NAWB shared its support for Advancing Research in Education Act (AREA)

NAWB shared its support for the Advancing Research in Education Act (AREA)—legislation that would reauthorize and make important updates to the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA). Read the full text below.

Dear Chair Sanders and Ranking Member Cassidy,

On behalf of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB), representing more than 590 state and local workforce development boards (WDBs) across the nation, I am writing in strong support of S. 3392, the Advancing Research in Education Act (AREA)—legislation that would reauthorize and make important updates to the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA). If enacted this bipartisan legislation would significantly improve the research and data functions carried out by federal agencies in support of the full education and workforce development continuum. LWDBs oversee, at the local level, activities and programs within the publicly funded workforce system and as such have a deep appreciation for the need for quality, timely, and actionable data to support workers’ many needs on their journey to family-sustaining employment.

We greatly appreciate the committee’s bipartisan recognition that efforts to more fully understand and improve education must necessarily include a stronger focus on the subsequent labor market and workforce outcomes of students.

Understanding what happens to students after they leave a classroom can help to align national education and workforce goals, improve the development of curriculum and delivery of instruction, and would support students as they navigate an increasingly more complex economy that is undergoing dramatic changes. NAWB was especially encouraged to note the following provisions contained in AREA that support these wider goals and objectives:

An explicit focus on postsecondary education and workforce development as a research topic for the National Center for Education Research’s development centers;
Broadening the duties and responsibilities of the Commissioner for Education Statistics to include a focus on postsecondary, workforce, and adult education, including promoting data sharing and linkages across education and training systems;
Promoting voluntary guidelines to standardize data and information and ensure interoperability which would greatly increase the utility and usability of this information for a variety of stakeholders;
Significant and much-needed reforms to the State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) grant program, including more explicit incorporation of workforce data and related labor market outcomes, especially as it relates to the generation of accurate and timely data needed to support the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA); and
Directing federal agencies to provide technical assistance to state and local WDBs to support ongoing and effective implementation of education and workforce development investments.

Encouragingly there were many other aspects of S. 3392 that NAWB was pleased to note and we are incredibly grateful for the time and energy the committee has devoted reauthorizing ESRA so far. We look forward to working with you and your colleagues to advance this important proposal and look forward to its enactment.

The Latest