Despite the fact that much of Congress’ attention was focused on preparation for the impeachment trial, several new developments regarding education occurred in the third week of the new year. Read more below to find out more! House Disapproves of Borrower Defense Rule: The House passed a resolution to revoke... Continue reading

The second week into 2020 has been relatively quiet for federal education policy, despite the House and Senate coming back in session. However there have been some CTE-related activities and news that have kick-started the new year. 2020 National Career Development Summit: On January 8, the National Career Development Summit... Continue reading

Happy New Year! While we hope you were able to unplug and relax over the holiday break and to ring in the New Year, on the CTE policy front, things remained busy. Several Bills Signed into Law: Among a number of bills signed into law in the final days of... Continue reading

Recent publications describe various CTE topics ranging from new data on postsecondary student outcomes to research on veterans without degrees. Competency Model Resources for Career Pathways: To ensure the creation of meaningful career pathways aligning with industry and market demands, the U.S, Department of Labor created three new resources as... Continue reading

This week, lawmakers were busy with impeachment hearings, but they managed to make progress toward year-end deals on a number of issues, such as a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada and a final appropriations bill. Here’s what was happening in DC this week related to education and workforce... Continue reading

Last week, ACTE hosted our annual VISION conference in Anaheim, California! We, as the Public Policy Department, hosted a number of sessions where we got to hear feedback and suggestions from you, our members, based on the programs and issues that we are advocating for on your behalf. You’ll see... Continue reading

Though Congress was mainly focused on impeachment hearings this week, there were a number of CTE-related activities as work wrapped up leading into the Thanksgiving holiday recess. The most significant activity occurred on appropriations, where significant movement occurred for the first time in weeks. You can read more about that... Continue reading

On November 20, the Department of Education (ED) released a redesign of the College Scorecard, which now includes data on debt levels and potential first-year earnings, broken down by program level. The new earnings data in the College Scorecard is obtained from federal tax records. Approximately 41,000 programs across the... Continue reading

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) found a positive relationship between recent CTE coursetaking and labor market characteristics in their latest report, “An Examination of Career and Technical Education Course Taking and Labor Markets Across Two High School Cohorts.” The researchers used national data from the National Center for Education Statistics... Continue reading

DC Digest: November 11-17 The House returned to session on Tuesday, however, it has continued to be relatively quiet for federal education policy as Congress remains busy with other issues. Members of Congress and the Administration did take time to celebrate National Apprenticeship week though, which you can read more... Continue reading

It was a relatively quiet week on the federal education policy front, with the House on recess and no major Committee activity. The House returns this week though, and Washington will be celebrating National Apprenticeship Week, so there is likely more activity in the future! In the meantime: Progress on... Continue reading

The biggest education news this week on Capitol Hill was the House Education and Labor Committee’s marathon mark-up of its Higher Education Act reauthorization bill, which lasted for three days! You can read more about that markup on the blog at https://ctepolicywatch.acteonline.org/2019/11/democrats-pass-hea-reauthorization-proposal-out-of-house-committee.html. In other news: Work on Education Appropriations Remains... Continue reading

Male students who attend a Connecticut technical high school have shown to have higher graduation rates, improved wage-earning potential, higher attendance rates in 9th grade and higher 10th grade test scores, a new study from the CTE Research Network reports. These findings are based on data collected from the admission... Continue reading

Most of the education attention in Washington was on the Higher Education Act this week, as work moved forward in the House on the reauthorization of that bill. The House Education and Labor Committee has scheduled a mark-up of the legislation introduced earlier this month for October 29. We will... Continue reading

After a two-week-long break, Congress has returned and will be back in session until November 21 to, among other things, try and pass a spending bill for Fiscal Year 2020. The current continuing resolution expires then and an agreement for moving forward has yet to be reached. Visit ACTE’s Action... Continue reading

Guide for Educational Institutions with Federal Contracts: The Department of Labor released a new Technical Assistance Guide (TAG) for educational institutions to use to provide compliance assistance for federal government contractors. This guide is designed to help contractors strive for equal employment opportunities and meet legal requirements and responsibilities set... Continue reading

More new grants for Education and Workforce Development: In addition to the Perkins Innovation and Modernization grants released this week (read the full blog here), several other new grants have been awarded related to CTE. The Department of Labor awarded workforce development grants to 18 organizations in the Appalachian and... Continue reading

Recent publications describe various CTE topics ranging from perceptions of having students participate in workforce preparation to a proposed five-pillar framework to ensure high-quality career development systems. Views on workforce preparation: PDK Polling found in their survey that few parents, teachers and other adults think that preparing students for work... Continue reading

Eguene Scalia Confirmed as New Labor Secretary: On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Eugene Scalia to replace Alex Acosta as the Secretary of Labor by a vote of 53-44. Son of late Supreme Court justice Antoine Scalia, his background is in cooperate law. Scalia will take over the lead of the... Continue reading

WorkforceGPS has released long-term employment projections for 2018 to 2028 that cover more than 800 occupations and 290 industries at the national level. The report presents trends and projections for in-demand industries, and the growth and decline in different sectors. The first key trend is the slowing population and slowing... Continue reading

Addressing equity in middle-skills jobs is essential for the growth of the nation’s businesses, economy and workers. In order to advance racial equity, the National Skills Coalition recommends nine steps that states can take to increase the diversity in the workforce. These recommendations include adopting racial equity goals; investing in... Continue reading

On Thursday, the Senate passed H.R. 4378, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2020, and Health Extenders Act of 2019, by a vote of 82 – 15. This bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), extends government funding at the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 levels, with several exceptions, until November 21,... Continue reading

U.S. Department of Education Back to School Tour: Scott Stump, the assistant secretary for career, technical and adult education, visited New Mexico, Arizona (1 and 2), Nevada and West Virginia schools as part of the Education Department’s National Back to School Tour. He was visiting to see the CTE work... Continue reading

The National Science Board (NSB) released a report titled, The Skilled Technical Workforce: Crafting America’s Science and Engineering Enterprise. Its findings are based on stakeholder engagement meetings with relevant organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, as well as nationwide listening sessions that NSB conducted with workers, students, businesses and educators.... Continue reading

New America has released a report titled, Varying Degrees 2019: New America’s Third Annual Survey on Higher Education. The report is based on a survey of 2,029 Americans and their perceptions of education after high school and education’s contribution to economic mobility. Relevant to CTE, the report found that Americans... Continue reading