CTE Policy Watch

By: Jason

Earlier this week I went to the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education (NACTE) Independent Advisory Panel (IAP) meeting at the Department of Education - or for short – the NACTE IAP at the DOE. The NACTE (formerly the National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE)) is legislatively mandated report that looks at evidence of the implementation and outcomes of CTE and the Perkins Act of 2006. The last NAVE took place in 2004 and looked at the Perkins Act of 1998.

The IAP is made up of education and workforce policy experts, education researchers from universities and associations, state directors of CTE, and representatives of business and industry.  The IAP has three responsibilities for the NACTE: identify the key policy and research questions that the NACTE will address; review research designs and projects being considered for funding and use in the final NACTE report; and receive and help analyze the results of the selected research studies. The actual NACTE report will be written by Department of Education staff. The IAP has the option to release its own report and will be doing so.

The final NACTE report is scheduled to be delivered to Congress in July 2011. Currently the NACTE and the IAP are still in the first stage, identifying the key policy and research questions.

What I found most interesting about these meetings is hearing about the research that is being looked at by the IAP. There were four presentations on various outcomes of CTE at the city (Philadelphia & San Diego), state (Florida) and national level. Being a research geek, I was in heaven as the presenters talked about various methodologies used, case studies and randomized selection processes, and explained their results. I was in awe of how quickly the panel digested the information and found areas that the researchers had not looked at that would make the results from the studies more accurate. I will spare you the details, which were many. There was also a discussion on the proposed implementation study of the Perkins Act of 2006. The plan is to look at how well the new accountability systems promote program improvement, how states and local agencies are creating Programs of Study, and how the new Perkins Act requirements are changing how states fund CTE. I talked to Steve Klein of MPR about how the ACTE State Profiles project could help during the early stages of the implementation study.

The NACTE report could have a significant impact on CTE as it is the official position of the Department of Education on the effectiveness of the Perkins Act and CTE. There are still plenty of IAP meetings yet to come and more information to analyze. ACTE will have at least one person at all the meetings, which are open to the public, to keep an eye on how things are going.

Sadly I can’t replicate the deep-voiced announcer who does all the voiceovers for movie previews, but I can give a sneak peek of what is coming up in the next year or so from the National Research Center for Career & Technical Education (NRCCTE). 

Building on the success and popularity of the Math-In-CTE model, the NRCCTE has started a project looking to find authentic literacy opportunities within CTE and strategies that help students learn more from any text books used. This project is being done in three different areas of CTE in New York City. Students have benefitted from the Math-In-CTE model across the country and the Literacy-In-CTE model looks to have the same promise.

Two Programs of Study reports are currently being worked on by the NRCCTE. The first is a longitudinal study of several states’ Programs of Study sites to find out how well the sites are working and the reasons for their success. The second study will assess the effect of Programs of Study on academic achievement, technical skills assessments, and other measures that are consistent with the 2006 Perkins legislation.

Under the new grant, ACTE has become the dissemination center for the NRCCTE and we are fast at work creating ways to get the research out to teachers/administrators/CTE policymakers. A new version (or keeping with my movie theme–a sequel) of the Exemplary Programs and Promising Practices is being created. The Best Practices, Promising Practices, and Teacher Wisdom Project will bring together and disseminate information on improving practice in CTE.

Good afternoon all,

I just wanted to give an update on ACTE’s State CTE Profiles. If you have not been to the ACTE Web site and looked at the profiles, I encourage you to do so. They are full of good information across a wide range of topics.

Last week, Alisha, Hans Meeder and I interviewed four states: Indiana, Vermont, Mississippi and North Carolina.  I am currently working on the Indiana, Montana and Vermont profiles with North Carolina just going into editing.  Twenty-eight states are done and posted with more coming every week.

What I have found to be very interesting - and I have told anyone who will listen - are the innovative programs, creative academic/CTE integration systems, and just how clever states are in delivering high quality CTE to students. One example that I have used in interviews is the number of states that have CTE courses that count for both CTE and academic high school credit. At the beginning of this project, I would have been able to name one or two states that had CTE classes that counted for both. Of the states that are posted or soon to be posted, around 60 percent of them have CTE courses that count for both academic and CTE credit. Most are done on the local district or program level, but many are looking to take those local programs statewide. The reasons for these classes range from Perkins requiring integration to increased core requirements for graduation to wanting to add value for students to both their CTE and academic courses.

I hope you will look at the information in the state CTE profiles and that you are inspired to work on new and innovative programs and systems for your students. If nothing else, you will have new information on CTE to brag about.

Jason

Good afternoon,

I just wanted to give a quick write up of the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) event “Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Centers and Community Colleges: Keeping Up with the Demand for a Technically-Skilled Workforce” that I attended today. This was the first of a series of forums on ATE Centers that AYPF is doing over the next few months. The forum was an introduction to what ATE Centers are and how they partner with community colleges and workforce development groups; and provided two examples of these partnerships. The first was the partnership between The Regional Technology Corporation and the National Center for Information and Communications Technologies in Springfield, MA. The second was the partnership between the Center for the Advancement of Process Technology and the College of the Mainland in Texas City, TX.

This was not as research driven as some of AYPF’s forums, but it did provide a good overview of what the ATE centers do as well as how these two partnerships are providing a skilled workforce for two high demand, high wage, high skill areas - information technologies and process technology for the oil industry. It was a great example of how CTE can help to solve important workforce issues in today’s economy.

I will continue to go to AYPF and other education/workforce development events and report back what I learn.

Jason

Hello and welcome to the CTE Policy Watch Blog. I am Jason Kiker, ACTE’s Education Research Analyst. Here is a quick biography of me. I graduated with my MA from Syracuse University in Political Science in 2005 and my BA in Political Science from the University of Florida in 1994. In between, I worked for the University of Florida library system, specifically in the reference department.

So what do I do all day? Currently, I am the lead person on ACTE’s State Profile Project, which will take an in-depth look at how all fifty states deliver CTE at the secondary, postsecondary and adult education levels. That project will be completed by the end of 2008. More generally, my job is to find, compile and synthesize research and information to be used in: ACTE’s lobbying and advocacy efforts at the federal, state and local levels; ACTE’s public image and media campaign; and by our members to gain support for their CTE programs.

I hope the blog provides some insight into how PPD works and what we do for you. Please feel free to contact me for research help!

Jason