CTE Policy Watch: A blog for CTE advocates

Updates on COVID-19 and Federal CTE Policy

The ongoing global pandemic has impacted our lives in countless ways, including career and technical education. ACTE has been closely monitoring federal policy updates related to the coronavirus and how they might impacted CTE programs. You can find a complete list of CTE-related coronavirus federal policy updates at this link, which will be continually updated. Below is a brief summary of the most recent updates, along with important resources.

RESOURCES

• ACTE Resources on Distance Learning
• CDC Coronavirus Webpage
• U.S. Department of Education Coronavirus Webpage

SUMMARY OF THE CARES ACT

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a wide-ranging, more than $2 trillion package that includes a variety of provisions. On the education front, the law allows Federal Work Study payments to continue, doesn't penalize students who dropped out of school from Pell Grant eligibility, allows additional flexibility on the student loan front, provides the Secretary of Education with certain waiver authority, defers student loan payments/principal/interest for 6 months on all federally owned loans without penalty, provides local workforce boards with additional flexibility under WIOA, and exempts teachers from certain requirements related to TEACH grant obligations or Teacher Loan Forgiveness if they can't finish the teaching year. It also appropriates $30.9 billion to the Department of Education, including $13.5 billion for K-12 and $14.25 billion for higher education funding to meet a variety of coronavirus-related needs.

• Bill Text
• Summary of Appropriations and Summary of Education-related Provisions
• ACTE Blog Post on CARES Act

ACTE CORONAVIRUS PRIORITIES

• At least $1 billion in dedicated funding for CTE programs in response to the coronavirus
• Additional flexibility and waivers, including by enacting a redistribution waiver for Perkins funds, passing waivers for Perkins eligible agencies, extending the waiver of the definition of “professional development” in ESEA to Perkins, rescinding supplement not supplant provisions for one year in Perkins, and expanding pooling flexibility in Perkins.
• Expand Pell Grants to high-quality, short-term programs and reinstate Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals
• Increase support for non-traditional learners in postsecondary education
• Invest in research and development to scale the quality of online education

SELECTED LETTERS TO POLICYMAKERS

• ACTE, Advance CTE Response to the HEROES Act and Lack of Dedicated CTE Funding (5/13/20)
• ACTE and Advance CTE Letter on Concerns Regarding Certain Coronavirus Student Aid Exclusions (4/23/20)
• ACTE and Advance CTE Coronavirus-related Funding, Waiver and Policy Priorities (4/8/20)
• ACTE & Advance CTE Letter on CTE-related Coronavirus Investment Priorities (4/1/20)

MONTHLY UPDATES 

July 9

• Congressional Update: Congress is currently on recess, but is expected to take up additional COVID-19 relief legislation when it returns, and discussions are already intensifying. Funding for eduction is emerging as a potential priority for both parties, but the details will be critical.  

CLICK HERE FOR ACTE’S COMPLETE COVID-19 FEDERAL POLICY RESOURCES 

FY21 Labor-HHS-Education Bill Passes House Committee Markup

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee passed the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 by a party-line vote. As reported last week, under this proposal, the Perkins Basic State Grant program would receive an increase of $18 million, or 1.4%, over its FY 2020 enacted level. This would bring the total proposed appropriation level for the Perkins Basic State Grant program in FY 2021 to just over 1.3 billion. You can read more about the details of the bill on our previous blog post.

Now the bill will go to the House floor for consideration by the entire House of Representatives, and a similar process will take place in the Senate before final agreement. House leaders have expressed interest in passing all 12 appropriations bills, including this one, on the House floor before the August recess. While some of the appropriations bills are already tentatively slated for votes the week of July 20, the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education bill has not been scheduled yet. In addition, the process remains stalled in the Senate, so it is likely one or more continuing resolutions will be needed to extend funding at the end of the fiscal year.

While the Perkins increase in the bill doesn’t come close to meeting the funding needs for CTE, particularly as a result of the pandemic, it is a solid first step in this process considering restrictive budget caps. We will continue to work with Congress on appropriations bills and on the next COVID-19 response package to advocate for more resources to ensure all students have access to high-quality CTE programs.

