Network, and the National Youth Employment Coalition, this brief, Making Every Diploma Count: Using Extended-Year Graduation Rates to Measure Student Success, aims to educate and inform states about the flexibilities that currently exist to use extended-year graduation rates as a policy mechanism to encourage schools and districts to continue to work with over-age, under-credit students.

These rates provide for the inclusion of students who take longer than four years to earn a high school diploma, but who successfully earn their credential in five or six years. Extended-year graduation rates allow states to document increases in graduation rates compared to the traditional four-year measure and highlight the successful work of schools and districts to get struggling and out-of-school students back on-track to graduation. The brief encourages states to calculate five- and six-year high school graduation rates to ensure that schoolsâ€™ and districtsâ€™ efforts to serve struggling and off-track students are recognized and not discouraged.

The brief recommendations the following:

â€¢ In addition to four-year graduation rates, states should gather and report extended-year graduation rates.
â€¢ States should use extended year graduation rates for purposes of accountability.
â€¢ States should use extended graduation rates to create incentives for schools and districts to serve struggling and off-track students.

By admin in Publications
Tags: Graduation Rates, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, Secondary

Legislative Update: Deficit Committee, Bills Introduced

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Congress Appoints Deficit Reduction Committee

The Budget Control Act, which raised the debt ceiling earlier this month, requires Congress to select a bipartisan, bicameral committee to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion. Congressional leaders this week revealed their picks:

Senate

House

The co-chairs are Sen. Murray and Rep. Hensarling. The committee has until December 23 to vote on a final bill to reduce the deficit. If the committee cannot come up with $1.5 trillion in cuts or revenue, that will trigger $1.2 trillion in across the board spending cuts that will go into in 2013.

Because of the sheer number of cuts that need to be made to reduce the deficit, there is great potential for Perkins funding to be affected. And if we are not a part of the committeeâ€™s cuts, we may be impacted by the across the board cuts that will go into effect if the committee does not meet its $1.5 trillion target.

We encourage you to reach out to your members of Congress, but the committee members in particular, to ask them to preserve Perkins funding. Given that Perkins was cut in FY 2011, we know that we are vulnerable. Now is the time to tell Congress how those cuts and future cuts will hurt CTE students and programs.

Bills Introduced:

Hire, Train, Retain Act
Rep. Marcia Fudge (OH) introduced H.R. 2742, Hire, Train, Retain Act of 2011, which would provide tax incentives to employers for providing training programs for jobs specific to the needs of the employers.

METRICS Act
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Richard (CT) introduced S. 1464, Measuring and Evaluating Trends for Reliability, Integrity, and Continued Success (METRICS) Act of 2011. This bill is designed to help states implement integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems by awarding grants to state educational agencies.

Early Intervention for Graduation Success Act
Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK) introduced S. 1495, Early Intervention for Graduation Success Act in an effort to curb dropout rates. This bill would amend ESEA to direct competitive grants to states and school districts with the lowest graduation rates for school dropout prevention activities.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: advocacy, appropriations, budget, Congress, Data, dropouts, federal legislation, funding, Graduation Rates, Job training, Perkins, Public Policy

Duncan to Grant Waivers from NCLB Requirements

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Due to Congressâ€™ failure to act on reauthorization, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it plans to offer states relief from some of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act in exchange for statesâ€™ support of the Administrationâ€™s education reform policies.

Melody Barnes, director of the Domestic Policy Council, said during the announcement, â€œAmerica’s future competitiveness is being decided today, in classrooms across the nation. With no clear path to a bipartisan bill in Congress, the President has directed us to move forward with an administrative process to provide flexibility within the law for states and districts that are willing to embrace reform.â€

States will be given the opportunity to apply for a waiver from certain requirements in the law. These applications will be peer reviewed by individuals outside of the Department, but the final decision will belong to Secretary Duncan. The waivers would take effect during the 2011-2012 school year. Further details about the waivers will be released in September. However, rumors are swirling that states would be given waivers from NCLBâ€™s 2014 proficiency deadline and more funding flexibility, in exchange for adopting college- or career-ready standards, creating differentiated accountability systems, and adopting teacher evaluation systems.

