[Senate Hearing 108-793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 108-793
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE CARL D. PERKINS
VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION ACT: EDUCATION FOR THE 21st CENTURY
WORKFORCE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE REAUTHORIZATION OF THE CARL D. PERKINS VOCATIONAL AND
TECHNICAL EDUCATION ACT, FOCUSING ON COMMUNITY COLLEGES, THE CHALLENGES
OF SERVING RURAL POPULATIONS, AND ``PROJECT LEAD THE WAY''
__________
JUNE 24, 2004
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire, Chairman
BILL FRIST, Tennessee EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TOM HARKIN, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND Missouri BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio JAMES M. JEFFORDS (I), Vermont
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama PATTY MURRAY, Washington
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada JACK REED, Rhode Island
LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina JOHN EDWARDS, North Carolina
JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York
Sharon R. Soderstrom, Staff Director
J. Michael Meyers, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Page
Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming,
opening statement.............................................. 1
Prepared statement........................................... 3
Bingaman, Hon. Jeff, a U.S. Senator from the State of New Mexico,
opening statement.............................................. 6
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Rush, Michael, Ph.D., Administrator, Idaho Division of
Professional-Technical Education, Boise, ID.................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Blankenship, Frank, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent and
Vocational
Director, Columbiana County Career and Technical Center,
Lisbon, OH..................................................... 16
Prepared statement........................................... 18
McFarland, Jo Anne, Ph.D., President, Central Wyoming College,
Riverton, WY................................................... 20
Prepared statement........................................... 22
Lightsey, Harry, President, BellSouth, South Carolina, Columbia,
SC............................................................. 32
Prepared statement........................................... 34
Olszewski, Angela, Journeywoman and Instructor, Nontraditional
Employment for Women, New York, NY............................. 36
Additional Material
Articles, publications, letters, etc.:
Response to questions of Senator Enzi from Niel Tebbano,
Director of Operations, Project Lead the Way............... 52
Questions of Senator Bingaman................................ 52
National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE).. 53
Wade Delk, National Organization for Competency Assurance
(NOCA)..................................................... 55
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE CARL D. PERKINS VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL
EDUCATION ACT: EDUCATION FOR THE 21st CENTURY WORKFORCE
----------
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2004
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in
room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Michael B.
Enzi,
presiding.
Present: Senators Enzi, Bingaman, Reed, and Clinton.
Opening Statement of Senator Enzi
Senator Enzi. I will go ahead and call the hearing to
order.
I want to thank Senator Gregg for giving me the opportunity
to chair this hearing, ``Education for the 21st Century
Workforce.'' Today we will be focusing on the reauthorization
of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.
The Perkins Act is the central part of a combination of
Federal programs that serves to provide support for lifelong
learning to the workforce of today and tomorrow. The Perkins
Act, together with the Workforce Investment Act, the Higher
Education Act, and other Federal education and training
programs, offer the resources that are needed to help
adequately prepare students of all ages for jobs in high-wage
and high-skilled occupations. In this technology-driven, global
economy, everyone is a student who must adapt to changing
workforce needs by continuing to pursue lifelong learning.
Unfortunately, we often talk about education separately
from the workforce training and economic development, or we
talk about programs instead of principles. Education and job
training are not one-time events. We need to think about these
issues as part of one continuous and comprehensive effort. The
long-term competitiveness of the American economy depends not
just on effective education, economic, and workforce
development, but on effectively linking those issues.
Lifelong learning begins with a quality education that
includes relevant academic and skills training. State and local
education agencies, businesses, postsecondary institutions, and
interested community groups all need to be a part of the
discussion about how we can best help promote and sustain the
long-term competitiveness of this Nation.
This country has created over 1 million new jobs since
January. That is terrific news. Yet the complaint from
employers heard consistently in this country is that there are
too few skilled workers to meet their needs. That is why
Federal initiatives like the Workforce Investment Act
reauthorization are so important. Along with the Workforce
Investment Act and the Higher Education Act, the Perkins Act
can help close the skills gap that threatens America's long-
term competitiveness. It is essential that we take advantage of
the opportunity we have during this reauthorization process to
improve the link between education and relevant academic and
skills preparation. It is also essential that we appoint
conferees to finish the work on this legislation reauthorizing
the Workforce Investment Act, legislation that has passed the
committee unanimously, passed the Senate unanimously, yet it is
being held up by lack of a conference committee. The House has
approved a conference committee. The Senate is blocking the
conference committee. It would amount to training for 900,000
jobs in this country.
Congress needs to start talking about education and
training from a continuous perspective, from pre-kindergarten
to college and beyond. This type of ``P through 16-plus''
approach is necessary if we are going to change the current
view that education ends with a diploma or a certificate.
Today's jobs require constant training, retraining, and
upgrading of skills. As one of the witnesses from a March
higher education hearing noted, it is possible for students to
do well in school and still flunk life.
As we discuss reauthorizing the Perkins Act, we need to
consider how we can place students on this pathway to
prosperity by giving them the skills they need to succeed, even
if they do not go on to college. This depends on both strong
academic and relevant job skill training. It also depends on
facilitating a sequence of vocational or technical education
courses that students can complete even before they get to
college, and that they can continue at the postsecondary level,
whenever they decide to go on.
Another important issue that I have worked on with my
colleagues in the committee in the Workforce Investment Act is
the idea that we should be helping women of all ages pursue
careers in high-wage, high-growth professions. The Perkins Act
has a lengthy history of supporting State efforts in this area.
I expect to continue that focus through this reauthorization.
Today's discussion should help identify a number of options
through which we can pursue that important goal.
I would also like to see this committee focus on involving
businesses, especially including small businesses, in
vocational and technical education--not just at the
postsecondary level, but increasingly at the secondary level as
well. This will help students receive instruction from business
leaders, and it will also help schools design their programs to
meet local workforce needs.
Finally, we must ensure that rural communities are able to
take advantage of Perkins resources, whether it be through
distance learning programs or involving consortia of local
secondary and postsecondary providers to work together to meet
the needs of rural students.
In Rock Springs, WY, a career and technical education
instructor by the name of Ted Schroeder is doing a lot of what
I have just described. He has met with the local Chamber of
Commerce to identify workforce needs, and he has matched his
programs with industry standards and local workforce needs.
When the local business community suggested they needed
students with computerized accounting skills, he took on the
task of designing a program to help his students acquire the
skills the businesses had requested. His efforts are a good
example of what Perkins funds are intended to accomplish. It is
my hope we can encourage more successes with the Perkins
program, similar to what Ted has done in the community of Rock
Springs.
With that said, I will shift the focus to our distinguished
panel. The witnesses on today's panel represent some of the
most innovative programs and brightest minds in the field of
vocational and technical education. they will help describe how
we can prepare vocational and technical education for the
future. They will also talk about how better accountability
will help improve outcomes, how we can encourage greater
innovation in the field of career and technical education, how
we can do a better job of getting employers to participate in
secondary and postsecondary education, and how we can help
reach the nontraditional workers in the economy to narrow the
differences in wages, commonly called the ``wage gap.'' They
will also describe how we can emphasize training for high-
growth and high-skilled occupations so students can start on
their own paths to prosperity.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. I also
look forward to crafting bipartisan legislation that will make
the Perkins Act a more effective part of lifelong learning for
the work of today and tomorrow.
[The prepared statement of Senator Enzi follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Enzi
I want to thank Senator Gregg for giving me the opportunity
to chair this hearing, ``Education for the 21st Century
Workforce.'' Today we will be focusing on the reauthorization
of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.
The Perkins Act is a central part of a combination of
Federal programs that serves to provide support for lifelong
learning to the workforce of today and tomorrow. The Perkins
Act, together with the Workforce Investment Act, the Higher
Education Act, and other Federal education programs, offer the
resources that are needed to help adequately prepare students
of all ages for jobs in high-wage and high-skilled occupations.
In this technology driven, global economy, everyone is a
student who must adapt to changing workforce needs by
continuing to pursue their education. In turn, Congress must
ensure that education and training are connected to the needs
of the workforce, now and into the future as well.
Unfortunately, we often talk about education separately
from workforce training and economic development, or we talk
about programs instead of principles. Education and job
training are not one-time events. We need to think about these
issues as part of one continuous and comprehensive effort. The
long-term competitiveness of the American economy depends not
just on effective education, economic and workforce
development, but on effectively linking those issues. Congress
can help support that by creating a pathway of lifelong
learning that will help students and workers acquire and
maintain the skills that will continue to propel this nation's
economic growth and prosperity.
Lifelong learning begins with a quality education that
includes relevant academic and skills training. State and local
education agencies, businesses, postsecondary institutions and
interested community groups all need to be a part of the
discussion about how we can best help promote and sustain the
long term competitiveness of this Nation.
To keep American workers and businesses competitive, we
must prepare a skilled workforce to fill the jobs that are
being created in a 21st century economy. This country has
created over 1 million new jobs since January. That is terrific
news! Yet the complaint from employers heard consistently in
this country is that there are too few skilled workers to meet
their needs. That is why Federal initiatives like the Workforce
Investment Act reauthorization are so important. Along with the
Workforce Investment Act and the Higher Education Act, the
Perkins Act can help close the skills gap that threatens
America's long-term competitiveness. It is essential that we
take advantage of the opportunity we have during this
reauthorization process to improve the link between education
and relevant academic and skills preparation. It is also
essential that we appoint conferees to finish the work on this
legislation reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act,
legislation that has passed both this committee and the Senate
unanimously.
The idea of lifelong learning is critical to our sustained
economic growth. Unfortunately, we often think of education in
a short-term or compartmentalized way. Elementary education,
secondary education, and higher education and training are
viewed almost as completely separate policy areas, particularly
higher education. The Perkins program is unique in that it
targets funds to both secondary and postsecondary schools. That
unique aspect also provides a good platform from which we can
better coordinate workforce preparation policy and training
with an emphasis on lifelong learning.
Congress needs to start talking about education and
training from a continuous perspective, from pre-kindergarten
to college and beyond. This type of ``P through 16 plus''
approach is necessary if we are going to change the current
view that education ends with a diploma or certificate. Today's
jobs require constant training, retraining and upgrading of
skills. As one of the witnesses from a March Higher Education
hearing noted, it is possible for students to do well in
school, and still flunk life. Many students leaving high school
or college and entering the workforce are finding out they're
unprepared for life because they lack the skills they need to
succeed in the workforce. We have a very strong interest in
making sure this is corrected. Placing our students on a
pathway to prosperity is consistent with the intent of the
Perkins program, and that should be the goal of all Federal
education and training programs.
As we discuss reauthorizing the Perkins Act, we need to
consider how we can place students on this pathway to
prosperity by giving them the skills they need to succeed, even
if they don't go on to college. This depends on both strong
academic and relevant job skill training. It also depends on
facilitating a sequence of vocational or technical education
courses that students can complete even before they get to
college, and that they can continue at the postsecondary level,
whenever they decide to go on.
Another important issue that I've worked on with my
colleagues on this committee in the Workforce Investment Act is
the idea that we should be helping women of all ages pursue
careers in high-wage, high-growth professions. The Perkins Act
has a lengthy history of supporting State efforts in this area.
I expect to continue that focus through this reauthorization.
Today's discussion should help identify a number of options
through which we can pursue that important goal.
I'd also like to see this committee focus on involving
businesses, including small businesses, in vocational and
technical education not just at the postsecondary level, but
increasingly at the secondary level as well. This will help
students receive instruction from business leaders, and it will
also help schools design their programs to meet local workforce
needs.
Finally, we must also ensure that rural communities are
able to take advantage of Perkins resources, whether it be
through distance learning programs or involving consortia of
local secondary and postsecondary providers to work together to
meet the needs of rural students.
In Rock Springs, Wyoming, a career and technical education
instructor by the name of Ted Schroeder is doing a lot of what
I've just described. He's met with the local Chamber of
Commerce to identify workforce needs and matched his programs
with industry standards and local workforce needs. When the
local business community suggested they needed students with
computerized accounting skills, he took on the task of
designing a program to help his students acquire the skills the
businesses had requested. His efforts are a good example of
what Perkins funds are intended to accomplish. It is my hope
that we can encourage more successes with the Perkins program,
similar to what Ted has done in the community of Rock Springs.
With that said, I'll shift the focus to our distinguished
panel. The witnesses on today's panel represent some of the
most innovative programs and brightest minds in the field of
vocational and technical education. They will help describe how
we can go about preparing vocational and technical education
for the future. They will also talk about how better
accountability will help improve outcomes, how we can encourage
greater innovation in the field of career and technical
education, how we can do a better job of getting employers to
participate in secondary and postsecondary education, and how
we can help reach the nontraditional workers in the economy to
narrow the difference in wages, commonly called the ``wage
gap.''
They will also describe how we can emphasize training for
high-growth and high-skilled occupations so students can start
on their own paths to prosperity.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. I also
look forward to crafting bipartisan legislation that will make
the Perkins Act a more effective part of lifelong learning for
the workforce of today and tomorrow.
Senator Enzi. Senator Bingaman, did you have an opening
statement?
Opening Statement of Senator Bingaman
Senator Bingaman. Mr. Chairman, I have a short one that I
will put in the record. I would just make a couple or three
points, if I could, before we go to the witnesses.
Thank you first for having this hearing. It is a very
important issue. Unfortunately, around the Congress and around
Washington generally, often times the important gets pushed
aside as we deal with the immediate. And this is an important
issue that really does deserve our attention, and so I very
much appreciate having this hearing.
The Perkins Act is extremely important to many of the
schools in my State, and we have various examples in my State
of where high schools in particular--and also community
colleges--have used these funds very effectively to improve the
skill level of people who come to those institutions and to
prepare them better for jobs.
One aspect of it that I am particularly interested in is
that I am persuaded that much of the dropout problem that we
have in our schools--and it is a very severe problem--much of
that problem can be effectively dealt with by more attention to
these kinds of programs because this offers an alternative and
a more relevant alternative for a lot of the young people who
are thinking about possibly leaving school before they
graduate. And as I say, we have way too many students who are
doing that.
The one other point I would make, Mr. Chairman, is in my
view we give way too little to this effort in terms of Federal
resources. I notice here the Perkins Act appropriations--not
the authorization, but the appropriations--have increased
during the period from 1998 to the year 2004; the increase was
15.8 percent. I guess that keeps up with inflation. I do not
really think it does. But seeing what has happened with the
growth in other parts of the Federal Government's budget, this
area deserves more priority than we have given it.
Last night, we voted $458 billion, or something like that,
for defense and there was not a single dissenting vote.
Clearly, we all agreed that we need to give priority to our
defense needs. Here we are talking about $1.3 billion. And we
really ought to be doing more. We ought to be finding ways to
give this a higher priority, as we put together our budgeting
for the year. And I hope that that will be another thing that
comes out of our reauthorization.
But I, like you, am very optimistic that we can get a
bipartisan bill and go ahead and actually reauthorize this
legislation in a way that has broad support across the
Congress.
Thank you for having the hearing.
[The prepared statement of Senator Bingaman follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator Bingaman
I am pleased to participate in this hearing on
reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Education Act. More than ever, we need rigorous,
relevant career and technical programs to help students prepare
for postsecondary education and to address the shortage of
highly-skilled workers necessary to meet the demands of the
contemporary workforce. A skilled and flexible workforce is
essential to building a strong and dynamic economy and to
maintaining our country's ability to compete in a global
economy.
Technical employment is the fastest-growing segment of the
labor market. Yet we face significant challenges in meeting the
needs of the contemporary workforce. According to a 2002 survey
by Center for Workforce Preparation of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, nearly 75 percent of employers report severe
difficulty when trying to hire qualified workers; 40 percent
say that applicants have inadequate skills; and 30 percent say
applicants have the wrong skills for available jobs. Similarly,
in a 2001 survey, the National Association of Manufacturers
found that more than 80 percent of manufacturers report a
shortage of qualified job candidates.
Every day, American companies are sending American jobs
overseas. Even the information technology sector, one of the
fastest growing segments of our economy, will send
approximately 500,000 jobs overseas in the coming years.
Research shows that as many as 3.3 million jobs may be sent
overseas in the next 15 years, causing American workers to lose
$136 billion in wages.
Strong career and technical programs are vital to
addressing this skills gap. By enhancing the competencies of
students, these programs offer effective and proven links to
positive educational and employment outcomes for students.
Positive outcomes include increased school attendance, reduced
high school dropout rates, higher grades, increased entry into
postsecondary education, and greater access to high-demand
careers.
In particular, I would like to emphasize the value of
career and technical education in addressing the dropout
crisis, which has long been a concern of mine. Nationally, only
about 68 percent of all students who enter 9th grade will
graduate in 12th grade. Even more troubling, only approximately
half of Black, Hispanic, and Native American students earn
regular diplomas alongside their classmates. Students,
particularly at-risk and low-income students, often do not
receive information and guidance about postsecondary education
and careers until too late, and they frequently lack long-term
career plans. Career and technical education can help students
connect their learning with the real world, increase their
engagement in school, and provide seamless transitions to
postsecondary education and high-skill, high-wage careers.
In my home State of New Mexico, we have over 3,000
secondary and postsecondary teachers involved in all aspects of
career and technical education. These programs have a
distinguished record of preparing young people and adults for
further education and careers. For instance, Rio Rancho High
School was featured in Time Magazine as one of the 10 most
innovative career and technical schools in the nation.
Established through a unique community/business partnership
with INTEL Corporation, Rio Rancho offers the New Mexico
Scholars Program, which gives students the foundation they need
to succeed in a technical school, a community college, a
university, the military, or business and industry.
Reflecting the best practices, we need to strengthen career
and technical education programs by:
Increasing the academic rigor of these programs;
Integrating academic, career, and technical
curricula and instruction; and
Enhancing student outcomes related to secondary
education, postsecondary education, and employment.
At the same time, we need to work with school personnel to:
Assure that teachers have the knowledge and skills
to teach effectively in career and technical programs;
Provide ongoing professional development that can
enhance their understanding of current workforce opportunities,
methods, and expectations; and
Expand career guidance and academic counseling
services so that all students have a career plan that specifies
their educational and career objectives.
Finally, career and technical education programs need to
respond to the requirements of the modern workforce by:
Forging alliances among secondary schools,
postsecondary institutions, and business and industry to ensure
that students are prepared for the current and future
workforce; and
Developing pathways to postsecondary education and
careers.
Perkins reauthorization offers an opportunity to guarantee
that every high school student is prepared for both
postsecondary education and a high-skill, high-wage career. The
current Perkins act sets out a new vision of career and
technical education for the 21st century. We now have an
opportunity to build on past accomplishments and to strengthen
and expand career and technical education.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
We will now proceed with the testimony. I appreciate the
witnesses that have come in to do this today. We will be asking
that each of you keep your comments to about 5 minutes, if you
can summarize. Your entire comments and any additional comments
that you want will be a part of the record. We will have some
questions following the testimony of everybody, and then there
will also be questions that will be sent to you that we hope
you will also answer and get back to us for purposes of
building the record. This is the testimony that the drafting of
the legislation and then the debate on the floor will be based
on, so it is extremely critical. And I do appreciate your
taking the time to do this.
The first person to testify will be a neighbor to Wyoming,
Dr. Mike Rush from Boise, ID. He is the Administrator of the
Division of Professional-Technical Education for the State of
Idaho. With an annual budget of over $50 million, the division
is the State agency responsible for coordinating and funding
secondary college-level and adult professional-technical
education. Dr. Rush has taught agricultural education and held
faculty positions in teacher education at Penn State
University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Idaho. He is
currently president of the National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium and recently
authored a publication defining the key principles of career
technical education. Dr. Rush received his master's degree from
the University of Idaho and his doctorate from Virginia Tech
with a minor in a master's of business administration program.
Dr. Rush.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL RUSH, PH.D., ADMINISTRATOR, IDAHO DIVISION
OF PROFESSIONAL-TECHNICAL EDUCATION, BOISE, ID
Mr. Rush. Senator Enzi, Senator Bingaman, and Members of
the Committee, I was afraid I had been invited to this event by
mistake, and when you said the ``brightest minds,'' that
confirmed it.