Research Round-up: Employability Skills Preparedness Gaps, Expectations for Healthcare and STEM Careers, Filling the Skills Gap

Data on Subbaccalearate Health Science Students: A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) uses data from a 2015-16 national survey of undergraduates to examine the characteristics of students seeking subbaccalaureate credentials in health sciences. Health sciences is the most common occupational education program chosen by subbaccalueate students, followed closely by business and marketing. The data also shows that health science students were more likely to enroll in a two-year institution, and were more likely to obtain an associate degree rather than a certificate.

Access and Equity to Incarcerated Youth and Young Adults: Advance CTE recently released a resource that was developed in collaboration with the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center that seeks to provide incarcerated youth and young adult students with equity and access in high-quality CTE programs. This report onlines five key actions CTE state leaders can take: 

1. Ensure CTE program rigor in programs with incarcerated youth and young adult students.
2. Continue adopting and implementing promising practices.
3. Use funding to support CTE programs in correctional facilities.
4. Appoint a state-level designee to oversee the development and delivery of these CTE programs.
5. Collaborate, collect and share student-level data and program-outcome data to enhance the accountability for these programs.

Report on Top Employability Skills Preparedness Gaps: Two reports from The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) on a survey of 11,000 respondents, composed of students, faculty, alumni and employers, explore gaps in employability skills and workforce preparedness among college graduates. The first report focuses on gaps in employability skills. The researchers found that the most crucial gap among all groups was the ability to handle conflict. The second report focuses on preparedness in the workforce. The researchers found four key skills that employees need: conflict resolution, building persistence, accepting change and managing ambiguity. 

High School Students Expectations for Healthcare Careers: High school freshmen, specifically those interested in healthcare, were asked about their occupational expectations by the age of 30 in 2009 and again in 2012 to understand how students’ perception may have evolved, in a report from NCES. Two of the key findings include:

• Nearly a third of students expected to have a healthcare related job by the age of 30 when they were freshman in 2009 and 2012.
• A higher percentage of females expected to have a job in healthcare by the age of 30 than males in both 2009 and 2012. 

Bring Financial Wellness to Community College Students: Community colleges have a responsibility to provide students with access to financial aid and ensure students are aware of available resources as well as have a strong foundation in personal financial management, states the Association for Community College Trustees’ new report on financial wellness. In order to provide holistic support to students, it must be recognized that the expenses for going to school often exceed the grant aid that is given. Also, financial literacy is critical for students when they are navigating college finances and personal expenses. The researchers also provide an example of a personal finance course from the Guardian Money Management for Life (MMFL) Program to show the holistic supports students need to be successful. 

Research on Skills Trade Programs: JFF released a new report to examine skilled trades education and the types of programs that are being offered in 37 states, as well as who is participating in these programs and both the academic and nonacademic outcomes of the students. The researchers discuss the challenges of skilled trades education and provide some solutions to overcome them. A companion piece by Harbor Freight can be found here, (which was covered in a recent Research Round-up that can be found here. 

Report on STEM Occupational Intentions: A report released by NCES explores how the occupational expectations changed -or not- of high school freshmen in 2009 by the spring of 2012 who were in Science, Information Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The report focuses on four different categories of STEM occupational intentions: STEM Intenders, STEM Newcomers, STEM Leavers and Non-STEM Intenders. 

Health and STEM Career Expectations of High School Students: In a report from NCES, the researchers use U.S. data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to determine 15-year-old high school students’ perspectives on future career paths. The report  includes the percentage and average score of students who anticipate a career path in a health field or in a STEM field. 

Report of Projection of Education Statistics to 2028: A continuing report, Projection of Education Statistics to 2028, from NCES provides national-level data on public and private elementary and secondary school schools and degree-granting postsecondary institutions. Included in the report are projections of enrollment, graduates, teachers and expenditures to the year 2028. 

Effect of Dual Enrollment on Student Outcomes: A longitudinal study was conducted to understand the effects of dual enrollment on college and early labor market outcomes. Researchers found significant effects for students who participated in dual enrollment on two-year and four-year college enrollment, degree attainment and early labor market earnings six years after high school, with greater positive impacts on minority students. Using their findings, the researchers highlight the importance of dual enrollment for improving the transition to postsecondary and workforce for underrepresented students.  

