Data and Research Archives

DC Digest: September 9-15

This week was a busy period in Washington as both chambers of Congress were in session for the first time following the August recess. Efforts were primarily focused on the appropriations process ahead of the deadline to enact funding bills or pass a continuing resolution before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, although both the House and Senate ran into issues moving forward. Many experts are now increasing the odds of a government shutdown. Meanwhile, the House and the Senate continued their efforts to advance their respective spending bills in policy areas of transportation, agriculture and national defense. Read more news and notes below:

Department of Education Celebrates Completion of Nationwide Unlocking Pathways Summit Series: ED and the Biden-Harris Administration have announced the completion of the nationwide Unlocking Pathways Summit series, concluding with one final stop in Biloxi, Mississippi. This series was a part of the Raise the Bar: Unlocking Career Success initiative, aimed at reimagining the high school experience to help learners thrive in future careers by earning postsecondary degrees and industry credentials to meet economic demands and employer needs. The initiative was a joint effort across ED, DOL, DOC, public and private sector leaders and multiple community-based organizations that was split into four parts across four different states. ACTE leaders attended each event to ensure the CTE voice was included.

Department of Education Announces New Actions to Build on Work to Accelerate Learning and Improve Student Achievement: ED and the Biden-Harris Administration have announced a list of additional actions to improve classroom instruction and accelerate academic success across the nation for the start of the new school year as a part of the Department’s Raise the Bar: Lead the World Effort. The Department announced actions that include increased state funding to improve student outcomes, expanded school capacity to build a diverse educator workforce and strategic initiatives to provide student supports for mental health needs and combat absenteeism.

Department of Labor Awards $44 Million to Support Job Training Services for Workers in Multiple Regions: The Department of Labor has announced more than $44 million in awards for the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority and the Northern Border Regional Commission to help workers in across these regions secure good jobs in high-demand industries through career training and supportive services. The funding comes as a result of the Department’s efforts to advance economic mobility and address historic inequities for marginalized communities of color, rural areas and other underserved and underrepresented communities in these areas.

Chairman Owens to Hold Hearing on Strengthening the Workforce Development System: The Committee on Education and thehe Workforce’s Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development will hold a hearing titled “Strengthening WIOA: Improving Outcomes for Jobseekers, Employers, and Taxpayers” on Wednesday, September 20 at 10:15 a.m. EST. The hearing will aim to dissect the job market, analyze the WIOA system and highlight current practices that are working to create a system that matches the needs of a modern economy.

IES Announces the Extending the Reach of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network: The Institute for Education Science (IES) has announced the establishment of a second research network focusing on CTE. The new network will be named the “Extending the Reach of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Research Network” and will carry out scientifically based research and evaluation to develop, improve and identify successful methods for addressing education and employment training needs of CTE participants in CTE programs. ACTE is a partner in this network and will be focused on disseminating research from the project.

Applications for New Awards; Education Research Grant Programs: This week, ED and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) issued a notice calling for research grant applications for research teams to participate in research networks focused on critical problems of education policy and practice, including CTE. Interested parties have until January 11, 2024, to submit an application and be considered for funding opportunities.

Department of Ed’s Public Comment Request Provides Opportunity to Advocate for CTE

The Department of Education invites public comments on regional educational needs to guide its Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) in their administration of technical assistance to states and school districts. This provides an opportunity to identify growing demands for expanding CTE programs and challenges programs currently face.

The 10 RACs collect information on educational needs within their assigned region and then determine how comprehensive centers as described in the Educational Technical Assistance Act (ETAA) can provide technical assistance to address these needs. These committees rely on public comments to guide their work, and these comments, alongside data and resources, will be considered at the next committee meeting. In order for the committee to consider offering enhanced technical assistance to CTE programs, comments must present the current need for these programs and why it should be considered a priority. For example, you might want to share any challenges you are facing around the CTE teacher pipeline or providing students access to work-based learning.

Access the form to submit public comments here which includes the following questions:

What are 1 to 2 educational needs within your region the RAC should prioritize?
Why do you believe these are educational priorities that your region should address?
What information can the RACs collect about these priorities to better understand and address the need(s)?
Please add any other comments about educational needs in the region and how they could be addressed.

