December 1, 2021

Dear Colleagues:

The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, as amended by the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) introduced new accountability requirements relating to program quality at the secondary level. These include the expectation that States report on the number of CTE concentrators graduating from high school having: (1) attained a recognized postsecondary credential, (2) attained postsecondary credits, or (3) participated in work-based learning. Outcome data produced from these indicators will help to document the benefits that career and technical education (CTE) offers students and inform State and local grantee program improvement efforts.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) is pleased to announce a customized technical assistance (TA) initiative to support States in strengthening reporting on these new Perkins V indicators. Feedback provided through the Quality Indicator Workgroups, an OCTAE-sponsored nationwide initiative to build State capacity to implement the Perkins V program quality indicators, indicates that many States face continuing challenges in designing and implementing the new program quality indicators.

Project work will be designed to support States in addressing issues of policy and practice related to indicator adoption. This includes sharing strategies to strengthen statewide implementation of new programming, promote evidence-based approaches, and increase the validity and reliability of State measurement approaches. This TA is intended to supplement, not supplant, State and local efforts to implement these new indicators. Projects should build on information and data currently available and be of manageable size and scope. To ensure that the TA meets a State’s needs, recipients will need to commit to monthly meetings with the TA team and provide access to relevant documentation, State experts, and stakeholders.

Project supports will be delivered by experienced subject matter experts, who will tailor services to address State identified needs. Due to continuing uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, all assistance will be delivered using virtual technologies. It is anticipated that TA will begin in February 2022 and conclude on or before June 15, 2022.

Application Process:

Please complete the application, which can be found online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RYCL6ZW by January 14, 2022. You will be contacted by a project coordinator with more information. If you have questions about the application process, contact Lori Meyer at lmeyer@manhattanstrategy.com or 202-215-6349.

Requests must be received by January 14, 2022, to be considered.

We look forward to working with you to strengthen your implementation of the new Perkins V program quality indicators.

Kind regards,

Adam Flynn-Tabloff

Chief, Program Administration and Accountability Branch