In Focus
Mar 12, 2013 | Permalink »
New York’s Move to Abandon the GED® is a Game Changer
New York State made headlines last week after it announced it would be dropping the GED® as its high school equivalency exam—a move that can only be defined as a “game changer” in adult education. Instead, the state will be working with CTB/McGraw Hill to develop an alternative exam, the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC), which New York believes will keep costs low and allow its Education Department to continue to serve adults and youth seeking to earn a high school equivalency diploma and gain greater economic mobility. New York’s shift to the TASC is one of the most significant developments in adult education in decades. Since 1942, the GED® has been synonymous with high school equivalency in the U.S. and widely recognized by potential candidates, employers, and postsecondary institutions.
New York State’s Education Department viewed this change as necessary after new sweeping national changes to the current GED® test were announced in 2011. In that year, the GED®Testing Service entered into a partnership with Pearson, the world's largest for-profit testing company, to create a new GED® delivered electronically and aligned with college and career readiness standards. Many in the adult education field viewed the substantive “refresh” as a step in the right direction and recognition of the fact that today’s workers need higher level skills to compete for jobs in a quickly changing economy. However, a number of states and advocates expressed significant concerns that the new cost of the test ($120 plus additional fees for retaking any sections) would pose a barrier to access for the millions of individuals in the U.S. without a high school diploma who are predominately low-income.
But New York had a special problem: state law prohibits charging fees for high school equivalency exams. Currently the state covers GED® testing fees for students, but if the state couldn’t afford to pick up the additional cost of the new test, students would be left un-served. The state’s Education Department estimated that, if it continued to offer the GED® as the primary test, the choice would be either to serve far fewer students or appropriate nearly double the funds that they currently spend on the GED®. Nearly 30,000 New York youth and adults passed the GED® in 2011 (about 450,000 students in the U.S complete annually). According to a statement by the New York State Board of Regents Chancellor, “we can’t let price deny anyone the opportunity for success.” In fact, most states strive to keep the test affordable for students to boost educational attainment and economic growth. In a 2012 survey, fourteen states said they used state funding to keep the GED® affordable to students, and most states that charged a flat fee reported charging less than $75.
The role of the GED® may be changing—rapidly—as states strain to provide the same level of adult education services with smaller and smaller budgets each year. The combination of flat federal funding and across-the-board sequestration, which is estimated to cut nearly $30 million from federal adult education funds, accelerates these state budget troubles. While New York is the first to formally switch to a new test, many states (including New York) are also exploring adopting new high school equivalency options altogether, some of which base diplomas in part on skills attained through work and life experiences as well as through college courses. Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota stand out as leaders in this policy space; these efforts are explored in detail in a recent brief from the Working Poor Families Project.
New York’s announcement last week was the first, but it’s unlikely to be the last. However, as states, programs, and policymakers prepare for the new GED® in 2014 and explore alternatives, the primary consideration should be to maintain access for the nearly 30 million Americans without a high school diploma or its equivalent and ensure that these alternatives support a continued focus on preparation for college and career success, now essential ingredients to economic advancement in the U.S.
Mar 11, 2013 | Permalink »
House Workforce Bill Moves Forward Amid Rising Tensions
By Neil Ridley, Kisha Bird, and Marcie W.M. Foster
Last week the House Education and Workforce Committee voted to advance a bill that restructures a range of federal workforce programs, including the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Tensions ran high during the legislative mark-up session and the preceding hearing, signaling a decline in the bipartisan spirit that has animated most reauthorization efforts in the past.
The House majority bill (H.R. 803) consolidates nearly three dozen federal programs into a block grant called the Workforce Investment Fund. Like H.R. 4297, which cleared the committee in 2012, H.R. 803 eliminates a separate youth funding stream, strikes WIA youth provisions including the 10 youth program elements and establishes a new set of common performance metrics without any youth-specific indicators. It also creates an option for states to consolidate additional education and training programs, such as adult education, into the block grant. Although the bill strengthens planning requirements and shared performance accountability provisions, it removes the priority of service for low-income adults and other safeguards for individuals with barriers to employment.
