The Expectations Gap: A
50-State Review of High School Graduation Requirements
State Policies to Assist Working-Poor Families
Vertex: The Online Journal
for Adult And Workforce Education
1Fast Track to College: Increasing Postsecondary Success for All Students
JFF co-founder Hilary Pennington proposes the
development of three “fast track to college” alternatives
to the traditional high school senior year, each of which would
enable students to get a head start toward the goal of education
for all through grade 14: an “Academic Head Start on College”
to give academically motivated students the option of accelerating
their progress through high school and college; an “Accelerated
Career/Technical College” to give career/technical students
a head start on earning transferable college credits at the same
time as they prepare for entry-level jobs; and “College
in the Community” to give students a deliberately structured
“gap year” of community service and work experience
in place of, rather than after, the traditional senior year.
Fast Track to College,
prepared for the Center for American Progress, is one of a series
of Double the Numbers publications that Jobs for the Future will
prepare in the coming year. Double the Numbers, an initiative
of JFF, is designed to deepen support for policies that can dramatically
increase the number of low-income young people who enter and complete
postsecondary education. The initiative is supported by the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
2Building Skills, Increasing Economic Vitality: A Handbook of Innovative State Policies
Across the country, creative, entrepreneurial
state policymakers and officials are considering new ways to build
the skills of low-wage workers and increase the vitality of state
economies. Building Skills, Increasing
Economic Vitality, by Radha Roy Biswas, Jack Mills, and
Heath Prince of JFF, highlights some of the most promising developments
in state workforce and skill development policy, focusing on four
areas: redesigning financing for workforce development; strengthening
workforce development/economic development linkages; building
the capacity of workforce intermediaries; and expanding community
college capacity.
Building Skills, Increasing
Economic Vitalityhighlights state policies that respond
to the complexities of the global economy. And these policies
have been designed and implemented about despite tough fiscal
conditions, restrictive federal regulations, and states’
own institutional silos and roadblocks. This handbook will help
states learn quickly from the best efforts of their peers, accelerating
the trend toward coherent state policies that build skills and
promote economic vitality over the long run.
3Big Buildings, Small Schools: Using a Small Schools Strategy for High School Reform
How can large, under-performing urban high schools become learning
environments characterized by academic rigor, curricular relevance,
and mutually supportive relationships? One strategy, being tried
in a growing number of school districts, is to transform their
large high schools into complexes of smaller ones.
Big Buildings, Small Schoolsexplores
how these communities are using small school development as a
central strategy for improving large high schools and overhauling
the way school districts do business. As authors Lili Allen and
Adria Steinberg write, “For school districts, the process
of converting schools from large to small offers a potentially
powerful opportunity to create a ‘defining moment’
of change at the school site--an opportunity to provide the most
fertile conditions for excellent teaching and learning.” Big Buildings, Small Schools explores the implementation and policy issues that arise in this
process, describing key decision points and trade-offs faced by
school reform leaders.
Big Buildings, Small Schools is a joint publication of JFF and The Education Alliance at Brown
University, with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Print copies are available by contacting info@jff.org.
4 Foundations Target Dropout Crisis: Five Cities Receive Grants for Innovative Partnerships
Three foundations are putting a total of $2 million into an
initiative to support local efforts to combat the silent crisis
of too many students dropping out of high school. Nationally,
more than 30% of students do not complete high school in a timely
way. In some inner-city neighborhoods, the odds of high school
graduation are only fifty-fifty.
In response to this alarming trend, several funders have come
together to support efforts in selected cities to improve educational
options and outcomes for the growing numbers of struggling and
out-of-school youth. The Youth Transition Funders Group, a group
of local, regional, and national philanthropies, has announced
grants to enable five cities to strengthen their strategies for
reducing the numbers of young people who drop out and reconnecting
those who have left school. Three members of the Youth Transition
Funders Group--the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation--have
provided funding for the new grant program.
Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland (OR), and San
Jose (CA) will receive grants of $275,000 each from the Initiative
to Support Struggling Students and Out-of-School Youth. The grants
will fund broad-based partnerships that include educational advocacy
groups, public school districts, public care agencies, service
providers, parents, youth, and other stakeholders. The initiative
will also support extensive technical assistance and cross-site
learning activities. JFF is staffing this initiative and providing
strategic consultation to the city partnerships.
