Will The Real Carl Perkins Please Stand Up!

Yesterday’s e-mails delivered some sad, but not hopeless, news to those of us who work in the career and technical education arena. The federal budget proposal once again slashed education and deleted monies that would have been appropriated for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. Following a pattern of tradition, as only governmental advisors can, they had proposed complete elimination of Perkins in 2006 and 2007, and had recommended partial funding in 2008. Funding has been restored by Congress for each of those fiscal years.

In preparation for this budget proposal, an assessment tool that had been created a number of years ago was used and the ratings taken from the data found the Perkins approach to CTE to be ineffective.  You can find the report regarding the effectiveness of use of Perkins money at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10000212.2002.html . According to the report, states and locals utilizing these funds are clearly inept at understanding, implementing, and assessing progress in career and technical education. 

Knowing that NCLB is also a program that would have been rated by using the PART tool, I also checked out their rating. It was no surprise to me that NCLB received an adequate rating. The rating was based on states’ implementation of assessment tools for reading and math. You can check out the data for yourself at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/summary/10002120.2004.html .

Is this PART rating tool equally effective examining apples and oranges? I am going out on thin ice here, but it seems to me that when asked if you implemented testing to assess reading and math, your answers could be yes, no, or we are working on it. When asked questions about partnerships, performance, effectiveness, assessment tools, fiscal operations, program impact, strategic planning, etc, your answers become more complex and difficult to measure.

I believe that as state agencies and LEAs delivering services to students, we must examine the mission of the Carl D. Perkins Act. Implementing assessment tools that measure quantifiable goals can be introduced if the goals are clearly stated and not mixed with societal mores. Any student of psychology or sociology can tell you that human behavior patterns are most difficult to change, sustain change, and then measure that sustained change. Enormous and usually unmeasurable amounts of time are needed to change mores–our traditions, customs, and way of life.  

We need to collectively determine what we want to be able to accomplish with Carl Perkins monies and ascertain if the objective is measurable by defining the testing instrument.  If it is not a measurable goal, throw it out and find goals that actually can be measured. Twisting the data to fit the instrument of measure or consistent failure to meet a goal are good indicators of the square peg and round hole theory. If you ask a question on a test and only 10% of the students taking the test give the correct answer wouldn’t you examine the question for validity? Wouldn’t you tear into that question to determine why it did not bring about the intended results or intended response?

Has anyone, other than me, ever looked at the goals of the Perkins legislation and thought that even though they are goals I would certainly like our school to meet, there are just too many of them? …Unless you define exactly what you wish to measure and how to measure it, you will get something else?…If you encourage creative problem solving, a creative solution to the problem may emerge?…That preparing students for a technologically changing society requires both technology and change?….That teaching our students to become globally competitive means funding large-scale, comprehensive initiatives?

I hope that you feel tossing the Perkins legislation aside would be a huge error in judgement that would negatively effect the neediest of students as they try to gain competitive and marketable skills. Please take a moment and click to this link, http://capwiz.com/acte/home/, and let your Congressional legislators know that this funding needs to be fully restored.