Improving Student Attainment
in Community Colleges
Building a National Opportunity
System for Adults
Low-Income Adult Students
in Higher Ed
2005 Workplace Education
Resource Guide
1Double the Numbers
JFF’s DOUBLE
THE NUMBERS initiative is designed to deepen support for state
and federal policies that can dramatically increase the number
of low-income young people who enter and complete postsecondary
education. DTN publications address controversial policy debates,
proposing creative ways to break through existing barriers to
improved educational and economic outcomes, particularly for students
from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education.
Add and Subtract: Dual Enrollment as a State Strategy to Increase Postsecondary Success for Underrepresented Students Written by JFF’s Nancy Hoffman, this
policy primer for states provides an overview of dual enrollment,
a rationale for its expansion, and guidelines and funding models
for states wishing to implement dual enrollment for a wider range
of students. Brief case studies highlight substantial dual enrollment
programs that serve a wide range of students and offer lessons
for an expanded mission for dual enrollment.
Remaking Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century: What Role for High School Programs?
Basic questions about career and technical
education are on the table as part of the policy debate on how
to reform K-12 education, particularly high schools. This report
from JFF and the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program
summarizes what we know (and don’t know) about the value
of high school career-focused education—and it proposes
a reform agenda for high school career and technical education.
The report was prepared by JFF’s Richard Kazis, with commentary
by Gene Bottoms, Betsy Brand, Katherine L. Hughes, Elliott A.
Medrich, Katharine M. Oliver, Governor Mark Warner, and Ross Wiener.
Community colleges play a crucial role
in helping low-income students, working adults, and others to
meet their educational and career goals. Here are updates on three
JFF projects that focus on how community colleges can improve
their performance for all students, particularly those traditionally
underserved in higher education.
BREAKING THROUGH:
BUILDING EFFECTIVE PATHWAYS TO COLLEGE CREDENTIALS JFF and the National Council for
Workforce Education are pleased to announce a grant of $750,000
from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to support the first
year of BREAKING THROUGH, a multi-year initiative to help low-literacy
adults prepare for and succeed in community college occupational
and technical degree programs. This grant will help support a
college-level demonstration project to promote and enhance such
efforts. The demonstration project will implement recommendations
in the JFF/NCWE report, Breaking
Through: Helping Low-Skilled Adults Enter and Succeed in College
and Careers.
More information about the BREAKING THROUGH
INITIATIVE and opportunities to participate in it will be available
on the JFF and NCWE Web sites this spring:
METLIFE FOUNDATION COMMUNITY COLLEGE
EXCELLENCE AWARD Application Available Community colleges from across the
nation are invited to apply for the 2006 MetLife Foundation Community
College Excellence Award. Two community colleges will be honored
for their institution-wide commitment to and achievement in helping
low-income students, first-generation college-goers, and working
adults enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Each winning
college will receive a $30,000 award and national recognition.
WALKING THE TALK:
COMMUNITY COLLEGES WHERE EVERYONE WINS Through personal stories from the
winners of the 2004 MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence
Award, Walking the Talk brings to life the programs, policies, and supports that help
less-advantaged youth and adults meet their education and career
goals.
3 Career and Technical Education in Pennsylvania: Opportunities for Commonwealth Policy
The Office of the Governor and the Pennsylvania
Department of Education retained JFF to develop options and recommendations
for state-level action to improve the quality of secondary career
and technical education. The report highlights strategies to increase
academic quality, technical relevance, postsecondary connections,
and state leadership.
