On June 15, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Education Reform held a hearing on a bill (H.R. 4496) to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act (P.L. 105-332). Previous hearings on vocational and technical education took place on April 27 (see The Source, 4/30/04) and May 4 (see The Source, 5/7/04).
Sponsored by Chair Mike Castle (R-DE), H.R. 4496 would reauthorize vocational and technical education programs through FY2010. The measure would strengthen accountability of the programs by requiring local educational agencies to establish adjusted levels of performance to complement the state levels of performance under current law. The bill also would require states to establish model sequences of courses to emphasize further student academic and vocational and technical achievement.
Rep. Castle said that the original Perkins law “aims to prepare youth and adults for the future by building their academic and technical skills in preparation for postsecondary education and/or employment,” adding, “The bill we are examining here today enhances Perkins by ensuring both secondary and postsecondary students receiving assistance through the program are acquiring rigorous academic and technical skills and will have the opportunity to transition into further education and/or successful employment.”
Expressing her concern that the bill does not do enough to increase support for special population students or train women for nontraditional careers, Ranking Member Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) stated, “More than half of our workforce are women, many of them supporting families and it only makes sense to ensure that they are prepared to earn a wage and benefits that keep their families independent of federal subsidies.”
Robert Sommers of the Butler Technology and Career Development Schools in Fairfield Township, Ohio said that H.R. 4496 “is important to our nation’s economic success because rigorous academics are necessary, but no longer sufficient for individuals to be economically productive. Fewer and fewer jobs are available to individuals that are either academically ill-prepared or technically unskilled. Everywhere, the academic expectations are rising and so are the technical knowledge and skill requirements.” He expressed his support for provisions in the bill that aim to improve vocational and technical education programs, including academic standards for career and technical education that are equivalent to those in the No Child Left Behind Act (P.L. 107-110); model sequences of courses; elimination of the Tech Prep program, and career information, which he said is “vital to our fight to eliminate gender bias in the career selection process.”
In offering the subcommittee suggestions on how to improve the bill, Mr. Sommers stated, “Today’s nontraditional gender enrollment problem is real and must be addressed. However, the problem now lies less in barriers to program participation and more in lack of quality information for young women and men. Too often, educators’ desires to enroll young women in high-skill technical programs are thwarted by young women’s lack of good information about successful women in these careers. The new legislation should put especial focus on career information provisions for nontraditional careers. The legislation should encourage dissemination of career information, especially earning possibilities, to parents as well.”
Testifying on behalf of the Maryland State Department of Education, Katharine Oliver focused her comments on the establishment of model sequences of courses: “Research tells us students are more motivated when their learning relates to an area of personal interest and when they understand ‘why’ they are learning something. When students are motivated, their performance improves and doors open, increasing the educational and employment options available. Model sequences of courses expose students to the panoply of careers. Through model sequences of courses, students gain an understanding of how their academic and technical studies compliment and enhance each other. They become aware that learning in high school is a foundation for their postsecondary and career success.”
Mimi Lufkin of the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity explained that the 1998 law eliminated funding for gender equity programs and a requirement that all states have a State Sex Equity Coordinator. “The change…has had a devastating effect on states’ abilities to provide leadership in this area,” she stated. “No state continues to have a full-time person in this position with a majority of those state staff with this responsibility spending less than 50 percent of their time on these issues. Also less than 20 states are using the maximum leadership reserve for supporting students preparing for nontraditional careers.” Ms. Lufkin said that H.R. 4496 “does little to address the needs of adults reentering the workforce or in need of skill upgrading in order to move up a career ladder.” She encouraged the subcommittee to include programs for single parents and displaced homemakers “to attain marketable skills for high-wage, high-skill occupations leading to self-sufficiency.”
Ms. Lufkin argued that sex segregation in career and technical education (CTE) programs must be addressed in the legislation. She cited a study by the National Women’s Law Center that found: “States demonstrated that female students make up 96 percent of the students enrolled in Cosmetology, 87 percent of the students enrolled in Child Care courses, and 86 percent of the students enrolled in courses that prepare them to be Health Assistants in every region in the country. Male students, on the other hand, comprise 94 percent of the students in training programs for plumbers and electricians, 93 percent of the students studying to be welders or carpenters, and 92 percent of the students studying automotive technologies.” Ms. Lufkin said that the data “show schools have not adequately fulfilled their responsibilities to monitor and address the various forms of discrimination that can limit girls’ and boys’ access to nontraditional vocational programs, whether through career counseling that relies on gender stereotypes, recruitment focused on the gender traditionally enrolled in that program, or failure to correct classroom conditions that undermine equal opportunity. Ultimately, this sex segregation results in substantial disparities in the wages earned by female and male graduates of CTE programs starting females on the pathway to economic disadvantage.” Ms. Lufkin encouraged the subcommittee to require that states and local educational agencies “report student performance data disaggregated by gender, race, ethnicity, age, socio-economic status,” and “make continuous and substantial improvement in the academic and vocational and technical achievement of vocational and technical education students, including special populations.”