The committees also encourage public attendance of these meetings, and the schedule and registration link will be posted here. There isn’t much time to submit comments – they should be submitted two business days before the upcoming committee meeting for your respective region:

Appalachia RAC (KY, TN, VA, WV): October 13

Northwest RAC (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA): October 13

Central RAC (CO, KS, MO, NE, ND, SD, WY): October 16

Southeast RAC (AL, FL, GA, MS, NC, SC): October 11

Mid-Atlantic RAC (DE, DC, MD, NJ, PA): October 17

Southwest RAC (AR, Bureau of Indian Education, LA, NM, OK, TX): October 12

Pacific RAC (American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Palau, and Republic of the Marshall Islands): October 16

Northeast and Islands RAC (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT, PR, Virgin Islands): October 12

West RAC (IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, OH, WI): October 16

Research Roundup: Outcomes for Dual Enrollment, Non-degree Credentials and Reentering Young Adults

How States and Localities are Improving Employment Outcomes for Reentering Young Adults: The Center for American Progress (CAP) recently published a report highlighting how states and localities are improving employment outcomes for justice-involved 18-to-24-year old individuals. Researchers discovered that one in five young adults reported not being able to find employment within their first year of release from incarceration, while those who do find a job report working fewer weeks per year than their non-incarcerated peers.

The report notes that legal reforms aimed at improving post-incarceration outcomes have historically only applied to individuals younger than 18, leaving others in limbo. Researchers highlighted the following practices emerging across the country to support reentering young adults:

Increasing access to identification forms so reentering young adults can secure resources like housing, public benefits, employment and banking access.
Increasing access to the social safety net to help reentering young adults secure basic economic needs and transition toward stability.
Investing in career exploration and workforce development programs dedicated to young adults who often do not have previous work experience or training.
Reforming restrictive employment laws that limit access to work for young adults due to their criminal record.

The report also recommends holistic support for justice-involved young adults at all stages of the process to help them better reach their goals and build stronger communities.

Understanding the Link Between Dual Enrollment Course Characteristics and Students’ Postsecondary Enrollment Outcomes: The Community College Research Center at Columbia University (CCRC) recently published a report examining dual enrollment (DE) course participation and outcomes among recent high school students to offer policymakers, administrators and practitioners insights for the design and development of these courses. The report reinforced the importance of CTE’s effects on student outcomes, finding that individuals who participate in CTE-DE courses have an increased probability of high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment.

Researchers also found the following about the student characteristics and outcomes of CTE-DE courses:

CTE-DE courses serve more Black and Hispanic students and individuals from low-income backgrounds than academic DE courses.
Learners who take CTE-DE courses at a postsecondary campus are more likely to enroll in a public two-year institution upon graduation.
Larger CTE-DE class sizes and higher credit CTE-DE classes negatively predict student outcomes.
Taking a CTE-DE course with an instructor who holds a baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate degree increases students’ probability of enrolling in postsecondary education after high school.

Additionally, the report recommends that postsecondary institutions partner more intentionally with high schools to recruit, support and engage DE students and that educational leaders balance short- and long-term outcomes when designing evidence-based practices.

The Impacts of Quality Non-degree Credentials in Preparing Learners for the Workforce: A report recently published by the National Skills Coalition (NSC) encourages state policymakers to invest in quality non-degree credentials (NDC) and shares how NSC researchers have worked with states to define, measure and track credential quality. Researchers reported that large shares of NDC holders are women as well as individuals of color with no other postsecondary credential, reinforcing the importance of ensuring that NDCs are high quality and lead to upward mobility and family-sustaining wages.

The report includes the following recommendations for growing quality credentials:

Ensure a strong leadership commitment that mandates action and directs resources toward quality assurance and greater cross-system collaboration.
Engage diverse groups of stakeholders to build buy-in and trust and develop initiatives with an equity lens.
Invest time and resources into improved data collection, capacity and reporting infrastructure.
Prioritize funding for individuals pursuing quality NDCs, along with other access and attainment policies that support equitable credential attainment.

National Council on Teacher Quality Releases Report on Increasing Teacher Diversity

The National Council on Teacher Quality recently published a report that explores emerging trends and state policies for increasing diversity in the field of teaching. Researchers found that teacher apprenticeships and residencies are crucial avenues to attract more candidates of color to the teacher pipeline.