While the Secretary has clear legal authority to grant waivers from the law, it is not clear that he has the authority to make them conditional on support for the Administrationâ€™s reform policies.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: accountability, college and career readiness, common core state standards, federal legislation, funding, Legislation, NCLB/ESEA, Public Policy, Secondary, Secretary Duncan

ACTION ALERT: Ask Businesses to Support Perkins Funding

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

The National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc), Association for Career and Technical Education, American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of School Administrators, and Council of Chief State School Officers are circulating a business sign-on letter in support of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) and we need your help!

Many of your programs have strong partnerships with large and small businesses, and we want to utilize this business voice. Please reach out to your business partners and have them join in the fight to oppose any additional cuts to Perkins funding. Similar to the business letter that was circulated earlier this year, this letter requests that Congress restore funds for Perkins to ensure that CTE programs have the resources to educate and train the future workforce.

Please visit NASDCTEcâ€™s blog for the latest news related to CTE funding. We have also created a one pager that will help you make the case for why businesses should support CTE funding.

If a business would like to be added to the attached letter, please contact Nancy Conneely at [email protected] with the business name and its zip code (so that we can identify the appropriate congressional representative) by August 31^st.

Thank you for your support. Together we will save CTE funding!

By admin in Legislation
Tags: advocacy, appropriations, business and industry, Congress, funding, Public Policy

The New York Times: Tough Calculus as Technical Schools Face Deep Cuts

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

In spite of President Obamaâ€™s goals to raise studentsâ€™ readiness for college and career, the federal government has cut funding to career technical education (CTE), programs that have demonstrated impact on improving studentsâ€™ achievement in those specific areas, according to a recent New York Times article.

The article, written by Motoko Rich, provides an overview of the positive impacts CTE has made on reducing dropout rates, leading students to credential attainment, and linking students to high-demand jobs and preparing. It goes on to highlight the 20 percent reduction in the Education Departmentâ€™s fiscal 2012 budget for CTE, to a little more than $1 billion, even in light of an increase to overall education funding by 11 percent.

The clear challenge ahead will be proving to the Education Department, which has lauded quality CTE programs for their success in student achievement, that these â€œislands of excellenceâ€ are more plentiful than they believe, and are worth the investment.

By admin in News, Public Policy
Tags: college and career readiness, funding, Public Policy

Applied Baccalaureate Provides Potential Pathway for Workforce Development

Friday, May 20th, 2011

Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) recently completed a three-phase project to examine applied baccalaureate programs and their potential to provide pathways for the United States to train the workforce needed to compete in the global economy.

The Adult Learner and the Applied Baccalaureate (AB), a project sponsored by Lumina Foundation for Education, provides insight into the nationâ€™s inventory of programs and a more in-depth examination of six selected states. The final report for this project, The Adult Learner and the Applied Baccalaureate: Lessons from Six States, highlights the trend of the programs as well as the potential the programs have to contribute to developing a robust workforce.

Some of the findings of the study lead to the following conclusions about past developments in and potential of the AB:

Ambitious goals to increase college completion in the United States, especially baccalaureate completion, could facilitate growth in AB policy and program implementation.

Although controversial, the AB degree aligns well with policy agendas that link higher education to workforce development.

The AB degree provides a transfer pathway to the baccalaureate degree for students who have taken â€œterminalâ€ applied associate courses or degrees.

By admin in Public Policy, Publications, Research
Tags: college and career readiness, community colleges, Job training, Public Policy

Department Soliciting Comments on FERPA Regulations

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Last month, U.S. Department of Education released proposed amendments to the regulations implementing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in a Federal Register notice. The goal of the proposed changes is two-fold â€“ to give states more flexibility in collecting data through statewide longitudinal data systems, and protecting student privacy.