[Laughter.]
Nonetheless, thanks for giving me this opportunity to share
Idaho's perspective on vocational education or, as we call it
in Idaho, ``professional-technical education.'' I will also be
sharing the views of the National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education and would appreciate
their position being included in the record.
If you will direct your attention, I do have some slides
over here on the TV. I put this particular slide in there just
so you know that I do know how to use some type of technology.
I also want you folks to know that what you do here does make a
difference in the lives of students and adults.
One such person who exemplifies modern career technical
education is Chelsie Lee Marler. Chelsie started taking PT
classes at her comprehensive high school in welding and auto
power technology. She then enrolled in the technical center in
automotive collision repair. During that time she took advanced
placement courses, and she was president of her Skills Youth
Organization chapter. She then articulated into the College of
Southern Idaho in collision repair and intends to go on to
school to become an auto collision forensics investigator.
At every stage in her educational career, Perkins dollars
have created opportunities that would not have otherwise
existed, especially when coordinated with State and local
funds. I offer these recommendations to make it even better.
First, we need to maintain the focus on technical skills.
Some have suggested that Perkins dollars be used for high
school reform. In the first place, there simply is not enough
money in the pot, and in the second place, technical education
is a critical component of our secondary and college delivery
system. This is reinforced by the strong public support of
career technical education. In Idaho, 86 percent of the general
public think high school students should have more
opportunities to take classes for a specific career, and 82
percent think Idahoans need more 1- and 2-year technical
college programs.
Another national study looked at the economic payoff for
career technical education. It found that when compared to
academic work-bound students, CTE students were more likely to
be employed, paid a higher wage; they earned greater total
earnings, and they maintained that advantage over time. In
addition, increased emphasis on academic education makes
technical education critical. According to Paul Barton of the
Educational Testing Service, getting more students to stay in
school and graduate is likely intertwined with what students
think high school completion has to offer them and how relevant
it is to their success in the world.
Career technical education can affect that outcome. In this
particular chart, you can see the results of a national study
published this year found that low-testing students were 5
times less likely to drop out if about half their curricula was
in career technical education.
We also need to support career clusters. The vocational
curricula has changed dramatically. Support of career clusters
can facilitate continued innovation. Perkins has already had a
significant impact on the types of courses students take. As
you can see in this chart, the number of CTE students enrolled
in low-level math classes has dropped dramatically while those
in high-level courses has increased dramatically. Examples of
program change in Idaho is the CAD/CAM program at the Riverbend
Professional-Technical Academy. For the last few years, they
have competed in the underwater vehicle competition. Now, the
bad news is that these high school and community college kids
lost out to MIT and Cornell. The good news is they did manage
to beat schools like the University of Colorado and the U.S.
Naval Academy. This last year, they moved up to seventh place
in the competition. Clusters can help promote and improve these
changes. Idaho is currently about to launch a project in
cooperation with the Department of Commerce and Labor to
identify clusters under which Idaho will organize its
professional-technical education.
Another thing that we need to do is to support professional
development. I would like to highlight one project Idaho has
focused on. This past year, we linked all of our technical
curricula to the Idaho Achievement Standards. We have found,
however, that without effectively teaching both academic and
technical teachers how to integrate the academics, it simply
does not happen. We have implemented several different types of
training to facilitate integration.
We also need strong State leadership. The increased
accountability and complexity demand careful planning and
development. School districts simply do not have the resources
to create quality curricula and accountability systems. Enough
money needs to be reserved at the State level to make this
happen.
Finally, we need to allow for flexibility and innovation.
It seems like with all the additional pressures and
requirements, some of us are just barely hanging on. We need
Federal legislation that will encourage innovation that allows
the States flexibility to incorporate that innovation with the
rest of the educational enterprise. What do we know about
career technical education? It provides technical employability
and leadership skills. It motivates and engages students in
their learning. It is of economic value to the individual and
the community. It reinforces academic skills. And it enhances
career and educational options.
Once again, I appreciate your time and look forward to your
questions. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Rush follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael Rush, Ph.D.
Good morning Chairman Enzi, Senator Kennedy and Members of the
Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the
Federal investment in career technical education or as we call it in
Idaho: Professional-Technical Education. As State Administrator for
Professional-Technical Education, I am responsible for funding Idaho's
760 high school programs and six technical colleges, serving almost
every high school student in the State and over 42,000 post secondary
students, including adults. Our agency provides technical assistance,
curricula, assistance with accountability, and leadership for
innovation.
I am also the President of the National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. Established in
1920, the Consortium serves as the professional society of State and
territory agency heads responsible for public career technical
education at the secondary, postsecondary and adult levels in all 50
States, 8 U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia. I request
that the association's recommendations for Carl D. Perkins Vocational
and Technical Education Act (Perkins) reauthorization be included in
the record.
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, the work you do really
does make a difference in the lives of students across the country. The
decisions you make, and even the speed at which they are made,
significantly affect our ability to create opportunities for students.
One such student is Chelsie Lea Marler. Chelsie took professional-
technical classes in welding, auto technology, mechanics and power
technology in her home high school, Meridian High. As a high school
senior, she enrolled in an automotive collision repair program at the
Dehryl Dennis Technology Center. During this time, Chelsie took
advanced placement academic classes and was President of her Skills-USA
chapter. She is now enrolled in the auto body program at the College of
Southern Idaho, and intends to continue her education to become an auto
collision forensics investigator.
Chelsie's experience reflects the characteristics of modern career
technical education: (1) solid technical skills development that
provides opportunities for employment and advancement; (2) the
integration of high-level academics and technical preparation that
prepares students for the future; (3) the articulation of career
technical education, from comprehensive high school programs to
technical centers to 2-year colleges and beyond; and (4) the
development of leadership and other workplace skills critical to
success in life.
BUILDING ON WHAT WORKS
At every level of Chelsie's educational experience, Perkins dollars
were used to provide opportunities that would not have otherwise
existed. As you begin deliberations on what the Federal investment in
career technical education will look like in the future, I offer the
following observations and recommendations, which, share at their
foundation legislative, programmatic, and fiscal support for States.
Recommendation: Maintain a focus on the improvement and acquisition
of technical skills.
Representing only about 3 percent of the Federal education budget,
Perkins funding for career technical education is limited.\1\
Nonetheless, this investment is critical to assuring a national focus
on technical skills development and improvement. While Perkins has
promoted the integration of academic and technical education--which I
wholeheartedly support--we cannot afford to dilute its focus. It has
been suggested that Perkins dollars should be used to fund general high
school reform. Any attempts to finance high school reform with Perkins
dollars would only serve to severely limit the operation of the
country's technical education programs, they would not--indeed they
could not--significantly impact academic performance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Under Secretary,
Planning and Evaluation Service. ``National Assessment of Vocational
Education: Interim Report to Congress.'' Washington, DC. (2002).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is also important to remember that although career technical
students are increasingly likely to pursue postsecondary education, the
vast majority of all American students do not graduate from high school
and immediately enroll in college.\2\ This majority of students should
have access to quality career technical education programs that support
their decisions on when to enter the workforce. Students should not and
do not have to make a choice: education or work. Quality secondary
career technical education programs prepare students for both. Research
has found that quality career technical education programs help ensure
better alignment to career goals (shortening those years of finding
oneself before beginning a career),\3\ prevent dropouts,\4\ and improve
both academic and technical achievement.\5\
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\2\ Rosenbaum, J. ``Beyond Empty Promises.'' Preparing America's
Future: The High School Symposium. (2002).
\3\ Ferris State University Career Institute for Education and
Workforce Development. ``Decisions Without Direction: Career Guidance
and Decision-Making Among American Youth. Executive Summary.'' (May
2002).
\4\ Plank, S. ``Career and Technical Education in the Balance.''
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. (2001).
\5\ Frome, P. ``HSTW: Findings from the 1996 and 1998 Assessments''
Research Triangle Institute. (2000).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommendation: Ensure coordination of funding streams.
One of the real success stories in Idaho has been the coordination
of the Basic Grant with Tech Prep. Although it has taken some time to
build the infrastructure, every school district and technical college
in Idaho is in a tech prep consortium. The principles of academic
integration and articulation between secondary and postsecondary
education have been used to improve all of the technical programs. In
addition, basic grant dollars are used to support tech prep activities
at the local level. This year, Idaho experienced a 54 percent growth in
professional technical students who signed up for the tech prep
sequence; and in 2003, students earned nearly a million dollars worth
of academic credit while still in high school through tech prep. Making
sure that the programs within Perkins are coordinated and contribute in
a non-duplicative way is critical to making the most out of the
legislation.
Recommendation: Promote the collection and dissemination of
information about the world of work and the preparation necessary to
successfully enter it.
The U.S. economy and workforce are rapidly changing. ``These
[demographic] developments pose potential problems for employers and
the economy generally, as the possible loss of many key experienced
workers could create shortages . . . with adverse effects on
productivity and economic growth.'' \6\ It essential that we encourage
the realization of the full workforce potential of all Americans. Not
only do we need to engage and prepare more Americans for participation
in the labor market, we need to be sure that they are prepared with the
skills and knowledge necessary for careers that exist. Many occupations
that once dominated our economy are practically non-existent now. As
technology continues to change, the skills necessary for work are
constantly altered. For example, a major employer in Idaho went from
having no servers and less than 100 personal computers to having 1,300
servers and over 15,000 laptops in only 10 years. Students who started
in 1st grade at the beginning of this trend were just getting started
in high school at the end of those 10 years. Critical to making the
connection between what is happening in the workplace and what needs to
be learned in the classroom is ensuring that parents and students have
access to quality information about career and education options. In
Idaho, our Career Information System produces quality Idaho information
that is shared among schools, job service, and virtually all other
entities that need to provide career information. A national, generic
web program can simply not meet this need.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ United States General Accounting Office. ``Older Workers:
Demographic Trends Pose Challenges for Employers and Workers.''
Washington, DC. (November 2001).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommendation: Support Career Clusters as means to:
Enhance the integration of academic and technical
education,
Support effective transitions from one level of education
to the next without penalizing entry into the workforce at all levels,
and
Promote the development of solid technical skills.
In addition to being prepared for careers that exist today,
students must also have the skills and knowledge necessary for the
changing workforce of the future. Career technical education must
therefore prepare students with transferable skills that enhance
success in a wide variety of educational and work environments. To
achieve this goal, programs must: incorporate high quality and up-to-
date curricula; involve business and industry; align standards,
assessments, and accountability measures; and promote leadership
development through student organizations.
Programs that deliver high-level skills while integrating academic
concepts have grown significantly in Idaho. The Computer Aided
Manufacturing program at the Riverbend Technical Academy in Post Falls
is one good example. For each of the past few years, the students in
this program have competed in the national autonomous underwater
vehicle competition in San Diego. The bad news is that 2 years ago
these high school and community college students--with help from a
local engineering firm--lost out to MIT and Cornell. The good news is
that they beat the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Colorado.
This year they moved up to 7th place. Other programs such as the
Shelley High School Ecology and Environmental Science Program further
demonstrate the scope and depth of career technical programs. Live
research projects in conjunction with the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Lab and the Idaho Fish and Game strengthen both the
technical and academic content. Idaho has also begun to experiment with
career academies. For some time, most of our high schools have used
career pathways as the organizing construct for their course catalogs.
A number of schools have also implemented one or two academies in areas
such as Finance, Travel and Tourism, Information Technology, and
Health. A new stand-alone medical arts academy and a new high school
being organized completely around five academies are the latest efforts
to implement this educational reform tool.
Nationally, the level and types of math courses taken by career
technical concentrators have shifted over the past 20 years--the number
of concentrators taking low level math classes has dropped drastically,
while the number taking high level courses has risen dramatically.\7\
This past year, our office has worked to align all of the career
technical competencies with Idaho's academic achievement standards.
This has provided the tool for career technical teachers and academic
teachers to work together to improve academic performance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Stone, J. ``The Role of CTE in Preventing Dropouts.''
Presentation on behalf of the National Research Center for Career and
Technical Education at the National Association of State Directors of
Career Technical Education Consortium 2004 Spring Conference,
Washington, DC. (April 22, 2004).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although Idaho is making significant progress in improving the
quality of its career technical education system, supporting the
continued development and implementation of Career Clusters in Federal
legislation can help us achieve even more. States and locals would be
better positioned to meet local labor market needs and achieve the
goals of better integration and improved transition if support for
Career Clusters was incorporated in the new law.
Career Clusters are an organizing framework for all of the careers
in our economy. A Career Cluster: links secondary- and postsecondary-
level coursework; integrates academic, technical, and employability
skills; and aligns curricula to industry standards, certifications, and
assessments. By aligning with the current needs of the economy, the
implementation of Career Clusters also helps schools expand their
vision for career technical education. Career Clusters extend beyond
the traditional program areas commonly associated with career technical
education, representing professions in all industry sectors, such as
education, law, public safety, and health. This broadened focus ensures
that students have the opportunity to learn, at many different levels,
about the countless career opportunities available to them.
Career Clusters can also help link economic development to the
educational delivery system. Idaho is just about to begin an initiative
to create a set of career clusters with the cooperation of the
Department of Commerce and Labor thus connecting education and
business.
Recommendation: Support the historical Federal role in education--
increasing access and equity.
Since students are exposed to numerous professions in broad career
areas and not just specific jobs, Career Clusters can also be a
valuable tool in breaking down the gender stereotypes associated with
certain careers. For example, in traditional career technical
education, a student might enroll in a licensed practical nurse program
and take courses that would lead to the degree or credentials needed in
that State to be a licensed practical nurse. A student who enrolls in
the health occupations clusters, however, will be exposed to all of the
careers in the broad health field, including nurses, physicians,
surgeons, surgical technicians, radiologists, and medical lab
technologists. Every student enrolled in a health career cluster
program will be exposed to all of the careers in the field, thus
supporting enrollment and completion in non-traditional programs of
study. Idaho just started its first Medical Arts Academy this past
year.
Recommendation: Support the development of technical assessments.
One key to ensuring quality career technical education programs is
the alignment of curriculum, instruction, professional development,
standards and assessments. Measuring technical competency is one of the
biggest challenges in career technical education, as not all programs
or career areas have standards, certifications, or assessments. The
variety of careers makes it difficult to synthesize the critical
knowledge of all professions into a single test, as we do in academics.
Collectively, State Directors have taken a first step in achieving
the alignment of curriculum, instruction, professional development,
standards and assessments. We worked with employers and secondary and
post secondary educators to identify what people need to know and be
able to do to be successful in broad career areas, and then had these
competencies nationally validated. Schools and States are now using
them to benchmark and update their curricula, enhance career guidance
and counseling strategies, more effectively integrate academic,
technical and employability skills, and promote better transitions
between education and the workforce. This is a good foundation on which
to build quality curriculum and instruction, but assessments are the
missing component. The development of technical assessments to support
the Career Clusters would do much to ensure quality assessment of
technical competence. The assessments would also provide better support
for the more mobile and global workforce and economy of today. A
special national project on assessments could be a great help to
States.
Recommendation: Continue to support professional development--
including leadership development--and research.
As a nation, we place great value in leadership. We know strong
education leaders are critical to effective organizations and the
delivery of quality programs. The development of leaders is often
overlooked. This is unfortunate, as it is the national, State, and
local level leaders who will create and implement the future career-
technical education. There is no question that with the graying of the
career technical education community, a leadership crisis looms in the
future.
``Some suggest we are experiencing a crisis in education leadership
of both quality and quantity. At the local level, few districts have
made it a priority to identify and groom potential leaders, despite a
wave of impending retirements and chronic difficulties in finding
candidates.'' \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Olson, L. ``Grant program aims to nurture school leaders.''
Education Week. (January 10, 2001).
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``Nearly half of current community college presidents indicate they
will be retiring in next 6 years. That figure jumps to nearly 80
percent in the next 10 years. Thirty-three percent of presidents
believe that one-fifth of their chief administration will retire in the
next 5 years.'' \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ Shults, C. ``The Critical Impact of Impending Retirements on
Community College Leadership.'' Washington, DC: American Association of
Community Colleges. (2001).
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``Today, State education agencies are now almost too lean. Reduced
budgets starting in the 1980s stripped them of their capacity to fill
many vacancies, much less expand to meet new demands. Too, salary
levels have stayed low when compared to those of employees holding
comparable positions in Federal and many municipal agencies, including
school district headquarters. Even when SEA jobs are available,
qualified experts and managers customarily find the prospects elsewhere
to be more appealing.'' \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ Kister, J. ``State Leadership for Career Technical
Education.'' Washington, DC: National Association of State Directors of
Career Technical Education Consortium. (2001).
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In Idaho, our agency has 37 percent fewer staff than in 1980, yet
we have increased our administrative responsibility by five times. We
have moved to close the gap by developing a Leadership Institute. We
have also worked closely with teacher education programs. Nationally,
however, the picture is grim. The case for developing educational
leadership capacity is clear. It is in our national interest to invest
in the support and development of leaders in career technical
education.
Conducting and translating research into policy and professional
development that influences practice is a valuable national role. The
Federal legislation should offer support for professional development
that helps practitioners access research-based strategies, learn about
effective and exemplary programs and how to replicate them, and enhance
their pedagogical and content expertise. This is important to ensure
rigorous, relevant, and quality career technical education.
Improving the abilities of technical and academic teachers to
integrate content has been one critical area of professional
development in Idaho. We have found that without professional
development, curricula and other forms of assistance are simply not
sufficient. We have developed workshops in a variety of settings,
including our statewide summer conference and in individual school
districts' professional development days, and conducted a semester-long
class to provide more in-depth development opportunities for
integration. This is an area that will require continued attention and
effort.
Recommendation: Support accountability and provide States with
additional authority to encourage performance and/or re-direct or
withhold funds from schools when necessary.
Accountability is another State leadership responsibility critical
to ensuring quality career technical education. The effective use of
accountability data drives improvement and change. Idaho has worked
hard to implement the existing measures and improve data quality. A new
system is being implemented that will allow us to do much more, but
this effort is time consuming and expensive. It is critical that States
be given enough flexibility to manage the process. Separating the
secondary and post secondary measures is also important in that it
fosters the creation of postsecondary measures that better fit the
system. In addition, using accountability data in a responsible and
meaningful way will result in the identification of the strengths and
weaknesses of both specific programs and the career technical education
system in general. In Idaho, we work with schools that are struggling
to meet performance goals by collaborating in the development of
improvement plans that include additional technical assistance and
professional development. When a school is challenged by persistent low
performance, our State does all it can to keep the resources in place
and provide the support necessary for the school to improve. Rarely,
there are instances in which local programs simply will not make the
effort to improve. In these instances, States need the legislated
authority to be able to re-direct or withhold funds from local
programs.
Recommendation: Support strong State leadership, with a minimum of
5 percent or $500,000 for administration and 10 percent for leadership.
State leadership leads change, facilitates partnerships, ensures
economy of scale, leverages multiple resources, and focuses
accountability--all of which support quality career technical
education. Others agree:
States hold the key to achieving vocational education reform at a
pace and scale sufficient to affect national workforce quality (page
6). [S]tate leadership is the best bet to give context, shape, and
direction to the diverse local reform activities already under way, and
more broadly, convert them to coherent career preparations
programs.''--National Assessment of Vocational Education, 1994.
``Only State leadership at the State level can bridge the gap
between national policymakers/administrators and local practitioners to
energize change and drive needed reform.''--Dan Hull, President and
CEO, CORD.
While I wear multiple hats--innovator, administrator, instructional
leader, standards enforcer, data collector--my most important
responsibility is ensuring student success. To accomplish this goal,
adequate resources for strong State administration and leadership are
necessary. My colleagues around the country and I strongly encourage
the Congress to support States' rights by continuing the Perkins
provisions that allow States to select their sole State agency and
determine the appropriate split of funds between secondary and
postsecondary education. Further, we recommend the State administrative
match, maintenance of effort provisions, and the level of funding
reserved at the State level be maintained so innovations, such as those
outlined today, can continue.
Recommendation: Allow for flexibility and innovation.
The diversity of our nation is one of its great strengths.
