Posts in this category include any posts with data/research focused information, including new ACTE data resources, information from CTERN or other federally funded research, and partner research/data. Research Roundups should also be tagged with this category.
As CTE Month 2022 kick offs, ACTE is releasing a new “What is CTE?” infographic to help CTE supporters inform about and advocate for CTE.
This resource provides an overview of CTE and highlights the benefits that CTE can provide for students, businesses and communities.
During CTE Month, we encourage you to share this resource with anyone new to CTE, including students and families; federal, state and local education and workforce leaders; policymakers; and the media.
Key Legislation
In March 2021, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Bryan Steil (R-WI) reintroduced S. 839/H.R. 2030, known as the College Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA, which had also been introduced in previous years, would establish a national postsecondary data reporting system to provide information on student outcomes, such as enrollment, completion and earnings, across postsecondary institutions and career fields. This bill is one of ACTE’s top legislative priorities.
Background
Currently, the Higher Education Act (HEA) prohibits the collection and reporting of student level outcomes, such as enrollment figures, completion rates and earnings numbers, across all postsecondary institutions in the United States. Without access to this data, students and their families do not have access to the most up-to-date data to make informed choices about their education and career goals, nor do employers have the resources and talent pipelines they need to fill positions in high-wage, in-demand career fields. The CTA would both eliminate the ban on federal student data collection and create a streamlined, secure data network within the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The data would be disaggregated by race, ethnicity and gender to help identify inequities, while protecting students by prohibiting the sale of data and penalizing illegal data use, among other safeguards. The bill would require an accompanying “user-friendly” website that is capable of returning data to states and institutions so they can use the information to inform their practices.
Next Steps
Currently, there are 30 cosponsors in the Senate and 69 in the House of Representatives for the CTA, however, there are a number of Members of Congress, including House Education and Labor Committee Ranking Member Virginia Foxx (R-NC) that have significant concerns about the bill, complicating its path forward. ACTE’s public policy team is continuing to urge Members of Congress to cosponsor the bill and advocating for its passage. While a full reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) is unlikely to move forward this year, it is still possible that the bill could be passed as part of a different legislative package, or it could gain traction as a standalone bill.
Please continue to monitor ACTE’s Policy Watch blog for more information as this proposal continues to make its way through Congress!
With Congress in recess this week, action on CTE-related measures was limited. However, leaders in the House of Representatives released the text of the America COMPETES Act, a companion bill to the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act passed by the U.S. Senate last summer. This legislation contains several provisions with implications for CTE and workforce development programs. With debate on the Build Back Better Act stalled, the focus will turn to moving this bill through Congress. Stay tuned to CTE Policy Watch for more details as they come! In the meantime, both chambers will return to Washington as we get ready to kick off CTE Month! Here is the most important news from the past week:
Community College Baccalaureate Degrees: Although 24 states authorize some community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees, limited data exist on community college baccalaureate (CCB) programs. Using IPEDS data and feedback from state agencies, New America released a report that identifies the number of CCB programs, their areas of study and types of degrees:
Designing Micro-pathways: Recently, Education Design Lab released a report discussing insights from the first cohort of its Community College Growth Engine Fund (CCGEF). CCGEF is a design initiative that provides funding for select community colleges to launch a series of micro-pathways, which incorporate two or more stackable credentials, can be completed in less than a year and lead to a high-wage job. The recent cohort, comprised of teams of colleges, learners and employers, co-created 30 micro-pathways. Read the full report here and view a repository of all 30 micro-pathways here.
Fall 2021 Enrollment Trends: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, enrollment across all postsecondary institutions remains down. Recently, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released enrollment trends from the fall 2021 semester, which provide a more detailed picture of postsecondary enrollment during the pandemic:
COVID-19’s Prolonged Impact: The Center for Community College Student Engagement conducted a survey in spring 2021 with over 120,000 community college students to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect students’ financial situations and attitudes about safety:
This third blog post in our CLNA series based on Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment, our new report co-published with Advance CTE, explores data benefits and challenges of the first CLNAs.
Several state and local CTE leaders shared with us that the first CLNA led to greater use and enhanced understanding of data by local CTE leaders and practitioners, as well as improved transparency and more data-informed decisions. However, some local recipients described struggling with accessing and analyzing data. These challenges included difficulty in reporting data on learners from special populations, particularly when much of that information is self reported to colleges, and labor market data that obscured nuance about career fields and occupations. However, robust stakeholder engagement helped local recipients fill in the picture when labor market information was incomplete.
Going forward, improved data resources have been a major theme of the second CLNA for both states and local sub-grantees. For instance, Perkins staff at Queensborough Community College in New York planned to bring their institutional research colleagues into the process earlier, pursue a subscription to Emsi Burning Glass, and incorporate surveys into consultation methods. And CTE leaders at Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Colorado have been working with an economic and workforce data analyst to create easy-to-use data resources.
Stay tuned for the next entry in this series, which will explore access and equity in the first CLNAs, and revisit our prior post on stakeholder engagement.
This winter, ACTE has created a new Sector Sheet on CTE’s role in developing the education and training workforce with the latest details on occupational demand, the role CTE plays in preparing the workforce for this sector, and descriptions of exemplary programs in education and training.
With the average educator impacting 3,000 learners during their career, the U.S. education and training sector plays a critical role in shaping society. Educators are in high demand, with two-thirds of school district leaders reporting shortages, particularly for special education teachers. The sector is expected to add 920,500 new jobs by 2030, with strong growth for preschool educators, postsecondary instructors, and career counselors and advisers.