Students Without College Degrees Filling the Skills Gap: Of the 16 million workers without a college degree but with skills through alternative routes (STARS), 11 million workers termed “Rising STARs” are currently employed in middle-to low-wage work, according to a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Based on these findings, researchers propose classification for STARS to identify potential job transitions to higher-wage work within their current earnings category and across earnings categories.

Higher Education Data Tool: College Insight has a new tool on their website to allow higher education advocates to find data related to college access, affordability and success. The platform allows users to compare institutions, explore higher education data and browse topics related issues students and graduates are facing in the United States.

DC Digest: July 6-12

The House and the Senate were not in session this week, instead focusing on committee activity, but are expected to return to session on July 20. This week, the conversation around the delivery of instruction in schools and colleges in the fall took center stage at the federal level, with Administration officials pushing for full-time in-person learning and debates among policymakers about the safety and efficacy of such a decision as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase in many places. The conversation is likely to continue as the situation around the country evolves steadily. Here are a few other happenings:

• House FY2021 Appropriations Bill: The House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved its Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations bill. The bill proposes $196.5 billion in overall funding, an increase of $2.4 billion above the FY 2020 level, and includes a small increase in the Perkins Basic State Grant. Read more in our full blog post. 
• House Subcommittee Hearing on COVID-19 and Higher Education: On July 7, the House Education and Labor Subcommittee held a hearing where committee members were able to ask questions about COVID-19 and the impact on higher education. Four witnesses presented during the hearing: Sharon Pierce, Scott Pulsipher, Shaun Harper and Timothy Whitek. Watch the full hearing here. 
• More Support for Increased Education Funding: Following the remarks made by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in favor of increasing funding to schools in the next coronavirus response package, Steven Mnuchin, the U.S. Secretary to the Treasury, has also signalled he is in favor of giving more money to schools. For schools to open safely, he stated that more funds are needed to properly equip their areas. However, it is unclear at this point whether Congress will be able to reach an agreement around the amount and criteria for any additional federal funding for education. 
• Funding for Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants: In order for community colleges to meet labor demands for a skilled workforce, the Department of Labor announced $40 million in funding for the Strengthening Community College Training Grants. These grants will help retrain individuals and build a pipeline of workers in healthcare, logistics, cybersecurity and other industries. The deadline to apply is October 8, 2020.

Upskilling and Reskilling in Community Colleges

Upskilling and reskilling for jobs are needs that existed before the coronavirus pandemic, but are now more critical than ever, according to the new report from Opportunity America, The Indispensable Institution: Reimagining Community College. The report suggests that because of these urgent needs, community colleges have an opportunity to become central to the nation’s efforts in revitalizing the economy by providing quick job education and training. It includes 11 recommendations to highlight how community colleges can be reimagined to better serve the workforce and build up economic development. 

Several of the recommendations call on community colleges to focus more on workforce skills by always being responsive to the changing regional workforce needs, including the importance of serving midcareer adults by providing noncredit, non-degree courses with flexible course schedule times. Another recommendation is to encourage community colleges to focus more on job placement and wages. In order to successfully provide students with high-wage, in-demand jobs, the report also suggests community colleges need to provide wraparound student supports such as career counselling and stackable credentials.

Other recommendations focus on building on the existing strengths of community colleges. These strengths are engaging employers, teaching both academic foundational skills and career-focused technical skills, providing opportunities for work-based learning and integrating both credit and non-credit education. The reports authors suggest that continuing these aspects of community college will be crucial in successfully building a pipeline to the public workforce system for the national economic recovery. 

The last recommendation is for policymakers to not only rethink funding levels for higher education and training overall, but also rethink how to fund community colleges. It is recommended that funding should be viewed as a regional economic development tool because investing in community colleges will decrease the regional skills gap, and that programs that are more successful in hitting their objectives and performance goals should be granted more funding than the institutions that did not meet those goals. Pell Grants are recommended to be available for students who enroll in short-term programs to encourage attainment of more industry-recognized credentials. Finally, the report recommends that Congress should also remove the lifelong cap of Pell for students who spend more than six years in higher education to promote accessibility for lifelong learning. 