Therefore, we cannot expect programs designed to fit Wood River Valley
near Sun Valley to also meet the needs of Los Angeles or Boston. We
need to maintain our focus on high standards for all States and
students, while offering flexibility in how to best achieve quality
results. Perkins can be a tremendous help, but only if it does not pile
on too many additional requirements beyond those necessary for quality.
Innovation is another distinguishing characteristic of the United
States. Federal legislation should allow for a portion of funds to be
used to innovate, without risk of penalty.
CONCLUSION
Career technical education is working. It:
motivates and engages students in their learning;
provides technical, employability and leadership skills
that enable entry into and success in the workplace;
reinforces and enhances academics;
helps students find and fulfill their potential; and
creates career and educational options.
As I began my remarks, I shared Chelsie Lea Marler's success.
Career technical education really did make a difference in her life, as
it has done and continues to do for many Americans. For the past 87
years, Federal dollars have been an integral part of this success by
ensuring that millions of youth and adults have been able to enter and
succeed in the workforce. I believe that the recommendations I shared
today will help ensure that future generations will have the same
opportunities that Chelsie had. I would also encourage you to act
rapidly. The current educational climate has created tremendous
pressures and uncertainty for administrators, teachers, and students.
Perkins can make a difference, but a solid direction is needed right
away. I look forward to working with you to develop new legislation
that builds on and expands our current successes and promotes
innovation in our nation's career technical education system.
Thank you.
Senator Enzi. Thank you very much.
Next we will hear from Dr. Frank Blankenship from Lisbon,
OH. He brings 35 years of experience in education to his
position as Assistant Superintendent and Vocational Director at
the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center in Lisbon,
OH. Dr. Blankenship is currently overseeing a series of
comprehensive reforms aimed at raising school achievement at
the Career and Technical Center as part of the ``High Schools
That Work'' initiative. He has served as a high school social
studies teacher, principal, and superintendent, as well as a
coach and athletic director. He has served on various boards
responsible for tech prep, special education, and computer
technologies. Dr. Blankenship holds a master's degree in
educational administration and a doctorate in educational
leadership, both from Youngstown State University.
Dr. Blankenship.
STATEMENT OF FRANK BLANKENSHIP, Ed.D., ASSISTANT
SUPERINTENDENT AND VOCATIONAL DIRECTOR, COLUMBIANA COUNTY
CAREER AND TECHNICAL CENTER, LISBON, OH
Mr. Blankenship. Senator Enzi, Senator Bingaman, I am
pleased to be here today to discuss with you the importance of
the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and
Technical Education Act.
Senator Enzi. Could you move the microphone a little bit
closer?
Mr. Blankenship. Is that better?
Senator Enzi. That is much better. Thank you.
Mr. Blankenship. As assistant superintendent and vocational
director, I am responsible for overseeing career and technical
education in Columbiana County, Ohio's most northern county in
its Appalachian region. Located in the small town of Lisbon,
the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center enrolls 400
students in grades 11 and 12 from all county school districts
who are intent on completing a career and technical course of
study.
Our students have shown significant achievement gains in
both academic and career and technical studies over the past
several years, gains which are measurable and data-driven.
However, it was not always that way. The school improvement
leadership team reviewed the results of fiscal year 2000
Secondary Workforce Development Report that was issued by the
Ohio Department of Education and discovered that only 65
percent of our program completers met the graduation academic
achievement standard. In addition, only 42 percent of the
program completers achieved the benchmark on the Integrated
Technical and Academic Competency tests. Thus, we were looking
for a school improvement process that would provide some
structure to assist us to increase student achievement.
The leadership team selected the Southern Regional
Education Board's ``High Schools That Work'' program as the
school improvement initiative to guide our school improvement
efforts. ``High Schools That Work,'' which focuses on combining
challenging academic courses and rigorous career and technical
studies to raise the achievement of secondary students, has
provided a results-oriented focus for reform while also
providing a system of staff accountability. An on-site ``High
Schools That Work'' Technical Assistance Visit, held every 2
years, gathers information related to the current operations of
our school and sets forth challenges for our leadership team to
undertake over the next 2 years. The data gathered during these
visits has helped our staff determine the success of our reform
efforts by measuring student achievement gains.
``High Schools That Work'' has also helped us target our
reform efforts where they are most needed. Rewriting all
courses of study to reflect academic and career and technical
standards, creating syllabi for all courses to provide
structured information to students and parents are just two
suggestions offered for us to consider. However, realigning all
academic courses to meet the content standards approved by the
Ohio Department of Education presents the biggest challenge for
our teachers. This has required systemic changes in the
delivery of instruction. Our academic teachers now deliver
instruction with contextual strategies rather than with
contextual content. We no longer teach ``machine trades math.''
We now teach trigonometry with a ``machine trades context.'' We
believe this is more credible instruction and makes us more
accountable to students, parents, higher education, and the
business world.
At the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center,
career and technical pathways of study are offered in clusters
of trade and industry, health services, information technology,
agriculture, and family and consumer services. These career
pathways of study focus on industry-based competencies which
are measured by administering certification exams. Examples of
certification exams include the American Welding Society
certification exam for the welding and metal fabrication career
path, State licensure exams for cosmetology and health services
career paths, and A-Plus and Cisco networking certifications
for the information technologies career paths.
Currently, we have 16 articulation agreements with seven
different academic and technical postsecondary institutions.
These agreements afford students opportunities to earn post-
secondary credits upon completion of computer networking
technologies, interactive media, health services, automotive
services, early childhood education, culinary careers, and
careers for teachers programs of study. Four of these programs
are sanctioned tech prep programs. These universities,
community colleges, and technical schools have reviewed the
secondary courses of study and have determined the correlated
course work that students will be credited upon entrance to the
respective postsecondary institution. These industry
certification and postsecondary articulation opportunities
allow students from the Columbiana County Career and Technical
Center to enter the workforce and to continue a program of
study with credible skills and qualifications that should
ensure them success and immediate productivity. While these
opportunities are many, the goal of the Career and Technical
Center is to continue to expand the articulation and
certification opportunities to allow our students unlimited
options. The benchmark that we have targeted for post-program
placement is 95 percent. That means that 95 percent of the
career and technical program completers either are to be
enrolled in higher ed, technical education, or employment
related to their secondary field. When we looked at our data,
the 2003 program completers, the placement rate was 91 percent.
Having the ability to commit the resources to have all of
these programs implemented is critical. And so I thank you for
the opportunity to share some of the exciting educational
practices being implemented in a small rural Appalachian county
career and technical school, and I urge you to support the
reauthorization of the Perkins Act to allow our school, as well
as others, to continue the journey of changing the methods of
delivery career and technical education to better prepare our
students for the information economy.
Thank you.
Senator Enzi. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Blankenship follows:]
Prepared Statement of Frank Blankenship, Ed.D.
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here
today to discuss with you the importance of the reauthorization of the
Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act. As assistant
superintendent and vocational director, I am responsible for overseeing
career and technical education in Columbiana County, Ohio's most
northern county in its Appalachian region. Located in the small town of
Lisbon, the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center enrolls 400
students in grades 11 and 12 from all County school districts who are
intent on completing a career and technical course of study.
Our students have shown significant achievement gains in both
academic and career and technical studies over the past several years,
gains which are measurable and data-supported. However, it wasn't
always this way. Faced with declining enrollment, our school
improvement leadership team reviewed the results of the FY2000
Secondary Workforce Development Report issued by the Ohio Department of
Education and discovered that only 65 percent of students who completed
our program achieved the graduation academic achievement standard. In
addition, only 42 percent of the program completers achieved the
benchmark on the Ohio Integrated Technical and Academic Competency
assessments. Thus, we knew we needed a school improvement process that
would provide some structure to assist us in increasing student
achievement. The leadership team selected the Southern Regional
Education Board's ``High Schools That Work'' program to guide our
school improvement efforts. HSTW, which focuses on combining
challenging academic courses and rigorous career and technical studies
to raise the achievement of secondary students, has provided a results-
oriented focus for reform while also providing a system of staff
accountability. An on-site, HSTW Technical Assistance Visit, held every
2 years, gathers information related to the current operations of our
school and sets forth challenges for our leadership team to undertake
over the next 2 years. The data gathered during these visits has helped
our staff determine the success of our reform efforts by measuring
students' achievement gains.
HSTW has also helped us target our reform efforts where they are
most needed. Rewriting all courses of study to reflect academic and
career and technical standards, and creating syllabi for all courses to
provide structured information to students and parents are just two
suggestions offered for us to consider. However, realigning all
academic courses to meet the content standards approved by the Ohio
Department of Education presents the biggest ongoing challenge for our
teachers. This has required systemic changes in the delivery of
instruction. Our academic teachers now deliver instruction with
contextual strategies rather than with contextual content. We no longer
teach ``machine trades math.'' We now teach trigonometry with a
``machine trades context.'' We believe this type of instruction better
serves our students and makes us more accountable to parents, higher
education and the business world.
At the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center Career, career
and technical pathways of study are offered in the clusters of Trade
and Industry, Health Services, Information Technology, Agriculture, and
Family and Consumer Services. These career pathways of study focus on
industry-based competencies which are measured by administering
certification exams. Examples of certification exams taken by our
students include American Welding Society certification for the welding
and metal fabrication career path, State licensure exams for the
cosmetology and health services career paths, and A+ and Cisco
Networking certifications for the information technologies career
paths.
Currently, we have 16 articulation agreements with seven academic
and technical institutions. These agreements afford students
opportunities to earn post-secondary credits upon completion of
computer networking technologies, interactive media, health services,
automotive services, early childhood education, culinary careers, and
careers for teachers programs of study. Four of these programs are
sanctioned tech prep programs. These universities, community colleges
and technical schools have reviewed our secondary courses of study and
determined the correlated coursework that students will be credited
upon entrance to the respective post-secondary institution. These
industry certification and post-secondary articulation opportunities
allow students from the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center
to enter the workforce and/or continue a program of study with credible
skills and qualifications that should ensure them success and immediate
productivity. While these opportunities are many, the goal of the
Career and Technical Center is to continue to expand articulation and
certification opportunities to allow our students unlimited post-
secondary options. The benchmark that we have targeted for post-program
placement is 95 percent. This means that 95 percent of career and
technical program completers are enrolled in higher education,
technical education and/or employment related to their secondary field
of study. The 2003 program completers had a post-program placement rate
of 91 percent. As a result, the staff is currently making plans to
restructure a Job/College Fair which is held at our Center to allow
greater participation of schools and businesses as well as students.
Each student who completes a career path program of study receives
a career passport that includes a resume, technical certifications,
licenses, endorsements and an ``I can'' list of major technical and
employability competencies in their career field. These passports are
used by the students as portfolios to gain entry into their next phase
of life.
``I can'' lists are recorded accomplishments of students that are
monitored by the career and technical teacher over the 2 years students
are enrolled in the program of study. For example, in the health
services career path of study, student competencies are measured in
areas such as medical terminology, medical law and ethics, clinical
chemistry, microbiology, computer literacy, teamwork and
professionalism. Under the ``first aid and medical emergencies''
category, students must be able to identify emergency procedures,
perform first aid, maintain cardiopulmonary resuscitation proficiency
and respond to medical emergencies. Thus, potential employers will have
a greater understanding of students' capabilities after reviewing the
``I can'' lists as presented in the career passport.
All students who complete a career path course of study must
participate in Ohio's Integrated Technical and Academic Competency
assessment program. The competencies assessed by the ITACs are
reflective of the ``I can'' lists included in the career passports.
Students who master the ``I can'' lists have been able to meet or
exceed the benchmarks on the ITACs. Students in all but one career path
program of study met their respective career path ITAC benchmark during
the 2004 assessment. This is an improvement from the 2003 assessment,
when two career path programs of study failed to meet the established
benchmarks. The pass rate on the ITACs has risen from 58 percent in
2002 to 76 percent in 2003 to 80 percent in 2004. We believe that our
effort to reflect industry standards in career path courses of study--
which have been overhauled over the past 2 years--is the main cause of
this dramatic improvement in student achievement. The alignment of what
is being taught and what is being assessed allows the measurement
process to be authentic.
Completion of a career path program of study earns a student a
Certificate of Completion in his or her career and technical field.
However, a student may earn an Honors Certificate of Completion if he
or she has maintained a 91 percent average in the career path program
of study, a 95 percent attendance rate, and met all of the benchmarks
on the ITAC assessment. Ten percent of the program completers earned
honors certification in 2003 and 16 percent earned honors certification
in 2004.
The majority of students who attend the Career and Technical Center
also receive instruction in academic studies at the Center. All
students take English, mathematics, science and social studies in both
the Junior and Senior years on a 4x4 semester block schedule. These
students are ``cluster scheduled'' into their academic classes to
facilitate the use of contextual learning instructional strategies.
Cluster scheduling results in students from the same career area of
study being placed into the same math and science classes. For example,
students from any of the trade and industry career area could be
scheduled together, allowing instructors to relate the math and science
concepts to the application in the career area during the instructional
process. Learning math and science in this context also enhances
students' understanding of these subjects. A randomized selection of
program completers that participated in the High Schools That Work
assessment in 2002 showed an increase in mean reading score from 255 to
287, an increase in mean mathematics score from 290 to 299, and an
increase in mean science score from 273 to 302. These scores compared
students from 2002 who were not cluster scheduled to students from 2002
who were cluster scheduled.
Getting students to read has been a major focus of our staff.
Classrooms have a library of journals and other materials to encourage
students to read throughout the day, not just when they go to the media
center. Teachers honor students' choices of what to read, whether it is
an auto service manual, a dirt bike magazine or a classic novel. When
the teachers found that many of the reluctant readers preferred
nonfiction books and articles, they asked for more nonfiction and
informational reading materials. Multiple copies of the local
newspapers are also available for the students. By giving students a
choice of reading materials and reminding them of the necessity of
being able to read to be successful in the real world, students are
beginning to develop an interest and gain a sense of appreciation and
satisfaction for the process of reading rather than perceiving reading
to be just another school required activity.
Of course, it is important to allocate resources to facilitate the
types of systemic changes our career and technical center has been
implementing. While the staff has certainly been willing to implement
new strategies for delivering instruction, training is a critical
component for successful staff transition to creating contextual
learning classroom environments. Purchasing additional learning
materials, textbooks, computers, software and equipment is also
important as our staff upgrades programs to reflect both academic and
industry standards. The Columbiana County Career and Technical Center
receives $225,000 annually from the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and
Technical Act to help support the changes in secondary education being
implemented. While we would certainly still attempt to accomplish the
same educational goals without Perkins funding, I do not believe that
we would be able to be as results-oriented without these resources.
I thank you for the opportunity to share some of the exciting
educational practices being implemented in a small rural, Appalachian
county career and technical school and I urge to you support the
reauthorization of the Perkins Act to allow our school, as well as
others, to continue the journey of changing the methods of delivering
career and technical education to better prepare our students for the
Information Economy.
Senator Enzi. Our next witness comes from Wyoming, and it
is good to see you again. Dr. McFarland became Wyoming's first
woman college president when she assumed the presidency of
Central Wyoming College in 1989. There are only seven community
colleges in Wyoming, so there are not that many opportunities.
Dr. McFarland grew up in Wyoming and holds an associate degree
from Cottey College for Women and a B.A. with honors in speech,
theater, and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction, both from
the University of Wyoming. Dr. McFarland completed her Ph.D. in
communications from the University of Utah. Prior to becoming
CWC president 15 years ago, Dr. McFarland served as CWC's Dean
of the College, Division Chair of Humanities, and Professor of
English, Communications, and Theater.
Dr. McFarland.
STATEMENT OF JO ANNE McFARLAND, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, CENTRAL
WYOMING COLLEGE, RIVERTON, WY
Ms. McFarland. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Senator Bingaman,
and distinguished Members of the committee, I bid you greetings
from the great State of Wyoming, where we have more miles on
our snow blowers than we have on our cars, where we think of
the beginning of elk season as a national holiday, where we
have two seasons--winter and the 4th of July--and where I
recently discovered we handwrite our airline baggage tags so
that, if lost, we can be certain they are nowhere in the
system.
As Chairman Enzi said, my name is Jo Anne McFarland,
president of Central Wyoming College, which is a public, 2-year
comprehensive community college located in Riverton, WY, which
is within the exterior boundaries of the Wind River Indian
Reservation. Most of our students are first-generation, ``at
risk,'' or economically disadvantaged students. Twenty percent
of our students are Native American, with roughly that same
percentage of our 2-year graduates being Native American, I am
proud to say. Nestled in the Wind River mountain rage, Central
Wyoming College serves the counties of Fremont, Teton, and Hot
Springs, which captures a population of about 60,000 people
spread over 15,000 square miles. CWC's head count is about
2,000 credit students, and that equates to about 1,400 full-
time equivalent students. We are small.
My special thanks to Wyoming's Senator, the Honorable Mike
Enzi, who is chairing this morning's hearing, for extending me
an invitation to address your committee. I would also like to
acknowledge that help and support of the American Association
of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College
Trustees. I can think of no better reason to take a 6:00 a.m.
plane from Riverton yesterday, after a late night board meeting
the day before, to attend today's hearing with regard to the
Carl Perkins reauthorization.
My first main point is that most new jobs require some form
of postsecondary education. A high school diploma alone no
longer does it. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Act defines ``vocational and technical education''
as offering a ``sequence of courses that provides individuals
with the academic and technical knowledge and skills the
individuals need to prepare for further education''--and here
is the key--``for careers that do not require a baccalaureate
degree.''
A U.S. Department of Labor study has noted that 80 percent
of the new jobs created between the years 2000 and 2010 will
require some postsecondary education, but less than a
bachelor's degree. And according to a 2003 study entitled
``Standards for What?'' by Carnevale and Desrochers, even
though, on average, workers with associate degrees earn less
than those with bachelor's degrees, 83 percent of workers with
associate degrees earn the same as workers with bachelor's
degrees. The truth of the matter is that many people, many of
whom are single wage earners for their families, who try to
raise a family with only a high school diploma, end up at
community colleges at some point in their life.
My second main point: Community colleges are experienced in
providing career technical training for the broadest range of
students. I was pleased to hear Senator Enzi talking about K-16
and seamless arrangements and pathways. Community colleges are
well experienced in providing job skills, training, whether for
high school students who are dually enrolled in both high
school and the community college, recent high school graduates,
or for those who for whatever reason have dropped out of high
school, been laid off, or need to upgrade or retool for a
different or emerging job. The average age of community college
students is 29. We have always been known as the ``people's
colleges,'' primarily because of our access and affordability.
I think it is important that we realize that colleges are
close to the communities and businesses we serve. Community
colleges rely heavily on business advisory committees for their
programs. And we are certainly very challenged in Wyoming to
serve a rural population.
The bottom line is that the Perkins Act has been around for
a long time. My father, who taught for many years in vocational
agriculture in the great State of Wyoming, remembers well the
Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. Perkins was renamed in 1984. It
continues to work. We urge you to allow the Perkins to be
reauthorized, and at minimum, we ask that the postsecondary
performance indicators be refined and developed to better suit
the needs of community colleges who serve a very broad range of
our students.
[The prepared statement of Ms. McFarland follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jo Anne McFarland, Ph.D.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE BENEFITS, PROBLEMS, AND SUGGESTED CHANGES TO THE
PROPOSED PERKINS LEGISLATION
INTRODUCTION
I would like to thank the Honorable Chairman, Ranking Member
Kennedy, and distinguished Members of the Committee. My name is Jo Anne
McFarland, President of Central Wyoming College, which is a public 2-
year comprehensive college located in Riverton, Wyoming, within the
exterior boundaries of the Wind River Indian Reservation. Most of our
students are first-generation, ``at risk,'' or economically
disadvantaged students. Twenty percent of our students are Native
American, with roughly that same percentage of our 2-year graduates.
Nestled in the Wind River mountain range, Central Wyoming College
serves the counties of Fremont, Teton, and Hot Springs. CWC's headcount
serves over 2,000 credit students for a full-time equivalent credit
population of 1,350.