The analysis investigates the following state-level approaches to teacher recruitment:

46 states have developed high school pipeline or career pathways programs through CTE and dual or concurrent enrollment, 21 with the explicit goal of increasing diversity.
26 states have established Grow Your Own programs at the state level, with 20 states explicitly making teacher diversity a goal.
23 states have taken steps through state policy to establish teacher apprenticeships since 2022.
Six states have established post-baccalaureate residencies, three with the goal to explicitly diversify the workforce.

Researchers noted that secondary-level career pathways programs can lead to a more diverse pipeline by improving overall educational outcomes for individuals of color. Yet, these programs are often less available to these students.

In the state of Colorado, leaders are diversifying the teacher workforce by increasing access for low-income individuals and students of color through the Teacher Recruitment Education and Preparation (TREP) program, which gives learners in an education and training career pathway the opportunity to continue their education at a postsecondary institution tuition-free for two years. In another example, legislators in the state of Washington expanded the Recruit Washington Teachers Initiative to include a career pathway that supports students in becoming certified bilingual educators. Illinois, an early pioneer of the Grow Your Own model, invested approximately $2.5 million toward Grow Your Own programming in 2020 to fund initiatives that run across five programs and roughly 200 candidates.

The report also covers recruitment and retention strategies being enacted across the country. Researchers found that the majority of states have funded or established financial incentives or state-level initiatives to support educator retention, but less than half of these initiatives have explicitly focused on supporting or retaining educators of color.

The lack of more expansive policies in this area across the 50 states has translated into a higher national turnover for teachers of color (19%) than for white instructors (15%). Strategies for retention in states like Minnesota, which enacted the Due North Education Plan, primarily focus on peer support, mentorship and affinity groups while financial assistance initiatives have come in the form of incentives through scholarships or loan forgiveness programs.

Researchers made the following recommendations to policymakers to better support the teacher pipeline for underrepresented groups:

Set explicit goals to diversify the workforce and publish more data to track progress toward goals.
Engage teachers of color in policymaking.
Minimize the disproportionate impact of layoffs on teachers of color.
Invest in improving school climate and school leadership.
Evaluate initiatives and measure success.

National Evaluation of CTE Surveys to be Distributed Soon!

Be on the lookout THIS WEEK for surveys related to the National Evaluation of CTE under Perkins V (NECTEP), a major research project authorized under the National Program section of the Perkins Act!

Surveys will be distributed the week of August 28 by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences (IES). Surveys will be distributed to CTE state directors and a random sample of school districts across the country. Within school districts, the surveys should go to the CTE Director or Perkins Coordinator, but could end up with other contacts, so keep an eye out!

If you receive one of these surveys, please take the time to fill it out carefully as soon as possible. These surveys are your opportunity to directly inform both IES and Congress about what’s happening in the field. Reporting on your experiences implementing Perkins V will help ensure federal policymakers have an accurate picture of how Perkins V is working nationwide. Without your survey responses, that picture will be incomplete.

Here is a bit more information on why the NECTEP surveys are a critical part of the study:

IES and its contractor—AIR—will use information from the surveys to report on key aspects of Perkins V implementation.
The surveys will provide new data on how states and districts are administering CTE under Perkins V. The last comparable survey data on federally funded CTE was collected over 13 years ago, and a lot has changed since then!
Reports based on the survey results will inform Congress about how states and districts are implementing Perkins V and may inform future reauthorizations of Perkins.

Thank you in advance for doing your part to inform federal CTE policy! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Research Roundup: Informal Teacher Mentoring for Student Success, Policies Supporting the Teacher Pipeline

How Informal Mentoring By Teachers Supports Student Academic Success: The National Bureau of Economic Research recently published a report on the effects of informal teacher-student mentoring relationships. The results demonstrated a 9.4% increase in postsecondary attendance for students who had an informal mentoring relationship during K-12 education with a teacher, counselor or coach, with effects being most beneficial for individuals of lower socioeconomic status.

The researchers also described how estimates of teachers’ long-run impacts on students’ academic or behavioral skills can miss the impact of sustained teacher-student relationships on student social capital, aspirations and life decisions. However, they noted that a wide variation exists among students who report having a teacher-student mentor relationship, indicating a gap in opportunity and a need for more diverse faculty.