These recommendations can provide community colleges an opportunity to provide access to displaced workers and others looking to obtain the skills needed for in-demand, high-wage jobs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Education and Workforce Survey Data During COVID-19

Throughout the pandemic, Strada Education Network has been publishing weekly COVID-19 Work and Education Survey data from a nationally representative survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on jobs, wages and education. The survey has had more than 11,000 responses between March 25 and June 11. Overall takeaways from the collected data show that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected non-white populations regarding job insecurity and job loss. Other trends show that a large number of workers across job fields need more education and want these programs to be available online. These findings and others are explored below.

When looking across the entire timeline of data collection, some key issues have generally stayed consistent: 

• About half of all respondents are worried about losing their jobs. 
• About a third of respondents have said that if their job is lost then they would need to have more education to replace it.
• Around a third answered that they would look to change careers if they did lose their job. 
• Approximately half of all the respondents have lost a job, income or hours during the crisis. 

When looking at the data through the lens of race and ethnicity, only about half of all white American respondents feared they would lose their job, whereas 67% of Black Americans, 69% of Asian Americans and 72% of Latino Americans responded that they were worried about their jobs. Latino workers were also shown to have the highest percentage (65%) who have lost a job, income or hours. Other findings show Black and Latino Americans are more likely than White Americans to have changed or canceled their education plans, but are more likely to enroll in education and training programs in the near future. 

Finally, for future education plans and jobs, about a third of all respondents said they had to cancel their education plans, and when looking at the 18 to 24 age group, this number increases to over half. Furthermore, one out of three workers said they would change their field of work if they lost their job, and this is especially prevalent in workers in manufacturing, finance and information technology fields. For workers looking to change jobs, the fields they are most likely to transition into are business, information technology and finance. In order to change careers, more upskilling and reskilling programs will be needed, yet less than half of the respondents said they had access to necessary education and training. When getting the necessary training, workers strongly prefer non-degree programs over degree programs.

These trends can help education leaders and policymakers understand the education gaps workers are facing in this crisis and help provide more access to education and training programs to those who need upskilling and reskilling for future work. 

2020 Census Impact on Education

2020 is an important year for the national Census. Every 10 years, the Census aims to collect demographic data on every person living in the United States. This census data is critical not only to help guide important legislative decisions, it is also extremely important to ensure that schools are getting adequate federal funding. Census data is often used by the federal government to decide how much  money is distributed to state and local education agencies (LEAs). The data collected impacts the allocation of federal funds to, among other programs, Perkins CTE grants. The data also determines the number of seats each state will hold in the House of Representatives, which can ultimately impact funding and support for education funding. 

In order for school districts and LEAs to receive adequate funding and representation, accurate Census data must be collected. As of June 30, the national response rate is only 61.8%, however, rural areas, Native American reservations and areas with higher numbers of minorities have historically been under counted, which can negatively affect both federal funding and representation in Congress in these areas. Due to these high stakes, it is extremely important that students and families complete the survey, and we encourage you to promote Census completion to your community to ensure you receive the appropriate amount of federal funding. You can access the survey here.

House FY 2021 Appropriations Bill Provides Small Increase for Perkins

On July 6, the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 appropriations bill. According to the Committee’s press release, the bill includes “$196.5 billion in overall funding, an increase of $2.4 billion above the FY 2020 enacted level and $20.8 billion above the President’s 2021 budget request after accounting for offsets and adjustments.” Policymakers were limited to the approximately 1.22% increase due to statutory budget caps that had been agreed to by both chambers last year.

However, even with this very modest overall increase, there was some good news for CTE in the bill! While the funding level proposed for Perkins does not match the amount suggested by the Administration earlier this year (which was accomplished through large cuts to other education and workforce programs), the bill proposes an $18 million, or 1.4% increase for the Perkins basic state grant, bringing its total funding level to approximately $1.3 billion.

Overall, $73.5 billion is proposed in discretionary spending for the Department of Education, an increase of $716 million. The most significant increases, although still very small percentages (around 1%), were to Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. ESSA Title II programs for Effective Instruction, Student Support and Academic Enrichment State Grants, and afterschool programs all received minimal increases (ranging from $10-23 million). Several programs supporting social-emotional learning also received very modest increases. For postsecondary education, the bill proposes a $150 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award, raising the maximum to $6,495, a $7 million increase for adult education, and a $30 million increase for Federal Work Study.  

