On Thursday morning, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona spoke to reaffirm the Department of Education’s top priorities for 2022 and beyond. Secretary Cardona discussed the four main priorities that will guide the department in the years to come – supporting recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing opportunity and achievement gaps, making higher education more accessible and ensuring pathways through higher education leading to successful career opportunities. 

Of particular note for Secretary Cardona was the importance of investing in the educator workforce pipeline and ensuring stronger connections between the P-12 system, higher education and the workforce. 

“At the Department of Education, we will work with our partners in the Departments of Commerce and Labor to develop career preparation programs that will run through our community colleges,” said Cardona. 

Cardona also emphasized the need to support students, families and educators as the pandemic continues, including by addressing lost instructional time and learning loss, and by providing additional social, emotional and mental health support for students.

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.

On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/BIG STEP program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to meet with residents affected by lead pipe contamination and the workers replacing lead pipes in the city to discuss how the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act would help modernize American infrastructure.

Vice President Harris was joined by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan. Sen. Baldwin is a Senate CTE Caucus co-chair. 

Harris noted that at its core, this issue is about more than just public health. "It is about developing the skills to do the work that must be done to strengthen the United States of America and our infrastructure," Harris said. 

Concluding her remarks, Harris added that replacing aging infrastructure will help create jobs in a wide variety of in-demand career fields, including construction and manufacturing, as well as boost support for the apprenticeship programs that train workers to complete these upgrades.

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.

On Tuesday morning, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Senate CTE Caucus Co-Chair, spoke with Punchbowl News to discuss the bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), S. 1260, which the House plans to consider in the next few weeks. 

Asked what should be done to address workforce shortages in high-tech fields, Sen. Young noted the need to skill, reskill and upskill workers to remain globally competitive.  

“Skilling and reskilling needs to be informed by the needs of the market,” Young said. “We need investments in our people – workforce training – for the modern economy.” 

Young added that he expects the USICA to be considered by the House, then the bill will go to conference or back to the Senate pending any changes made by the House to the Senate-passed bill. The goal is to have the bill completed by Memorial Day. 

Over the summer when the Senate was debating USICA, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced an amendment that would have expanded Pell Grants to short-term CTE programs. The amendment was modeled after the JOBS Act, a bipartisan bill that had been introduced and championed by these senators over the past few years. While the amendment was not ultimately adopted during the Senate process, as the bill moves to the House, we will continue advocacy efforts on this issue.

With the House and Senate both in session this week, it was still a quiet week for CTE-related measures in Washington. Most of the focus in Congress was on voting rights legislation before adjourning for the week. Both chambers will be in recess the week of January 24, but could return to the debate on the Build Back Better Act when they return. In the meantime, here is the most important news from Washington this week: 

• Department of Education Announces Resources to Support Student Needs at Colleges and Universities: The Department of Education has announced more resources for students and postsecondary institutions to help reduce barriers to success address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional $198 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act funds was announced to help support community colleges and other institutions with the greatest needs, while new guidance on how colleges can use these new and existing federal funds to meet students’ basic needs such as housing and food security was released. In addition, guidance on how colleges can use existing data to connect students to other federal benefits was provided. First Lady Jill Biden and Secretary Cardona visited Bergen Community College in New Jersey to spotlight these new resources. 

• Federal Agencies Announce Working Group on Telecommunications Workforce: The Departments of Labor and Education, along with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced a cross-agency working group that will collaborate to identify current and future needs of the telecommunications industry workforce. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed the FCC Chair to work in partnership with the Secretary of Labor to establish an interagency working group that will ultimately prepare a report to Congress on its recommendations to address the needs of the telecommunications industry by January 2023.  
   
• House CTE Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) Announces Retirement: Rep. Langevin announced he will not be running for reelection in Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District. Langevin has served as co-chair of the House CTE Caucus since 2011. 
   
• ACTE Launches Key Legislation Blog Series: The first in a series of blog posts highlighting key pieces of legislation that will be the focus of ACTE’s 2022 federal advocacy efforts has been posted on the CTE Policy Watch blog. The first blog covers the JOBS Act. 
   
• Secretary Cardona and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) Highlight Connecticut CTE Programs: On January 14, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) visited Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical High School and Thames River Magnet Elementary School in Groton, Connecticut, to highlight each school’s manufacturing programs. You can read a full recap of the visit on the CTE Policy Watch blog. 
   
• FAA Aviation Careers Task Force Holds Public Meeting: On January 20, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Youth Access to American Jobs in Aviation Task Force held a public meeting to discuss expanding CTE pathways in aviation, as well as developing strategies that will lead to more students entering aviation careers. You can watch the full meeting here.

• Department of Labor Launches New Grants Page: Visit https://www.dol.gov/grants to access all available grant funding from the Department of Labor in one convenient location! 
   
• U.S. Presidential CTE Scholar Candidates Announced: The U.S. Department of Education has released the list of candidates submitted by states for the 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Visit https://www2.ed.gov/programs/psp/2022/candidates.pdf to see the students nominated from your state! 
   
• Administration Announces "Good Jobs" Initiative: On January 21, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh announced the Good Jobs Initiative to help empower workers and improve job quality. More details can be found on the Department of Labor website and more details on various projects will be forthcoming.

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.