Researchers recommend that future research efforts focus on understanding the characteristics of school-based mentors and on how teacher training and school organizational practices can be leveraged to expand equitable access to these relationships.

State Policies Supporting Teachers Across the Career Pipeline: The Education Commission of the States recently published a policy outline that highlights state policies to improve the educator pipeline from recruitment to retention. Researchers found that at least 31 states and the District of Columbia offer a pathway, program or incentive to recruit secondary students into the teaching profession, at least nine states have launched registered apprenticeships for teachers, and at least 31 states require new teacher induction and mentoring.

The following state policy examples demonstrate how policymakers and leaders can support the teacher workforce throughout the career pipeline:

Interest in the field: Georgia’s paraprofessional development stipend program provides paraprofessionals with economic support to pursue teacher certification.
Initial preparation and certification: The North Carolina Teaching Fellows program offers a scholarship for prospective educators committed to teaching for at least four years in public schools.
Early career support: Delaware has a four-year induction and mentoring program for new teachers on an initial license, teachers new to the state, and teachers who have changed their area of licensure.
Career advancement: Maine’s Teach to Lead program fosters collaboration among educators statewide and is developing standards to promote teacher leadership opportunities.

Updated Resource: Health Care Sector Sheet

Today ACTE has released CTE: Developing the Health Care Workforce, the fourth in our revamped series of Sector Sheets describing CTE’s role in growing the workforce for vital industry sectors. The Sector Sheet series is published with support from ACTE’s long-time partner Pearson.

These revised Sector Sheets include job opportunities and descriptions of how CTE prepares learners for the workforce in each sector, all in a new format featuring streamlined text and additional graphics to make these advocacy tools even more effective.

This Sector Sheet describes how CTE supports the health care workforce, which employs more than 17 million people nationwide and requires approximately 1.9 million individuals each year to meet demand. It also shares information on occupations, earnings and credentials that give readers guidance for how to enter and progress within fields such as allied health, nursing and behavioral health. Finally, the Health Care Sector Sheet demonstrates the importance of CTE in developing this workforce by describing how CTE prepares learners through courses, industry credentials, work-based learning, career and technical student organizations and more.

As we move forward with these revamped Sector Sheets, both the newer and older Sector Sheets will be available on the ACTE Sector Sheet webpage for download and use. We encourage you to share these tools with students, counselors, policymakers and others to spread the message about CTE and its benefits for students and the workforce.

CTE Questionnaires in the Field

This month, high school CTE teachers around the nation will begin receiving packets of questionnaires as part of ACTE’s continuing partnership with myOptions® Encourage® (formerly myOptions) and its College and Career Planning Program. This no-cost program helps you discover your students’ interests, future goals and postsecondary preferences. It also provides valuable data for educators and ACTE about students’ and teachers’ experiences with CTE.

As part of the program, your students can access Encourage, a free college and career planning app. This powerful tool allows them to explore and save majors and careers, see personalized college and scholarship matches, check out financial aid information, and manage tasks that will help keep them on track for graduation and beyond.

To have the most impact, we need your help! We’re delivering packages to your school and would love it if your class would complete and return the short college and career planning forms included. It’s quick, easy, free and totally voluntary.

If you don’t receive a package or prefer to participate electronically, email acte@myoptions.org with the subject “ACTE Form Package Request.” Our partners at myOptions Encourage will provide a link to the online planning form or send you a package of paper forms—whichever works best for you!

Learn more about myOptions Encourage here or check out the frequently asked questions.

NSC Releases Report on Defining and Implementing Quality Non-Degree Credentials

The National Skills Coalition (NSC) recently released a report titled “The Non-Degree Credential Quality Imperative” which outlines a framework for defining and promoting quality non-degree credentials. The report seeks to support stakeholders such as students, workers, businesses and education and training programs by encouraging productive state action toward policy and investment in quality non-degree credentials.

A non-degree credential is defined as a postsecondary credential that does not fit the parameters of a degree program. Categories of non-degree credentials include certificates, industry certifications, apprenticeship certificates, occupational licenses, badges and microcredentials. Earning non-degree credentials can assist workers in attaining higher-paying jobs by displaying skills and experience while simultaneously aiding employers in identifying quality candidates. Additionally, non-degree credentials are often more affordable and less time-consuming than a traditional degree program.

