Techniques September 2012 - 12

Capitol View

Despite Congressional Inaction, Policy Change Is in the Air
October 2011 issue of Techniques focused on Common Core, or the Common Core website (www.acteonline.org/ commoncore), make sure to do so. Many of the same states are also collaborating to work in a similar fashion to establish new initiatives such as the common science standards (known as the Next Generation Science Standards) which are based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council. Developers promise the standards will be rich in content and practice and applicable to CTE. Our colleagues at the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education consortium (NASDCTEc) also are working on the Common Technical Core, which 44 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to support. The Common Technical Core will provide a common benchmark for what students should know and be able to do after completing a program of study. Let’s take another look at Washingtonled policies for a moment: Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waivers are currently being approved by the Obama Administration as a way to provide flexibility to states until the new law can be reauthorized. This significant regulatory action is making changes to the ESEA law that may also affect you and your students. If your state has not yet received a waiver, it may be next on the list. The Department of Education is expected to accept waiver applications up until early September 2012. Finally, there is some legislative action in Congress. For instance, the federal budget and appropriations are a constant. Even though Congress has not been historically successful in meeting its deadlines for approval of appropriations bills, they do eventually get the work done. CTE will certainly need to be “at the table” each year making our case that the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and other CTE funding is needed and is making a difference, especially as initiatives, such as acrossthe-board cuts, threaten our funding. The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) believes there is great potential for CTE as these federal and state-led efforts take shape and move forward. Our staff participates in many behind-the-scenes discussions related to policy development so that CTE is included and is not an afterthought. Congress may not be passing legislation, but policy change is happening and ACTE’s Public Policy Department is your partner as we actively advocate on behalf of CTE. By the way, if you are planning to attend CareerTech VISION 2012, ACTE is planning sessions that address all the issues mentioned in this article. You can also keep up to date with what is happening in Washington by reading the CTE Policy Watch blog and ACTE’s Legislative Update, both available online via the public policy pages of the ACTE website (www.acteonline.org).

phoTo courTesy of isTock.com/franckreporTer

By Stephen DeWitt MuCh hAS Been SAID ABout CongreSSIonAl oBStruCtIon,
partisanship and the inability of Washington to act on much of anything lately, and with a presidential election on the horizon, there is little hope of that changing any time soon. However, despite this frustrating fact, national policy changes are happening, more are in the works and it is important to keep up to speed on how these changes may affect you and your career and technical education (CTE) students. Much of this policy change is taking place through state collaboration. For instance, after years of discussion, states—not the federal government—have joined together to lead the effort to establish Common Core State Standards for English language arts and mathematics. The standards are already being implemented in some states, and full implementation is expected to “hit the streets” in 2014. If you have not taken a look at the

Stephen DeWitt is senior director of public
policy at ACTE. He can be contacted at sdewitt@ acteonline.org.
You can read more about ACTE’s policy activities and the latest happenings in Washington, D.C., on ACTE’s CTE Policy Watch blog. Check it out today at www.acteonline. org/ctepolicywatchblog.aspx.

Techniques

September 2012

www.acteonline.org

Techniques September 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Techniques September 2012