My special thanks to Wyoming's Senator, the Honorable Mike Enzi,
who is chairing this morning's hearing, for extending me an invitation
to address your committee and to Senator Enzi's policy analyst Scott
Fleming for his assistance. I also wish to acknowledge the support and
leadership of the American Association of Community Colleges and the
Association of Community College Trustees, and state my support for
their positions on the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins
Vocational and Technical Education Act.
most new jobs require some form of postsecondary education
The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act defines
``vocational and technical education'' as offering a ``sequence of
courses that provides individuals with the academic and technical
knowledge and skills the individuals need to prepare for further
education and for careers other than careers requiring a
baccalaureate.'' A U.S. Department of Labor study has noted that 80
percent of the new jobs created between 2000 and 2010 will require some
postsecondary education, but less than a bachelor's degree. According
to a 2003 study entitled Standards for What? by Carnevale and
Desrochers, even though, on average, workers with associate's degrees
earn less than those with bachelor's degrees, eighty-three percent (83
percent) of workers with associate degrees earn the same as workers
with bachelor's degrees. The ``American Diploma Project'' also notes
that students planning to go to work after high school need as rigorous
a curriculum as those planning to go to college. All of this points to
the importance of postsecondary programs to the career and technical
education (CTE) system. A reauthorized Perkins Act should better
reflect and support the role of postsecondary programs in the CTE
system. By strengthening support for postsecondary programs, the
Perkins Act would better serve the CTE system as a whole.
The truth of the matter is that many students who try to raise a
family with only a high school diploma end up at the community colleges
at some point in their lives. High school CTE programs should contain
the rigorous academics necessary to equip their students with the tools
necessary to pursue any of their options after graduation, whether they
decide to enter the workforce or immediately pursue postsecondary
education. The best bet is for high schools to focus on rigorous
preparation in math, reading, and English, as well as some career
exploration that focuses students' attention on necessary, sequential,
and relevant postsecondary training. We also know that community
colleges are best fitted to provide job skills training, whether for
recent high school graduates or for those who for whatever reason have
dropped out of high school, been laid off, or need to upgrade or re-
tool for a different or emerging job. Community colleges and high
schools must work together to provide career pathways that lead to
productive lives.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES SERVE THE BROADEST CLIENTELE
Community colleges, by their very nature, are designed to respond
to the local needs by creating appropriate training programs on a short
notice, whether they arise due to changes in technology, worker
shortages, or industry layoffs. Compared to other sectors of education,
student enrollment in the Nation's community colleges is growing faster
and represents a broad clientele. The Center for Policy Analysis at the
American Council on Education (ACE) released a brief just last week, on
June 15, 2004, entitled: Choice of Institution: Changing Student
Attendance Patterns in the 1990s. Using data from the Department of
Education's National Center for Education Statistics, it showed that in
the 1990s, the share of undergraduates enrolling in community colleges
increased from 39 percent in 1989 to 41 percent in 1999, resulting in
an enrollment gain of approximately 248,000 students. Enrollment in
community colleges grew by 14 percent during the 1990s, or
approximately 5 percentage points more than all of higher education,
which grew by 9 percent during the same time. The same study also
showed that over 70 percent of students attending community colleges
are ``independent,'' adult, older, and may be married and/or have
children. Early indications are that this enrollment trend at community
colleges will continue and even grow stronger in this decade.
With the average student age of approximately 29 years, community
colleges serve a number of older-than-average, non-traditional
students, including single parents and displaced homemakers. A high
percentage of these students come from economically disadvantaged
backgrounds; they greatly benefit from programs currently supported by
the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, and other
workforce initiatives. Through these sources, community colleges
receive critical funds to provide training opportunities to students in
technical fields where skilled workers are badly needed.
ABOUT COMMUNITY COLLEGES
I am proud to be affiliated with community colleges which have
always been known as the ``People's colleges,'' primarily because of
their access and affordability--and the fact that community colleges
take students of all abilities and backgrounds.
It is fitting that the community colleges should be engaged in
career-technical training because the community colleges have been
engaged in workforce development for--in the case of Northwest College
and Casper College as long as the past 60 years, and in the case of
Central Wyoming College for almost 40 years. Much of that work we have
done quietly and without fanfare. But we have always been about
educating Wyoming's citizens of all ages, and most of our graduates
stay in Wyoming.
A little about our State's seven community colleges. We are
comprehensive community colleges. As comprehensive community colleges,
we have three primary roles:
1. To provide the first 2 years of a 4-year degree for transfer to
a 4-year college or university. Many community college so-called
transfer degrees are in such areas as nursing, accounting, or
economics--areas that specifically relate to the workforce.
2. Secondly, comprehensive community colleges provide applied
degree programs to prepare our students for immediate entry into the
workforce. In addition to offering 2-year applied associate degree
programs, the colleges offer a number of 1-year applied diplomas, as
well as intensive credential programs, from 4 to 8 weeks in length.
3. Finally, the colleges also offer non-credit continuing education
for job skills upgrades, as well as non-credit offerings to pursue
recreational, leisure, and personal development interests.
But Wyoming community colleges, which together have a presence in
all 23 counties in the State, are different from most of the other over
1,600 community colleges in the country in a couple of significant
ways. First, Wyoming's community colleges far surpass the national
community college market penetration rate. Nationally, the community
college penetration rate is 4.6 percent, compared to a whopping 6.92
percent penetration rate for Wyoming's community colleges. Secondly,
because our population is so small and because our towns are so far
away from each other, Wyoming's community colleges serve not only as
educational centers for their service areas, but they also serve as the
cultural and recreational centers for the communities in their service
areas. Our colleges are governed by locally elected boards, and their
facilities are widely used by the communities. We are close to the
people we serve. We host high plays in our theatres and provide a stage
for the Kiwanis Stars of Tomorrow. The colleges provide camps,
concerts, and art shows--and serve as community meeting places. For
example, little old Central Wyoming College had over 100,000 people
over the past year attend events in our Arts Center Theatre. These are
events not associated with regular college offerings. The colleges
improve the cultural and educational lives of their communities.
The colleges are a great attraction to potential incoming
businesses and should be recognized as such. Wyoming's community
colleges ARE part of the communities they serve--and are highly
responsive to their needs. We're small, and we're flexible.
THE CHALLENGES OF SERVING A RURAL POPULATION
The population of Wyoming is less than one-half million people
spread over 38,000 square miles. Only three of Wyoming's cities and
towns have populations of at least 50,000. CWC's service area alone
encompasses almost 60,000 people spread over 15,000 square miles. Our
service area includes Jackson Hole, which is 150 miles over a high
mountain pass; Thermopolis to the north of us is 75 miles away through
the Wind River Canyon. Fort Washakie on the Wind River Indian
Reservation is a 45-minute trip away from the main campus in Riverton.
Because of the small population spread over vast distances, we are
highly dependent upon distance education as a means to deliver our
courses. In Fremont County alone, we have 8 public school districts and
one Bureau of Indian Affairs school. Students from Jeffrey City have to
travel 160 miles roundtrip each day by bus to Lander. Because of the
small number of students in each school (classified as ``frontier''
schools by the Federal Government), Wyoming's small schools
individually lack the resources to keep up with today's career and
technical education needs. Gone are the days when wood shop and auto
mechanics can meet the needs of a highly technical global economy.
Without sharing of resources through partnership with the college,
students from high schools, as well as from the college, would have
very limited choices in career and technical training. To give you an
idea of the sizes of some of our high schools, the following chart
indicates the numbers of high school juniors and seniors in Fremont
County public schools:
Junior and Senior High School Enrollment in Fremont County
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FCSD #1........................................................ 361
FCSD #2........................................................ 47
FCSD #6........................................................ 73
FCSD #14....................................................... 86
FCSD #24....................................................... 52
FCSD #25....................................................... 387
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Examples of career-technical programs eliminated in Fremont County
high schools, due to lack of funding:
Microsoft Authorized Academic Training Academies
Cisco Internetworking Academies
Health Occupations Program
Welding (reduced to \1/2\ time)
Agriculture (reduced to \1/2\ time)
Food Service Industry Program
Business and Office Program
Marketing Education
Accounting
Drafting (reduced to \1/2\ time)
Family and Consumer Science
Computer Science (Programming)
Graphic Arts and Journalism (Broadcast and media)
Auto Maintenance
Building Trades and Construction
Parenting and Child Development Program
Vocational Clubs are being eliminated as well: FBLA, DECA,
and FHA
Without strong partnerships with community colleges and the sharing
of resources through tech-prep arrangements and dual enrollment, high
school students in Wyoming would have extremely limited career-
technical training options. Sharing of resources between the high
schools and college in partnership can provide career-technical
training to an even broader range of students.
DEPENDENCE UPON CARL PERKINS FUNDING
We are also highly dependent upon Carl Perkins funding to provide
needed funding for career and technical equipment and services. This
upcoming year, Central Wyoming College is slated to receive $174,581 in
Perkins funding. This might seem like a small amount. However, without
this assistance, CWC and its secondary partners would be deprived of
needed up-to-date career and technical training and services.
Currently, only a total of $4.2 million comes to Wyoming in Perkins
funding, and only $1.2 million of that comes to Wyoming's seven
community colleges. If that amount were reduced by 25 percent, as
proposed by the Administration in its fiscal year 2005 budget,
Wyoming's seven community colleges would have share $900,000. That
leaves even less to do the more that is needed to train today's
students for tomorrow's jobs.
We have heard quite a bit about workforce development requiring the
three Es: education, economic development, and employment. I will use
the five P's to briefly capture what Wyoming's community colleges are
doing in the area of workforce development. It's what I call P to the
5th power.
I refer to the five Ps--or P to 5th power--as follows:
1. Partnerships
2. Pathways
3. Planning
4. Patronage
5. Passion
First--Partnership. As colleges based in and serving local
communities, the colleges are adept at partnerships--a critical element
in successful workforce development. Since their establishment between
40 to 60 years ago, the community colleges have depended upon community
advisory boards to ensure that our applied degrees are serving employer
needs. Let me give you some examples of community college partners:
Wyoming Department of Workforce Services and Vocational
Rehabilitation
Wyoming Workforce Development Council
Wyoming Workforce Alliance
One-Stop Workforce Committees and Entities
Wyoming Youth Council and county one-stops
Wyoming Business Council
City, county, and State (WEDA) economic development
organizations
Local and area businesses
Wyoming Department of Family Services
Chambers of Commerce
City councils
Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES)
Local school districts including tech prep and concurrent
enrollment efforts
University of Wyoming
Tribal TANF offices (Shoshone and Arapaho) Tribal TANF
office
Native American Vocational Tribal Employment Programs
(NAVTEP)
Correctional facilities
Hospitals
Area churches
Professional Standards Teaching Board
Wyoming State Nursing Board
Service Organizations such as Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis
State Interagency Training Consortium
College Business Programs Advisory Committees
Various medical agencies and organizations to provide
clinical facilities for training in health occupations programs
Second--Pathways. Successful workforce development MUST have
upwardly mobile pathways that take students from where they are to
where they need to be to lead self-sufficient and productive lives.
Getting a job, if a very low-paying one, may be less helpful in the
long run than helping our students continue their education to prepare
them for higher paying jobs. Wyoming's community colleges pride
themselves in providing pathways to success for many first-generation
and many ``at risk'' students, many of whom have, for a variety of
reasons, dropped out of school and failed to finish their high school
education. As such, the community colleges provide a continuum of three
phases of education--to work with students from where they ARE to where
they NEED TO BE. These three phases are as follows:
1. PRE-COLLEGE (First Pathway)--The colleges offer adult basic
education and English as a Second Language. We also offer education for
the General Education High School Equivalency Diploma, called the GED,
in cooperation with the Dept. of Workforce Services. For example, 2
years ago, CWC graduated 200 GED graduates, making it the largest high
school graduating class in Fremont County. We also work with unskilled
and unemployed (or underemployed) adults through such programs as TANF,
in partnership with Workforce Services. We teach such skills as the
work ethic, basic computer skills, customer services (for example
through the Quick Start program, in cooperation with the Wyoming
Business Council).
Together, the colleges annually educate over 5,200 students in ABE/
GED/ESL offerings.
2. COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY (Second Pathway)--The next phase of the
continuum relates to both transfer and applied degrees and certificates
in a variety of vocational/technical and other areas.
In vocational/technical areas alone, Wyoming's seven community
colleges graduate over 1,200 vocational/technical students annually.
This number does not include many transfer degrees, such as nursing
or business administration, geared to prepare students for immediate
entry into the workplace.
3. LIFELONG EDUCATION: WORKFORCE TRAINING (Third Pathway)--This
third phase of the continuum emphasizes the necessity for keeping our
workforce skills up-to-date and honed for emerging jobs, markets, and
businesses.
In workforce lifelong education and workforce training, the 7
colleges offer over 1,000 classes per year, with over 6,600 students
and over 6,500 graduates.
TECH-PREP IS A KEY EXAMPLE OF CAREER PATHWAYS THAT WORK
Perkins funding has supported tech prep pathways and assisted in
developing working relationships, articulation agreements, and seamless
educational pathways between secondary and post-secondary educational
institutions. At Sheridan College, dual credit programs are offered for
high school students that include vocational exploratory classes and
opportunities for career exploration and job shadowing.
The Perkins Act currently contains two key programs that improve
connections between community colleges and their local school systems:
Tech Prep and the Tech Prep demonstration program. While there is room
for improvement, the Tech Prep program has proven valuable in
establishing pathways for CTE students to make a smooth transition from
high school to college. AACC recommends, and I support maintaining the
Tech Prep program, with a modification to require that contracts
between consortia partners be renewed every 2 or 3 years, so that
details governing the program and expenditure of funds can be reviewed
on a regular basis.
The Tech Prep Demonstration program has emerged as a small but
important source of support for community colleges seeking to establish
or improve middle colleges on their campuses. Middle colleges are
generating a tremendous amount of interest as a means of smoothing and
encouraging the transition from high school to college, often targeted
to students who would otherwise be less likely to make that leap. In
each year of funding for the Tech Prep demonstration program, proposals
have far outnumbered available grants, demonstrating the level of
interest in establishing ``middle colleges'' at community colleges.
This program should also be maintained in the reauthorized Perkins Act.
Third ``P'' is PLANNING. Each year the colleges plan and host many
workforce investment activities. Let me give you a few examples from
this past year:
Northwest College offered professional development for 65
educators, as well as school-to-careers events and competitions for 190
middle and high school youth.
Northwest College also provides 35 student interns in
businesses and agencies.
LCCC participated in the Workforce Development Expo in
Washington, and has offered 3 career fairs, in partnership with the
Dept. of Workforce Services.
CWC, too, offered a career fair on our campus this past
year that attracted over 300 participants, with 26 companies
interviewing. CWC also hosted a Career Fair with over 500 participants
and 46 businesses on display.
EWC hosts an Annual Technology Day with about 120
participants, and EWC's Ag Department developed and hosted the Beef
Symposium with about 40 participants.
This just gives you an idea of the necessity of the planning that
improves workforce development on the part of the colleges.
STRENGTHS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
The colleges provide many examples of working partnerships to
enhance workforce development. Strengths of community colleges in
workforce development are as follows:
Access to talented trainers and instructors.
Training provided for businesses and agencies of all
sizes.
Training that responds to regional and local needs; builds
regional economic development capacity.
Coordinated flexible, responsive, customer-focused,
valuable partnerships.
Support of the Department of Workforce Services and other
local business partners.
Providing financial assistance to the students and
programs (supplies and support).
Community colleges are uniquely positioned to be the
``first choice'' provider for meeting workforce development needs due
to the community colleges' ``bank'' of expertise and knowledge
(professionals and faculty) and training facilities and technology.
(Where else can you train 25 people at a time on computers?)
Community colleges are very cost competitive.
And Wyoming's community colleges are the best of the best.
This year, for example, the National Center for Digital Education named
LCCC among the ``Top Ten Digital Savvy Community Colleges'' in the
country for the large/urban category. CWC was named in the Top Ten
Digital Savvy Community Colleges in the small/rural category. CWC was
also named in the Top 50 Fastest Growing Community Colleges in the U.S.
EXAMPLES OF WORKING WITH SMALL BUSINESSES
A prime example of one of CWC's partnerships with business through
use of Perkins funding is our ``internship'' program. We place college
student interns with Brunton; Wyoming.com; local school districts;
McKee, Marburger, & Fagnant (accounting firm); and the National Weather
Service to provide practical work experience opportunities to students,
particularly in areas in which the technical coursework alone is
insufficient to prepare the student for direct entry into the
workforce. The locals just love our interns and usually hire these
students on a permanent basis, sometimes even before their internship
period is completed. The type of work ranges from technical support to
engineering functions. Students in CWC's internship program earn
college credits while they gain practical experience on the job.
CWC has also conducted a number of workshops for local businesses
and organizations, including the following over the past month:
Conflict Resolution Training for Nursing Staff (Riverton
Memorial Hospital).
Board Planning Retreat (Child Development Services of
Fremont County).
The fourth ``P'' is PATRONAGE. We have an incredible wealth of
expertise and entrepreneurial spirit at the colleges, and the colleges
are connected to their communities. We need to invest in those
wonderful resources for a greater payoff in workforce development. We
need to support community colleges.
More patronage means more resources! Our challenges are as follows:
Obtain more State funding for a growing college role in
workforce development and to meet regional need--our State funding for
workforce development brings to mind another ``P''--pathetic!
We need greater state-level support for the community
colleges as the preferred training provider.
Development of a funding process that is more sensitive to
differences in regional workforce training needs.
Greater awareness of community colleges as viable employee
development resources.
More readily available resources for marketing, staffing,
curriculum development, equipment, and facilitator certification
(Wyoming's community colleges are little known ``gems'' of our great
State).
Sufficient resources for identifying and serving the
myriad of training needs for a technology-driven workforce.
Additional staffing and resources to track completers and
collect reliable follow-up performance information.
More realistic expectations of students for job placement
after program completion.
More work at the Federal level, including support for
``tried and true'' programs, such as the Carl Perkins Act.
But we at the community colleges can do a lot more to help
ourselves.
The community colleges have to prove that we are as
capable as private training entities in providing high quality/caliber,
leading-edge training programs.
The community colleges have to allow customized training/
workforce development departments within the college system the
flexibility they need to operate ``outside the box'' of the traditional
educational models, tuition/fees, and schedules.
The fifth ``P'' is PASSION. We have to continue to believe that
every human being has dignity and worth and that all Wyoming citizens
deserve an opportunity to lead useful and productive lives. In our zeal
to prepare our citizens for high-paying jobs (and to reduce the gender
pay gap), I hope we do NOT stick with 220 percent of the Federal
poverty level to measure what jobs are worthy of training. That would
mean that a family of three would require $34,000 a year. Folks, I'm
embarrassed to say that at Central Wyoming College in Fremont County,
$34,000 is more than our master's prepared beginning faculty salary
make. These highly qualified beginning faculty members start at $32,000
per year. These kinds of unrealistic salaries are going to leave behind
single mothers, who would be delighted to make even $24,000. Let's not
leave them out.
We have to believe what we say--to make our programs match our
rhetoric. We can develop a skilled and productive workforce if we have
a shared mission, and, more importantly, if we have the passion to make
it come true.
So, in conclusion, we need the five ``Ps'':
1. PARTNERSHIPS
2. PATHWAYS
3. PLANNING
4. PATRONAGE
5. PASSION
With these five ``Ps,'' we can bring about another ``P'' in terms
of PROGRESS toward enhanced career-technical education.
HISTORY OF CARL PERKINS ACT
The Carl Perkins Act has a long history, and it is a highly
effective ``workhorse'' of a Federal program that is extremely
accountable. The Perkins Act has had the flexibility to morph from its
original vocational education roots into a program for enhancing career
and technical education in the secondary schools and at community
colleges to prepare today's students for tomorrow's jobs. The Carl
Perkins had its genesis in the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917, which
represented the first Federal legislation that specifically funded
vocational education. In 1931 the National Advisory Committee on
Education was established and supported legislation to further increase
funding, first through the George-Ellzey Act in 1934 and then in the
George-Deen Act of 1936. The Vocational Education Act of 1963 again
increased vocational funding and permitted States flexibility in the
development of programs. Amendments were added in 1968 and 1972, and in
1984, the act was renamed after Carl Perkins. The Perkins Act was
reauthorized in 1990 and again in 1997. Although the program is old, it
has not lost its relevance to today's knowledge-based, technologically
advanced, and global economy.
LIMITED ``SMALL STATE MINIMUM''
We are also very concerned about the limited funding to Wyoming,
which is based on the ``small State minimum'' awarded to six States,
including Wyoming, and which has not been increased since 1994. This
limited funding does not come close to the 43 percent inflation factor
during this time, especially with equipment and technical costs on the
rise.
PERKINS FUNDS AT WORK
Wyoming currently receives $4.2 million in Perkins funds, as the
``small State minimum.'' The State has not have seen an increase in
career technical education (CTE) funding since 1994 and the program has
been negatively impacted by the 43 percent inflationary increase over
the last decade. Increasing national funding levels or at least
maintaining them is just critical.
Perkins funds, even though small, have a significant impact on
career technical education (CTE) program operations in Wyoming
community colleges and range from 12-50 percent of their total CTE
budgets. These funds are used to support various aspects of vocational
education including enhancing communication and technological literacy
skills; acquisition of technological equipment and specialized software
to industry standards; individualized tutoring; internships; at-risk
student interventions; direct assistance to members of special
populations (single parents, single pregnant women, displaced
homemakers, special needs students); and job-embedded faculty
development training.
Without Perkins' support, these special services and programs would
not exist. Since the estimates are that 80 percent of our population
will not need a 4-year degree to be trained for the jobs that will
exist in the 21st century, and since we continue to import workers in
these CTE areas in response to employers' demands, it makes excellent
economic sense to ``grow our own.'' The funding allotted to Perkins is
minor compared to the benefits to our national and State economies and
the taxes that these self-sufficient students will pay in the future.
They also will not be absorbing State and national funding through
welfare assistance.
In the past 2 years, Perkins funds have benefited 25-34 percent of
all enrolled college students, and have touched almost 65 percent of
the total number of graduates from Wyoming colleges. Success of the CTE
programs directly affect the number of trained graduates entering the
workforce.
PERKINS SUCCESS STORIES
Wyoming's community colleges have many success stories of graduates
and currently enrolled students that were realized due to Perkins
funding assistance. Following are a few examples.
Example 1: April was divorced in 1992, with one child. She decided
to return to school, and applied for all the grants she could get.
While a student at Central Wyoming College (CWC), she received Perkins
funding for books, transportation, child care, clothing. She also
received counseling and support from the Perkins funded staff person
that was invaluable in helping her deal with parenting and other
personal issues, etc. She persisted in school and graduated from CWC in
1995 as a valedictorian with an AAS in Data Processing, a Certificate
in Accounting and in Microcomputers. She worked for Fremont Counseling
for 6 years, Wyoming Services for Independent Living for 2 years, and
began working for CWC in April 2004. Without the Perkins assistance,
she may have been a continuing burden on taxpayers instead of being the
established productive worker she is today.
Example 2: Christie is a single mother with two children who began
attending CWC in 2001 and graduated in 2003 with an AA in Surgical
Technology. She encountered numerous personal problems while attending
CWC but persisted in school due to the additional financial assistance
and counseling available through the Perkins program. During the fall
semester of her final year, she moved her family to the small town of
Pinedale, 180 miles away from the main campus in Riverton, to be close
to the clinical site in Jackson. She drove to Riverton for classes on
Monday and Tuesday, drove to Jackson for clinicals on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday, then to Pinedale for the weekend to be with her
children. During spring semester, her clinical site changed and she
moved the family to Rock Springs, 150 miles in a different direction,
to do the clinicals there. She is currently gainfully employed at a
hospital in Kemmerer, again, thanks to the support of the Perkins
program.
Example 3: Christa is currently enrolled at CWC completing her 2-
year degree program in Business Management and is scheduled to graduate
next semester. She is a 24-year-old single mother with a 7-year-old son
under her care. The Perkins Grant has helped her out with that little
extra assistance needed throughout the semester and helped her gain
employable skills. She is deeply grateful for the opportunity to turn
her life around.
Example 4: Michelle is a single parent of three sons who is
enrolled in the Dental Assisting program at Sheridan College. With
assistance from the Perkins grant, she was able to attend college and
develop her employability, communications and thinking skills. Through
the tutoring assistance she receives, she has a better understanding of
the difficult concepts involved in her technical education program. She
can now acquire an education that will enable her to support herself
and her sons. Her successes are an encouragement to others who look to
her as a role model.
Example 5: A student who attended Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) to
major in welding and joining technology was often the only female in
her welding skills classes. When asked ``What difficulties did you
experience in working in a gender unequal field?'' she quickly
responded that thanks to the support system established by the Perkins
programs, she never felt ``out of place'' or discouraged, and soon
considered herself to be ``just one of the guys.'' This young lady
worked on breaks and over summers in the coal industry mechanic shops
as a welder. She made excellent money and gained invaluable work
experience. She went on to graduate from the EWC program and works in
the industry. She has a new goal of becoming a welding instructor
herself someday.
Example 6: A 41-year-old married carpenter with five teenage
children needed to change occupations because of wear and tear on his
knees. He needed a training program that would give him the salary to
support his family of seven and a major that would require the minimum
amount of time to complete and return him to the workforce. This man
chose the nursing profession, spent 2 years completing his pre-
requisite courses while he continued to work as a carpenter and was
then accepted into the nursing program. He completed the program while
working part-time as a licensed practical nurse, and graduated in May
2003 with his RN degree and a GPA over 3.75! He is now working as a
registered nurse in a local hospital, and all this was made possible by
the Perkins funds that assisted him with his tuition, books and
supplies.
Example 7: A young mother with two toddlers registered in the
criminal justice program in the fall of 2003. In November, her
husband's reserve unit was called to Iraq. Alone now with their
children, she has a sharply decreased family income and has no way to
pay for her tuition, books, and supplies. The Perkins funds is paying
for her college attendance costs and providing extensive support
services to alleviate some of the separation stress and anxiety from
her husband's absence and his dangerous mission.
Example 8: Jeremy is a special needs vocational student at Western
Wyoming College. He received classroom accommodations through Perkins
programs for his learning disabilities. The Perkins staff made
arrangements to have ``hands-on'' training in a co-op educational
setting that proved to be very valuable. Jeremy is currently employed
with the same business on a permanent basis, and is grateful for the
assistance he received.
OTHER PERKINS SERVICES AND BENEFITS
Perkins-funded equipment and professional development activities
have helped several of our photography students publish their work in
national photography magazines, even before they graduated from the
college. This exposure and recognition has launched these students into
successful careers with major corporations across the United States.
Other students chose to use this exposure as the foundation for opening
their own businesses. Similarly, journalism students have won national
awards for the newspaper and web casts they have produced with the help
of Perkins funded equipment. Students have learned and demonstrated
professional performance abilities in these competitive fields.
REAUTHORIZATION PROPOSAL
In its 2005 budget request, the administration has proposed a
reorganization of the Vocational Education programs as part of the Carl
D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins
III), which expires in fiscal year 2005. Under the new proposal,
existing programs would be replaced by a new secondary and technical
education program designed to ``shift from providing traditional
vocational education to a stronger focus on supporting high levels of
academic achievement at the high school level in the context of career
and technical education programs offered in conjunction with
postsecondary education and training partners.'' While the U.S.
Department of Education's goal (number 5) from its 2002-2007 Strategic
Plan affirms, ``Enhance the quality of and access to postsecondary
education,'' the Reauthorization proposal brings into question if the
Department of Education appropriately distinguishes the Federal role
between supporting K-12 and postsecondary education. If enacted, the
reduced support for the postsecondary level will hurt deserving adult
students, and in turn slow down efforts of rebuilding the national
economy.
ISSUES WITH THE PROPOSED REAUTHORIZATION
1. Reauthorization process gives us a unique opportunity to define
the overarching purpose of the Perkins Act. It should be restated to
focus on economic development through improvement in career and
technical education (CTE) programs serving high demand occupations.
2. The proposal for reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins
Vocational and Technical Education Act has been renamed the Carl D.
Perkins Secondary and Technical Education Excellence Act, indicating in
not so subtle terms, an emphasis towards secondary education. With this
approach, the Department of Education has introduced the ``uses of
funds'' language for Basic State Grants geared towards secondary
education and is practically unrelated to the needs of adult students
attending community colleges. The proposal fails to recognize the role
of postsecondary institutions in serving members of the society who are
beyond high school age.
3. A number of reports show higher earning capacities for workers
with postsecondary education. Instead of focusing on secondary
education in the reauthorization process, an increased support for the
community college programs will help build a broad, more effective
career and technical education system that will serve current and
future needs of secondary students, traditional college age students,
and adult learners. With increasing global competition, especially in
career-technology fields, it is prudent to stress education and skills
beyond the secondary level.
Wyoming Department of Education consultants (Jacob et al.) were
quoted in a White Paper (March 13, 2003) Developing a Rationale for
Wyoming's Carl Perkins Funding Split as making the following
observations which are very apropos to the present discussion.
a. The nature of jobs in the modern economy requires greater
career-technical education than can be offered at the secondary level
alone.
b. More jobs require postsecondary credentials (certificates and
associate degrees), net of experience and training, therefore the
greatest benefit to the workforce is through postsecondary.
c. Vocational Course-taking in the high schools has remained steady
and has not grown. The percentage of students taking three or more
courses in a single occupational area has declined dramatically.
d. High schools should be places where students master a set of
basic competencies necessary for all of adult life, rather than
specializing in specific preparation for employment; this idea has been
embedded in State high school exit examinations that focus on the basic
academic subjects, and now in the exams required in the No Child Left
Behind legislation.
4. Students attend community colleges for various reasons including
skill attainment; retraining for emerging technologies; career
assessment; advancing in current jobs; improving basic skills in
English, reading, or math; earning credentials or certificates;
transferring to another 2- or 4-year college; or, completing a degree
program. The proposed Perkins Act focuses narrowly only on
``completion'' rates, more appropriate to secondary schools than to the
community colleges.
5. Community colleges are uniquely organized to train and retrain
students in career technical education fields, with goals parallel to
those of the Perkins Act. Taxpayers' dollars will therefore be better
spent with the Perkins Act working more closely and in consort with
community colleges, rather than appending with secondary education.
6. Secondary programs eligible for Perkins funding should be
limited to those providing clear pathways to the acquisition of high-
order skills and academic knowledge taught at the postsecondary level.
7. Community colleges routinely partner with a number of external
entities including businesses, social agencies, adult education
centers, school districts, baccalaureate institutions, etc., to meet
the needs of their communities, maximizing investment returns manifold.
They are better suited to implement the Perkins initiatives
holistically, guiding students to work, training, and/or further
education.
8. Perkins funding has also supported Tech Prep pathways and
assisted in developing working relationships, articulation agreements,
and seamless educational pathways between certain secondary and post-
secondary educational institutions. However, overall, coordination
between secondary and postsecondary education over Tech Prep programs
continues to be problematic. I support the AACC's view that the Tech
Prep program should continue to foster education reform as a separate
agenda item.
What we need is more patronage--more resources! Our challenges are
as follows:
Work for re-authorization of the Carl Perkins Act at an
increased (NOT reduced) funding level;
Increase the ``small State minimum'' in Perkins funding;
Encourage high schools to focus on providing the academic
basics, as well as career exploration, so that community colleges can
focus on applied career and technical education through such mechanisms
as dual enrollment;
Ensure that community colleges serve as the primary
partner for Carl Perkins funding in partnership with businesses and
secondary schools.
Require States to provide a defensible rationale for
splitting Carl Perkins funding between community colleges and their
secondary partners.
Recognize that community colleges serve a broad base of
students, averaging about 29 years of age that includes both
traditional high school students and non-traditional older students.
Do not allow a successful program, such as Perkins, to
become mired in politics.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. Through
this reauthorization process, I hope we can make decisions that will
have lasting benefits in helping our youth and adults fulfill their
career goals and participate with us in the American dream. I will be
happy to answer any of your questions.
References:
American Association of Community Colleges: AACC Position on Carl D.
Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and Workplace
Investment Act Reauthorizations, May 2004
The Center for Policy Analysis at the American Council on Education
(ACE). Choice of Institution: Changing Student Attendance Patterns
in the 1990. Issue brief, released June 15, 2004
Jacobs, J. Grubb, W. & Gardner, D. Implementing the `Education
Consensus': The Federal Role in Supporting Vocational-Technical
Education. March 2002.
U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education.
Carl D. Perkins Vocational Technical Education Act Reauthorization
Proposal, May 12, 2004
Wyoming Department of Education: Developing a Rationale for Wyoming's
Carl Perkins Funding Split, March 13, 2003
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Our next witness is Harry Lightsey from Columbia, SC. He is
the president of BellSouth in South Carolina. Mr. Lightsey
began his telecommunications career in 1982 when he joined the
Southwestern Bell Legal Department. Four years later, he
transferred to BellSouth Corporation. His career at BellSouth
has included assignments in Atlanta and Miami as well as South
Carolina. On September 1, 2000, he was promoted to State
president in South Carolina. Mr. Lightsey is also on the board
of the Governor's School for Science and Mathematics Foundation
and the Spoleto Music Festival. He serves as a member of the
Palmetto Business Forum, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce
Excellence in Education Council, and the BIPEC Distinguished
Advisory Council. He is on the board of the ETV Endowment of
South Carolina, the University of South Carolina Educational
Foundation, the College of Charleston Foundation, and the R.L.
Bryan Company.
Mr. Lightsey.
STATEMENT OF HARRY LIGHTSEY, PRESIDENT, BellSouth,
SOUTH CAROLINA, COLUMBIA, SC
Mr. Lightsey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Committee.
Four years ago, a diesel systems technology company decided
to build a facility to manufacture cutting-edge diesel fuel
injectors in the Midlands of South Carolina. They wanted to
hire about 500 local employees. But the company could not find
enough skilled workers. The first 1,000 applications were a
combination of adults and recent high school graduates. The
company was only able to hire about 50 of those applicants. Of
that, only 35 started work.
I share this story with you to illustrate the fact that in
South Carolina, and probably many other places, today's workers
do not have the skills for the modern workplace. Our current
education system is not producing a labor force with the
higher-level skills that technical businesses need to be
successful in the competitive global economy.
As a result, South Carolina's economy suffers. Today, South
Carolina's per capita income is only 80 percent of the national
average. South Carolina's unemployment rate is currently the
third highest in the Nation.
To help resolve this problem, a coalition of business
leaders are partnering with the South Carolina Department of
Education to rebuild our economy around higher-skilled, higher-
paying jobs by improving academic and technical skills of high
school graduates entering the workforce and entering
postsecondary education.
BellSouth recognized the need to help improve the quality
of education in the Southeast by establishing a foundation in
1986. Since its inception, the BellSouth Foundation has awarded
grants to over 400 institutions totaling about $46.5 million.
Recently, BellSouth and the BellSouth Foundation gave a $1
million grant to the South Carolina Department of Education to
address the need for more workers with higher skill levels.
This grant helps fund two programs: Project Lead the Way and
FIRST Robotics.
Project Lead the Way is a national high school curriculum
that forms partnerships among public high schools, higher
education institutions, and the private sector to increase the
quantity and quality of engineers and engineering
technologists. In South Carolina, Project Lead the Way is a
partnership between BellSouth, the South Carolina Department of
Education, and the University of South Carolina School of
Engineering. Project Lead the Way offers a 4-year sequence of
courses which feature hands-on collaborative learning
experiences and, when combined with traditional mathematics and
science courses, introduces high school students to the
disciplines of engineering and engineering technology. But
Project Lead the Way is not just for students interested in
engineering. It is also for students interested in developing
technical skills needed in our workforce. Currently, 52 schools
in South Carolina participate in the program, and we plan to
grow that to over 100 by September 2005.
The other exciting program is FIRST, an acronym that stands
for ``For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology.'' FIRST is a national program which challenges high
school students to work with professional engineering and
business mentors to design and build a robot in 6 weeks. Each
team must start with the same kit of parts, and then the
students and their robots compete in an intense, action-packed,
2-minute competition that measures the effectiveness of each
robot, the power of the team strategy, and the collaboration
and determination of the students.
FIRST encourages students who may not be predisposed to
science, math, or technology to participate, and it is designed
to inspire, motivate, and encourage students to learn. Since
there are critical roles for students in everything from design
and building, to computer animation, every student can actively
participate and benefit.
There are literally hundreds of examples how FIRST and
Project Lead the Way have inspired students, especially women
and minorities, to get involved in engineering and technical
programs. These students learn more than technical skills. They
also learn skills that are desperately needed in our workforce,
like innovation, teamwork, project management, leadership, and
ethics.
Earlier this year, South Carolina hosted the inaugural
Palmetto FIRST Regional Robotics Competition, where 42 teams of
high school students from across the Nation competed. Because
of the excitement the FIRST competition generated in schools
throughout the State, we have seen a 100-percent increase in
the Project Lead the Way program.
We need 21st century learning to encourage students to stay
in school and actively learn skills for future jobs. There is
so much noise in the world today. Our young people are
literally bombarded from different directions--TV, video games,
instant messaging. Asking them to sit in a conventional
classroom to learn is asking the impossible for many. For real
learning, we need to pick up these students and shake them with
hands-on learning, where they are challenged with real problems
to solve in real time. That is what Project Lead the Way and
FIRST does.
Congress needs to encourage more private-public
partnerships to help improve education in this Nation and to
help prepare our students to be successful in the world
economy. For example, high school students could use adjunct
faculty from technical schools and businesses to work with
students on programs like FIRST. Businesses and the public
sector should help improve the academic integrity of vocational
and technical education programs at both high school and
postsecondary schools to ensure these classes are providing the
relevant skills for our 21st century jobs.
Another important factor is Federal funding. Funding of the
Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education program is
critical. Our schools need the Federal grant funds for programs
that inspire and challenge our young people to develop skills
that will allow our businesses to continue to build our economy
now and for the future.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lightsey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Harry Lightsey
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here
today to discuss with you the need to support career and technical
education by reauthorizing the funding for the Carl D. Perkins
Vocational and Technical program.
Four years ago a diesel systems technology company decided to build
a facility to manufacture cutting edge diesel fuel injectors in the
Midlands of South Carolina. They wanted to hire about 500 local people.
But, the company couldn't find enough skilled workers. The first 1,000
applications were a combination of adults and recent high school
graduates. The company hired about 50 of the applicants. Only 35
started work.
I share this story with you to illustrate the fact that today's
workers do not have the skills for the modern workplace. Our current
education system is not producing a future labor force with the higher
level skills that technical businesses need to be successful in the
competitive global economy. Plus, only 70 percent of the students who
are enrolled in the eighth grade today will graduate from high school.
As a result, technical companies and other businesses suffer, even
though desirable job opportunities, salaries and benefits are
available. That impacts South Carolina's economy. Today, South
Carolina's per capita income is only 80 percent of the national
average. South Carolina's unemployment rate is the third highest in the
nation.
To help resolve this problem, a coalition of business leaders are
partnering with the South Carolina Department of Education to rebuild
our economy around higher skilled, higher paying jobs by improving
academic and technical skills of high school graduates entering the
workforce and post secondary education. One of these companies,
BellSouth recognized the need to help improve the quality of education
in the Southeast by establishing a foundation in 1986. Strengthening
the South's economy and improving the quality of life for all
Southerners is dependent upon a highly-skilled workforce. Since its
inception, the BellSouth Foundation has awarded 587 grants to 421
institutions totaling $46,400,000.
Recently, BellSouth and the BellSouth Foundation gave a $1 million
grant to the SC Department of Education to address the need for more
workers with higher skill levels to help improve our economy. The grant
helps fund two programs: Project Lead the Way and FIRST Robotics.
Project Lead the Way is a national program that forms partnerships
among public high schools, higher education institutions and the
private sector to increase the quantity and quality of engineers and
engineering technologists. In South Carolina Project Lead the Way is a
partnership between BellSouth, the South Carolina Department of
Education, and the University of South Carolina School of Engineering.