Among the proposed changes to FERPA that could have an impact on the collection of CTE data:

New definition of â€œauthorized representativeâ€ states that any entity or individual designated by a State or local educational authority or agency may conduct an audit, evaluation, or compliance or enforcement activity of a Federal or State supported education program. The Department believes that FERPA should be interpreted to allow states to link data across sectors, such as education and workforce.
New definition of â€œeducation programâ€ includes any program that is principally engaged in the provision of education, including, but not limited to early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education, special education, job training, career and technical education, and adult education, regardless of whether the program is administered by an educational authority.
Removes the requirement that a State or local educational authority or other agency must establish legal authority under other Federal, State or local law to conduct an audit, evaluation, or compliance or enforcement activity. This could promote greater sharing of data across agencies for the purposes of auditing or evaluating an education program in order to meet State and Federal requirements and for program improvement.

NASDCTEc has reviewed the amendments and will submit comments in the coming weeks. You may submit comments to the Department on or before May 23, 2011.

By admin in Legislation
Tags: accountability, Data, FERPA, longitudinal data systems, Public Policy

Spring Meeting: Legislative Implications for CTE

Friday, April 29th, 2011

The CTE community should prepare for a fight to restore federal Perkins funds, which took its first hit in the FY11 appropriations bill, warned education policy experts at the NASDCTEc /OVAE Joint Spring Leadership Meeting last week.

The FY11 funding bill cut $140.2 million from Perkins, including completely eliminating funding for Tech Prep and cutting Basic State Grants by $37.3 million, said Jamie Baxter, Advocacy Manager of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).Â The cut will impact funds for the 2011-2012 school year.

Moreover, experts predict that the FY11 bill indicates that funding levels for FY12 may be poised for a similar fate. Thus far, the House has passed their FY12 budget resolution, which proposes to set non-security discretionary spending below 2008 levels and freeze it for five years. The resolution sets spending for Department of Education programs at $360 billion, which is the same as the FY06 level.

Rachel Gragg, Federal Policy Director for National Skills Coalition, said there is a new urgency to push for reauthorization of legislation such as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which funds education and training programs that are of interest to the CTE community. Rising concerns regarding duplicative and ineffective programs will likely endanger funding for such legislation. The strategy to maintain funding would be to expedite reauthorization with the assurance that new language will ensure the support of quality effective programs, she said. On a similar note, Perkins is up for legislation in 2012.

Spiros Protopsaltis, Education Policy Advisor for Senate Committee of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, urged the CTE community to focus on advocacy efforts that highlight the strong role CTE plays in preparing students for college and career. Addressing that broad overall goal will appeal to Congress and the Administration, which are seeking investments that will prepare students to compete in the global economy and position the nation to succeed.

â€œCTE has an important role to play,â€ Protopsaltis said.

By admin in Public Policy
Tags: funding, postsecondary, Public Policy, WIA

OVAE Hosts CTE Community Conversation with National Organizations

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

On Friday Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter and OVAE Assistant Secretary Brenda Dann-Messier hosted the latest CTE Community Conversation, hearing from representatives from national organizations about key issues related to CTE in preparation for Perkins reauthorization. This convening was designed to gather national association views on effective approaches for, and challenges facing, CTE. Each organization was given three minutes to make formal remarks, with Kim Green presenting for NASDCTEc.

Some of the areas addressed by presenters included accountability and data collection, secondary to postsecondary linkages, college and career readiness definitions, using research to guide policy, career pathways, career guidance, non-traditional occupations, and regional sector strategies.

After formal remarks, participants broke into small groups to answer the following questions:

â€¢ How can states and education institutions better prepare students for college and careers?

â€¢ What actions need to be taken to further support the availability and effectiveness of career pathways for students?

â€¢ What kinds of partnerships best support career pathways and how can effective relationships be brought to scale?

â€¢ What information (data) should be used to better track and improve student outcomes, particularly those related to college and career readiness?

Notes from this session will be available soon on the Department of Educationâ€™s blog here. You can also submit comments on any of the above questions to [email protected].

By admin in Legislation
Tags: federal legislation, Legislation, OVAE, Perkins, Public Policy

Posts Tagged ‘Public Policy’