By contrast, the House minority bill (H.R. 798) introduced by Rep. John Tierney, Rep. Ruben Hinojosa and Rep. George Miller requires states to streamline and coordinate the use of workforce and education programs through unified planning. It expands the range of training options available for participants, modernizes the adult education system to meet the postsecondary and employment needs of students, and expands priority of service for individuals with barriers to employment and out-of-school youth. In addition, H.R. 4227 authorizes Innovation Funds to support the development and expansion of promising workforce strategies, such as career pathways, industry partnerships, and dropout recovery and re-engagement.
To help advocates and stakeholders, CLASP in 2012 issued A Litmus for Legislation with a set of criteria for evaluating reauthorization proposals. In applying those criteria to H.R. 803, CLASP concludes that the committee-reported bill is expected to shift funding and services away from youth and adults who are most in need of workforce services to more job-ready individuals with fewer barriers. Nothing in the new planning requirements or performance accountability system would prevent such a shift. By eliminating the youth funding stream and other programs, the bill would weaken the capacity to customize services to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce.
The committee-reported bill is likely to move to the House floor within a week for a vote on final passage. As the legislative process moves forward, CLASP recommends that any reauthorization bill should promote multiple pathways to employment and education for adults and youth who are most in need of workforce services. The career pathways approach, which is building momentum at the state and local levels, is a framework for weaving together adult education, training and postsecondary programs and connecting those services to the workforce needs of employers. To increase alignment of services, CLASP also supports adoption of shared performance metrics, use of consistent definitions and reporting requirements, and greater efforts to minimize the burden associated with eligibility determination and verification across various programs.
Feb 14, 2013 | Permalink »
Career Pathways Take the Next Step toward Quality and Scale
By Vickie Choitz, Marcie W.M. Foster, and Patrick Reimherr
Over the last decade, career pathways have evolved as an innovative approach to assist individuals in gaining marketable credentials and good jobs and to help employers access a skilled workforce. Postsecondary credentials (including both marketable noncredit, industry-based credentials such as Certified Manufacturing Technologist or Wind Turbine Technician and more traditional two- and four-year degrees) can be an avenue out of poverty and a lifetime of low-wage work. However, the nation’s education and workforce development systems have not been designed to provide all workers with a seamless path to earning these credentials.
Despite all good intentions, the current state of our education and workforce systems too often results in shortcomings that can block the road to educational and economic success for low-income workers. For instance, the education and training pathway is disjointed: adult education and college developmental education are often disconnected from workforce education services. These disconnects can make it more difficult for students to progress from one level of education to the next or to transfer from one educational system to another. Also, in many cases, today’s education and workforce development systems lack structures to help students navigate the disconnects, obtain critical support services, and gain the “college knowledge” necessary for success in postsecondary education. Finally, students facing economic pressure to work and support their families may not see the relevance of traditionally delivered education and discontinue before making headway toward earning credentials and securing better jobs.
A career pathway approach reorients existing education and workforce services from a myriad of disconnected programs to a coordinated structure that focuses on the individuals in need of education and training and corresponding career paths. This approach also provides clear transitions, strong supports, and other elements critical to the success of participants. It is not simply a new model; it is a new way of doing business – for education and training institutions, employers, students, community organizations, agency staff, and policymakers. Adopting a career pathway approach means redesigning the delivery of education, training, and employment services to be much more integrated, aligned, and participant-centered.
Last summer, CLASP launched the Alliance for Quality Career Pathways, a two-year, state-driven, CLASP-led effort to identify (1) criteria for high-quality career pathway systems and (2) a set of shared performance metrics for measuring and managing their success. The 10 states in the Alliance are leading the nation in experience with and scale of career pathway efforts. These states are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The Alliance recognizes that there are many different types of career pathways for different types of students and workers, and a comprehensive career pathway system provides an inclusive umbrella for all of them. The Alliance’s niche in this broad vision is to develop a framework for career pathways focusing on educationally underprepared youth and adults.
In the first phase of the Alliance, CLASP released two products this week: