The Department of Education has announced tests, test forms, and delivery formats that the Secretary determines to be suitable for use in the National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS).
The Department's September 21 FEDERAL REGISTER notice can be found at:
See: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-09-21/pdf/2018-20590.pdf
The Department's notice addresses these topics:
- Chronology of regulation development and test approvals (2008 - 2018)
- List of English as a Second Language (ESL) tests and test forms determined to be suitable for use in the NRS. (In the December 2016 notice, these ESL tests and test forms were approved for an extended period through February 2, 2019. Through this notice these ESL tests and test forms are approved for an additional period through February 2, 2021.)
- List of ESL tests previously approved for an extended period through February 2, 2019, and now approved for an additional extended period through February 2, 2021
- List of tests may be used at all Adult Basic Education (ABE) levels of the NRS during a sunset period ending on June 30, 2019
- List of Tests with NRS approvals expiring on February 2, 2019 that may be used in the NRS during a sunset period ending on June 30, 2019
- Expiring Tests
U.S. Department of Labor Awards Disaster Recovery Grant to North Carolina in Wake of Hurricane Florence
The U.S. Department of Labor on September 21, 2018 announced the award of a Disaster Recovery National Dislocated Worker Grant (DWG) to the North Carolina Department of Commerce to assess workforce needs in response to Hurricane Florence.
Hurricane Florence brought record amounts of rainfall and flooding to the affected counties. The storm received a major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on September 14, 2018, enabling the State to request DWG funding to assess workforce needs in the following 18 counties declared eligible for FEMA's Public Assistance Program: Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Jones, New Hanover, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Robeson, Sampson, and Wayne.
Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program Accreditors: ETA Seeks Comment on Voluntary Information Collection Request by November 19
The Employment and Training Administration is currently soliciting comments concerning proposed authority to conduct the voluntary information collection request (ICR) titled:
Data Collections from Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program Accreditors
Consideration will be given to all written comments received by November 19, 2018.
The September 20 FEDERAL REGISTER notice can be found at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-09-20/pdf/2018-20436.pdf
Library of Congress Launches Congressional Research Service Report Platform for the Public This Week; CRS Publishes "Research Evidence on the Impact of Work Requirements in Need-Tested Programs"
Post by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden:
I'm pleased to announce that, for the first time, the Library of Congress is providing Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports to the public. The reports are available online at crsreports.congress.gov . Created by experts in CRS, the reports present a legislative perspective on topics such as agriculture policy, counterterrorism operations, banking regulation, veteran's issues and much more.
Founded over a century ago, CRS provides authoritative and confidential research and analysis for Congress' deliberative use.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 directs the Library to also make CRS reports publicly available online. We worked closely with Congress to make sure that we had a mutual understanding of the law's requirements and Congress' expectations in our approach to this project.
The result is a new public website for CRS reports based on the same search functionality that Congress uses - designed to be as user friendly as possible - that allows reports to be found by common keywords. We believe the site will be intuitive for the public to use and will also be easily updated with enhancements made to the congressional site in the future.
Moving forward, all new or updated reports will be added to the website as they are made available to Congress. The Library is also working to make available the back catalog of previously published reports as expeditiously as possible. More details about this process can be found on the site's Frequently Asked Questions page.
CRS reports supplement the official congressional information the Library provides on its congress.gov website.
In keeping with our desire to engage users with the Library and its materials, we are happy to see these reports put to the widest use possible. I hope that you find them a useful addition to the many resources available to you from the Library of Congress.
On September 20, the platform added "Research Evidence on the Impact of Work Requirements in Need-Tested Programs."
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45317