DESIGNING AND FINANCING AN INTEGRATED
PROGRAM OF COLLEGE STUDY:
LESSONS FROM THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF LIBERAL STUDIES
By engaging students in up to two
years of demanding college-level work while still in high school,
early college high schools are testing a powerful strategy for
closing the achievement gap and “doubling the numbers”
of low-income youth earning a college degree. This brief examines
how the California Academy for Liberal Studies, and its college
partner, Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, are addressing a
critical design challenge: how to structure and finance an integrated
sequence of college study in which students earn up to two years
of transferable college credit. CALS is supported by the National
Council of La Raza, an intermediary organization working to create
12 early college high schools that serve Latino communities. Download Designing and Financing an Integrated Program of College Study
THE EARLY COLLEGE EXPERIMENT:
AN ONLINE DISCUSSION
An increasing number of colleges
are helping to create high-school programs that offer disadvantaged
students personal instruction and postsecondary courses. Some
officials view the programs as pipelines for qualified minority
applicants who would otherwise require remedial courses once they
enrolled at a four-year institution. Do the programs work? Should
more colleges start them? These questions were the focus of an
online discussion on early colleges held by The
Chronicle of Higher Education. The
transcript is available online. http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2005/03/early
BILL GATES URGES ACTION ON HIGH SCHOOL
REFORM Calling American high schools “obsolete,”
Bill Gates urged governors and business leaders to redesign the
nation’s educational system so all students--regardless
of race or income--can graduate prepared for college and work.
Gates delivered the keynote address at the 2005 National Education
Summit on High Schools in Washington, DC. The Early College High
School Initiative is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and other foundations. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/MediaCenter/Speeches/
BillgSpeeches/BGSpeechNGA-050226.htm
STATE STRATEGIES FOR REDESIGNING
HIGH SCHOOLS
AND PROMOTING HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE TRANSITIONS High School Redesign, a topic of
rising interest and concern at both the national and state levels,
is the focus of this new ECS issue brief. It includes an overview,
a look at research findings and state policy trends, and links
to other sources of information. http://www.ecs.org/00CN2334
WHY SEGREGATION MATTERS:
POVERTY & EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY This study from the Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University finds more and more students across
the nation are segregated by race, poverty, and educational opportunity.
The study also finds that the high dropout problem is concentrated
in heavily minority high schools in large cities. http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/deseg/deseg05.php
WEB RESOURCE:
IMPROVING HIGH SCHOOLS The new CENTER FOR HIGH SCHOOL EXCELLENCE
WEB SITE, launched by Learning Point Associates, provides a variety
of information and resources for educators, policymakers, parents,
and others interested in improving the nation's high schools. http://www.chse.org/
IMPROVING STUDENT ATTAINMENT IN COMMUNITY
COLLEGES:
INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND POLICIES This report from the Community College
Research Center analyzes existing research on student degree completion
and offers models to benchmark the performance of community colleges.
It was prepared for ACHIEVING THE DREAM, a national initiative
to increase the success of underserved groups in community colleges. http://www.tc.columbia.edu/ccrc/PAPERS/LuminaReport10_04.pdf
TO ENSURE AMERICA’S FUTURE:
BUILDING A NATIONA OPPORTUNITY SYSTEM FOR ADULTS This report from the Council for
Advancement of Adult Literacy notes that too few young people
are in the educational “pipeline” to fill the nation’s
needs in the decades to come. A National Opportunity System for
Adults, built on stronger links between adult education and community
colleges, is needed urgently and will benefit the nation and all
parties involved. http://www.caalusa.org/commcollproject.html#anchor681610
WEB RESOURCE:
LOW-INCOME ADULT STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION A new Web site sponsored by the American
Council on Education and the Lumina Foundation offers a report
and a searchable database on resources and programs for low-income
adult college students. The Web site is part of the IMPROVING
LIVES: ENSURING THE ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF LOW-INCOME ADULTS, an
initiative that seeks to highlight the importance of these students,
identify the challenges and successful strategies in educating
them, and encourage institutional and policy leaders to improve
the academic success of low-income adults. http://www.acenet.edu/programs/policy/projects/
improving-lives/search.cfm
WEB RESOURCE:
2005 WORKPLACE EDUCATION RESOURCE GUIDE Prepared by the Ohio Department of
Education, this Web page provides comprehensive guide to resources
on a number of topics, including workplace education model and
profiles, assessment, standards, and instruction and revised indicators
of program quality. http://www.ode.state.oh.us/ctae/adult/able/Workplace_Education.asp
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