2015 Annual report.
Last year was an extraordinary year for career and technical
education (CTE). In June, President Obama signed an executive order
creating the U.S. Presidential Scholars in Career and Technical
Education program. Each year, this program will recognize the excellent
work of up to 20 of our outstanding CTE students.
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In another first, on June 30, first lady Michelle Obama hosted the
White House event Celebrating Innovations in Career and Technical
Education, which was organized by the Department of Education's
Office for Career, Technical, and Adult Education, the Association for
Career and Technical Education (ACTE), the National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, and the National
Coordinating Council for Career and Technical Student Organizations. At
this function, the first lady praised CTE as a promising option for all
students.
During the debate in the Senate on the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, several amendments beneficial to
CTE were introduced and passed with bipartisan support. ACTE policy
staff have commented on the increasing attention being paid to CTE in
Congress.
These events demonstrate the importance of CTE programs to our
country's success, which is being recognized at the local, state
and national levels of government. This is due to the hard work of every
person in the CTE community. Whether you are an instructor,
administrator, guidance counselor, executive director, ACTE staff or
whatever your role is, your work has been instrumental in the success
that CTE is enjoying today.
Our challenge is to continue to build on these successes, which
will require a commitment on all our parts. In 2015, your ACTE
leadership team and the ACTE staff focused on increasing the number of
our CTE colleagues who become ACTE members. ACTE staff has developed
several initiatives to increase membership, but the most effective
membership recruitment is that done at the grass-roots level. You, as
the individual member, can reach out and touch people and convince them
to be members.
I challenge you in 2016 to continue your hard work, get involved,
become a leader in your area and encourage your colleagues to join our
team as a member of ACTE.
Thank you for all you do for CTE. Keep up the good work.
Doug Meyer
ACTE President, 2015-2016
PUBLIC POLICY, ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH
IT WAS A VERY BUSY YEAR FOR CTE POLICY. ACTE STAFF REPRESENTED YOUR
INTERESTS in debates on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA), the Higher Education Act (HEA), federal funding and many other
bills, as well as the administration's implementation of the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
As is often the case, our advocacy activity early in 2015 focused a
great deal on the FY 2016 budget and appropriations process. For the
first time in a number of years, Appropriations Committees in both the
House and Senate approved their Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Education Appropriations bills. Both bills cut education funding overall
significantly, but maintained funding for the Perkins Basic State Grant,
which is a big victory for CTE! Unfortunately, bills stalled due to
larger debates about overall spending caps and priorities, and Congress
was faced with a decision about whether to pass a continuing resolution
to keep the government operating as this report went to press.
The greatest congressional progress in 2015 was made on the
reauthorization of ESEA, with both chambers approving bills in the
summer and beginning conference committee negotiations. Throughout the
process, ACTE worked to strengthen the integration of academic and CTE
instruction within the bill, including through accountability,
professional development, and career guidance and counseling provisions.
We had a number of amendments included in the Senate bill in particular,
and we are now working with Congress to ensure those provisions are
maintained in any final law.
As ESEA activity shifted to the conference negotiations, both the
House and Senate turned some of their attention toward the next bill up
for reauthorization, HEA. ACTE staff closely tracked the hearing process
and submitted comments in response to committee requests for
information. In addition, we worked on a number of individual bills
related to our CTE priorities, such as increasing access to financial
aid for short-term programs.
In late summer, we also finalized our positions for the pending
reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program,
and we submitted comments on draft legislation to the House Ways and
Means Committee. We weighed in on the reauthorization of the Healthy,
Hunger-Free Kids Act, as well, supporting an exemption for school-based
enterprises from the competitive food rules. And, while Congress'
focus has not been on Perkins reauthorization, we continue to engage in
conversations with congressional offices, as well as other education,
workforce and business groups, on ACTE's reauthorization
priorities. We are well-positioned for the next steps in the process.
On the regulatory front, we closely followed efforts to implement
the new WIOA. We responded to several federal register notices with
official comments, participated in meetings with administration
officials and developed resources for CTE stakeholders to promote their
active engagement in WIOA activities. For example, in June we partnered
with the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical
Education Consortium and the National Skills Coalition on a webinar and
fact sheet on CTE and WIOA alignment.