Under the Department of Labor, the bill also includes small increases for WIOA state grant programs, registered apprenticeships and Strengthening Community College Training Grants, among other programs, with a total budget of $10.2 billion for the Employment and Training Administration (a $187 million increase) and $12.7 billion overall (a $254 million increase).

This is the first official congressional step toward funding these programs for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1. The process has been significantly delayed due to attention on the pandemic response, but is now expected to move forward relatively quickly in the House. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee will markup the bill on July 7, and the full Appropriations Committee is expected to consider it within the next week. House leaders have expressed interest in passing all 12 appropriations bills, including this one, on the House floor before the August recess. The process remains stalled in the Senate however, so it is likely one or more continuing resolutions will be needed to extend funding at the end of the fiscal year.

While the Perkins increase in the bill doesn’t come close to meeting the funding needs for CTE, particularly as a result of the pandemic, it is a solid first step in this process considering restrictive budget caps. We will continue to work with Congress on appropriations bills and on the next COVID-19 response package to advocate for more resources to ensure all students have access to high-quality CTE programs.  

DC Digest: June 29-July 5

The Fourth of July shortened last week, however, with both the House and Senate in session, there was still some federal policy activity. The conversation around school campuses reopening for the fall continued to dominate education discussions between lawmakers and health officials with no clear answers. Here are notes on what happened last week:

• Final Wave of CTE State Plans Approved: The Department of Education (ED) has approved seven additional Perkins State Plans! The plans that were approved are: Alaska, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. California and Palau have been granted extensions. More information on their plans can be found on the Department’s website.
  
  
• Senate HELP Committee Holds COVID-19 Update Hearing: The latest in a series of hearings by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was titled, “COVID-19: Update on Progress Toward Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School.” It featured panelists from governmental health agencies (FDA, CDC, NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services) sharing their thoughts on both health and education-related impacts of the coronavirus. 
  
  
• House Passes Infrastructure Bill: On July 1, Democrats in the House passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill called the “Moving Forward Act” which is an expansive bill that calls for improving America’s infrastructure, including repairing roads and bridgesand expanding broadband access in rural areas. While it also includes some money for schools, it is unlikely to pass in the Senate. You can read more about the underlying bill here. 
  
  
• Innovative Technology Project Announced for Rural Communities: ED introduced The Rural Tech Project, a new project that aims to encourage high-quality technological education in rural areas. Rural schools or LEAs can compete for $600,000 in prize money if they come up with competency-based distance learning programs that build a pipeline for high-demand, high-quality jobs for students. The deadline to apply is October 8, 2020.
  
  
• CDC Released New Guidance on COVID-19 Testing in Education: As school districts and colleges consider whether to reopen campuses, on June 30 the CDC offered additional recommendations on testing in colleges and K-12 settings. The guidance does not recommend universally testing every student, but instead using testing strategically as one component of a comprehensive mitigation strategy.  Guidance is provided on how to handle testing individuals with signs or symptoms of COVID, those who are asymptomatic but may have been exposed and those that are asymptomatic without known exposure. 
  
  
• New Senate Bill Proposes $1 Billion for CTE: On June 30, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced S. 4112, the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act, which includes significant resources to help educational institutional respond to the pandemic. You can read more about this bill in a detailed blog post, and see ACTE’s statement of support.

New Bill Proposes $1 Billion for CTE

On June 30, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced S. 4112, the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act (CCCERA). This bill would provide $430 billion to education-related programs to help child care providers, K-12 school districts, and postsecondary institutions respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly important to CTE, $1 billion in the bill is designated to be distributed through the Perkins Act, matching the total introduced earlier this spring in the Rep. Scott’s Relaunching America’s Workforce Act. Other resources in the bill would also benefit CTE programs by providing much-needed aid to help districts and colleges deal with state and local budget cuts and the increased costs of COVID-19-related safety precautions and instructional shifts. Highlights include:

