June 2, 2016
This
past April, the White House launched a $100 million America’s Promise Job-Driven Training Grant competition
to expand tuition-free community college programs that connect students to
in-demand jobs. This new program builds on the administration’s previous investments
in students and the workforce.
America’s network of 1,100 community colleges stands as a
pillar of our nation’s postsecondary education and training system. These
institutions serve more than 7 million undergraduates, many of which, according
to the announcement give “older, low- or moderate-income, minority,
first-generation, and rural Americans an opportunity to earn a quality,
affordable degree or credential that meet the demands of a competitive global
economy.” With this in mind, and through this program, communities have an
opportunity to take action to develop plans “to make two years of community
college free for responsible students, letting students earn the first half of
a bachelor’s degree and the skills needed in the workforce at no cost.”
America’s Promise grants will help communities across the
nation to offer more youths and adults the ability to pursue their education and
career goals—especially in high-growth sectors, such as technology,
manufacturing, and health care.
To
learn more,
please click on the White House fact
sheet
link above, which also includes a full breakdown of investments in community
colleges, by state.
Twelve
federal agencies recently signed a joint letter marking
an historic effort to align policies and technical assistance in order to
support career pathways approaches in every community across the nation. The
letter details the focus, commitment, and steps that the federal government is
taking—through collective definitions and goals for career pathways systems—
toward removing obstacles for states and local areas to streamline programs and
services. This will make it easier for individuals, including those with
significant disabilities, to succeed in attaining their career goals.
The
letter underscores the fact that in working together, “state and community
partners can create career pathway systems with on-ramps, bridges, and
stackable credentials, to help close the gap between vacancies and the numbers
of under- and unemployed youth and adults eager to get to work.”
All
interested entities and stakeholders are encouraged to read the full letter to
learn more about this landmark move, including information on other steps that
federal agencies are taking to incorporate career pathways approaches into a
wide range of program investments, evaluation and research activities, and
technical assistance efforts.
In
April, the White House released My
Brother’s Keeper 2016 Progress Report (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/MBK-2016-Progress-Report.pdf), a report on
the second year of the My Brother’s Keeper program. The initiative, an
integrated federal effort, addresses persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys
and young men of color in order to enable them to reach their full
potential.
Over
the past two years, approximately 250 communities in all 50 states have signed
on to the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge. More than $600 million in
private sector and philanthropic grants and in-kind contributions and $1
billion in low-interest financing are supporting the cause. In addition,
federal policy initiatives, grant opportunities, and guidance are being put in
place to provide a pathway to success from birth to college and career.
The
My Brother’s Keeper Task Force supports efforts organized around key life
milestones that can predict positive outcomes as children mature into adults.
These are (1) entering school prepared to learn, (2) reading at grade level by
third grade, (3) being college- and career-ready upon graduation from high
school, (4) completing postsecondary education or training, (5) successfully
entering into the workforce, and (6) reducing violence and enabling a second
chance for youths involved with the justice system.
This
second-year report tracks the progress achieved in the past year toward making
a measureable difference in the lives of youths. This progress is categorized
into three interdependent priorities:
(1) engaging states and local communities; (2) increasing the participation
of businesses, philanthropic organizations, and nonprofits in helping youths meet
the milestones that predict success in life; and (3) reviewing and reforming
public policy initiatives associated with this effort. The report provides
detailed examples of progress in each category.
The
report concludes by highlighting the importance of My Brother’s Keeper. It shows that the initiative is deeply
engaged in reducing barriers to opportunity for disadvantaged youths,
regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances. The initiative has a sense of urgency about
identifying and investing in “effective strategies” according to the best
available evidence and addressing discrimination wherever it appears. The report illustrates that after two years, My
Brother’s Keeper is providing “momentum, energy, and enthusiasm all across the
country.” Further, it is “fully expect(ed)
that the positive outcomes and successes of the many collaborative partnerships
and policy changes” identified in the report will become “more visible and
impactful in the coming years.”
Last month was Asian/Pacific American Heritage
Month. In 1978, Congress established
Asian/Pacific Heritage Week, and in 1992, Congress expanded the observance to a
month-long celebration. OCTAE Connection
is taking this opportunity to recognize the successes of this diverse group of
Americans, as well as the challenges that continue to face some of their
communities. Asian American, Native
Hawaiian, and other Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) often are considered to be
“model minorities” who have achieved extraordinary success in the United
States. But this does not tell the whole
story, as this designation masks the diverse backgrounds and situations of individual
communities within the larger grouping.