We also continued to track CTE policy efforts on the state level in
an effort to identify trends and share best practices among CTE
stakeholders. Last January, we jointly released our second annual state
policy paper, "State Policies Impacting CTE: 2014 Year in
Review,'' and we participated in a corresponding webinar.
To provide the research and data necessary to support both state
and policy work, we continue to develop new resources and publications,
including expanding our line of sector sheets focusing on how CTE
contributes to meeting skill demands in critical career sectors, such as
transportation, hospitality and financial services, and updating current
fact sheets and infographics to ensure the latest information is
available for advocacy work. We produced a new issue sheet on CTE's
role in rural education, as well.
ACTE continued its focus on data quality through work as a partner
with the national Workforce Data Quality Campaign. We participated in
several presentations, including a briefing on Capitol Hill, to
highlight our efforts to increase the availability of data and
information on student credentials, particularly industry
certifications. Our efforts on industry certifications also included
providing leadership and support for the Certification Data Exchange
Project--an effort to expand and improve data exchange between
industry-certification organizations and state longitudinal-data
systems. In addition to this project, we have joined several other
certification-related efforts to ensure the CTE community is represented
in these discussions.
Finally, last year we launched our High-quality CTE Initiative, a
multi-step project to identify a comprehensive, research-based quality
CTE program of study framework, test the framework and integrate it into
our efforts to recognize and disseminate information on best practices
within CTE. The first phase of the broader project focuses on defining
high-quality CTE, and in July, we released "Defining High-quality
CTE: Contemporary Perspectives on CTE Quality." This paper examined
a broad range of documents from a variety of national sources to analyze
trends in the CTE quality conversation, and it will be used as the
foundation for the next phase of the project.
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ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS
Online Seminars
We kicked off 2015 with our highly anticipated "Gender Equity
in STEM" online seminar series featuring the National Alliance for
Partnerships in Equity and Girls in Tech. Both organizations'
seminars were well-attended and garnered on average 130 views on
YouTube. Following the success of our January online seminars, in
February ACTE launched its first joint seminar with NASDCTEc to review
the major state policy trends that affected CTE in 2014. This also
coincided with the release of the joint publication, "State
Policies Impacting CTE: 2014 Year in Review."
After another successful National Policy Seminar at the beginning
of March, ACTE decided to branch out and highlight the global influence
of CTE by partnering with the Asia Society and Longview Foundation for
its March online seminar that focused on how educators can develop their
students' global competency via CTE. Later in the spring, ACTE
launched a number of online seminars featuring topics ranging from
cybersecurity to the latest Web tools for CTE classrooms.
In the summer, ACTE shifted its focus back to CareerTech VISION
2015, working with speakers such as Michael Cruse ("Resources for
Sustainable Schools") and Mark Perna ("How to Attract and
Retain More of the Right Students!") to give ACTE members a preview
of their research and promote their upcoming sessions at VISION. During
this time ACTE also worked on restructuring its online seminar format in
an effort to make this member benefit more accessible to our growing
audience. As a result, last September ACTE launched its first online
seminar in the new format. ACTE's September ASVAB Army online
seminar, "This Is Not Your Grandfather's ASVAB," was not
a live online seminar, but a recorded session that can be viewed only by
ACTE members. Now, ACTE members can view online seminars the day they
launch--anytime and anywhere.
Lastly, in June ACTE successfully released the first installment of
its Microdocs series. These short documentaries featured CTE schools in
the D.C. and northern Virginia area, and they profiled exceptional
students in their programs. Along with the release of six Microdocs,
ACTE also raised over $1,000 via a crowdfunding campaign to continue
production on the Microdocs series.
Social Engagement Report
One of the best sources for CTE news and Association updates is
ACTE's social media channels. In 2015, ACTE launched two Twitter
and Facebook advocacy campaigns, one in June promoting various ESEA
amendments and another in September asking Congress to raise spending
caps. During each campaign period ACTE's social media channels
received on average 300 new followers on Facebook and Twitter.
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Overall during the year, with our coverage of the White House event
Celebrating Innovations in Career and Technical Education, our advocacy
campaigns and promotions of ACTE's 2014 Excellence Awards winner
videos, ACTE gained 1,391 followers on Twitter and more than 500 new
fans on Facebook.
