NAPE Announces
2014 PDI Workshop Schedule
The workshop schedule, titles, presenters, and descriptions are
available on the NAPE website.
Important PDI
Deadlines
Award nominations are
due February 14, 2014.
Early bird registration
ends on February 21, 2014.
The advertising and sponsorship
deadline is February 28, 2014.
CONGRESS
First
House Democrat Announces Bid to Succeed George Miller on Prestigious
Panel
The third most senior Democrat on the House Education and the
Workforce Committee is preparing to run for the party's top spot on
that committee in the 114th Congress. Rep. Robert C. Scott of
Virginia announced his ambitions in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
"As the 114th Congress, we will need a strong and experienced
voice leading Democrats on the Committee to continue to fight for our
principles in education and the labor policy," Scott said.
"Over the next weeks and months, I will be discussing my
interest in serving as Chairman or Ranking Member of this critical
Committee with my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus and stakeholders
outside of Congress."
Senators Kaine
and Portman Form Senate CTE Caucus
Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Rob Portman of Ohio announced that
they are forming the Senate Career and Technical Education caucus.
The caucus will work to support CTE opportunities for students and
access to CTE training for unemployed and displaced adults and youth,
the senators said in a statement. The House Career and Technical
Education Caucus is led by Reps. Glenn Thompson (PA) and James
Langevin (RI).
ADMINISTRATION
The
President's State of the Union Comments Give Encouragement to CTE
President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address,
which centered on a broad-based agenda to improve the level of
opportunity available to most Americans. The President emphasized
education as one of the core components to achieving this commendable
goal. Although there were no new educational initiatives announced
during his speech, he stressed the important role that education has
in preparing students for entry into the 21st century workforce and
highlighted some of his Administration's initiatives already under
way.
Secretary
Perez Salutes the Nation's Mayors at the Conference of Mayors
Speaking to 400 mayors from around the country gathered in
Washington, D.C., on January 23, Secretary Perez hailed America's
cities as incubators of public policy and critical partners in the
administration's efforts to create and expand opportunity for
hardworking Americans. "When President Obama says that change
often comes to Washington rather than from Washington," Perez
noted, "he's talking in large measure about the leadership
coming out of our nation's cities." Perez also addressed
the need for the Departments of Labor, Education, and Commerce to
work collaboratively.
First Five
Promise Zones to Help Improve Local Communities Announced
The Promise Zones Initiative of the Obama administration is intended
to "create partnerships between local communities and businesses
that will work together to create jobs, increase economic security,
expand educational opportunities, increase access to quality,
affordable housing, and improve public safety." This work is
designed to counter some of the hard economic effects of job losses.
The Department's Promise Neighborhoods program will
play a key role as one of the community tools resulting from the
administration's place-based investments.
National
Skills Coalition Meets with the Administration to Talk Job Training
NSC members and
allies met with White House officials to discuss what we can do to
help our nation's 4 million long-term unemployed. With President
Obama's recent announcement that he is dedicating $150 million in new
support from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) for
"job-driven training partnerships," also known as sector
partnerships, there are positive signs that the Administration is
making concerted efforts to help the long-term unemployed get back to
work.
Common
Core: Unlikely Allies Agree on Common Core Opposition
There's a
growing backlash to Common Core, and conservatives and liberals
increasingly are voicing similar concerns: that the standards take a
one-size-fits-all approach, create a de facto national curriculum,
put too much emphasis on standardized tests, and undermine teacher
autonomy. Supporters of the new education standards adopted by 45
states called the Common Core say those standards will hold American
students to much higher expectations and move away from the bubble
test culture that critics say too often pushes teachers to focus on
test prep.
Seeking
Retaliation Protections from both the Administration and Congress in
the Paycheck Fairness Act
Lilly Ledbetter was at the State of the Union address when President
Barack Obama kicked off his "year of action" by promising
an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors.
But sadly, the president was silent about Lilly's request for action
to protect workers from employers who discriminate. In addition to
raising the minimum pay rate for federal contractors, President Obama
should implement the anti-retaliation provisions of the Paycheck
Fairness Act by executive order.