The AANHPI population is made up of immigrants or their descendants from
dozens of countries in the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian
subcontinent, and each group has a unique history, culture, language, and
pathway to America. The status of Asian
Americans in the United States is complicated by the fact that this population
has a very high rate of marriage outside the Asian community. The following information is drawn primarily
from data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/about/partners/cic/resources/data-links/asian.html).
According to the 2014 census estimate, there were an
estimated 20.3 million U.S. residents who were Asian of either one race
(designated hereafter as Asian American) or in combination with one or more
additional races. Of the Asian
Americans, Asians of Chinese descent, except Taiwanese, were the largest group
(4.5 million), followed by Filipinos (3.8 million), Asian Indians (3.8
million), Vietnamese (2.0 million), Koreans (1.8 million), and Japanese (1.4
million). These numbers encompass the
number of people who reported a specific detailed Asian group alone, as well as
people who reported that detailed Asian group in combination with one or more
other detailed Asian groups or another race(s).
As already noted, these are very diverse groupings
across a variety of dimensions. For
example, the median income of households headed by Asians alone or in
combination in 2014 was $72,689. At the
top of the distribution were Asian Indians, with a median household income of
$101,591, while Bangladeshis had a median household income of $44,512. For the Asian alone or in combination
population, in 2014 the poverty rate was 12.5 percent.
Of the Asian alone or in combination population, as
of 2014, 86.8 percent of those ages 25 and above held a high school
diploma. This compares with 86.9 percent
of the U.S. population as a whole. In
sharp contrast with the high school graduation comparison, 50.6 percent of the
Asian alone or in combination population aged 25 and above held a bachelor’s
degree or higher, as compared with 30.1 percent for this age group in the
American population as a whole. At the
graduate level, the achievement of the Asian alone or in combination population
is even more remarkable. Almost twice as
high a percentage of Asians alone or in combination (21.2 percent) held
graduate or professional degrees when compared with 11.4 percent of the
American population as a whole (25 years of age of older).
As of the 2014 estimates, there were an estimated
1.5 million U.S. residents who were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander,
either alone or in combination with one or more additional races.
The Native Hawaiian population (555,208) was the
largest of the NHPI groupings, followed by Samoans (194,564) and the Guamanian
or Chamorro grouping (133,569). These
figures include those of the NHPI group alone, as well as people who reported
that detailed NHPI group in combination with one or more other detailed NHPI
groups or other race(s). The median
household income for households headed by Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific
Islanders alone or in combination in 2014 was $55,296. The poverty rate was 18.4 percent for the
NHPI population alone or in combination.
Among NHPIs alone or in combination aged 25 and
above, 88 percent had a high school diploma or postsecondary education. However, only 20.9 percent of NHPIs had a bachelor’s
degree compared with 30.1 percent of the U.S. population as a whole. Among this group, the contrast at the
graduate or professional degree level is even sharper, with only 6.6 percent of
NHPIs alone or in combination achieving this level of education attainment
compared with 11.4 percent of the U.S. population as a whole.
This
data demonstrates that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific
Islanders are not a monolithic community.
That said, for many demographic and statistical purposes, Asian
Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Other Pacific Islanders frequently are treated
as a homogeneous group. A large amount
of data has been obtained on this collectivity.
Those interested in the outcomes of this collectivity (with a few
exceptions where Asian Americans and NHPIs are discussed separately),
especially as they relate to education attainment, will find a wealth of
interesting information in the most recent edition of The Condition of Education (https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2015144).
On Monday, May 9, the U.S. Department of
Education urged America’s colleges and universities to remove barriers that could
prevent the estimated 70 million citizens with criminal records from pursuing
higher education. This includes the elimination of inquiring early in the
application process whether prospective students have ever been arrested. The
Department made the recommendation in a new resource guide, Beyond the Box: Increasing
Access to Higher Education for Justice-Involved Individuals, which encourages alternatives to inquiring
about criminal histories during the college admissions process and provides
recommendations to support a holistic review of applicants. Secretary King also
issued an accompanying cover letter.
Evidence
suggests that requesting criminal justice information may deter potentially
well-qualified applicants from enrolling in postsecondary education and training.
Furthermore, research suggests that colleges and universities that admit
students with a criminal justice history have no greater crime than those that
do not.
Beyond the Box includes a
variety of recommendations on how institutions might consider campus safety and
applicants’ criminal justice history without unduly discouraging or rejecting
otherwise qualified candidates.
This fact sheet provides additional information about the Beyond
the Box guide, and all materials related to this announcement are available
at www.ed.gov/beyondthebox.
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