5Investing in Workforce Intermediaries: Grants Support Demonstrations to Build Capacity
America’s prosperity depends on the strength of its workforce,
yet over a third of the U.S. workforce lacks the skills needed
to succeed in today’s labor market. In cities across the
nation, a variety of organizations play the role of workforce
intermediary, organizing the key stakeholders and local resources
to help workers to gain the skills they need and businesses to
access the skilled labor they need. Investing
in Workforce Intermediaries, a project of the Annie E.
Casey, Rockefeller, and Ford foundations, seeks to build the capacity
of these workforce intermediaries by: building local/regional
workforce intermediary capacity in metropolitan areas and states;
and building national support for workforce intermediary capacity.
Investing in and supporting workforce intermediaries in key metropolitan
areas and states will provide important lessons about how workforce
systems can better upgrade the skills and incomes of the poor.
In January, the funders announced the first investments with
grants to citywide efforts in Boston, Austin, San Francisco, and
New York City, plus a statewide grant for Pennsylvania. To begin
their work, project leaders from each of these sites, as well
as foundation representatives, came together in December 2004
at a meeting organized by Jobs for the Future as part of its work
helping to staff the national project. The meeting gave the sites
an opportunity to begin shaping a common purpose and direction
for their work. It also began a process for each of the various
projects to learn from the others’ approaches to building
the capacity of workforce intermediaries and promoting change
in the broader workforce development system.
6 Toward a Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund: Legislation Filed in Massachusetts
In December 2004, legislation was filed to create
a Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund in Massachusetts. The proposed
“Workforce Solutions Act of 2005” would make, the
legislation states, “investments in employer and community-based
workforce development activities in order to maintain and increase
economic vitality in Massachusetts and to promote business competitiveness,
worker self-sufficiency, and economic progress.”
The legislation was prepared by the Workforce
Solutions Group, the public policy advocacy partnership funded
by SkillWorks: Partners for a Productive Workforce to work on
workforce development systems reform in the state. SkillWorks
is the single largest public/private investment in workforce development
in Boston’s history. The initiative seeks to change the
way employers hire and promote entry-level workers from Boston’s
neighborhoods. Jobs for the Future plans and manages the overall
initiative and its Public Policy Advocacy component.
7 Making a Difference in Our Community: JFF Hosts Breakfast Forum
In conjunction with Martin Luther King’s
birthday, JFF invited leaders from Boston-area CBOs, foundations,
and government to a community breakfast to learn about two innovative
initiatives that are improving the lives of Boston residents and
to explore the challenges and opportunities of new ways to make
an impact in our community. Both Boston’s High School Renewal
Initiative and SkillWorks: Partners for a Productive Workforce
bring together community-based organizations, employers, schools,
and other institutions to make a powerful difference.
This annual breakfast forum is part of JFF’s
efforts to initiate an ongoing dialogue direct service communities
in the Boston area and to give new exposure and networking opportunities.
It provides participants with an opportunity to learn about JFF,
what we are doing in our project work, and how that work might
offer new avenues or solutions for their constituencies or members.
SKILLWORKS:This ambitious effort on the part of philanthropy, government,
community organizations, unions, and employers seeks to create
a workforce development system that helps low-skill, low-income
residents move to family-sustaining jobs and helps employers find
and retain skilled employees. For more information, go to: www.skill-works.org
SMALL SCHOOLS INITIATIVE:Spearheaded by the Boston Public Schools’ Office of High
School Renewal, Boston is using a range of innovative strategies
to create new small schools. Boston’s goal is to fundamentally
redesign the high school system to provide an excellent education
to every student. Click here for more information.
8 Closing the Race Achievement Gap: A Forum and Discussion
In December, the Harvard Graduate School of Education
hosted Richard Rothstein, former education columnist of TheNew York Times, in a discussion
of factors contributing to the race achievement gap. While policymakers
attempt to narrow the achievement gap by implementing school reform
efforts targeting accountability, leadership, and teacher quality,
Rothstein says that approach has neglected other critical social
reforms.
Panelist Donna Rodrigues, program director at
JFF and founder of the University Park Campus School in Worcester,
MA, drew on her 35 years of experience in public education to
comment on Rothstein’s presentation. She noted that, while
it would be “naive and wrong to think that educators alone
can change the picture for what is now the new majority of students
entering school,” she reaffirmed her belief “that
the molding or demise of a new generation of the holders of knowledge
happens in schools.” Also on the panel were Ronald Ferguson,
lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government,
and Dan Koretz, professor of education at Harvard Graduate School
of Education. Robert Schwartz, lecturer on education, moderated.
