Asset Orientation
Learners most impacted by the CLNA and the implementation of CTE programs have valuable knowledge to contribute about their experiences, perspectives, and abilities.
Special Populations
Supporting the success of special populations is a core expectation of the Perkins V legislation and a central focus of Minnesota’s Career and Technical Education mission. Postsecondary institutions play a critical role in ensuring that learners from these groups have equitable access to high-quality career pathways, informed transition planning, and the academic and technical supports needed to complete their programs and achieve meaningful employment.
Under the Perkins Act of 2018, “special populations” refers to specific groups of Career and Technical Education (CTE) students who may need increased access, support, and services to overcome barriers to success. Perkins V identifies nine special population categories.
Special Populations Defined by Perkins V
- Individuals with disabilities: As defined in section 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102).
- Individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds: Includes low-income youth and adults, often identified through free or reduced-price lunch eligibility or public assistance, as well as individuals from economically disadvantaged communities, including rural communities.
- Individuals in nontraditional fields: Individuals preparing for fields in which one gender comprises less than 25% of employment in that career field or occupation.
- Single parents and pregnant women: Includes teens and other students who are pregnant or parenting.
- Out-of-workforce individuals: Formerly referred to as displaced homemakers, this category includes individuals who are unemployed, underemployed, or reentering the workforce.
- Individuals experiencing homelessness: Youth or adults who lack fixed, regular, and adequate housing, as described in section 725 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11434a).
- Youth in or aged out of foster care: Includes youth currently in foster care and youth transitioning out of foster care placements and services.
- Youth with parents in the military: Youth with a parent who is a member of the armed forces and is on active duty, including full-time training duty.
- English language learners: Individuals with limited English proficiency who may need language and instructional support to participate successfully in CTE programs.
Perkins V Special Populations for Reporting: Data Sources
Minnesota State
August 23, 2019
Data table listing each Perkins V special population and the identified source of data used for postsecondary reporting in Minnesota State systems (e.g., ISRS, FAFSA, Accuplacer, ESL enrollment).
| Special Population | Identified Source of Data for Postsecondary Reporting |
|---|---|
| Individuals with disabilities | ISRS.PS_DISAB_DEMO (permanent disability indicated/not denied that overlaps the cohort timeframe). |
| Individuals from economically disadvantaged families, including low-income youth and adults | Includes students who were Pell-Eligible and/or were recipients of Pell, BIA, or SEOG (Fed Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant) financial aid awards during the cohort timeframe. |
| Individuals preparing for non-traditional fields | Include students who, in the cohort data, have a first major and/or award listed that is Perkins eligible and nontraditional AND the individual earned more than zero cumulative college level credits AND the individual’s gender is the same as the program’s nontraditional gender. |
| Single parents, including single pregnant women | Include student if Accuplacer item #27 or FAFSA are indicative (marital status indicates single or divorced/widowed AND FAFSA item #51 indicates the individual has or will have children who will receive more than half of their support from them for the next year). |
| Out-of-workforce individuals | Include student if Accuplacer item #28 or FAFSA are indicative (marital status indicates single or divorced/widowed AND FAFSA item #102 indicates individual or spouse are dislocated workers). |
| English learners | Include student if is enrolled in an ESL course during the cohort timeframe OR Accuplacer items #20 and/or #21 indicate another language was learned first or another language is spoken most often at home AND individual is enrolled in a developmental reading or writing course during the cohort timeframe OR cohort code 5000 (limited English) is applied to the student’s record with dates overlapping the cohort timeframe. |
| (New for postsecondary) Homeless individuals described in section 725 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11434a) | Applies only to YOUTH enrolled during the cohort timeframe. If the individual is a youth and FAFSA items #56, 57 or 58 indicate the individual is/was homeless or at risk of being homeless, include. |
| (New for all) Youth who are in, or have aged out of, the foster care system | Applies only to YOUTH enrolled during the cohort timeframe. If the individual is a youth and FAFSA item #53 indicates the individual’s parents are both deceased and individual was in foster care or was a dependent or ward of the court, include. |
| (New for all) Youth with a parent who – i. Is a member of the armed forces (as such term is defined in section 101(a)(4) of title 10, United States Code); and ii. Is on active duty (as such term is defined in section 101(d)(1) of such title) |
No identified source. Most financial aid awards or related questions only identify if the person is a spouse or dependent of someone in the active military or is himself/herself in the active military or a veteran. There is not enough detail in our data sources to identify individuals who are YOUTH and the child of someone who is currently a member of the armed forces and on active duty. |
| (New for postsecondary) Migrant students | No identified source. The definition in ESEA refers to children who are or who have parents who are migratory workers and have moved from one school district to another or moved within a single district from one administrative area to another, etc. This is not information collected in a standard way for postsecondary students. |
Youth = individuals not younger than 14 and not older than 24 (state-defined)
System Research, Academic and Student Affairs
CLNA and Special Populations
The Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) provides an important opportunity to examine how well Career and Technical Education programs are serving learners who are members of special populations. By reviewing disaggregated data, local needs, program access, participation, and outcomes, Perkins consortia can identify gaps and determine where additional support or changes may be needed.
Special populations should be considered throughout the CLNA process, not as a separate or isolated requirement. Meaningful analysis includes identifying barriers to access and success, understanding the experiences of learners and communities, and using evidence to develop priorities that improve equity, participation, completion, and transition outcomes.
The resources in this section are designed to help Perkins leaders and local partners incorporate special populations into the CLNA process, strengthen needs assessment and priority setting, and connect identified gaps to strategies and investments that support learner success.
Understanding the Equity Challenge in CTE
Making Good on the Promise: Advance CTE
This brief, the first in the Making Good on the Promise series focused on equity in Career and Technical Education, examines CTE's historical legacy and identifies key equity challenges learners continue to face.
