“From
the worlds of high school, college, workforce development, and
alternative education, people acknowledge the need to stanch the
leakage of young people out of our educational institutions. Double the
Numbers is a call to action—to reach across traditional boundaries and
significantly narrow the inequities in college and career success
between higher-income and lower-income Americans, between white and
minority students.”
Richard Kazis leads Jobs for the Future’s policy and research efforts.
In the early 1990s, he directed the organization’s initial multi-site
initiative on school-to-career models. Since then, he has led projects
on: local organizations that link schools and employers; community
colleges and low income populations; policies to promote low-wage
worker advancement; and the emerging role of labor market
intermediaries in workforce development.
Mr. Kazis directs JFF’s contributions to Achieving the Dream:
Community Colleges Count. JFF is one of ten national partners in
Achieving the Dream, a national initiative that promotes change to
improve student success at community colleges. The initiative works on
multiple fronts—including efforts at community colleges and in
research, public engagement and public policy—and emphasizes the use of
data to drive change. Achieving the Dream
is funded by Lumina
Foundation for Education, KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the Nellie Mae
Education Foundation. JFF coordinates the initiative’s effort to
improve state policies in seven targeted states.
Mr. Kazis also directs JFF’s Double the Numbers initiative. Double the
Numbers is designed to advance state and national policies that can
significantly increase the number of young people who make it to and
through college. The initiative identifies, assesses, and promotes new
and promising approaches to increasing efficiencies and reducing
inequities in the attainment of secondary and postsecondary education
credentials.
Richard Kazis is a former teacher at an alternative high school for
returning dropouts. He has also supervised a Neighborhood Youth Corps
program, helped organize fast food workers, managed a cooperative urban
food production wholesaler, built labor-environmental coalitions around
jobs, and studied informal, experiential learning in Israel. He is President
of the Board of the Brookline Education Foundation. Mr. Kazis is a graduate of
Harvard College and M.I.T.
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Adult Learners in Higher Education: Barriers to Success and Strategies to Improve Results
Send an email to: Richard Kazis
