Tracking success of career and technical education

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Create a New Tomorrow for Learners Everywhere at SXSW EDU March 4-7, 2024 in Austin, Texas.

A newsletter from The Hechinger Report

Hi all,

The Hechinger Report has spent years reporting on how, where and why Americans go to college, or why they don’t. Soaring costs and demand for skilled labor have fueled enormous interest in and funding to train high schoolers, college students and adults in career and technical education, or CTE.

That’s why we want to know how it is working, and it turns out that answering that question is not easy, because of a disconnect between student and job data. Our story with The Washington Post explains what one state is trying to do about it.

We are also digging into recent data that helps us understand early warning systems and student absenteeism post-Covid — an urgent question at a time when the number of students who are chronically absent from schools has almost doubled to 28 percent from around 15 percent before the pandemic.

We love trying to answer the big questions in education, but we also want to know yours. Please get in touch, and remind others to sign up for our weekly newsletters and become a member.

Liz Willen, Editor

How we are covering the 2024 election cycle 🗳️

As a newsroom dedicated to in-depth, nuanced stories about education, we are looking beyond horse-race coverage of candidates running in national and state elections. During this election season, we will continue to use research, data and stories from classrooms and campuses to show the public how education can be improved and why it matters.

Do you have a question related to how this year’s election outcomes might affect schools and campuses? Reply directly to this email and let us know.

Main Idea

States bet big on career education, but struggle to show it works

Adult employment outcomes are disconnected from K-12 data sets

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Reading List

PROOF POINTS: Tracking student data falls short in combating absenteeism at school

Fights over ‘detracking’ have roiled other districts. But Union Public Schools, in Oklahoma, took a middle ground, adding tutoring and non-test-based ways for students to qualify for advanced math

PARENT VOICE: They call it ‘school choice’ but you may not end up with much of a choice at all

My son is 16. My quest to find a school for him has been a never-ending journey

Schools are sending more kids to psychiatrists out of fears of campus violence, prompting concern from clinicians

Psychiatric evaluations are meant to keep students safe. But psychiatrists say schools frequently misuse and misunderstand them

STUDENT VOICE: Teachers assign us work that relies on rote memorization, then tell us not to use artificial intelligence

No wonder my classmates aren’t listening: The assignments are a perfect fit for AI

The worst of the pandemic is behind us. College students’ mental health needs are not

Where do we go from here?

After more than a dozen states said no to a summer food benefit for children, advocates worry about filling the gap

South Carolina says its time to move back to ‘normal business,’ but anti-hunger advocates say there are still unmet needs

OPINION: More states should require teaching kids how to read the news and spot what’s true and what’s not

Teens are glued to their screens and need media literacy to sort through the deluge

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