April 26, 2017
The following is an April 18 press release from the
Department of Education, reprinted in its entirety.
Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos joined President Trump, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy during a
visit to Snap-On Tools in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Following a tour of the facility,
the President gave remarks and signed the Buy American and Hire American
Executive Order. After the ceremony, Secretary DeVos gave the following
statement:
“One of America’s greatest resources is
the entrepreneurial spirit and hard work of its people. There’s a real demand
among American companies for skilled workers like the ones Snap-On Tools
employs.
“To strengthen our economy, we need a
skilled and educated workforce. That’s why this Administration is committed to
supporting and highlighting career and technical education.
“Snap-On’s partnership with Gateway
Technical College is a great example of what can be achieved when business and
education collaborate. Together, they provide employees with the skills
necessary for good-paying jobs, in turn benefitting the entire community’s
economy. This type of partnership can be replicated across the country, and the
President’s Buy American and Hire American Executive Order puts us on that
path.
“I applaud the President for his
commitment to our nation’s students and workers, and his efforts to ensure we
have a workforce equipped to fill American jobs that are open and readily
available today.”
Back to Top
Valencia
Community College (Osceola County
campus)
was the site of a late March visit by Secretary Betsy DeVos to highlight the
importance and value of community colleges.
Using Valencia as an example of a school that works, DeVos emphasized
that the Trump Administration wants to focus investments in education on
policies and approaches that produce significant benefits. Among these, the secretary said that she is
considering making federal financial aid available year-round. She also said that she intends to give more
attention to community colleges as they offer “a tremendous option, a
tremendous opportunity and a tremendous on-ramp for many students.”
DeVos
toured the campus and heard from a variety of constituencies about the roles
and value of community colleges. Local
press reports said that the secretary said little during the tour and mostly
listened.
According
to the Orlando Sentinel (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/school-zone/os-betsy-devos-valencia-campus-20170322-story.html), Valencia won
the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence in 2011 for being the “top
community college in the nation.”
Valencia
shares characteristics with many urban and suburban community colleges. About half of its enrollees are minority
students (34 percent are Hispanics and 17 percent are African-American); about
two-thirds of students are enrolled part time; about half of its graduates
earned an associate of arts degree; about 11 percent earned an associate of science
degree; and about 38 percent earned a technical certificate.
Among
the notable features at Valencia are its Advanced Manufacturing Training
Center, its dual enrollment program, its use of “stackable credentials” in
structuring its degree programs, and its Got
College? initiative to increase the number of college-bound students in
central Florida.
Back to Top
The
Center for
Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE) hosted
a capstone conference in Washington, D.C., this month. CAPSEE, housed within the Community College
Research Center at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, was established in
2011 through an IES grant. The CAPSEE
staff has produced over 40 studies and reports, ranging from the analysis of
postsecondary student outcomes to technical papers on methodology (on topics
such as what is the best, most accurate way to analyze the relationship between
education and employment). The CAPSEE
conference was an opportunity to share some of these studies, focusing on the
relationship between postsecondary education and employment.
Thomas
Bailey, director of CAPSEE, the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary
Readiness, and Columbia’s Community College Research Center, as well as George and Abby O’Neill Professor of
Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, gave
opening remarks. He explained that the
focus of the conference was on college as an investment and addressed such
questions as Is higher education worth
it, and for whom? How can we make the investment in higher education more
effective? Will the institutional characteristics and practices that colleges
have improve student outcomes?
The
plenary sessions brought together speakers ranging from CAPSEE researchers, to
college administrators, and journalists.
Video of these sessions is now
available. Breakout sessions provided an
opportunity for individual CAPSEE researchers to discuss their findings related
to students and institutions. Of
importance, CAPSEE was able to use state-level data on student postsecondary
transcripts linked to unemployment insurance data. This enabled the researchers to examine more
closely the relationship between specific fields of study, intensity of
participation, and completion, with employment outcomes. Another group of studies looked at
postsecondary institution programs and policies to see how they affected
student outcomes.
The
collective summary of the presented papers and sessions and a consensus of the
research findings show that, for the most part, earning a postsecondary
certificate and/or degree can have a positive impact on employment and
earnings.
The
plenary sessions are available for viewing at the CAPSEE website: http://capseecenter.org/2017-capsee-conference/videos/
Back to Top
The U.S. Department of Justice, in conjunction with
other federal agencies, announced a National Reentry Week, April 23–29. The week is a cross-agency effort geared
towards collaboration in helping incarcerated and formerly incarcerated
individuals reenter and reintegrate with society.
Education is a vital component of an individual’s
reentry. According to a 2013 study
funded by the Department of Justice and conducted by the RAND Corporation,
incarcerated individuals who participated in high-quality correctional
education were 43 percent less likely to return to prison within three years
than those who did not. Estimates suggest that for every dollar invested in
correctional education programs, $4 to $5 are saved on three-year
reincarceration costs.
As part of the Department of Education’s
contribution to Reentry Week, Secretary DeVos is visiting Montgomery County
Correctional Facility (MCCF) in Boyds, Maryland, on April 26
to observe its educational offerings and interact with the students, teachers,
and other staff. The visit to MCCF
includes a tour of the Model Learning Center, which offers full time education,
including career and technical, and special education, and MCCF’s on-site One Stop
Employment Center, which is co-located with the jail in an effort to provide incarcerated
individuals with skills assessments and job searches prior to their release.
This model allows individuals to use the education that they acquired at the
correctional facility to obtain employment and further education after their
release. These collaborative educational and employment efforts help to reduce
recidivism, save money, and make communities safer.
The secretary’s visit adds to the long history of
partnership between the departments of Justice and Education. By using
collaborative efforts, the federal government can leverage resources and voices
and move the needle on issues related to individuals impacted by the justice
system who also have a need for educational services.
Back to Top.
The University of Virginia’s Curry School of
Education Foundation recently released a new study from its Nudge4 Solutions Lab, Nudging at
a National Scale. According
to founder and
director, Ben Castleman, the report reveals that by providing
students with concrete planning prompts (“nudges”) on how and when to complete the
Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA), it “can generate positive increases
in enrollment at a national scale.”
The
Solutions Lab was founded to address issues that economically disadvantaged
students and their families have with accessing quality information and/or
advising about their educational options. What emerged were these nudges,
defined as “an action taken to encourage or alter someone’s behavior,” and
delivered via text message to an individual’s cell phone.
Castleman designed the
lab with partners, ranging from school districts
and higher education systems to state workforce systems, to better understand “how
individuals navigate complex decisions by using the latest interactive
technologies, creative design and robust analytic approaches for significant
challenges—such as applying
to colleges, navigating the financial aid process and dealing with loan
repayment.”
Begun
in 2016, the Curry School of Education’s Nudge4
Solutions Lab
created a way to “utilize a text message-based intervention to provide young
Americans with information and reminders about applying to colleges, navigating
the financial aid process and dealing with loan repayment.” The lab found that
by using behavioral solutions—well-designed
nudges—they can help students and families make active and informed decisions
about the educational pathways they pursue. In short, they were ably were to help “level the playing
field for economically-disadvantaged students and their families, throughout
all stages of schooling.”
Back to Top.
| 