One of the ways we continue to expand our reach on social media is
by strengthening our relationship with the U.S. Army. Last year, we
released three infographics with our Army partners to emphasize the
bridge between CTE and various Army careers. These infographics have
attracted hundreds of views, and they are currently housed on
ACTE's official Pinterest page. In 2015, our Pinterest page
remained consistent with 426 average daily impressions on ACTE's
pins, including infographics.
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MEDIA ACTIVITIES
ACTE PARTICIPATED IN A NUMBER OF OUTREACH ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT
2015 to engage media in CTE awareness. Last year marked a number of
successes for the Association, including op-ed placements in several
industry leader-focused publications such as Industry Week and Lodging
Magazine. In addition, ACTE leaders worked to connect with other
stakeholder groups through media outreach, including in a published
letter to the editor of School Administrator.
Another major event in ACTE's media work was an interview with
Executive Director LeAnn Wilson and Legislative and Public Affairs
Manager Sean Lynch in U.S. News and World Report's newly published
book, A Parent's Guide to STEM, which emphasized the role of CTE
programs in preparing students for STEM careers.
ACTE was interviewed in, or provided commentary in, a number of
publications and outlets, including CNBC, Education Week, the Hechinger
Report, U.S. News and World Report, Education Daily and District
Administration.
CTE Month[R] 2015
During February 2015, we held our CTE Month public awareness
campaign. We emphasized the theme, "Recognizing Classroom
Innovators," by spreading the word about excellent CTE educators
and the methods they use to both teach students skills needed for CTE
careers and also to instill in these students the desire to invent and
create, encouraging our members and organizational partners to do the
same.
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We held our CTE Month school visit at Montgomery College of
Maryland. There, students, educators, administrators and business
leaders spoke about the value of the college's Construction
Management and Hospitality Management programs and how they prepare
students to either directly enter a career in the field or seek a
four-year degree. We also created a webinar on how to host a school
visit.
ACTE's other efforts related to CTE Month spanned many
different types of outreach and media. We held our CTE Month video PSA
contest, where students from CTE programs from across the country had
the chance to film their strong programs in action. We wrote guest blogs
for the National Center for Construction Education and Research and STEM
Smart brief on the value of CTE Month. We had an interview with the
radio show Education Talk Radio, and we collaborated with the Office of
Career, Technical, and Adult Education to create shared tweets and
Facebook posts on CTE Month. (We also used, and encouraged other
organizations to use, #CTEMonth to organize our different types of
social media outreach related to CTE Month.)
Finally, we held a briefing on Capitol Hill in partnership with
Project Lead The Way, where students demonstrated their innovative
projects to Congress and their staff, and we worked with congressional
staff to secure statements from the House and Senate recognizing CTE
Month.
LEADERSHIP
IN 2015, ACTE SPEARHEADED A NUMBER OF NEW ACTIVITIES TO EXPAND
OPPORTUNITIES for members to engage with the Association and develop
their leadership potential. These activities support ACTE's
strategic goal to develop a strong leadership pipeline and cultivate
ambassadors for the organization.
Educators in Action
In 2015, ACTE launched new efforts to engage, educate and empower
ACTE volunteers through the Educators in Action initiative. Educators in
Action is a small army of ACTE members who volunteer their time and
expertise to advocate for ACTE and CTE in their communities; write for
ACTE's publications; provide input on ACTE's professional
development offerings; and serve on committees, task forces and advisory
groups to work toward ACTE's strategic goals. To support this
initiative, ACTE launched a quarterly e-newsletter and online seminar
series for volunteers, initiated new advisory groups and coordinated new
opportunities for Educators in Action to participate in meaningful
volunteer work.
Educators in Action Blog
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As part of the initiative to further engage ACTE members, the
Educators in Action blog was reinvigorated. The new interactive blog
platform gives members a forum to share their experiences, best
practices and opinions, or comment on breaking news. It is an exciting
way for educators to communicate with their peers and generate
conversations about the world of CTE. Beginning in September, the blog
partnered with Techniques to publish select blog posts in the "Tell
Us What You Think" section of the magazine.
Storytellers: ACTE's Legacy
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Past ACTE board members worked together to plan and implement a
special meeting at VISION 2015 to share the history of ACTE and the
wisdom of ACTE's former leaders. In conjunction with this effort,
Gary Moore, a former ACTE president, assisted staff in creating a video
about the history of CTE and ACTE.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
THROUGHOUT 2015, ACTE CONTINUED TO INCREASE OUTREACH AND FORGE NEW
relationships with strategic partners in order to expand awareness of
the Association and CTE, and to secure support for existing and new
initiatives of value to our members and the broader CTE community. In
addition, ACTE continued improving and developing processes and
strategies related to this work in order to increase effectiveness and
measure progress.
