Rethinking High School: The Next Frontier
for State Policymakers
Adult Basic Education and Community
Colleges in Five States
1Double the Numbers: Improving Success for Youth in High School and After
In October 2003, Jobs for the Future brought together over 500
leaders from schools, districts, postsecondary institutions, businesses,
states, and national organizations to promote policies that can
dramatically improve postsecondary outcomes for underrepresented
students—doubling the numbers who attain a postsecondary
credential. Double the Numbers, as well as research released
at the conference, highlighted current programs facilitating strong
high school-to-postsecondary transitions; explored the potential
for existing policies that open doors to greater educational attainment;
and identified needed changes in state governance and finance.
"The United States faces the daunting task of improving
a major pipeline that is seriously limited," said Hilary
Pennington, CEO of Jobs for the Future. "This pipeline is
not in a foreign nation. It is our education system, which wastes
human potential at an alarming rate."
Double the Numbers Conference: Education leaders, public
officials, and policymakers explored ways to "plug the leaks"
in the education pipeline and improve high school-to-college transition
rates, especially for lower-income and minority youth.
Higher Education Pipeline: Evaluation of Access and Attainment:
JFF commissioned the Parthenon Group to look at rates of high
school graduation, college entrance, and college success. The
research led to three major conclusions: (1) More education is
better for individuals and society. (2) Access to college is necessary
but not sufficient. (3) Targeted investments will help close the
"attainment gap" in the rates of college success for
underrepresented youth compared to all young people.
Leaks in the Postsecondary Pipeline: A Survey of Americans:
Conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates for JFF, this survey
shows that most Americans recognize that a college degree is critical
for economic success, yet they also believe that our education
system, particularly its high schools, is failing to prepare young
people for higher education.
2Helping All Students: Recommendations for State Policymakers
The National Governors
Association and JFF have released a new guide recommending policies
that governors and states can use to promote dramatic gains in
high school and postsecondary attainment for students from all
backgrounds. Ready for Tomorrow: Helping All Students Achieve
Secondary and Postsecondary Success, by Richard Kazis and
Hilary Pennington of JFF and Kristen Conklin of NGA, suggests
that governors and states develop policy frameworks with the following
components:
Expect improvement and measure it. Set
goals for increasing the numbers of students who finish high
school and complete a recognized postsecondary credential by
age 26.
Align, align, align. Establish rigorous,
statewide standards for high school exit calibrated to the requirements
of credit-bearing postsecondary courses and to entry into high-skill
occupations. Align K-12 and higher education accountability
and finance systems to provide common incentives for postsecondary
success.
Create more quality learning options
and target low-performing high schools. Promote a diverse supply
of high-quality options that ease the transition to postsecondary
education and give high school students greater choice among
good schools.
3Opportunity in Tough Times: Promoting Advancement for Low-Wage Workers
As this decade began, state officials and workforce development
practitioners were taking advantage of a strong economy, low unemployment,
and flush government budgets to expand opportunities for low-wage
workers to achieve self-sufficiency. Then, the economic and fiscal
situation deteriorated—dramatically in many states.
Yet some states, program operators, and others have found ways
to maintain efforts to advance low-wage workers in the face of
exceedingly difficult conditions. Their achievements—and
the limitations they have encountered—provide a body of
experience for understanding how advancement initiatives can succeed
even as the environment for them deteriorates. Opportunity in
Tough Times, by Claudia Green and Jack Mills, describes and draws
lessons from extensive interviews with state officials and practitioners.
4Local and State Organizations Join WINs: Initiative Boosts Skills and Job Prospects
In October,
Workforce Innovation Networks announced a major expansion, with
the addition of 15 organizations that are both actively engaging
employers with the public workforce development system and providing
lower-skilled workers training and support to succeed at work,
advance their careers, and increase their incomes. WINs is a partnership
of JFF with the Center for Workforce Success, the non-profit affiliate
of the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Center for
Workforce Preparation, a non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.
Each WINs partner selected four organizations to join the initiative.
In addition, WINs launched state-level partnerships in South Carolina,
Washington, and Wisconsin. All these efforts are funded by the
U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.
JFF selected the Capital Area Training Foundation (Austin, TX),
New Century Careers (Pittsburgh, PA), Wisconsin Regional Training
Partnership (Milwaukee, WI), and WorkSource Partners (Brookline,
MA) through the Career Advancement Strategy Competition. From among the 275 applicants to this competition, JFF identified
the nation's most innovative career advancement models meeting
two "win-win" criteria: they help lower-skilled workers
advance into better paying jobs, and they provide employers with
a higher-skilled workforce.
These organizations and many others came together in October
for Workforce Innovation Newtorks Showcase: Building High
Performance Intermediaries. The second annual Showcase provided
a learning and networking venue for about 250 workforce development
professionals and representatives of employer-led workforce development
intermediaries from around the country.
5Why We Need a New Secondary School System: An Agenda for State Leaders
Implementing the kinds
of changes that will make our education pipeline work as we need
it to will be very hard, especially given the budget crises in
the states today," noted JFF CEO Hilary Pennington in an
address to a Washington, DC, forum for educators, policymakers,
scholars, and business leaders. Nevertheless, she continued, "this
very environment will force us to create more 'out of the box'
solutions than we might consider in better times. Certainly, it
will require leaders with the vision and courage to take on entrenched
interests."
Pennington laid out six steps that state leaders can take to
improve postsecondary attainment rates. As she noted, "Many
states have some of these policies, but none have put them all
together as part of coherent, high-priority strategy."
The forum, "The American High School Crisis and State Policy
Solutions," was convened by the National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices and the National Center for Education
and the Economy.
Web Site: Cultural Competence, Jobs,
and Race
The Jobs Initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation has a new
Web site on race, ethnicity, cultural competence, and workforce
development. Cultural competence in workforce development means
understanding and integrating the behaviors, attitudes, and policies
that foster effective work in cross-cultural situations. The Web
site, http://www.aecf.org/jobsandrace,
includes tools, resources, a reading room, and more.
Web Site: Advocacy for Low-Wage Workers
This new Web site contains a tool kit, information, and other
resources designed to help people who care about building an economy
that works for all Americans—one that provides profit to
business owners and stable jobs with adequate pay and benefits
to employees. The materials are based on extensive research from
"For an Economy that Works for All," a communications
and technical assistance project funded by the Ford Foundation
and coordinated by Douglas Gould & Co., a public interest
communications firm. Web site: www.EconomyThatWorks.org.
Rethinking High School: The Next Frontier for State Policymakers
This new report from the Aspen Institute Program on Education
profiles the efforts of California, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont
to tackle high school reform on a statewide level. Prepared by
Patricia McNeil, former Assistant Secretary of Education and now
president of High School Solutions, it notes that reforms in all
four states are standards-based, and each state created an organizational
focal point to promote reform. For more informatation, go to: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/Programt2.asp?i=92.
Adult Basic Education and Community Colleges in Five States
This report compares selected program characteristics of community
college and non-community college programs in Oregon, California,
Iowa, Connecticut, and Hawaii, based on comparable data collected
by the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System. The characteristics
include enrollment, demographics, education level, retention,
staffing, service to welfare clients, and learning gains. For
more information, visit http://www.caalusa.org/occasionalpapers.html
#anchor503841.
Double the Numbers: Improving Success for Youth in High School and After
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