Project Lead the Way offers a 4-year sequence of courses which, when
combined with traditional mathematics and science courses, introduces
high school students to the disciplines of engineering and engineering
technology. But, Project Lead the Way is not just for students
interested in engineering, it is also for students interested in
developing technical skills needed in our workforce. Currently, 52
schools in South Carolina participate in the program. We plan to grow
that number to 100 by September, 2005.
The Project Lead The Way graduate is better prepared for
engineering programs and more likely to be successful. In the 2002
Southern Regional Education Board NAEP Assessment, South Carolina led
all 28 SREB States in Math, Science, and Reading Assessments. The
majority of the South Carolina schools ASSESSED have the Project Lead
the Way curriculum in place.
The other exciting program is FIRST, an acronym that stands for
``For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.'' FIRST, a
national program, challenges high school students to work with
professional engineering and business mentors to design and build a
robot in 6 weeks. Each team must use the same kit of parts and a
standard set of rules. Then, the students and their robots compete in
an intense, action packed, 2-minute competition that measures the
effectiveness of each robot, the power of team strategy and the
collaboration and determination of students.
FIRST encourages students who may not be predisposed to science,
math or technology to participate and it is designed to inspire,
motivate and encourage students to learn basic principles while
challenging more experienced students. Since there are critical roles
for students in everything from design and building, to computer
animation, to fundraising and research, every student can actively
participate and benefit.
There are literally hundreds of examples how FIRST and Project Lead
the Way have inspired students, especially women and minorities, to get
involved in engineering, technical programs, and robotics. These
students learn more than technical skills. They also learn skills that
are desperately needed in our workforce like innovation, teamwork,
project management, leadership and ethics.
Earlier this year, South Carolina hosted the inaugural Palmetto
FIRST Regional Robotics Competition, where 42 teams of high school
students from across the Nation competed. Because of the excitement the
FIRST competition generated in schools throughout the State, we've seen
a 100 percent increase in the expansion of Project Lead the Way pre-
engineering programs.
We need 21st Century Learning to encourage students to stay in
school and actively learn skills for future jobs. There is so much
noise in the world today. Our young people are bombarded from different
directions, TV, video games, multidimensional technologies, instant
messaging, etc. Asking them to sit in a conventional classroom to learn
is asking the impossible for many. For real learning, we need to pick
up these students and shake them with hands on learning. That is what
Project Lead the Way and FIRST does.
Congress needs to encourage more private/public partnerships to
help improve education in this Nation and to help prepare our students
to be successful in the world economy. For example, high schools could
use ``adjunct faculty'' from technical schools and businesses to work
with students on programs like FIRST. Businesses and the public sector
should help improve the academic integrity of vocational and technical
education programs at both the high school and post secondary schools
to ensure these classes provide relevant skills training for 21st
Century jobs.
Another important factor is Federal funding. Funding of the Carl D.
Perkins Vocational and Technical Education program is critical. Our
schools need the Federal grant funds for career and technical education
to shake up our young people so they can develop the skills to work in
future technical careers.
Thank you.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Our next witness will be introduced by the Senator from New
York, Senator Clinton.
Senator Clinton. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and
thank you for holding this hearing on such an important issue.
In addition to the many points already made about public-
private partnerships, community colleges, and the rest, I am
very interested in helping to see if we can do a better job in
ensuring that girls and women have the knowledge,
encouragement, and opportunities to enter nontraditional
occupations that often pay well, have benefits, and lead to
self-sufficiency. So I am working with groups like Tradeswomen
Now and Tomorrow and Women Work and Wider Opportunities for
Women to develop a set of proposals that will improve the
Perkins Act.
Today we have a witness who can speak to that. Angela
Olszewski works in New York. She is a fantastic example of what
can be done when someone is given the right set of
opportunities. In 1999, Ms. Olszewski graduated from the Blue-
Collar Prep Program at Nontraditional Employment for Women,
known as NEW, in New York City. This group has helped thousands
of unemployed and underemployed women in the New York City area
achieve financial self-sufficiency through employment in the
skilled blue-collar trades.
By day, Ms. Olszewski is a journeywoman tile setter, a
member of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied
Craft Workers. By night, she is a job readiness instructor at
NEW's evening training program where she has helped hundreds of
women students prepare for employment in the skilled trades.
She is a member of Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow. She has also
worked with the New York City public school system in the
Construction Skills 2000 program, designed to expose high
school students to the building trades. Something we do not
really focus on enough is that we are in danger of losing a lot
of our skilled craftsmen and -women--mostly craftsmen, but
certainly, you know, more and more women--and we do not have a
sufficient pipeline for young people to know how to get into
these trades.
So I am very proud to introduce a woman who is an example
of what it is we are trying to achieve for many other women as
well.
So, Mr. Chairman, this is Angela Olszewski.
Senator Enzi. Ms. Olszewski.
STATEMENT OF ANGELA OLSZEWSKI, JOURNEYWOMAN AND INSTRUCTOR,
NONTRADITIONAL EMPLOYMENT FOR WOMEN, NEW YORK, NY
Ms. Olszewski. Good morning, Senator Enzi, Senator
Bingaman, and Senator Clinton. Thank you for the invitation to
appear before you today to discuss the issue of nontraditional
employment and the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins
Vocational and Technical Education Act. I would also like to
take this opportunity to thank Senator Clinton for inviting me
to speak today and for her support of Tradeswomen Now and
Tomorrow and her leadership on passing a Senate resolution
recognizing the need to increase women's participation in the
skilled trades.
My name is Angela Olszewski. I am a member of Local Union
No. 7, Tile, Marble and Terrazzo of New York and New Jersey. My
local belongs to the International Union of Bricklayers and
Allied Craftworkers. I am a union tile setter, a tradeswomen
advocate and educator, and a 1999 graduate of a Blue-Collar
Prep Program with Nontraditional Employment for Women--NEW--in
New York City.
I came here today to tell you that the only way that I was
able to get into an apprenticeship with Local No. 7 was because
of the training, support, and assistance of NEW. I found out
about NEW in 1995 from friends who thought I would be a good
match for working in the building trades. But at that time you
had to be collecting unemployment or be on public assistance in
order to be enrolled at NEW. That was not my situation, and so
I kept NEW in the back of my mind, and I continued working jobs
which paid between $8 and $12 an hour. I came to NEW in 1999,
after being laid off from a seasonal clerical associates
position with the New York City Parks and Recreation
Department. When the season was over, I took my lay-off and my
soon-to-be unemployment assistance, and I went straight to NEW
and enrolled in their Blue-Collar Prep Program.
I was so excited about entering NEW. I knew my life was
going to be changed by the opportunity. The program ran full-
time for 12 weeks. I learned about current opportunities in the
building trades. I gained confidence in my abilities in the
shop classes. I practiced entrance exams and interviews. I
improved my physical conditioning, and I felt solidly
determined to get into an apprenticeship with the tile setters
union.
In my case, NEW had to broker a deal with a union
contractor and a union official in order to secure an
apprenticeship for me. It was known that this contractor had
gotten a job in which the project labor agreement required
quotas for the number of women and people of color to be
employed. I made my application with the local, and through
NEW's persistence and persuasion, the union and the contractor
decided to give me a chance. I was accepted into the union's
12-week pre-job tile training program facility in Long Island
City. I was the only woman in my class, and except for the
secretary, I was the only woman at the entire training
facility, which also ran pre-job training programs in marble,
brick, restoration, and stone crafts.
I was accepted into the tile setter apprenticeship in 2000,
and in 2001, while I was still an apprentice, I was appointed
to my International Union's Women's Task Force. The mission of
the task force is to propose policy suggestions for the better
recruitment and retention of women in the union. In 2002, I
worked with Tradeswomen Now and Tomorrow at the Building and
Construction Trades Conference here in Washington, DC. I have
also worked with a program called Construction Skills 2000,
which discusses careers in the building trades to high school-
aged girls and boys in the New York public school system.
In 2003, I completed my apprenticeship, and for the past 2
years, I have also been employed part-time as a job readiness
instructor in NEW's evening training program. In my class, I
share my strategies for completing a successful apprenticeship.
I have spoken to hundreds of women who have trained for careers
in the building trades. The material in my class is prepared
straight out of my experience as a tradeswoman. I cover topics
such as dealing with isolation, sexual harassment, and how to
effectively monitor the progress of your apprenticeship to make
sure you are getting access to skills when training on the job.
These high-skill, high-wage jobs are very rewarding. I have
worked on the new construction of many high-rise luxury hotels
and residences. I have installed marble bathrooms and granite
kitchens. I have worked with cement and quarry tile in large
restaurant kitchens. I have even installed glass mosaic tiles
inside a swimming pool. My financial rewards from this career
are incredible to me. I joke to my friends that I now pay in
taxes the amount I used to earn for a living. Let me take you
through my annual income for the past 4 years as a tile setter:
as a first-year apprentice, $18,000; second-year apprentice,
$32,000; third-year apprentice, $46,000; journeyworker,
$55,000.
In recognizing how extremely challenging it can be for
women to enter these fields, it is with deep gratitude to NEW
that I am dedicated to the work I do on construction sites, as
an advocate, and as an instructor. NEW has been around for 25
years, but unfortunately the obstacles and conditions which
prevent women from entering and successfully completing careers
still exist. Graduates of NEW constitute the majority of women
hard hats in New York City. Without NEW's services, most of
these women would not be in the skilled trades, and neither
would I.
Many of the men that I work with have family in the
construction business who provide significant assistance to
their entry into the trades and allow them to bypass some of
the formal requirements. However, few women are able to enter
the trades this way. Their path is often much more difficult. I
have seen men brought right into this industry, and I have seen
women fill out an application only to be told to wait and maybe
we will get back to you.
In the summer of 2001, my International Union participated
in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival here in DC. I was invited
to be part of a living exhibit called The Masters of the
Building Trades. We demonstrated our crafts while people
stepped forward to ask questions about it. I was so proud to be
there because I showed every little girl who passed by one more
choice in her life.
Thank you.
Senator Enzi. Very impressive. I always enjoy these
hearings. I learn a lot, and I am inspired by everybody that
gives testimony. It is a tremendous help to us in gathering the
information that we need to make the right kind of decisions in
the legislation that we do. We are not supposed to be the
experts. We do wind up being the ones that draft it, so we like
to bring in the experts so that we can get the information from
the people with the hands-on information. And I am very
convinced that with this panel we have that.
Dr. Rush, has the career cluster been difficult to
implement in the rural communities? And if not, can you
recommend the keys to success on that?
Mr. Rush. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, as you
well know, rural communities do have a special place in my
heart and challenge in my job. In ways, career clusters are the
only way that small rural communities can give students a broad
enough spectrum of options.
The problem, though, is that you simply have to condense
it. In other words, a small school district is not going to be
able to run 16 career clusters. They may run one, as in the
case of Idaho City. They may run two or three, as in the case
of many of our school districts.
But I honestly think that clusters, when properly scoped
for the school district, can be implemented in any size
district and in a lot of ways are actually a better option for
the smaller districts because they have to be more of a jack-
of-all-trades type of school.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. You also talked about the
community working cooperatively on aligning technical
assessments. An important piece of that would be to have a
common definition of who and what is being assessed. Is the
community working on a common definition of what career and
technical education is?
Mr. Rush. Senator Enzi, Members of the Committee, we do
have a common definition of a career technical education
student in Idaho. Actually, we have several definitions because
students come in at different levels. We have one definition
that says a student who has participated, and we count the
number who actually participate in a career technical education
course. We also have a definition of a concentrator, one who
participates in a sequence of courses.
In terms of a national definition, I think the question
will come down to what is the purpose of our counting. Is it
for program improvement, or is to get some kind of a national
measure of progress? If it is for program improvement, then I
think it is less important that we have a single national
definition. If it is for the purpose of trying to count
nationally, then that becomes more important.
The problem is that a national definition does not do us
any good unless you have a lot of other things that are
standardized, for example, the way we measure progress and that
sort of thing.
So I think it is important to have a definition. I am not
convinced it is important to have necessarily a standard
national definition for all implementation of career technical
education. But I do think each community, and in this case,
State, needs to define that.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Dr. Blankenship, you mentioned the difference that titles
of the courses made, lending credibility both to students and
parents. And I was fascinated that the reluctant readers
preferred nonfiction material. Have those recognitions helped
facilitate any curriculum changes or improvements in the
academic instruction?
Mr. Blankenship. Absolutely. Senator Enzi, Senator
Bingaman, absolutely. What we have done there is we have raised
our expectations, and we have had to overcome a cultural
phenomenon in our county. I was at a meeting with some
community college and university people yesterday, and we were
trying to develop a partnership where we could have a seamless
pathway that you have already referred to earlier. And the
provost from the university indicated that in his research he
had found that in our county 11 percent of our residents had
college degrees or some type of advanced degree, postsecondary.
And he said that is about half of what the national average is.
And so as a result, our biggest challenge is to convince
our public, our students, that they can do this kind of work
that will allow them the options to go to postsecondary
institutions and further their education and also enter into
the workforce with higher skills, higher competencies, as well
as overcome the cultural phenomenon with our parents that
education has not been that important to them.
And so as a result, the nonfiction, where they are reading
the trade journals and they are seeing what is required of
their interests, has absolutely helped us.
Senator Enzi. You also mentioned being results oriented and
one way of being able to take credit for the progress and the
performance of your students. Would you object to a greater
focus on local performance indicators in the Perkins
reauthorization?
Mr. Blankenship. No, I would not. I think that might be a
way that all schools could get their staffs to be held more
locally accountable rather than just having some type of a
national standard, because it is very difficult for all of us
to rise to one standard at the same rate and at the same level.
So if there were some flexibility there for some local
standards, I think that would be great.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. My time has expired in the first
round, so I will defer to Senator Bingaman, and I will ask some
questions later.
Senator Bingaman. Thank you very much. Thanks to all the
witnesses. I have enjoyed your testimony very much.
Let me ask first, you know, I have always focused a little
bit on the advanced placement exams as a sort of gold standard
for the quality of the academic training that we are providing
in our schools, and particularly through our high schools. And
I gather particularly from your testimony, Dr. Blankenship, and
others also, that there are similar certification-type exams
that perhaps serve somewhat the same purpose or role in these
vocational areas, or in these technical areas, I should say.
You give the example of the American Welding Society
certification, I believe, Dr. Blankenship, and also the A-Plus
and Cisco networking certifications for the people who are
pursuing careers and information technologies.
To what extent are there nationally recognized
certification exams in these various areas that are well
aligned with the technical training that we are providing to
these students in high school or in our colleges?
Mr. Blankenship. The national standards for the industries
or trade clusters are out there. What we have done in our
particular case, we have had to move to that because one of the
sobering factors that allowed our staff to buy into changing
their entire course of study, getting rid of what they were
very comfortable with in teaching, and moving to what the
standard for the Nation is now requiring was a meeting that
several of them and myself had with some apprentice program
supervisors from the electricians union in our area of the
State. And our staff was very upset in our building and
property trades programs as to why our kids would finish a
program with him as the teacher, go through the curriculum, and
then not receive any kind of apprenticeship credit because of
that.
Without batting an eye, the apprentice program supervisor
looked at him and me and said, ``They really do not know what
we need them to know.'' And because of that, there have been
national standards established in all technical career pathways
absolutely must go to that, because who knows where a child is
going to live when they finish school and they move on? The
adult life takes them to many, many places and because what is
acceptable in our local area of Ohio for employment may not be
acceptable wherever this child is going to end up. So if we go
with the national accreditation standards and we teach that, it
will not matter.
Senator Bingaman. So you think an essential part of having
a successful training program is our schools, high schools and
colleges, is to align it with these professional, these
nationally recognized certification programs so that when you
finish it, you can be certified and you can take that
certificate anywhere and get employed.
Mr. Blankenship. I think that is an absolute must.
Senator Bingaman. Okay.
Dr. Rush, you referred, I think, to the same point that I
tried to make in the comments I made earlier that there are a
lot of young people who are not completing high school who can
be challenged by this kind of course opportunity. Is there any
kind of quantification of that? I mean, do we really know--we
know we are beginning to understand how many of our young
people are leaving high school without graduating, although
that has been a struggle, frankly. Do we have an idea of how
many of those might be persuaded to stay in school if these
programs are offered to them? Or is that just pure conjecture?
Mr. Rush. Mr. Chairman and Senator Bingaman, I do think we
have some pretty good data that shows that professional-
technical education can make a huge difference. In that one
chart that I showed, it divided the students up into the very
highest-performing students, medium on standardized tests
students, and the lower-performing students on standardized
tests. And it showed that if a low-performing student has no
professional-technical education, 45 percent of them are going
to drop out of school. That is a pretty dramatic percentage.
If about half their curriculum is in professional-technical
education, you can reduce that dropout for the low-performing
students to about 10 percent, which is a fairly dramatic drop
for one piece of intervention.
I just read another study last night that Ken Gray quoted
that about 40 percent of the curriculum is the ideal level in
order to reduce the dropout rates to the maximum extent
possible through career technical education. I do think we have
some data that shows that career technical education can impact
the retention rates, and I think this will become more and more
important as we look at the academic skills because it does not
do any good to raise academic skills if the kids drop out of
school and do not participate in that effort.
Unfortunately, nationwide, and even in Idaho, one of our
fastest graduation programs is the GED, and what we are finding
in Idaho is that the percentage of kids that are getting GEDs--
or the average age is getting younger and younger. And so
somehow we have got to motivate those kids to take advantage of
the high school experience, or everything we do to increase the
rigor in that experience will be wasted effort.
Senator Bingaman. Thank you.
Does that mean my time is up, Mr. Chairman? I sort of
noticed there is a light on there.
Senator Enzi. Yes.
Senator Bingaman. All right. Just checking. Thank you.
Senator Enzi. I would mention that Senator Kennedy is very
involved in a Judiciary markup right now, which, as the Ranking
Member, is the reason that he is not here. He does regret
missing this hearing, but I can assure you from past experience
that he will be well informed on all of the things that are
brought up here today.
Senator Reed.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
panel, for your testimony today.
Dr. Rush, I have heard from my State that the cap on
administrative expenses provides too little dollars to cover
all the requirements they have to deal with. It has been that
way from about 1990, 5 percent, or $250,000, and with inflation
that $250,000 has been whittled down to roughly about $142,000
over those 10 years. But there is also another tension, and
that is districts feeling that the State is holding back too
much money in terms of their administrative accounts.
Can you comment on that from your perspective?
Mr. Rush. Mr. Chairman, Senator Reed, there is always an
interesting tension between administration expenses and program
expenses, and the facts are we want as few dollars in
administration as we can possibly administer the programs
effectively.
You correctly point out that the administration cap has
been in place for a long time, and that has been exacerbated by
the fact that the Perkins overall appropriation has not kept up
with the rate of inflation. In fact, the entire appropriation
bill is probably 42 percent less actual purchasing power than
it was when it was first implemented. And so that has
exacerbated the administration part of it.
What we have found in Idaho has been not a very significant
concern over the amount of administration expenses, and the
reason is because we have got a number of very small school
districts. And the facts are that you have to look at the
overall benefit being delivered to the school district. You can
give them an extra 10 bucks, but that will not buy anything.
You could retain the 10 bucks and combine it with the 10 bucks
from all the other districts and then deliver them $1,500 worth
of curriculum, and that is much more valuable to them.
So in a lot of ways, retaining some administration dollars
centrally actually provides more benefit to the local school
districts than simply sending all the money out there.
Obviously, there is a balance. We have to have enough money to
run programs. My solution is to increase Perkins by 3 times,
and I think we can handle probably all these problems.
Senator Reed. That is a Washington solution.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Rush. Forgive me.
Senator Reed. No, that is okay. It is nice to know it is
coming from Idaho.
Let me ask a question to the panel, and my sense is that
one of the great levers in any education program is the quality
of the teachers, which means professional development. I will
ask Dr. Rush, Dr. Blankenship, and all the colleagues for your
comments on how we can better integrate and enhance
professional development in this Perkins reauthorization
process.
Mr. Rush. Senator Enzi, Senator Reed, professional
development is an absolute key. I think that we all agree to
that.