INTEGRATING GRADES 9 THROUGH 14: STATE POLICIES
TO SUPPORT AND SUSTAIN EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS. Nancy Hoffman
and Joel Vargas of JFF identify the policy challenges encountered
in implementing early college high schools, which, because they
blend secondary and postsecondary education, require two incompatible
systems to work collaboratively. Early college high schools are
designed to help students currently underrepresented in higher
education to achieve a high school diploma and an Associate’s
degree or two years of transferable college credit within four
to five years. Through the Early College High School Initiative,
which JFF coordinates, over 180 of these schools will open nationally
over the next four years. Download Integrating Grades 9 Through 14
INVESTMENTS EXPAND AND STRENGTHEN ECHS NATIONAL
NETWORK. In December, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
announced $29.6 million in grants to eight organizations to expand
the early college high school network to more than 25 states.
More than $22 million will support the creation of 42 new schools
throughout the country through investments in Antioch University
Seattle, the Middle College National Consortium, Portland Community
College’s Gateway to College, the Rochester Area Community Foundation,
the Georgia Department of Education and the University System
of Georgia, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, and the National Council
of La Raza. A $7 million investment in JFF, which leads the implementation
of the network, will expand the technical assistance available
for the network and help establish a system to monitor the progress
of young people enrolled in these schools. http://www.earlycolleges.org/PC120704.html
THE EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL INITIATIVE “AT
A GLANCE.“ This two-page fact sheet provides an up-to-date
profile of the initiative, with a map of schools, data on the
number of schools and students, and other key information. http://www.earlycolleges.org/Library.html#ataglance
HONORS FOR YEAR UP: Fast
Company, along with the Monitor Group, selected Year Up
as one of twenty-five national non-profit organizations to receive
their Social Capitalist Award. Year Up is a one-year, intensive
training program that provides urban young adults aged 18-24 with
a unique combination of technical and professional skills, college
credits, and a paid corporate internship. JFF is helping Year
Up to develop a financially and politically viable growth strategy
and to implement a measurement system that supports it programmatic
goals. http://www.yearup.org/aboutus_news.htm
NEW DATA ON DROPOUTS: This report, the latest
in a series from National Center for Education Statistics, presents
estimates of dropout rates in 2001 and includes data on high school
dropout and completion rates for 1972 through 2001. It also examines
the characteristics of high school dropouts and high school graduates.
While progress was made during the 1970s and 1980s, high school
dropout rates and high school completion rates have since stagnated. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/dropout2001/
STATE POLICIES FOR SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING: New
from the Education Commission of the States, this report takes
a detailed look at state policies for school restructuring, as
defined by the No Child Left Behind Act. It pays particular attention
to the option of closing low-performing schools and reopening
them as charter schools. Included are summaries of the state policies
that are in place in these areas. http://www.ecs.org/html/Document.asp?chouseid=5702
LITERACY COACHES: AN EVOLVING ROLE: The concept
of literacy coaches dates back to the 1920s, but they are increasingly
in demand in 21st century schools. Writing in Carnegie
Reporter, Barbara Hall looks at this growing development
in the field of American education and its role in school reform
in Boston and other cities across the country. http://www.carnegie.org/reporter/09/literacy/index.html
THE EXPECTATIONS GAP: A 50-STATE REVIEW OF HIGH
SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS: According to Achieve, Inc., there
is an “expectations gap” between high school course
requirements and real-world demands of college and the workplace.
No state currently requires every high school student to take
a college- and work-preparatory curriculum to earn a diploma. http://www.achieve.org/achieve.nsf/ADP-CloseGap?openform
STATE POLICIES TO ASSIST WORKING-POOR FAMILIES. For a large and growing number of Americans, having a job is not
enough to lift them out of poverty. This report from the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities presents a menu of practical policy
options that states can adopt to help working-poor families meet
their basic needs and improve their lives. http://www.cbpp.org/12-10-04sfp.htm
VERTEX:THE ONLINE JOURNAL FOR ADULT AND WORKFORCE
EDUCATION: The goal of this new journal is to be a comprehensive
source promoting practice, research, and theory in adult basic
education, ESL, and human resource development. Submissions invited. http://vawin.jmu.edu/vertex/
Fast Track to College: Increasing Postsecondary Success for All Students
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