Just like last year, women working full time, year round, are still
paid 77 cents on average for every dollar paid to men (and even less
for women of color). The reality remains that few women actually know
if they are being paid unfairly, and some don't feel safe asking
those questions at work for fear of retaliation from their bosses.
The President can help women ensure they are being paid fairly by
requiring the thousands of businesses that work with our government
to implement the anti-retaliation protections in the Paycheck
Fairness Act.
OTHER NATIONAL NEWS
NSF
Announces New Program for Undergraduate STEM Education
The National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human
Resources (EHR) has announced the call for proposals for Improving Undergraduate STEM Education
(IUSE). This new program, housed in EHR's Division of Undergraduate
Education, will provide funding for projects that address challenges
and opportunities confronting undergraduate STEM education. The IUSE
program is open to unsolicited proposals covering all topics and
fields bearing on undergraduate STEM education.
Congress and
NIH Don't See Eye to Eye on Science Education
This month Congress told the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to
resume support for several science education programs that NIH
Director Francis Collins had decided to terminate after the Obama
Administration announced last April that it wanted to reorganize
[STEM] education programs throughout the federal government. Congress
rejected the White House's proposed STEM education reorganization
when it passed a spending bill that funds the entire federal
government for the remaining 8.5 months of the 2014 fiscal year.
AFT and Albert
Shanker Institute Host Summit on CTE and Perkins Reauthorization
The American Federation of Teachers-Albert Shanker Institute launched
National CTE Month by holding the Summit on CTE and Perkins
Reauthorization at UFT headquarters in New York City. Featured was a
panel on the Perkins reauthorization and topics related to the future
of CTE with Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, Assistant Secretary of
Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department
of Education; Randi Weingarten, AFT President; U.S. Department of
Education; Stephen DeWitt, Deputy Executive Director, Association for
Career and Technical Education; Michael Mulgrew, President, United
Federation of Teachers; and Ernest Logan, President council of
Schools Supervisors and Administrators. The session was facilitated
by Leo Casey, President of the Albert Shanker Institute. The Summit
brought together AFT State Federations and Locals, from Virginia
northward and Ohio eastward, with the Association for Career
Technical Education (ACTE) and other national CTE organizations to
develop a common agenda for advancing CTE, with a primary focus on
the full reauthorization of the Perkins Act, the main federal
legislation for the funding of CTE programs.
PUBLICATIONS
Equal
Pay for Working Women Would Boost the Economy
On the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair
Pay Act--a bill that reinstated women's ability to contest unlawful
pay discrimination and the first bill signed into law by President
Obama-- the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) finds that
the poverty rate for working women would be cut in half if women were
paid the same as men and that greater pay transparency would increase
women's pay.
American
Association of State Colleges and Universities: Counting Down the Top
Ten Issues for State Policymakers in 2014
Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues
for 2014--the latest "Policy Matters"
brief from the American Association of State Colleges and
Universities--identifies the linkage of postsecondary education to
state economic and workforce goals as the number one theme that will
dominate policy discussions and decisions in the upcoming year. State
funding for higher education dropped to the number three spot, behind
efforts to keep tuition low, even though colleges and universities
will continue to face fiscal challenges and tight state budgets. The
report also identifies college readiness and completion, vocational
and technical education, and immigration as key topics for
policymakers in 2014.
OTHER NEWS
College and Career Readiness (CCR)
Standards Implementation Institutes The
2-day institute will be
offered three times: April 1-2, New Orleans, LA; April 30-May 1,
Phoenix, AZ; and June 4-5, Washington DC. The goal of these training
institutes is to provide adult education program staff with
understanding of the fundamental advances in instruction and
curriculum materials specified by the CCR standards, and to offer new
ways to incorporate these techniques and materials into adult
education programs. States and programs are encouraged to send a team
of three to five staff, so that instructional leaders in literacy and
mathematics as well as program administrators and professional
development staff will benefit from the sessions.