In Idaho, we have a very close relationship with our
teacher education institutions that provide professional
development for our teachers. They are actively involved in
even program supervision, workshops. We have also implemented a
number of activities, as I said in my original testimony, to
address the skills needed for integration of academic skills.
In a lot of cases, some of our technical teachers just do
not have the academic skills themselves, and so they feel very
uncomfortable when they get to that integration part that they
do not feel comfortable helping their students.
This last semester we did a semester-long class with CORD,
which brought in math teachers and technical teachers, and they
went through curriculum development, ways to teach integration
skills, joint development activities between the academic and
technical teachers to identify how they were going to work
together to integrate those skills. And we find that when we
give the teachers the skills, the resistance that they have
towards integration goes away because they feel comfortable
with it.
Professional-technical education in very many ways is a
very complex profession. In many ways, it is much more complex
to implement than the academic subjects because the academic
subjects are pretty well defined and limited. And so
professional development becomes absolutely critical, and I
think that it is an important part of the legislation.
Senator Reed. Thank you, Dr. Rush.
I wonder if anyone else on the panel would comment on that
perspective. Dr. McFarland? Dr. Blankenship? Ms. Olszewski?
Ms. McFarland. Yes, Senator Reed. I want to second the
comments made by Dr. Rush. I totally agree that professional
development is extremely important. Those programs that allow
our college faculty a closer alignment with industry and
opportunities to upgrade their skills and bring real-life work
situations into the classroom are critical.
I also would like to take this opportunity to say that the
certifications that have been referred to are actually very
important to the colleges as well, and we would hope to capture
certifications in new performance indicators at the
postsecondary level. Currently we are not able to do that.
Senator Reed. Angela.
Ms. Olszewski. Critical to the professional development of
the curriculum in nontraditional is partnering. Where we have
been partnered with cooperative unions and contractors, we have
increased the number of women by hundreds and hundreds. In New
York City, the electricians union, the carpenters union really
cooperate with NEW, and we have had many, many placements of
women. So increased partnerships with all of the unions and
contractors are really critical in the nontraditional portion
of this.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much.
Dr. Blankenship.
Mr. Blankenship. I would just like to add that at our small
school, we spend about 45 percent of the Perkins dollars on
staff training. Professional development is absolutely critical
if we are going to ask these teachers to make the transitions
that I referred to earlier in which they are going to upgrade
the curriculum and really teach what the industry is requiring.
These certifications require a lot of change and a lot of work
on their part, and they are willing to do it. But you have to
have the resources to facilitate it.
Mr. Lightsey. If I could add as well, just from a business
perspective in terms of the dollars invested, what we have
recognized is the best dollar that you can invest in education
is in professional development. Having a qualified teacher in
the classroom is the biggest single factor in determining how
many students are going to stay in that classroom, how many
students are going to graduate.
Our initiative, our project, is actually a teaching quality
initiative. The teachers are brought in and trained on the
curriculum, and it is a great area for investment of any
dollar.
Senator Reed. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Enzi. We will begin the second round of questioning
now, and I will start with Dr. McFarland. You mentioned in your
testimony that students frequently do not follow a straight
line from high school to college. How has funding from the
Perkins Act facilitated the instruction at CWC to meet the
needs of these nontraditional students pursuing additional
education and training?
Ms. McFarland. Well, thank you very much. I think we need
to remember that the many students who unfortunately do drop
out of high school generally end up at community colleges,
lacking not only a high school diploma, but lacking basic
literary skills. The beauty of the community colleges is we
offer that whole continuum of basic literary skills, adult
basic education, GED assistance, and then we can also help
direct those students into the appropriate course work.
There are any number of reasons that students do not take a
straight pathway. Often we see students who are divorced, who
are injured on the job, who no longer have the physical
capability. I mentioned in my written testimony the 41-year-old
carpenter heading a family of seven whose knees gave out. And
so he came back and entered our nursing program and essentially
trained for a different job.
We have any number of new jobs emerging as well. Computer
networking technologies, for example, did not even exist a few
years ago and now is a much sought after skilled job.
And so we find that many students, for whatever reason,
often because they learn that a job with only a high school
diploma does not sufficiently raise a family, come back. So we
think it is very critical to have some flexibility and
certainly to continue to work closely with the secondary
schools and partner with them so that we will make pathways
very, very clear and students in high school know what the
relevance is of their course work and how it leads to jobs.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. You also described how building
partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions
has helped the rural programs offer more career and technical
education and training opportunities in the rural areas. Are
there ways that Congress--and I will ask the rest of you if you
want to answer it, too. Are there ways that Congress can
encourage these partnerships?
Ms. McFarland. I definitely believe strongly in
partnerships, and as noted in my written testimony, we have--
and as you know, Senator Enzi--many, many small schools. I gave
a large list of high school career technical programs that have
been reduced or eliminated entirely, primarily because the
schools are so small and the costs for career technical
education are on the rise; that unless we pool our resources,
as Dr. Rush indicated, we simply cannot keep up.
So it is key that the secondary and postsecondary schools
work together. We have found internships to be a very healthy
partnership. We have also heavily used dual enrollment as a
means in part to keep students interested so they do not have
that empty high school senior year, so that they are directing
their energies toward the rest of their lives in meaningful and
productive employment.
So tech prep is another good example, Senator Enzi, of
really closely articulating the seamless connection between
junior and senior year work in high school and freshman and
sophomore year work at the community colleges. And we have
found that to be a much better use of resources and much more
highly motivating for our students, much more relevant.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Dr. Rush.
Mr. Rush. Senator, one of the things we have done in
Idaho--and I think this is partly because we have the advantage
of being little, but we have a single State board of education
which is responsible for higher ed, public ed, professional-
technical ed, State Historical Society, public television, you
know, anything else. But the advantage of having that single
board is that you do have the entities at least motivated to
collaborate. Our agency also is responsible for funding all our
postsecondary technical colleges as well as the added cost
funding for the secondary program.
Our tech prep enrollment this last year went up by 55
percent in 1 year, and every one of our school districts is in
the Tech Prep Consortium along with every one of our technical
colleges. And one of the things that I think--I am very
reluctant to ask for more Federal regulations. I honestly think
you have to have enough flexibility at the State level to
manage the law so that you can put it in with your own--your
State has a lot of priorities as well. But one of the things
that we have done is at least coordinate the tech prep with the
basic grant in terms of the plan. And that has allowed us to
reinforce and incorporate those tech prep principles to support
program quality in all of our programs. That does not mean all
of our programs are tech prep programs. Students still have to
sign up for a sequence of courses. They still have to meet the
tech prep criteria. But they are coordinated together. And so I
think that is one of the tools that could be exploited some to
increase the partnership.
Frankly, I think we also need increased partnerships with
business and industry, and it would not--although I am loath to
ask for Federal regulations, it would not bother me a bit if
Perkins required a business and industry advisory committee for
any program receiving Perkins funds. I cannot imagine a good
technical program operating without a business and industry
group giving it direct advice on a regular basis and to me that
might increase that partnership as well, which I think are
absolutely critical to the success of our programs.
Senator Enzi. To what do you attribute the 55-percent
increase in the tech prep?
Mr. Rush. Good management.
[Laughter.]
Senator Enzi, part of it has been that we have been laying
the groundwork for the infrastructure for some time, and,
frankly, I think that the increased attention to academic
standards has forced a lot of districts into looking for
alternatives for a great group of students that are not
responding well to straight academic intervention in the old
style of, well, if they did not get it the first time, we are
going to give the same thing again and again and again and
again until they still do not get it. So I think people are
looking for other options, and tech prep is an attractive
option for a lot of folks.
We also changed our incentives some in Idaho to get people
motivated.
Senator Enzi. Does anybody else want to comment?
Ms. Olszewski. Senator Enzi, I just would like to thank
Senator Clinton again for passing the resolution that
recognizes the need to increase women's participation in the
skilled trades. And to that extent, I just want to say that,
you know, women have flown on missions on the Space Shuttle;
they have flown missions over Afghanistan; they certainly can
set tile, lay brick, install sheetrock. So your attention
simply helps further legitimize these opportunities for women,
and I would like to thank you.
Senator Enzi. Do you have any specific policies that you
would suggest Congress to consider to help encourage women and
girls to seek training in these high-growth, high-wage,
nontraditional occupations?
Ms. Olszewski. Unfortunately, I am not prepared to speak
with authority on that subject.
Senator Enzi. Well, if you would visit with some of the
other people that are graduates of the program and that you
work with and are instructing in the program and could suggest
anything along those lines--I did not mean to make it just off
the cuff there, but we really are interested in adding to that
encouragement. And in the Workforce Investment Act that I
mentioned, we have some priority that is given to this wage
disparity that we are noticing, and we want to eliminate that
as much as possible. And you have hit on one way that it can be
done, which is through the nontraditional occupations. So any
way that you can figure out for us to consider to help with the
encouragement----
Ms. Olszewski. We certainly need to reach women at earlier
ages in their life. I joked with a colleague of mine that I was
going to start nontraditional daycare where a female child, if
you brought a dollar, would check her child into daycare and
then would continue to play with nontraditional toys for girls.
We need to at least expose girls and young women at earlier
ages to these opportunities. Most of the women going through
NEW are middle, late 20s, and, you know, I wished I had this
opportunity when I was 18. I entered the trades when I was 29.
Senator Enzi. Are most of the training programs at NEW
short-term training programs? Are there opportunities for the
students to earn credit that would lead to a postsecondary
degree or certificate?
Ms. Olszewski. Well, when I trained at NEW, it was a 12-
week full-time program. NEW now offers an abbreviated 6-week
full-time program as well as an accelerated 6-week part-time
evening program. And there is no--there is OSHA certification--
I am sorry, NICOSH certification in the day program, confined
space training certification, and sort of in-house awards for
students. And we certainly make them aware of opportunities to
pursue labor studies through the Cornell School of Labor and
Industrial Relations. But that is as much certification as we
give them.
Mr. Lightsey. Senator, if I could on that subject just
echo, I think that in terms of the program course that I am
here representing, I am proud to say that we have experienced
women participating and minority participating well above the
national norm, about 33 percent above the national norm, and
achievement of students in these programs is well in excess of
the national norms, even in rural areas that overall are not
performing well. So these programs clearly work, and I think it
is about showing students the relevance of what they are doing,
showing them that there is something concrete, attainable at
the end of the line, that they are just not in a classroom, the
ability to collaborate and work with other students. That gets
students excited and interested in learning. These are all
types of programs that are needed, I think, today.
Senator Enzi. Is there any special encouragement that you
give, particularly for women and minorities, to get into the
FIRST program?
Mr. Lightsey. Well, FIRST and Project Lead the Way are
collaborative programs, and so they are nontraditional
classrooms. They are really outside-the-classroom type
experiences. And I do not think there is anything done in
particular to encourage women to participate or minorities to
participate, but the students gravitate toward these types of
programs because they see something in them that is relevant,
that they are interested in and get excited about.
Senator Enzi. The concepts that you work with rely on kind
of an adjunct faculty. What kind of participation do you expect
from this adjunct faculty? I know it helps bring the South
Carolina business community into it, but what are the
characteristics of the expectations of that adjunct faculty?
Mr. Lightsey. In terms of the Project Lead the Way
curriculum, the faculty members are traditional faculty members
of their high schools that are just exposed to additional
training and are committed to the program.
In terms of FIRST, it is more or less organized as an
extracurricular activity, and that is where you tend to see
business mentors involved, not any particular training
especially, but you do see--for example, one team that I am
familiar with actually starts classes in the evening. Before
school starts, their team members are meeting, and there are
roughly 70 to 80 people on a team, meeting twice a week during
the evening and learning things like electronic circuitry,
hydraulics, and they are all being taught to them by business
mentors or people that work on that during the day.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Dr. McFarland, you mentioned pathways for students to
higher-wage jobs. Is there something that the Perkins funds
have helped facilitate? And is there something that Congress
could do in the reauthorization?
Ms. McFarland. Well, I certainly believe that many of the
appropriate pathways have been addressed today. Perkins funds
have very greatly assisted our students in attaining higher-
wage jobs, and most of those must go through the postsecondary
level.
I do think that it would be helpful if funds were set aside
within the Perkins reauthorization, particularly for innovative
pathways that might be developed at various locations, which
could then be duplicated or replicated within the basic State
grant.
I do think that it is very important that students have at
the secondary level rigorous academic preparation, some career
exploration, and understanding of the relevance of their work
at the secondary level, and the necessity to go on to
postsecondary. I have mentioned other possible pathways, but
one very, very helpful one used by us involves internships. It
also allows us to utilize the expertise of business and
industry and cements those alliances.
And so the internship for many of our students has been a
direct pathway to a job, and we have placed students at
wyoming.com, which is an Internet service provider at many of
the local accounting offices, at local school districts. We
have also placed students at the National Weather Service who
tell us that, without our computer students, they simply could
not run that office. So I think that is very helpful.
I do want to give one caution, though I agree in concept
that we should all direct students as much as possible toward
high-demand, high-wage jobs. I think that if we limit the
training funds for only particular high-wage jobs, we may be
leaving out many women, many single women who are heads of
their families. I mentioned at our recent conference at Jackson
Hole that if 220 percent of the Federal poverty level is used
to measure what counts as a high-wage job, that means for a
family of three that would require $34,000 a year. That is more
than Central Wyoming College pays its beginning master's-
prepared faculty members. And we have a high unemployment in
Fremont County. We have many, many single parents with family
responsibilities who would be more than happy to start at a
lower step, perhaps $24,000 a year.
Our panelist indicated that she started out at $15,000, but
she had a pathway that led her increasingly forward in an
upwardly mobile way. I just think that those pathways are
important, but the first step ought not to be so high that we
leave out many of the people in our country who need the
assistance and who can, with help, lead very productive lives.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. An excellent comment.
Does anyone else have a concluding comment that they want
to make?
Dr. Rush.
Mr. Rush. Senator Enzi, just to support some of the things
that Angela was saying earlier. One of the best recruitment
tools for women, or anybody, in the professional-technical
education are good programs. And, very frankly, part of our
recruitment program is--you know, you go down and visit the
program, you would not send anybody there, girls or boys. And
it seemed like maybe the boys were more tolerant of that, but
what we found is that as we improved the quality of programs,
recruitment becomes a much easier issue.
The second thing is that I think clusters has a real
potential for broadening the appeal for all kinds of folks to
participate in career technical education. I just visited with
Elaine Martin in Idaho, who is the president and CEO of a major
construction company, and she is also president of the
Associated General Contractors in Idaho and is very interested
in promoting construction trades and particularly women's
participation in those. And as I said, we are working on this
major cluster project. One of those clusters is going to be the
construction trades cluster. And she is very actively involved
in working with our agency to create a construction trades
cluster that will appeal across the board, will be of high
quality, and will draw the attention for a lot of folks.
So in a lot of ways, the best recruitment tool for women
and minorities in career technical education is the same tool
that we need to develop good quality programs in general, and
that is to put the right kind of curriculum together, the right
kind of facilities together, the right kind of equipment, the
right kind of professional development to create quality
programs.
Senator Enzi. Anyone else?
Mr. Blankenship. Senator, I would just like to add to what
Dr. Rush was saying. I think that is very important, and I
think in our small setting, we are seeing that. Our
applications this year, as I said in my comments, we have about
400 students. We are going to have 100 more of those. And I
think that is because of the process we have gone through to
upgrade all of our career and academic programs. As we manage
to make them better quality programs, the kids talk to each
other. And the word got out, and we are receiving more and more
applications and showing interest.
But along with that, I think, when the reauthorization of
Perkins comes up, the professional development component that
has been discussed at length is very critical, and I think that
that should be something that should be required. The industry-
based certification of secondary programs is extremely
critical, but along with that, the third leg of that triangle
really has to be an articulation agreement because those kids
have to see, What is this increased rigor going to gain me?
Because they are 17- and 18-year-old kids, and so articulation
agreements where there is a seamless pathway to a postsecondary
institution, whether it be a community college, a 4-year degree
college, or a technical school, is a very critical component
for us to be able to attract at the Career and Technical Center
an element of student population that is never considered
career technical ed as an option.
I said yesterday in that meeting that I referred to
earlier, really all kids are tech prep kids. The purpose of an
education is to get a job, and I do not think that has quite
sunk into all elements of our population.
Senator Enzi. Anyone else?
I go out to Wyoming almost every weekend, so I recognize
the trip that Dr. McFarland took out here. And if I can get out
there early enough on a Friday when we do not have votes, I
like to go to schools. And if I happen to be talking to a 9th
grade class, one of my favorite things is to ask them what they
think they can make in a job right out of high school. And most
of them think they will make about $45,000.
[Laughter.]
With no skills.
I do appreciate Parade Magazine putting out that list of
occupations and how much people make in those. I think it is
semi-annual. Maybe it is just annual. But I make copies of that
and I distribute it in the classroom so they have a little
better feel for the range of jobs and money that is involved in
it.
Of course, there is not any way to adequately convey the
differences across the country in cost of living. I get to
experience Wyoming's cost of living when I am there and
Washington's cost of living when I am here, and I have noted
that it is considerably different. I usually can take my family
out to dinner in Wyoming for what it costs me for lunch around
here.
[Laughter.]
I want to mention that the members that are not here are
involved in other committee meetings and that sort of thing,
and they may well have additional questions for you, and I hope
that you will provide us with the answers on those, too,
particularly with a bent toward how we can reauthorize this
program. We will try and do it in a bipartisan way and do it as
quickly as possible, hoping that Presidential politics or
something like that does not get in the way of it. It seems to
be kind of the standard around here at the moment, but that
would delay it until hopefully the first item next year if it
gets delayed.
One of the questions I will be giving you to get a written
response on that sometimes gets overlooked around here, over 90
percent of the businesses in the United States are small
businesses. The Federal definition is businesses under 500
employees. So that almost moves it up to 99 percent of the
businesses in the country. But I am interested in it, since
that is the biggest job market and they are the ones who have
been absorbing jobs as big companies have their mergers and
then their right-sizing or downsizing, whatever you want to
call it. I call it laying people off. It is the small
businesses that have been picking them up.
So a lot of the opportunities are in small business, and I
want to know how we can encourage the participation of more
small businesses as partners in this Perkins program.
I thank you all for your testimony today, and it has been
outstanding. It is a tremendous help, and this gives us a
platform now to launch the drafting, and hopefully it will be
bipartisan enough that we can just take it through by unanimous
consent, both Houses.
[Laughter.]
Yes, I am an eternal optimist.
Thank you all for your participation. The record will stay
open for at least 2 weeks.
[Additional material follows:]
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Response to Questions of Senator Enzi
from Niel J. Trebbano
At the June 24, 2004 hearing of the Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee, Senator Enzi of Wyoming asked a question of Harry
Lightsey of BellSouth regarding the efforts of Project Lead The Way to
recruit and retain female students in its pre-engineering program.
Below is the Project Lead The Way strategy currently employed to do so.
INTRODUCTION
Project Lead The Way is a not-for-profit secondary school pre-
engineering program found in over 800 schools in 42 States nationwide.
Based on a partnership model that engages schools, higher education,
business, industry, and government, Project Lead The Way's altruistic
and patriotic intent is best summarized by its mission statement: We
will create dynamic partnerships with our nation's schools to prepare
an increasing and more diverse group of students to be successful in
engineering and engineering technology programs.
Project Lead The Way will not succeed in its noble mission unless a
more ``diverse group of students'' find success in engineering and
related fields. The female student population represents one
underrepresented group in the engineering and science field. Project
Lead The Way has identified the following objective as part of its
comprehensive Strategic Plan: By 2006, the enrollment of females in
PLTW courses will be 10 percentage points higher than the current
female national enrollment in engineering and engineering technology
programs.
PROJECT LEAD THE WAY STRATEGY
The organization's solution strategy is multi-dimensional and is
focused on the schools and the dynamics of teaching, learning, academic
and career advisement, and parent involvement.
TEACHING
Gender equity teaching strategies will be infused into the
training of Master Teachers (2003).
Gender equity teaching strategies will be embedded in the
teacher training activities of the Summer Training Institute (2003).
LEARNING
Project Lead The Way will develop and apply a gender
equitable filter as part of its Curriculum Frameworks, to be used in
all curriculum development and revision (2002).