Many of this year's activities evolved from relationships with
existing partners:
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Asia Society--Built on previous discussions centered on how to
better prepare students for the globally evolving workforce, ACTE worked
with the Asia Society to develop a toolkit that will help CTE teachers
integrate global competency into their classrooms. The initiative was
made possible through a grant from the Project Management Institute
Educational Foundation, and will incorporate project management
principles in the design.
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CareerSafe--ACTE partnered with CareerSafe, which initiated a new
Safety Educator of the Year Award to recognize exceptional educators who
identify and mitigate workplace hazards. The partnership included
cross-promotional activities by both ACTE and CareerSafe, as well as
prize money donated by CareerSafe. The new award was announced at the
VISION 2015 Awards Banquet.
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MultiView--A new alliance with this digital advertising provider
for display ads on the ACTE website rapidly changed the way the
Association supports vendors whose focus is on the CTE community.
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National Association of State Directors of Career Technical
Education Consortium--ACTE's relationship with NASDCTEc continued
to grow. Last year, ACTE was asked by NASDCTEc to partner as one of a
select group of co-conveners of the National CTE Summit to work together
to chart a new vision for the future of CTE. Additionally, we worked
together on a variety of projects aligned to our codeveloped action plan
such as the inclusion of the Career Clusters Institute within VISION.
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National Career Academy Coalition--Building on the work begun in
2014, ACTE participated in 2015 on the NCAC Board of Directors. NCAC
hosted a pre-conference ' workshop at VISION 2015. Additionally,
NCAC and ACTE provide a joint membership option for schools to join both
organizations at the same time; this option is focused on ACTE's
silver educational institutional membership.
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NC3T--ACTE continued its partnership with NC3T. Our focus for 2015
was to develop and share resources to assist school leaders with their
planning and review of projects like programs of study and career
pathways development. The CTE Clinic also expanded to provide virtual
training for school teams working to implement new strategic directions.
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National Center for Construction Education and Research--NCCER
continued to expand its support for ACTE members through a variety of
initiatives, including hosting the Construction Careers Pathways
Conference at VISION 2015, supporting ACTE's region conferences and
other events, as well as showcasing their innovative Build Your Future
career campaign in Association activities.
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NOCTI--Your First Year in CTE: 10 Things to Know, the second
publication with NOCTI in as many years, is a fresh
"quick-start" guide for those teachers new to the CTE
classroom. NOCTI also worked with us to coordinate with other
credentialing/certification organizations to create a new Credential
Corner on the VISION 2015 Expo floor. And in support of our CORE
Community, NOCTI developed and contributed a new microcredential or
"badge" for course completers to access and share their
newfound expertise at integrating core academic concepts into their CTE
classrooms.
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Stratasys--Stratasys has produced the 3D-printed ACTE Excellence
Award trophies for the past three years. In 2015, ACTE partnered with
Stratasys to launch a new student contest to redesign the trophies,
which presents an exciting opportunity to recognize excellence in CTE
while celebrating the ingenuity of CTE students. The winning design will
be used for the trophies presented at the 2016 ACTE Awards Banquet in
Las Vegas.
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U.S. Army--ACTE continued its strong partnership with the U.S.
Army. Last year's activities included production of two
infographics: one on the Army's ASVAB testing program and another
on health and medical careers. Both sources of content were included in
ACTE's online seminar series. The Army also supported ACTE's
leadership program and was a sponsor of VISION 2015.
Last year, new partnerships were developed with a number of
organizations, including the following:
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Cengage Learning--A new portal was launched on the ACTE website
that offers a 40 percent discount to ACTE members for Cengage
short-course registration. The portal includes a variety of offerings
and flipped learning opportunities, certificates and CEUs for some
online courses. These professional services help CTE educators build
their skills and reach their career goals and objectives.
Labor Occupational Health Programs, University of California at
Berkeley--ACTE partnered on a grant awarded to LOHP from the Center for
Construction Research and Training and the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health. The work will contribute to
understanding the quality of occupational safety and health instruction
provided in construction-related CTE programs at the community and
technical college levels.