Drawing on research and historical data, the brief describes both CTE's conflicted history and the opportunity high-quality CTE can provide. The series was informed by national civil rights organizations, State CTE Directors, and local leaders working to address access and opportunity gaps.
Why This Matters for the CLNA
Understanding the historical context of CTE can help consortium leaders recognize how current policies, practices, access patterns, and program structures may contribute to persistent gaps. The CLNA provides an opportunity to examine those patterns and identify strategies that expand access to high-quality CTE for all learners.
Confronting CTE's Legacy
Any conversation about equity in CTE begins with recognizing that not all learners have historically been served equitably.
One significant contributor was the practice of tracking, in which learners were directed into separate educational pathways:
- One pathway prepared learners for college and further academic study.
- Another pathway prepared learners for immediate entry into the workforce, often through lower-rigor vocational programs.
Historical Context
Historically, tracking disproportionately placed low-income learners, learners of color, females, and learners with disabilities into vocational programs that offered fewer academic and postsecondary opportunities. The legacy of these practices continues to shape conversations about access, program quality, representation, and opportunity in CTE.
Consider During Your CLNA
As you examine your local data, consider:
- Who has access to your highest-quality CTE programs?
- Are certain learner groups concentrated in particular programs or pathways?
- Do advising, recruitment, admissions, scheduling, transportation, or other practices unintentionally limit access?
- What historical or systemic factors may help explain patterns in your disaggregated CLNA data?
Applying an Equity Lens to Your CLNA Process
The comprehensive local needs assessment helps consortium CTE leaders identify, understand, and prioritize their needs and strategies to improve student performance and program quality. The results from the CLNA, when done effectively, can provide meaningful information and be a catalyst for transformative systems change. A successful needs assessment leads to actionable priorities and meaningful, long-term change.
This creates an incredible opportunity to:
- Better help all students achieve career success.
- Align the Perkins budget with priorities and ensure programs are aligned with and validated by local and regional workforce needs and economic priorities.
- Ensure that consortium programs are serving all learners equitably and enable consortia to better direct resources toward programs that lead to high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand occupations and activities that address equity and opportunity gaps.
It is critical to apply an equity lens to community engagement efforts to ensure that the communities most impacted are included in the development and information-gathering processes rather than only reacting to questions and data presented to them.
This requires active, meaningful engagement of those communities in a process to examine, identify, and diagnose challenges that must be addressed for meaningful change to occur. Communities are defined as the internal and external groups most impacted by the CLNA process and the implementation of CTE.
Equity Guiding Principles for the CLNA Process
The CLNA process can provide a roadmap for identifying inequities that affect the participation of marginalized communities in CTE programs. These barriers can exist at the institutional, district, or systems level. Applying these principles can help uncover meaningful findings and potential actions that address persistent barriers and inequities in CTE programs.
The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, or NAPE, offers three guiding principles for an effective and equitable needs assessment process.
Grounded Action
Learners experiencing depressed outcomes are influential in describing problems in CTE programs and challenges in their educational experiences. Their shared experiences can provide rich data about inequities in current policies and practices, along with diverse solutions for addressing those inequities.
Systems Are Not Neutral
Systemic bias exists within policies and practices that may be implemented without awareness or acknowledgment of harm, particularly to marginalized communities. Accountability includes reviewing the historical context that contributes to persistent patterns and challenges highlighted by disaggregated data.
Additional information: Review NAPE’s Perkins V Equity Principles for the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (PDF opens in a new window) .
Source: Adapted from the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE), Equity and the Perkins V Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment. Explore NAPE's Perkins V resources .
Equity and Access Resources
Creating equitable access to Career and Technical Education means ensuring that all learners have the opportunity, support, and resources they need to participate and succeed. This includes identifying barriers, strengthening transitions, and using data and intentional practices to improve access and outcomes for learners who are members of special populations.
The resources below support this work from two important perspectives. The Postsecondary Transitions Guide offers practical strategies for helping learners successfully move from secondary education into college, training, and careers. Advance CTE's Making Good on the Promise series provides tools and guidance for examining equity gaps, understanding barriers, building trust, and expanding access to high-quality CTE programs of study.
Together, these resources can help educators, administrators, counselors, and Perkins leaders strengthen systems and practices so that all learners have meaningful opportunities to prepare for education, employment, and lifelong success.
Postsecondary Transitions
Effective transitions help learners move successfully from secondary education into postsecondary education, training, and careers. This section provides guidance, tools, and recommended practices for identifying learner needs, strengthening supports, and building collaboration across secondary, postsecondary, and workforce partners.
Advance CTE: Making Good on the Promise
Exploring equity, access, trust, and opportunity in Career and Technical Education.
Making Good on the Promise is a four-part series from Advance CTE that examines how CTE systems can identify and address barriers that affect learner access, participation, and success.
The resources below highlight four connected areas that can help inform the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA), particularly when examining access gaps, disaggregated data, community perspectives, and barriers experienced by learners.
The Four-Part Series
- Understanding the Equity Challenge in CTE — Examine the historical and systemic conditions that can affect learner opportunity and participation.
- Examining Access and Achievement Gaps — Use disaggregated data and root-cause analysis to identify where inequities exist.
- Building Trust to Promote Equity in CTE — Strengthen relationships with learners, families, communities, and other stakeholders.
- Expanding Access to Opportunity — Identify and address barriers that can prevent learners from accessing high-quality CTE opportunities.
Using the Series with Your CLNA
As you move through the four sections, consider how the concepts and questions can help you interpret current local data, engage special populations and other stakeholders, investigate root causes, and identify strategies for improvement.
Original source: Explore the Making Good on the Promise resources from Advance CTE .