January 19, 2017
Special Issue
As our team leaves OCTAE, I wanted to reflect on eight years
of working hard with you, our team members, and our numerous internal and
external stakeholders to improve access, expand opportunity, increase quality,
promote innovation, and improve student success.
There are literally hundreds of achievements I could
discuss. I won’t do that. I will highlight some selected accomplishments in
three main areas that demonstrate how collectively we have positively changed
the odds for youths and adults with our programs.
In addressing access and
opportunity several policies and strategic initiatives have made it
possible for millions of Americans to obtain high-quality education and
training opportunities that did not exist in 2009. Our joint work on career
pathways is important to mention. The public sector was not fully engaged in
this work back then, but today career pathway programs and systems are central
to every state’s talent development strategy. The implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was significant, as well. As a
result, new partnerships have been created to implement a unified strategy in
states and local areas focused on improving access and outcomes of individuals
with significant barriers to employment and advancement. The Time for the U.S. to Reskill and Making Skills Everyone’s Business
reports galvanized dozens of communities across the country to address their
skills issues. The Performance Partnership pilots are creating new ways of
planning together and pooling resources at the state, local, and tribal
government levels to positively change the outlook, futures, and opportunities for
disconnected youths. Other important efforts that expanded opportunity
considerably include our Advancing Equity in Career and Technical Education
(CTE) project; our summit focused on marginalized girls in STEM fields and CTE;
our guidance on gender equity in collaboration with the Office for Civil Rights;
our joint UpSkill America work with the National Economic Council, the Vice
President’s Office, the Aspen Institute, and hundreds of employers and labor
unions; our innovations in reentry education for juvenile justice-involved adults
and youths; our foster youth and youth-diversion technical assistance
interventions with our federal colleagues at many leading agencies; our work on
My Brother’s Keeper, focused specifically on entering the workforce and
postsecondary access and success; and last but not least, the expansion of Pell
grants and our continued push for the American Technical Training Fund and
America’s College Promise to make college affordable, if not free, for
responsible students. The net result is that tens of millions more youths and adults
now have access to a high-quality education and experience successes previously
absent from their lives.
As a team, we realized very quickly that access and
opportunity without quality are not meaningful and don’t lead to equity. We
also heard from all of you that more flexibility and room for innovation were
sorely needed. One way we promoted quality and innovation was through experimental
sites that give access to Pell grants and other aid under certain
circumstances. The launch of the Second Chance Pell Program, in particular, was
significant to the issue of access, as well as quality and innovation. Other
important experimental sites included the Educational Quality Through
Innovation Partnerships (EQUIP), loan counseling flexibility, short-term training,
competency-based education, and dual enrollment experiments. We also pursued
innovation in funding and financing through Pay for Success and launched
OCTAE’s first initiative in this area focused on CTE. Procurement innovation
was another area where we placed great emphasis. The introduction of prizes and
challenges, including the REACH Higher Challenge, the CTE Makeover Challenge,
and our current EdSim Challenge have changed the way we interact with and
leverage the marketplace and fund innovation in education.
Student success and impact
is a third area where our team—with your partnership, leadership, and support—has
dedicated lots of energy and time. The expansion of the Presidential Scholars
Program to include CTE scholars was a great accomplishment that became possible
due to President Obama’s commitment, as well as the leadership provided by the
recently established Senate CTE caucus. Propelled by changes in WIOA, an important accomplishment was
the rise in integrated education and training programs across the country.
Similarly, the partial restoration by Congress of ability-to-benefit provisions—now
tied to career pathways—allowed community colleges and other postsecondary
education and training programs to pursue rigorous pathways for students
leading to employment in high-demand, high-wage sectors.
Another significant success was our immigrant and refugee integration
work. We tested a place-based strategy to integration in five networks across
the country and are now replicating lessons learned and scaling that work to
all 50 states through the new national activity Connecting English Learners
with Career Pathways. Based on the National Skills and Credentialing Institute,
last summer OCTAE facilitated and supported multiple communities interested in
finding breakthrough solutions for foreign-trained immigrant and refugee
professionals. We also convened a group of organizations to replicate pathways
into STEM teaching for foreign-trained STEM professionals. The LINCS Learner Center significantly impacted
adult learners by giving them access to high-quality open education resources for
free in both English and Spanish. Finally, under Mark Mitsui’s leadership as
deputy secretary for community colleges, OCTAE established communities of
practice among minority-serving institutions focused on student success.
When we step back, these accomplishments show that there is,
indeed, much for which we should all be proud. Across the continuum of learning,
and with your assistance, we increased early learning investments at the
federal, state, and local levels. We reached the highest high school graduation
rate ever, at 83 percent, and put college access and affordability at the
center of the political discourse as a fairness issue. Overall, OCTAE
transformed adult learning and CTE.
As I reflect on my time in OCTAE, I am filled with feelings
of gratitude. I am glad and grateful that former Assistant Secretary Dr. Brenda
Dann-Messier asked me to join her in 2009. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to
lead OCTAE. I am grateful that I have gotten to know all of you. I am grateful
for the opportunity we have had to advance OCTAE's mission together so that all
students can access the high-quality programs they deserve. Finally, I am
grateful for all that you have accomplished, individually and collectively. You
have made a real difference in the lives of millions of fellow Americans, by
birth and by choice.
As we enter 2017, change lies ahead. I handed the baton to
Kim R. Ford today, and the new administration will follow. While there are many
uncertainties about who will be OCTAE's new political leader and what his or
her priorities may be, I have great confidence in you and in OCTAE that you
will continue to remain faithful to OCTAE's mission to move us closer to a
perfect union. There may be new emphases and priorities, but there is a lot of
good work to do to ensure our core programs are well-implemented. I can't think
of a better team than OCTAE and all of you who have been our partners to do
this work.
Johan
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