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National Academy Foundation--Building on a series of partnerships
with like-minded organizations, ACTE joined forces with NAF to better
coordinate each organization's activities in an effort to avoid
duplication and support practitioners. The agreement includes
crosspromotions of conferences and special rates for ACTE and NAF
members.
2015 ACTE Award Winners
In November 2014 at the Awards Banquet at Career Tech VISION in
Nashville, ACTE recognized the following career and technical educators,
professionals and business leaders for 2015:
Teacher of the Year
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Clyde McBride, Kayenta Unified School District, Kayenta, Arizona
(sponsored by Express Employment Professionals)
Career Guidance Award
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Jeanie Bragg, Denton Independent School District, Denton, Texas
(sponsored by Kuder)
Administrator of the Year
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Gregory Shipp, Conroe Independent School District, Conroe, Texas
Postsecondary Teacher of the Year
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Janet Burns, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
New Teacher of the Year
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Eric Mathews, Akron Public Schools, Akron, Ohio
Carl Perkins Community Service Award
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Kristal Young, Monticello Middle School, Monticello, Arkansas
Lifetime Achievement Award
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Leslie Watkins, McCracken County Schools (Retired), Paducah,
Kentucky
Business Leader of the Year
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Timm Boettcher, President and CEO, Realityworks, Inc.
Business of the Year
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Emerson Climate Technologies, Sidney, Ohio
Champion of the Year
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Lee Leffingwell, Mayor of Austin, Texas
2016 Awards
In March 2015, 35 state associations moved a record 128 state
Member Award winners forward for consideration at the region level for
the 2016 awards program. Of these, 33 region winners were selected to
move forward to the national level. In July 2015, the Board of Directors
also recognized three national recipients of the ACTE Image Awards,
which celebrate CTE supporters from the business, industry and education
communities.
The 2016 ACTE award winners were announced and honored at the 2015
Awards Banquet in New Orleans during VISION 2015. Members can view the
winner announcements on ACTE's website at
www.acteonline.org/awards, and they will also be featured in the
February 2016 issue of Techniques. For their generous support of the
awards program and the event, ACTE would like to thank the following
sponsors:
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Achieve 100
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During CTE Month, 65 schools and institutions were awarded the 2015
Achieve 100 Award by ACTE. The Achieve 100 Award is presented to those
schools that have 100 percent ACTE membership participation from all
members of their career and technical staff.
MEMBERSHIP
ACTE, TOGETHER WITH THE STATE ASSOCIATIONS, IS A DIVERSIFIED
organization supporting, showcasing and advancing the field of CTE,
representing all facets of the profession from CTE teachers,
administrators and counselors to advocates, students, non-profit
organizations and corporations.
With the implementation of ACTE's National Universe Campaign,
ACTE experienced in 2015 a rise in new members compared to FY 2014. Our
largest new member hikes in FY 2015 occurred from August to November,
running from 412 to 833 new members each month. These spikes were due to
individuals who joined in time to attend VISION and/or an ACTE state
association summer conference. For the remaining months, ACTE averaged
193 new members per month in FY 2015. In 2016, we will focus our efforts
on better retaining and caring for our existing members, as that is
where the decline over the last several years continues to occur.
Last year's member survey yielded the overwhelming message to
better communicate the value of (modern) CTE to the general public,
administrators and parents. The members asked for it in a variety of
ways: a solid public awareness campaign for CTE, promotional products
and messages celebrating the profession and many faces of CTE, documents
that address the importance of trade skills in our economy and talking
points for counselors. We will work to fulfill these needs over the
course of 2016.
In 2015, ACTE endeavored to work in concert with our members, state
ACTE associations and the CTE community at-large. Some highlights are
featured here:
* The 2015 National Universe Campaign reached 34,674 CTE
professionals, including administrators, guidance counselors, CTE
teachers, postsecondary CTE contacts and many others through direct mail
campaigns that generated public awareness of membership benefits, our
events and professional development resources. With 211,313 CTE
professionals nationwide, we will continue to work with state leaders
and partner organizations, as well as via direct mail and lists
targeting new prospects, to help grow ACTE's network of CTE
professionals at local, state and national levels.
* ACTE Membership staff revamped the joint membership brochure to
further reinforce the tremendous importance of the state ACTE
associations and our collaborative efforts to advocate the importance of
CTE, ensuring our nation's students are college-and career-ready,
and to provide our members with some of the most enriching and
informative professional development opportunities.
