1 Mar 2019
Brief

Developing a College- and Career-Ready Workforce: An Analysis of ESSA, Perkins, and WIOA

Ellen Cushing, Susan Therriault, and David English

By 2020, 65% of all jobs will require some postsecondary education or training. But are U.S. students graduating college and career-ready to meet this demand? ESSA, Perkins V, IDEA, and WIOA provide opportunities for states to develop a coherent approach to ensuring that all of today’s students are prepared for tomorrow’s careers and workforce demands.

State leaders need to align labor market efforts with the education pipeline to provide students with the academic, technical, and employability skills they need to be successful in the workplace. Aligning the education-to-workforce pipeline can help increase cost-efficiency, promote coherence, and produce better outcomes for students and workers.

With support from their partner American Youth Policy Form (AYPF), AIR's College and Career Readiness and Success Center recently updated and released these resources.

This resource includes:
  • a brief to help state and local agencies  understand where opportunities exist to align and leverage policies, programs, and funding across the laws to support the education-to-workforce pipeline;
     
  • a workbook to discuss those opportunities in the context of their state plans as they relate to ESSA, Perkins, IDEA, and WIOA; and
     
  • an interactive tool that helps states and local agencies develop a plan that respects the requirements of the laws as well as maximizes opportunities for college and career readiness alignment.

 

Related Centers

Center

College and Career Readiness and Success Center

The College & Career Readiness & Success Center (CCRS Center) provides technical assistance support to states focused on ensuring all students graduate high school ready for college and career success. The mission of the Center is to build the capacity of states to effectively implement college and career ready initiatives such as career and technical education, work-based learning, career pathways, employability skills, and competency-based education.

Related Work

Page

ESSA at AIR

Implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) presents policymakers and stakeholders with opportunities to improve outcomes for schools and students as well as teachers and leaders. AIR’s ESSA Co-Pilot will help you navigate the most current information, key topics, and research-based resources that you can use in planning and implementing ESSA at the state and local level.
Topic: 
Education, District and School Improvement, Equity in Education, Education Policy, No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
23 Mar 2016
Blog Post

Have You Met Carl Perkins?

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education John King called for the reauthorization of The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act so that “every student, in every community, has access to rigorous, relevant, and results-driven CTE programs.” In this blog post, Chaney Mosley suggests five changes Congress should consider.
Topic: 
Education, College and Career Readiness
7 Jul 2016
Blog Post

‘Carl Perkins’ Is in the House

In our May 2016 blog, Have You Met Carl Perkins, Chaney Mosley offered five changes to the Perkins Act that Congress might consider, in light of his years of CTE teaching and administration. In this blog post, Mosley addresses those changes based on the new bill and raises a few flags about how the proposal might fall short.
Topic: 
Education, Postsecondary Education