CTE programs are at the forefront of preparing individuals for careers in education and training. One example on the secondary level is the Education Career Academy at Millard Public Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. During their senior year, students complete a 108-hour practicum where they work with teachers and build a portfolio of lesson plans. After graduation, learners can receive up to 30 college credits at Metropolitan Community College and the University of Nebraska–Omaha. On the postsecondary level, Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) in Gardner, Massachusetts, offers the Child Development Associate program, which prepares students to work in preschools and child care centers by completing 120 hours of supervised training supported by a video-based classroom observation tool. Program completers can apply their credits toward MWCC’s Associate in Early Childhood Education program.
ACTE’s Sector Sheet series is generously supported by Pearson.
This second blog post in our CLNA series digs into one of the key challenges that CTE leaders shared with us for Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment, our new report co-published with Advance CTE – the authentic engagement of a full range of stakeholders during the first CLNAs.
Stakeholder engagement was noted by both state and local CTE leaders as an area for improvement in the first CLNAs. Several of the states interviewed could not speak with certainty about whether all stakeholders were substantively engaged, particularly learners and families. Local CTE leaders similarly shared that stakeholder engagement was not always as robust as desired, in part because COVID 19 required some local recipients to switch their engagement plans mid-stream.
Where local recipients were able to engage in intensive stakeholder engagement for the first CLNA, positive transformation was possible. In Mitchell County, North Carolina, a small rural district, CTE educators hosted 14 focus groups in fall 2019, each with cross-stakeholder participation that included learners, and followed each focus group with leadership team meetings, during which they reviewed and discussed the feedback received. This robust engagement led the district to develop several new courses and new professional development opportunities.
For this 2021-22 CLNA process, states are acting to help local leaders improve stakeholder engagement and local leaders are working to diversify consultation methods and do more in-depth engagement. For instance, the College of DuPage in Illinois planned to survey learners to find out if they identify as a member of a special population, what they know about existing supports and what other supports they need, as well as conduct focus groups for more of a deep dive.
Stay tuned for the next entry in this series, which will look at the role of data in the first CLNAs, and revisit our first post.
Dual Enrollment in California: The Public Policy Institute of California released a report examining access, equity and success in dual enrollment programs in California. Researchers studied 3,000 high schools and nearly 440,000 dual enrollment students. The following summarizes a few key findings from the report:
Benefits of Early College Programs: A report by JFF shows how early college programs are improving student outcomes at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The early college program was introduced at the high school in 2017, allowing students who apply and meet assessment standards to complete courses in high-demand career fields for credit at local community and four-year colleges. By 2020, the school’s overall graduation rate improved from 71% to 80% and recent early college student cohorts were twice as likely to enroll in a postsecondary institution after graduation. The high school plans to expand the program to all students within five years.
Equity Gaps in Dual Enrollment: While dual enrollment has proven benefits for student outcomes, according to a data tool by the Community College Research Center, not all learners have equitable access to these programs. Using the 2017-18 Civil Rights Data Collection, the tool identifies nationwide representation and accessibility gaps in dual enrollment and AP coursework for different student demographic groups. The following are a few key findings on dual enrollment:
In response to equity gaps in dual enrollment programs, the College in High School Alliance released a guide designed to help states collect, report and use dual enrollment access and success data to improve equity. The resource highlights examples of states engaging in this work and outlines a framework for state policymakers to utilize when developing dual enrollment data reporting systems.
Improving Pathways Data: As states develop policies to improve the school-to-workforce pipeline, K-12 leaders need access to data on the postsecondary and workforce outcomes of former students. In response, Chiefs for Change created a brief discussing obstacles and steps to improving pathways data. Informed by interviews with state education and local agency leaders, the following are four strategies the brief outlines that state leaders can use to increase access to pathways data:
The comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA) was an exciting and innovative change under Perkins V introduced to support data-driven decision-making and more closely align planning, spending and accountability activities. As the second CLNA process ramps up, Advance CTE and ACTE interviewed state and local CTE leaders to identify what worked during the first CLNAs and what can be improved. Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment describes state perspectives on CLNA successes – including stronger alignment between local needs and funding decisions, more collaboration among local recipients, improved data capacity and literacy, and better informed state-level programs and processes – as well as state perspectives on areas for improvement and examples of CLNAs driving transformation on the local and regional levels.
Local CTE leaders that we interviewed reported similar benefits from the first CLNAs as state leaders: increased collaboration, enhanced use and understanding of data, and improved alignment and prioritization of needs and budgets. For instance, CTE leaders at Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Colorado shared how CLNA encouraged more collaboration and sharing of best practices; helped level the playing field across larger and smaller entities within regional CTE consortia; and led the district to take a more strategic approach to Perkins investments and aligning those investments with state and local CTE goals and funding.
This improved alignment of CTE programs to learner and labor market needs — including the development of new programs and the closure of programs that do not prepare students for high-skill, high-wage or in-demand careers — is one of the major ways in which the CLNA effects change. In Rhode Island at the William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical High School, input from stakeholders and data analysis led the school to develop its own education program to encourage its largely minority learner population to enter the field of teaching. The program began in January 2022 and takes place in a converted building on campus, part of which hosts a satellite YMCA preschool and part of which has classrooms for the high school education and training program. The goal is for learners to experience teaching across the PK-12 spectrum, so they will not only observe and do clinicals with preschool staff but also shadow Davies CTE and academic high school instructors to learn about different subjects they could teach.
Stay tuned for more blog posts unpacking lessons learned from the first CLNA and explore how you can use ACTE’s high-quality CTE framework to support CLNA.