* ACTE division vice presidents helped Membership staff to craft
marketing material that provides members and prospective members with
additional information that more thoroughly describes the professional
development opportunities available from ACTE. In 2016, we will work to
expand the availability of division marketing pieces to further showcase
their work.
* Driven by the ACTE Leadership Department's efforts to create
materials to support prospective unification with non-unified states, we
developed a unification benefits document that is a valuable tool to
promote unification at state board and leadership meetings. ACTE was
delighted to welcome the newly unified Nevada and Alaska ACTE in 2015!
* An updated "STEM is CTE" poster highlights the CTE
classroom's hands-on learning environment that brings STEM concepts
to life, applies core academics to real-world situations and promotes
the use of creative problem-solving skills to tackle our nation's
most pressing issues.
Boots on the Ground
ACTE leadership works diligently to spread CTE awareness, advocate
on behalf of our members and inform the general public about the
essential role CTE plays in our students' lives and nation's
prosperity. In 2015 alone, ACTE participated in all five region meetings
and 38 state conferences: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado,
Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,
Montana, New Mexico, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Region
I (Virginia), Region II (Alabama), Region III (Iowa), Region IV
(Arkansas) and Region V (Kansas).
ACTE also took part in the following CTE and education events:
* 2015 Meeting of the National Network of Statewide Afterschool
Networks
* 2015 Student CTE Innovators Conference
* Advanced Career and Technical Education Principal Investigators
Conference (National Science Foundation)
* Future Business Leaders of America
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* Louisiana's Community and Technical College System Annual
Conference
* Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators
* NAF NEXT 2015 (National Academy Foundation)
* National Association of State Administrators of Family and
Consumer Sciences Spring Conference
* National Association of State Directors of Career Technical
Education Consortium Meetings and CTE Summit
* National Board for Professional Teacher Standards Teaching and
Learning Conference
* National FFA Convention
* NCAC Annual Conference
* NCCER Workforce Development Committee Meetings
* New Jersey CTE Summit
* New Jersey Education Association Conference
* New York CTE Professional Organization Conference
* Northern New England CTE Consortium
* Pennsylvania Career and Technical Administrator Summer Conference
* Southwest Pathways Conference
* Trust for Insuring Educators Annual Meeting
* United Federation of Teachers Spring Conference
National Policy Seminar 2015
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Close to 400 education advocates participated in ACTE's 2015
National Policy Seminar to educate their congressional leaders about
local CTE programming needs. The event also provided attendees with
advocacy training, sessions on federal funding for CTE and key
information on legislation impacting CTE at local and national levels.
Don't miss your chance to advocate on behalf of the CTE community
February 29-March 2 in Arlington, Virginia, at NPS 2016.
2015 Best Practices
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Two hundred and twenty-one CTE leaders gathered September 23-25 at
the annual Best Practices and Innovations in CTE Conference hosted
jointly by ACTE and the National Council of Local Administrators in
Phoenix, Arizona. Attendees had access to myriad keynote presenters,
workshops and breakout sessions focusing on integrating the Common Core
into the CTE classroom, business and industry partnerships, college- and
career-readiness standards, flipped classrooms, student health and
safety, and more. Join us in Tampa, Florida, for 2016 Best Practices
September 28-30.
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100 Lakeforest Boulevard , Suite 650 Gaithersburg, MD 20877
P: 301-948 -9825
F: 301-948 -3220
21 0 Wirt Street SW, Suite 1 02 Leesburg, VA 20175
P: 571-442 -5220
F: 571-730-3669
www.deleonandstang.com
Allen P. Deleon , CPA, PFS
Richard C. Stang , CPA, PFS , ABV
Daniel L. Dellon , CPA, ABV, CFF
Bradly L. Hoffman , CPA
Jeanie Price , AAAPM
INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT
Board of Directors
Association for Career and Technical Education
Alexandria, Virginia
We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the
Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), which comprise
the statements of financial position as of June 30, 2015 and 2014, and
the related statements of activities, functional expenses and cash flows
for the years then ended, and the related notes to the financial
statements.
Management's Responsibility for the Financial Statements
Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation
of these financial statements in accordance with accounting principles
generally accepted in the United States of America; this includes the
design, implementation, and maintenance of internal control relevant to
the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are
free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
Auditors' Responsibility
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial
statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits in accordance
with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of
America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to
obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are
free from material misstatement.