• $345 billion for the CARES Act Education Stabilization Fund, with $175 billion for elementary and secondary education, $132 billion for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, and $33 billion for the Governors’ Emergency Relief Fund
• $12.9 billion funding specifically for Title I and other K-12 education programs
• $11.9 billion for special education
• $50 billion for child care through the Child Care and Development Block Grant
• $4 billion for the e-rate program to increase connectivity at schools and for students and educators
• $2 billion for competitive grants to community colleges
• $1.5 billion for child abuse prevention
• $1 billion for adult education
• $1 billion for Perkins career and technical education
• $450 million for TRIO programs

While this bill is not expected to move forward on its own, it could serve as a key marker in the Senate negotiations over the next relief package, which Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today should focus on “liability reform, kids in school, jobs, and health care” and is likely to be developed later this month.

ACTE has endorsed the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act, and you can read our statement here.

Middle Grades CTE: Policy

There is widespread agreement that high school is too late to begin to expose learners to careers and the foundational skills needed to access and succeed in careers, but there remains a lack of consensus about what Career Technical Education (CTE) and career readiness should entail at the middle grades level. 

Advance CTE, with support from ACTE, convened a Shared Solutions Workgroup of national, state and local leaders to identify the core components of a meaningful middle grades CTE experience. This collaboration resulted in Broadening the Path: Design Principles for Middle Grades CTE and a companion blog series exploring each of the core programmatic elements of middle grades CTE defined in the paper. In this last entry in the blog series, we will examine effective middle grades CTE policy.

Policy actions often play a critical role in expanding access to high-quality middle grades CTE opportunities. Through effective policy actions, state CTE leaders can remove barriers that may prevent learners from accessing middle grades CTE opportunities, ensure there is adequate funding to support middle grades CTE, and create environments to incubate and scale middle grade CTE opportunities.

In 2014, H.B. 487 was enacted into law in Ohio, requiring schools to provide CTE courses in seventh and eighth grades by the 2015-16 school year. As a result, Ohio became one of the only states that requires the availability of CTE courses to middle school students at scale. Districts that do not want to offer middle school CTE must submit a public waiver to the Ohio Department of Education. Since the passage of the law, Ohio has seen a dramatic increase in access to CTE programs, with 21,551 students participating in middle grades CTE in 2015 and more than 73,728 students participating in middle grades CTE in 2017.

Similarly, In 2017, the Maine Legislature passed L.D. 1576, which updated the state’s definition of CTE to include language about middle school, effectively allowing middle school students in grades six through eight to participate in CTE. To expand access to middle grades CTE, the Maine Department of Education developed a Middle School CTE Pilot program, which allows institutions to apply for grants to pilot CTE opportunities that provide hands-on and interactive activities to middle grades students, as further described in an earlier entry in this blog series. 

Numerous states plan to leverage the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), which allows states to use Perkins funding to support CTE as early as the fifth grade, to expand access to CTE opportunities for middle grades students. For instance, Massachusetts is awarding Perkins V reserve funds to eligible agencies to better integrate career planning from the middle school through the high school levels. In its Perkins V state plan, Florida provides guidance to include aligned middle grades CTE programs within programs of study and allow middle grades students to take high school-level CTE courses early. 

As state leaders reflect on effective middle grades CTE policy, they may consider the following questions:

• What policy actions could be leveraged to remove barriers preventing learners from participating in high-quality middle grades CTE opportunities?
• How does the state define CTE? Does the definition prohibit learners from participating in middle grades CTE?
• What changes to teacher licensing laws, if any, need to be made to mitigate middle grades CTE teacher shortages?
• What funding is needed to incubate and scale middle grades CTE opportunities? How can funds from Perkins V and other sources be braided to support middle grades CTE?
• How can policy actions be leveraged to align middle grade CTE programs to high school CTE programs?
• How can policy actions be leveraged to advance equity in middle grades CTE?

For additional resources relevant to CTE educators in the middle grades, check out the Middle Grades CTE Repository, another deliverable of this Shared Solutions Workgroup. To learn more about policy actions state leaders can take to advance middle grades CTE, read Expanding Middle School CTE to Promote Lifelong Learner Success. 

This blog series is being cross-posted with Advance CTE's blog.