Project-based and collaborative learning will continue to
be integral components of Project Lead The Way instructional plan.
Project Lead The Way will continue to refine and enhance
activities, recognizing their role in the typical successful learning
style of female students.
Gender friendly classroom environments will be researched
for their viability and impact. Recommendations on models will be made
to teachers and schools.
ACADEMIC AND CAREER ADVISEMENT
The issues of gender bias and cultural barriers will
become an integral part of counselor conferences (2002).
Marketing materials promoting female participation in
engineering will be developed for use by school counselors with female
students and their parents (Laine Communications, 2003).
PARENT INVOLVEMENT
Marketing materials promoting female participation in
engineering will be developed for use by school counselors with female
students and their parents (Laine Communications, 2003).
Questions of Senator Bingaman
1. In order to ensure that career and technical programs prepare
students for the contemporary workforce, we need to establish alliances
between schools and local and regional business and industry. In my
home State of New Mexico in Gadsden, we have an innovative program in a
rural border area that has been struggling to keep its jobs and its
industry alive. We have directly linked the needs of area employers to
the high school and postsecondary curriculum. The employers get a
customized workforce, and have more incentive to stay and grow their
business in the region. The students get preferred hiring status and
opportunities to enhance their skills and obtain certificates as they
work. What can we do at the Federal level to encourage such alliances?
2. As I mentioned earlier, career and technical education programs
are an effective strategy for dealing with the dropout crisis. Fewer
than 70 percent of all students who enter 9th grade will graduate in
12th grade, and graduation rates for minorities are significantly lower
(around 50 percent). What specific suggestions do you have for
increasing the graduation rate?
3. I noted earlier that more than 80 percent of manufacturers
report a shortage of qualified job candidates. How can we close this
skills gap?
4. There is general agreement that an ongoing program of
professional development is an essential component of rigorous,
integrated career and technical programs. How can we ensure that
teachers have the knowledge and skills needed in these programs?
Prepared Statement of The National Coalition for Women
and Girls in Education
The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE)
appreciates the opportunity to submit this testimony on the
reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Education
Act.
NCWGE is comprised of approximately 50 organizations dedicated to
improving educational opportunities for women and girls. NCWGE's Task
Force on Vocational Education and Workforce Training has advocated for
more than 30 years for policies and programs to advance the technical
skills and career opportunities of women and girls so that they can
attain employment that enables them to achieve long-term economic
independence.
NCWGE promotes all of the pathways that lead to high wage/high
skill jobs for women and girls from diverse racial, ethnic,
socioeconomic, age and disability backgrounds, including training for
non-traditional jobs, classified by the Department of Labor as jobs in
which one gender comprises less than 25 percent of the workforce.
Participation and achievement in career and technical education must
not be limited by gender segregation, harassment or barriers that
prevent girls and women, including single mothers, displaced homemakers
and former welfare recipients, from becoming self-sufficient.
Congress first passed the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act
in 1984. Also known as ``Perkins I,'' this law recognized the
importance of addressing the specific needs of female students by
establishing a set-aside of funds that would support programs designed
to foster gender equity in vocational education programs. In addition,
Perkins I continued to fund a full-time employee in each State whose
job it was to administer these programs and services, a provision
originally established in 1976 through Title II of the Educational
Amendments. In 1990, Perkins II was authorized, and these gender equity
provisions were expanded. Funding for the gender equity set-asides in
fiscal year 1997 totaled approximately $100 million.
These gender equity programs were enormously successful in saving
State and Federal Governments millions of dollars in public assistance
funds by moving women into employment. Thousands of girls and women
were trained and educated in occupations that enabled them to become
economically self-sufficient. States funded critical research to assess
the barriers to female students entering and succeeding in career and
technical education programs. For more than 2 decades, these programs
gave women and girls the opportunity to succeed in non-traditional
jobs.
Despite major support for these provisions in local communities
across the country, the gender equity set-asides were eliminated from
the Perkins law in 1998--due, in part, to a desire to consolidate
Federal education and training programs. Although the Workforce
Investment Act of 1998 was intended by some legislators to fill the gap
that was created by the elimination of the gender equity provisions in
Perkins, WIA has fallen far short of this goal. While WIA contains a
few provisions that acknowledge the participation of displaced
homemakers, single parents and individuals training for non-traditional
careers in the workforce development system, the changes in Perkins
have left women and girls without the services they need.
In a 2001 report issued by NCWGE, Invisible Again: The Impact of
Changes in Federal Funding on Vocational Programs for Women and Girls,
over 1,500 programs for girls and women were surveyed on the
consequences of the elimination of the gender equity set-asides in
Perkins. The results of the survey demonstrate that dramatic funding
changes have had an adverse effect on the ability of programs to
effectively serve all students. Of the respondents to the survey:
Over 50 percent reported that their funding had decreased
since Perkins III took effect in 1998, and they predicted additional
funding cuts in the future.
71 percent reported that their capacity to provide
services to their clientele had decreased. Nearly one-third reported
``severe'' decreases.
Around one-third reported decreased State and local agency
support for programs and services to support single-parent students,
displaced homemaker students, or students studying for non-traditional
occupations since Perkins III came into effect.
65 percent believed that access to training in their
communities was insufficient to meet students' needs.
92 percent reported that the State or local Workforce
Investment agencies were not providing sufficient financial support,
policy direction, or leadership to support programs and services to
recruit and train female students for non-traditional occupations.
Other policy changes made to Perkins law in 1998 negatively
affected gender equity programs' ability to serve displaced homemakers,
single parents, and women and girls seeking non-traditional training.
Under Perkins III, a set-aside of $60,000 to $150,000 from State
leadership funds is available to support students preparing for non-
traditional training and employment. This small pool of funds,
amounting to a maximum of just $7.5 million, was intended to replace
the gender equity set-asides under Perkins II. But the funds authorized
under Perkins III to support non-traditional training represent a
reduction of 95 percent. In a 2002 State survey conducted by the
National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, moreover, just 14 of the
39 States that responded reported that they were spending the maximum
$150,000 on non-traditional training and employment activities. Ten
respondents reported using the minimum $60,000 on these activities.
Perkins III also increases flexibility for States in administering
programs for special populations. States can opt to reserve up to 10
percent of the basic State grant, and direct local agencies to give
priority to programs for single parents, displaced homemakers, and
students preparing for non-traditional training in the use of these
funds. However, few States utilize this option to direct services to
these populations. With most States failing to provide leadership in
this area, the responsibility for serving displaced homemakers, single
parents, and students training for non-traditional occupations resides
with the local educational agencies. Due to competing pressures at the
local level, local agencies are not adequately funding gender equity
programs.
Overall, the removal of the Federal mandate to support displaced
homemaker, single parent, and non-traditional training programs has led
to a shortage of services and programs for women and girls in
vocational education. Yet, there are a few States that succeed in
directing resources to these vitally important programs.
California
The California Department of Education, in partnership with the
Sacramento County Office of Education, has produced a free, 15-hour
online course, Non-traditional Careers 101 for Educators. The course is
designed to increase instructor awareness of non-traditional training,
student recruitment and assessment, strategies for retaining students
once they enroll, and approaches for placing students in non-
traditional jobs.
New Jersey
Family Tools and Technology (FT&T) is a coeducational after-school
program intended to help girls in grades 4-7 gain the same technology
and pre-engineering experience as boys. Using career role models, and
activities to perform with parents. FT&T was rated a promising program
by the Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult
Education 2000 Gender Equity Expert Panel.
Wisconsin
The Technology Action Coalition to Kindle Lifelong Equity (TACKLE)
Box Project is a comprehensive initiative that provides training and
information to increase the number of girls and young women in
technology education and is a component of the Wisconsin statewide
reform movement in technology education.
Despite the successes of a few States, recent data indicates that
there continues to be an urgent need for innovative gender equity
programs in every State. A 2002 study by the National Women's Law
Center of high schools nationwide found girls overwhelmingly dominate
the vocational education programs for low-wage, low-benefits jobs such
as cosmetology (96 percent female), child care (87 percent female), and
health care (86 percent female). Male students tend to dominate the
training programs for high-wage, high-benefits jobs such as plumbing
and electrician programs (94 percent male), welding and carpentry (93
percent male), and automotive technology (92 percent male).
The need for gender equity programs continues today. To this end,
NCWGE makes the following recommendations for reauthorization of
Perkins law:
Programs and services must be available to women and girls
that will enable them to achieve high wage/high skill and non-
traditional employment that leads to economic self-sufficiency.
Career guidance and counseling must be provided to all
students and delivered in a fair manner that ensures students are
receiving information necessary to lead to high skill/high wage and
non-traditional careers.
Professional development and training must be provided to
administrators, counselors, and teachers preparing students for their
educational and career choices to ensure that sex-bias in career and
technical education is eliminated.
National activities should support research on the
outcomes of women and girls in career and technical education.
Accountability and disaggregated student data collection
must be the cornerstone for planning and funding decisions at both the
State and local level.
Federal agencies must coordinate their enforcement and
implementation of education and job training laws (while maintaining
the integrity of the laws and their individual funding streams) to best
meet the needs of women and girls seeking career and technical
education.
We urge you to develop legislation consistent with Perkins'
historical commitment to women and girls.
Lisa Maatz, Chair, NCWGE, American Association of University Women;
Jocelyn Samuels, Vice-Chair, NCWGE, National Women's Law Center; Jill
Miller, Chair, Vocational Education and Workforce Training Task Force,
Women Work!
Prepared Statement of Wade Delk
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR COMPETENCY ASSURANCE (NOCA)
NOCA, the pre-eminent organization for the field of certification,
is the association representing certification agencies, testing
companies, consulting firms and individuals involved in professional
certification. NOCA was created in 1977 as the National Commission for
Health Certifying Agencies (NCHCA) with Federal funding from the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Its original congressional
mandate was to develop standards for quality certification in the
allied health fields and to accredit organizations that met those
standards. With the growing use of certification in other fields,
NCHCA's leaders recognized that what is essential for credible
certification of individuals in the healthcare sector is equally
essential for other sectors. With this vision, NCHCA evolved into the
membership organization National Organization for Competency Assurance
and its accrediting body, the National Commission for Certifying
Agencies (NCCA). NOCA is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization,
committed to serving the public interest.
NOCA's membership is composed of more than 350 organizations
responsible for certifying specific skill sets and knowledge bases of
professions and occupations at the national and international level.
Through certification, NOCA members represent more than 6 million
individuals around the world and include accredited programs from some
150 professions and occupations, including 57 healthcare professions.
NOCA members certify individual skills in fields as diverse as
construction, healthcare, automotive, and finance. A current roster of
NOCA members is attached.
NOCA also brings the expertise of its internationally recognized
accrediting arm, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies
(NCCA). NCCA uses a peer review process to evaluate adherence to its
standards by certification programs and grants accreditation to those
programs that have met those standards. These standards exceed the
requirements set forth by the American Psychological Association and
the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and serve to protect
the health, safety, and welfare of the public by assuring that
accredited organizations have met the highest standards for certifying
organization established by the field of certification. NCCA is the
national accreditation body that provides this service for
certification organizations in all disciplines.
NOCA's mission is to promote excellence in competency assurance for
individuals in all occupations and professions. No other organization
has the presence in or commits the resources to the field of
certification. NOCA is proud of its position as the international
leader in competency assurance for certification programs, as well as
its role in promoting excellence in competency assurance for
practitioners in all occupations and professions.
WHAT IS CERTIFICATION?
The certification of professional and occupational skill-sets
affirms a knowledge and experience base for practitioners in a
particular field, their employers, and the public at large.
Certification represents a declaration of a particular individual's
professional competence. In some professions certification is a
requirement for employment or practice. Doctors, mechanics,
accountants, surveyors and many others establish their credentials and
capabilities through certification. In all instances, certification
enhances the employability and career advancement of the individual
practitioner or employee.
Organizations in today's competitive and challenging economy
recognize their workforce as their most valuable asset. Likewise,
individuals, whether employed or self-employed, know that now more than
ever before they must acquire and maintain more comprehensive skill-
sets to ensure their own attractiveness, productivity, and ability in
the workplace.
The benefits of certification include:
Higher wages for employees in the form of higher salaries
and pay scales, bonuses, or education assistance;
A more productive and highly trained workforce for
employers;
Prestige for the individual and a competitive advantage
over non-certified individuals in the same field;
Enhanced employment opportunities;
Assisting employers in making more informed hiring
decisions;
Assisting consumers in making informed decisions about
qualified providers;
Protecting the general public from incompetent and unfit
practitioners; and
Establishing professional standards for individuals in a
particular field.
Equal to the benefits of certification is the importance of
establishing an underlying certification program based on best
practices and recognized processes and procedures developed by the
field of certification. NOCA serves as the member-based organization
for the field of certification to enhance professional excellence and
ensure the competency of certification programs.
NOCA'S RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENHANCING VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Among the resources that will enable young people to move into
rewarding career opportunities would be access to certification
programs whose prerequisites and requirements are within reach of high
school graduates and students in vocational and technical training
programs. For these young persons, entering the workforce for the first
time or retooling their skill-sets for new opportunities, securing
certification of an occupational skill can represent an efficient and
meaningful pathway to employability.
Occupational certification does not always require a college
degree. College can be an expensive and time-consuming undertaking
which may not represent a viable or desirable alternative for all young
people. Some occupations, such as auto mechanics or X-ray technicians,
only require a certification, not a college degree. A certification in
fields such as these can open up a rewarding career path with excellent
pay and opportunities for advancement for many individuals. Examples of
occupations not requiring a baccalaureate degree include:
ASE-certified automotive technician. According to the
National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation, automotive
technicians receiving the ASE certification can earn $60,000 or more
per year. Positions such as automobile technician, autobody technician,
truck technician, and parts specialist are in high demand across the
nation.
NCCO-certified crane operator. The National Commission for
the Certification of Crane Operators (CCO) certifies crane operators in
industries such as construction, utilities, energy, steel erection,
crane rental, petrochemical, and pulp/paper. Highly trained employees
represent reduced risks of loss, fewer accidents, and more consistent
training for employers. According to the Bureau for Labor Statistics,
the mean annual wage for crane operators for 2003 was $38,950.
AAMT certified medical transcriptionist. According to the
American Association of Medical Transcription, the volume of dictation
requiring transcription continues to grow; however, the availability of
qualified medical transcriptionists has not grown at the same rate.
This is an excellent career, offering a competitive annual salary. A
May 2002 survey conducted by AAMT reported an average annual salary of
$31,400 for persons holding the AAMT certification.
NCLE certified contact lens examiner. The American Board
of Opticianry/National Contact Lens examiners reports in a recent
survey of employers that holders of their ABO and NCLE certification,
that 75 percent of employers gave preference to hiring certified
applicants, 75 percent paid higher salaries to certified personnel, and
40 percent gave preference to employees with ABO and NCLE
certification. The report indicates that certified employees earned
over $6,000 more annually than non-certified employees.
These are just a small sampling of the occupations available to
young workers, new workforce entrants, and others seeking employment
and living wages, who may choose not to go on to pursue a 4 year
degree. NOCA and its member organizations have actively sought to
enhance these opportunities with the various partnerships underway with
community colleges and technical schools across the nation. NOCA member
organization certifications may be obtained at these locations.
NOCA recommends including information about certification and
licensure as a core service available to young people as a part of the
career counseling services they receive in their high school years and
throughout the vocational and technical college system.
CONCLUSION
Improving the career opportunities for young people represents the
core of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.
Many employers in today's competitive and challenging economy have
recognized that their workforce is their most valuable asset. Likewise,
young people know that now more than ever before they must acquire and
maintain more comprehensive skill-sets to ensure their own
marketability and competence in the workplace. Certification represents
an excellent pathway to employment opportunities for workers in all
areas in the economy. It also serves as an important assurance for
employers and the general public that individuals have attained the
necessary skill-sets to provide the services or carry out the scope of
their employment.
NOCA urges the Subcommittee to recognize the important role that
certification plays in the vocational-technical education system to
move their students into the workplace and jobs that provide stability,
career opportunities, and attractive wages.
Respectfully Submitted,
Wade Delk,
Executive Director,
National Organization for
Competency Assurance (NOCA)
APPENDIX--NOCA ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS
NOCA's Organizational Members consist of associations, certifying
organizations, customer groups, and government agencies that are
interested in credentialing.
AACE International
ACNM Certification Council, Inc.
Academy of Ambulatory Foot Surgery
Academy of Cognitive Therapy
Academy for Certification of Vision Rehabilitation and
Education Professionals
Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools
Aerobics and Fitness Association of America
American Academy for the Certification of Brain Injury
Specialists
American Academy of Audiology
American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive
Disorders
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
American Academy of Micropigmentation
American Academy of Pain Management
American Academy of Wound Management
American Association for Medical Transcription
American Association for Respiratory Care
American Association of Clinical Coders and Auditors
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Certification
Corporation
American Association of Medical Assistants
American Association of Physician Specialists
American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics,
Inc.
American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, Inc.
American Board for Occupational Health Nurses
American Board of Ambulatory Medicine
American Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion
American Board of Chiropractic Orthopaedists
American Board of Chiropractic Sports Physicians
American Board of Forensic Professionals
American Health Information Management Association
American Board of Industrial Hygiene
American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry
American Board of Nursing Specialties
American Board of Opticianry
American Board of Pain Medicine
American Board of Professional Neuropsychology
American Board of Registration of Electroencephalographic and
Evoked Potential Technologists, Inc.
American Board of Surgical Assistants
American Board of Transplant Coordinators
American Board of Veterinary Practitioners
American Certification Agency for Healthcare Professionals
American Chiropractic Board of Radiology
American Chiropractic Neurology Board
American Chiropractic Registry of Radiologic Technologists
American College of Healthcare Executives
American College of Sports Medicine
American Compensation Association
American Construction Inspectors Association
American Council of Certified Podiatric Physicians and
Surgeons
American Council on Exercise
American Fence Association, Inc.
American Fitness Professionals and Associates
American Hospital Association Certification Center
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
American Hospital Association
American Medical Massage Association
American Medical Technologists
American Nurses Credentialing Center Commission on
Certification
American Occupational Therapy Association
American Optometric Association on Paraoptometric
Certification
American Payroll Association
American Petroleum Institute
American Physical Therapy Association
American Podiatric Medical Specialties Board
American Production and Inventory Control Society
American Reflexology Certification Board
American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
American Registry of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists
American Registry of Radiologic Technologists
American Safety and Health Institute
American School Food Service Association
American Society for Horticulture Science
American Society for Industrial Security
American Society of Anesthesia Technologists and Technicians
American Society of Association Executives
American Society of Military Comptrollers
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, Inc.
Aquatic Exercise Association, Inc.
Art Therapy Credentials Board
Association for Death Education and Counseling
Association for Investment Management and Research
Association of Government Accountants
Association of Medical Illustrators
Association of Regulatory Boards of Optometry
Association of Surgical Technologists, Inc.
Association of Water Technologies, Inc.
BICSI: A Telecommunications Association
Behavior Analyst Certification Board
Biofeedback Certification Institute of America
Board for Certification in Pedorthics
Board for Orthotist/Prothetist Certification
Board of Certification for Emergency Nursing
Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals
Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics
Board of Certified Safety Professionals
Board of Environmental, Health & Safety Auditor Certifications
Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties
Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists
Brain Injury Association of American
California-Nevada Section, American Water Works Association
California Water Environment Association
Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators
Canadian Board for Respiratory Care, Inc.
Canadian Chiropractic Examining Board
Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
Canadian Securities Institute
Center for Credentialing and Education
Certification Board for Music Therapists
Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution
Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology
Certification Board Perioperative Nursing
Certification of Disability Management Specialists Commission
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.
Certified Fund Raising Executive International
Certified General Accountants' Association of Canada
Certifying Board for Dietary Managers
Certifying Board of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates
Clinical Nutrition Certification Board
College of Massage Therapists of Ontario
College of Medical Radiation Technologists of Ontario
College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario
College of Pharmacists of BC
College of Physiotherapists of Ontario
College of Respiratory Therapists of Ontario
Commercial Real Estate Education Foundation, Inc.