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence
about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The
procedures selected depend on the auditor's judgment, including the
assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial
statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk
assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the
entity's preparation and fair presentation of the financial
statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in
the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on
the effectiveness of the entity's internal control. Accordingly, we
express no such opinion. An audit also includes evaluating the
appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of
significant accounting estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient
and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.
Opinion
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present
fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the
Association for Career and Technical Education as of June 30, 2015 and
2014, and the changes in its net assets and its cash flows for the years
then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted
in the United States of America.
Other Matter
Our audits were conducted for the purpose of forming an opinion on
the financial statements as a whole. The schedules of unrestricted,
board designated net assets and the schedules of temporarily restricted
net assets shown on pages 20-23 are presented for purposes of additional
analysis and are not a required part of the financial statements. Such
information is the responsibility of management and was derived from and
relates directly to the underlying accounting and other records used to
prepare the financial statements. The information has been subjected to
the auditing procedures applied in the audit of the financial statements
and certain additional procedures, including comparing and reconciling
such information directly to the underlying accounting and other records
used to prepare the financial statements or to the financial statements
themselves, and other additional procedures in accordance with auditing
standards generally accepted in the United States of America. In our
opinion, the information is fairly stated in all material respects in
relation to the financial statements as a whole.
DeLeon & Stang, CPAs Gaithersburg, Maryland September 18,2015
This published vers ion of the auditor 's report constitutes
only a summary of the complete report. Full reports are available upon
request.
ASSOCIATION FOR CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Statements of Financial Position
June 30, 2015 and 2014
ASSETS 2015 2014
Assets:
Cash and cash equivalents $ 261,538 $ 190,467
Restricted cash 3,409 3,906
Investments in marketable securities 3,742,532 3,276,582
Accounts receivable 37,770 1,477
Inventory 26,351 4,281
Prepaid expenses and other assets 229,000 48,944
Property and equipment, net of 1,786,569 1,918,822
accumulated depreciation
TOTAL ASSETS $ 6,087,169 $ 5,604,479
LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS
Liabilities:
Accounts payable and other liabilities $ 208,631 $ 121,135
Deferred revenue 1,253,632 1,011,490
Rental deposits 7,010 7,010
Note payable 511,453 567,073
Total liabilities 1,980,726 1,706,708
Net Assets:
Unrestricted net assets 2,002,018 1,781,925
Unrestricted net assets, Board-Designated
Regions and Divisions 356,177 370,620
Unrestricted net assets, Board-Designated
Capital Improvements/Reserves 1,514,577 1,514,577
Temporarily restricted net assets 233,671 230,649
Total net assets 4,106,443 3,897,771
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS $ 6,087,169 $ 5,604,479
ASSOCIATION FOR CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION
Statements of Activities
For the Years Ended June 30, 2015 and 2014
2015
Temporarily
Unrestricted Restricted Total
Revenue and Support:
Membership dues $ 1,621,712 $ - $ 1,621,712
Contributions 170,306 26,714 197,020
Sponsorship 180,800 - 180,800
Program service revenue:
Convention, conferences and
workshops 1,970,629 - 1,970,629
Publications 153,641 - 153,641
Advertising 237,709 - 237,709
Rental income 183,186 - 183,186
Service fees 4,412 - 4,412
Other revenue 178,725 - 178,725
Investment income 30,185 1,857 32,042
Net assets released 25,549 (25,549) -
from restrictions
Total revenue and support 4,756,854 3,022 4,759,876
Expenses:
Program services:
Convention, conferences and
workshops 1,085,691 - 1,085,691
Publications 862,425 - 862,425
Government relations 390,551 - 390,551
Regions & divisions 159,714 - 159,714
Education services 201,934 201,934
Total program services 2,700,315 - 2,700,315
Supporting services:
Finance & operations 954,774 - 954,774
Membership 462,383 - 462,383
Governance 433,732 - 433,732
Total supporting services 1,850,889 - 1,850,889
Total expenses 4,551,204 - 4,551,204
Change in net assets 205,650 3,022 208,672
Net assets at beginning
of year 3,667,122 230,649 3,897,771
Net assets at end of year 3,872,772 $ 233,671 $ 4,106,443
