Perceptions of CTE Teachers: An article by Felix Quayson and Chris Zirkle in the Journal of Research in Technical Careers examines how novice CTE teachers perceive teacher evaluations during their first years in the profession. The researchers analyzed CTE teacher responses from a master’s degree examination and organized their findings into a framework they refer to as the DEEPS framework: 

• Development: Teacher evaluations should center on developing and improving teacher quality through actionable feedback from trained evaluators.  

• Evaluation: Clear standards, competencies and rubrics specific to CTE teaching in the classroom and laboratory setting are necessary. Topics should include safety rules, industry credentials, hands-on experiences and classroom management strategies.  

• Engagement: Many novice CTE teachers report receiving insufficient training to prepare them for the classroom, finding new teacher orientations lacking in substance and often not knowing what to expect from teacher evaluations. More work is needed to better engage novice teachers with administrators and evaluators, ensuring that expectations are clearly laid out. 

• Partnerships: Evaluations should be focused on growth and improvement and lead to meaningful partnerships between teachers, mentors, administrators, evaluators and other stakeholders.  

• Skills: Evaluations should contain meaningful performance measures and focus on examining instructional skills, student skills development, relevance of teaching materials and work-based learning activities, among other topics.  

Community College Credentials of Value: A report from the American Institutes for Research examines how community colleges produce graduates with credentials of value linked to high-wage, in-demand occupational fields. The researchers interviewed leaders from community colleges with strong workforce credential completion rates (excelling colleges) and from colleges with lower completion rates (aspiring colleges) to identify differences in how each college type implements programming. Findings include the following: 

• While leaders from both college types emphasize occupational skills training, excelling colleges focus more on connecting academic and workforce programs, prioritizing job availability and quality, offering dedicated coursework on career readiness skills and braiding multiple funding sources together. 

• Excelling colleges offer a broader range of support services than aspiring colleges, including more robust advising systems, additional career navigation services and stronger wraparound supports.  

• Both excelling and aspiring colleges engage employers, including by collaborating through advisory boards and aligning programs with industry trends. Both also discussed the importance of offering work-based learning experiences.  

Gaps in State Workforce Priorities: RAND conducted a nationwide scan of state WIOA plans and eligible training provider lists (ETPLs) to assess how well states align WIOA-eligible training programs to labor market demand. ETPLs are state-maintained lists of training providers eligible to receive WIOA funds.  

The researchers found that only 15 states define a “credential of value” in WIOA state plans and only eight states provide measurable benchmarks of value by defining targeted wage increases. In addition, while in-demand jobs identified by states largely align with workforce projections, many states underestimate other occupations that could be targeted in their WIOA plans. The most omitted in-demand careers include computer occupations, community health workers and office supervisors.  

About one-third of WIOA-targeted occupations across states are both in demand and high quality (provide median earnings that exceed the state’s living wage), referred to as IDHQ jobs. Forty-seven percent of ETPL programs offer training in at least one IDHQ job, and 38% offer training exclusive to these occupations. However, ETPL programs produce fewer completers than job openings for most IDHQ careers, on average.  

Scaling Apprenticeship Degrees: A report published by the Urban Institute examines the current landscape of apprenticeship degree programs across the nation. Through interviews with practitioners and a literature scan, the authors highlight how apprenticeship degree programs can help students build academic and technical skills and attain high-wage, in-demand careers. The programs can also address worker shortages and build talent pipelines across different fields.  

From their findings, the authors outline recommendations on how various stakeholders can scale apprenticeship degree programs. For instance, policymakers should alter state licensure requirements and establish Registered Apprenticeship programs as a pathway to licensure, and researchers should create the data infrastructure needed to collect and analyze program data and outcomes. The authors also propose a definition of apprenticeship degrees that stakeholders can adopt and share across systems: 

• Apprenticeship degrees possess all the hallmarks of any Registered Apprenticeship: they are industry-led programs that offer paid work experience with wage progression, on-the-job learning, and supplemental education. Upon completion, apprentices earn both a nationally recognized journeyworker credential and an accredited associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s degree.