However, not all non-degree credentials lead to equal outcomes, and differentiating quality non-degree credentials could provide learners with key insights to choose programs that lead to better outcomes and allow policymakers to feel more confident investing in these programs. As states have increasingly developed their data systems to provide more complete data across the educational system, they are best equipped to evaluate the outcomes of these programs and communicate their findings to the public. To stimulate such action, NSC launched a multi-year initiative to define and promote quality non-degree credentials by collaborating with states that were already engaged in developing or implementing quality criteria such as Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Virginia.

By evaluating many factors including earnings, competencies and employment within these states, NSC crafted a framework for developing criteria for quality non-degree credentials. This defines a quality non-degree credential as a credential that equitably leads to substantial job opportunities, includes clearly defined competencies, leads to higher earnings, can be stackable with additional education and training, and can be applicable to a range of employment opportunities.

NSC then worked with states to develop policy that implements this framework, and the report identifies steps to increase the probability of success for states that engage in this process in the future. They include a commitment to strong leadership, determining specific goals for the quality framework, engaging with a diverse group of stakeholders, investing in improved data collection and reporting, implementing policies that prioritize funding for those pursuing quality credentials and evaluating how the quality framework can promote racial and gender equity.

This framework, and the lessons learned by states engaging in the process of applying it to credentials in their own state, can yield important insights for work on the national level as well, such as work to expand Pell Grants to short-term credential programs.

Research Roundup: Data Insights on Student Earnings, Labor Market Information and Equity in Credentials

Emerging Postsecondary Labor Market Insights: The Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University recently published a report that examined existing and emerging Labor Market Information (LMI) practices at postsecondary institutions. The report revealed that the usage of LMI at two-year institutions was primarily motivated to develop academic and strategic plans, tended to focus more on workforce development and aimed at helping students achieve their future educational and career goals. The report also highlighted the impact of Perkins and the requirements around using LMI as a key driver of this work.

The following recommendations on policies and processes can assist school administrators in the adoption and institutionalization of LMI within their organizations:

Examine potential LMI applications related to institution core activities like program review, academic planning, recruitment and enrollment management.

Understand that institutional needs may require multiple LMI data sources apart from publicly available material and that these sources may result in additional costs from private vendors.

Establish an infrastructure with organizational processes that provide centralized support; offer internal professional development for LMI in postsecondary contexts; and create policies from senior leaders on shared LMI expectations.

Researchers recognize the importance of LMI and recommend its use to leaders as postsecondary institutions face a looming enrollment cliff and as politicians and parents demand more accountability about how degrees connect to work.

Updated Equitable Value Explorer Tool Provides New Disaggregated Student Earnings Data: The Institute for Higher Education Policy recently released an update to the Equitable Value Explorer tool, an interactive data visualization platform. The tool has been updated to include the latest data from the College Scorecard, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and American Community Survey. In particular, it includes new disaggregation of the median earnings of students by gender and family income for each institution.

Overall, the tool measures the economic value that institutions deliver through a series of economic thresholds and is designed to assist leaders, researchers and policymakers in better understanding student outcomes to improve equitable postsecondary value.

Credential Engine Equity Advisory Council Report and Recommendations: Credential Engine’s Equity Advisory Council recently published a report with recommendations focused on improving equity through data usage across the educational spectrum. The council’s findings centered on data transparency from providers for better informed decisions and optimal outcomes and on data principles for better student counseling on career pathways.

The report lists three tiers of data that the advisory council believes can assist school leaders and administrators in improving student outcomes:

Tier One, No Excuses: Data points like cost of programs; time to completion; possible transfer pathways; enrollment, persistence and completion rates, licensure exam pass rates; earnings and placement data; and others that providers should make publicly available now.

Tier Two, Time to Stretch: Data points like the availability of digital student records, the modalities of program offerings (online vs. in person); accreditation status, credential acquisition and others that providers should be working to make publicly available.

Tier Three, Future Forward: Data points like advisor-to-student ratios, tutoring offered, number of transfer credits accepted, return on investment and others that providers should assess to make publicly available in the near future.

The advisory council also calls to action owners of occupational credentials, credential engine stakeholders and policymakers, developers of counseling tools and other individuals to follow these recommendations to meaningfully and collectively bring about a more equitable education and training marketplace.