Aug 16, 2017The complications of state-level education policymakingWith the US Department of Education now approving state ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) plans, attention turns to those plans’ contents. This includes how states intend to help kids assigned to persistently struggling schools — one of K-12 education’s perennial challenges. …Education4 min read
Aug 16, 2017Balancing college and career readinessA new short report from Advance CTE and the Education Strategy Group provides some valuable insights into how state policymakers are thinking about preparing high school students for work. …Education4 min read
Jun 19, 2017Dignity through humilityAndy Smarick gave this as the opening lecture at the Values and Capitalism Summer Conference on June 15, 2017. Thank you so much for having me here. It’s a real pleasure to get to talk to such a talented, curious group of young scholars. I’m working with a number of…Politics14 min read
Jun 15, 2017Some basics on President Trump and apprenticeshipsThe Trump administration has declared this “workforce development week.” The president is promising to make a big push on apprenticeships. During Monday’s cabinet meeting, he said, “Apprenticeships are going to be a big, big factor in our country.” The vast majority of Americans don’t get jobs via apprenticeships, so the…Education4 min read
Jun 15, 2017Who’s responsible for workforce training?One of the most important and challenging questions related to preparing people for the workforce is, “Who’s actually responsible?” When it comes to K-12 education, for more than 150 years, there’s been widespread agreement that the public (i.e. the government in some form) has a large obligation. We have a…Education4 min read
Jun 5, 2017Work vs. economic mobilityFor many policymakers, the top two challenges we face when it comes to employment, wealth, and opportunity are that too many people are out of work and that there’s too little economic mobility. On the first, although unemployment rates are quite low, our labor force participation rates have plummeted in…Economics5 min read
Jun 5, 2017Technology, skills, and the gig economyThe National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently released a giant report on how information technology is influencing the US workforce. I recommend it to anyone interested in job creation, labor-force participation, economic growth, and/or technology. It’s chock-full of interesting findings and ideas for future research. …Sharing Economy4 min read
May 19, 2017Keeping technocracy out of CTEOne of my concerns about today’s strong and growing focus on career and technical education is that it could fuel some school-reformers’ bent for central planning. Social reformers of all types (and over the generations) tend toward technocracy. They identify an important problem and then seek to solve the problem…Education4 min read
May 18, 2017Career and technical education and federal policyWhat role should the federal government play in helping people acquire the skills necessary to land and keep good jobs? The answer isn’t obvious. Even those who believe in an activist Uncle Sam will probably struggle to find the right place for him in the world of training. Supporting a…Education4 min read
May 17, 2017Work and ‘Character’I recently wrote about the ”CAN DO” of work, arguing there are personal and social prerequisites for strong employment and labor-participation numbers. The “A” in the acronym is for “access,” whether people out of work are actually able to seize openings. Many of us immediately associate job access with specific…Education4 min read
