Over its 100-year plus history the community college has struggled to make clear its mission. As a comprehensive community college its mission has bounced around to focus on liberal arts, developmental, workforce, community, and general education. In today's increasingly competitive society with shifting values and changes in power it is likely…

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs represent an effective way to provide young adults with an educational experience that prepares them for both college and career success. But not all CTE programs provide accessible pathways to a bounty of educational options without dead ends. To address the false dichotomy--college…

An important aspect of the community college mission is to educate working adults including those without a high school diploma or its equivalent. Three important changes are forcing community colleges to reevaluate how these services and activities are delivered as well as policies that govern this critical work. These shifts provide a new…

American businesses will increasingly need to compete on innovation in the new global economy. They will need to compete on how well they recruit, develop, and utilize the best talent in the world to develop new and improved business models, products, services, and processes as well as push forward scientific and technological advances (Sheets…

Systematic policy analysis regarding the area of adult and workforce education (AWE) in the United States is limited in the literature. This article presents the results from a historical analysis of federal-level U.S. policy documents spanning the years 1914-2014. We performed a systematic content analysis utilizing a context justification…

House Democrats yesterday introduced major legislation to reauthorize the landmark Higher Education Act. Although reauthorization is long overdue, the new legislation, called the College Affordability Act, proposes mainly marginal improvements to a broken higher education financing system. Moreover, it doesn't do enough to help people who don't go…

The "FY 2023 Annual Performance Plan" details the Department's planned strategies and activities to achieve the Strategic Goals and objectives in the "U.S. Department of Education Fiscal Years 2022-2026 Strategic Plan" (see ED625432) as well as the performance indicators that will be used to assess progress on the strategic…

The guided pathways approach to community and technical college redesign has significant impacts for adult basic education (ABE). The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and Ability to Benefit provide federal support that complements the work being done in Guided Pathways. Washington state's approach to implementing guided pathways…

This article addresses the discourse on career and technical education (CTE) from a multiperspectival approach to challenge the persisting academic-vocational divide. The author illustrates the paradoxical rhetoric in CTE, then shares a personal experience, and draws on ethnographic research to reveal a different understanding of enabling human…

The social, economic, political, historical, and racial context shaping the criminal justice system is complex and extensive. As a result, individuals who have been incarcerated face limited opportunities--particularly for education and training--both during and after incarceration. Historical investments in corrections and policies that…

"Changing the Course of Family Literacy" re-examines the importance and value of family literacy programming and offers several policy recommendations to focus attention on the four-component model used in Even Start. This paper explores the current status of Family literacy and, after gathering information from 47 states, found that 11…

Community colleges and businesses have a shared interest in preparing students and existing workers to be successful in their careers. Community colleges seek to educate and train individuals in their community to have the knowledge and skills for current jobs and long-term career opportunities. Employers seek employees with both job-specific…

This document records testimony from a hearing held to examine ways to help students succeed by strengthening the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. Member statements were presented by: (1) Honorable John Kline, Chairman, Committee on Education and the Workforce; and (2) Honorable Robert C. Scott, Ranking Member, Committee on…

For the past 50 years, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes provided through state adult education systems have been the primary means of meeting English acquisition for immigrants and refugees, and, to a limited extent, their integration needs. Yet these systems meet only a fraction of the total need for all adult education…

Recent changes in education and training policy in England continue to focus on creating a 'demand-led' system in an environment where public funds are dwindling and where more responsibility is being devolved away from central government. This raises questions about governance of the system, among others, and the roles that key system actors are…