“Those who out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” With those words, President Barack Obama has called on all Americans to pursue some form of education beyond high school. He has challenged the nation to once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

To reach this goal will take the kind of effort rarely seen at the federal level—a concerted campaign with several distinct and difficult targets:

• Reverse 40 years of decline in the high school graduation rate and significantly increase the percentage of young people who graduate high school ready for college and careers;
• Help many more low-income and underprepared young people enroll in college and follow their dreams; and
• Dramatically increase the success rates of students in community colleges and nonselective four-year institutions.

Education reformers today face two challenges in meeting these targets:

• How to promote the dramatic expansion of innovations that are effective and scalable for students in danger of dropping out (and those who have dropped out); and
• How to encourage experimentation with new ways to prepare struggling students for whom effective models are few and largely untested.

And, of course, we must do so in ways that are affordable and sustainable.

On May 11-12, Jobs for the Future convened a group of high school reformers who have been building new institutions and creating new mechanisms at the district, community, and state levels. Meeting the Invention Challenge brought together practitioners and policymakers who are dedicated to the educational success of students who need very different environments and supports to succeed in college and careers. Now available on our Web site is the background paper JFF prepared for the convening.

The goals of the convening—to promote high school innovation and the scale up of proven models—are reflected in legislation that Congress will consider this session. The Fast Track to College Act and the Secondary School Innovation Fund Act would authorize nearly $600 million for states, districts, and nonprofits to partner in developing and scaling up effective secondary school models, including dual enrollment programs, early college high schools, and back-on-track programs for struggling students and dropouts. The Graduation Promise Act would authorize $2.5 billion in new funding to implement effective reforms to turn around low-performing high schools.

As the Obama Administration gears up to invest in strengthening the U.S. education system, one key objective will be to increase the number of young people who complete at least one year of college. In an EdWeek commentary, JFF’s Nancy Hoffman and Michael Webb ask: What can early college contribute to the President’s plan?

The U.S. Secretary of Education will soon issue requests to states for proposals as a part of the “Race to the Top” and “Invest in What Works and Innovation” competitive grant programs. In response to this opportunity, the recommendations in this paper can help guide dialogue about ways to advance ongoing efforts to launch and sustain schools and interventions for off-track/out-of-school youth.

REAUTHORIZING THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT ACT: A DOWN PAYMENT ON A WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM FOR THE 21st CENTURY

As Congress and the Obama Administration move forward with reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, building on the successes of the current system gives us a head start. WIA is an important vehicle for aligning incentives and strategies across economic development, secondary and postsecondary education, and the employment and workforce systems, and for doing so at the federal, state, and local levels.

Based on our work and that of our partners, JFF has provided recommendations to help Congress revisit the act as part of a broader push for coherent, comprehensive, and effective support of workforce and economic development nationwide. JFF envisions a modernized workforce development system that is: powerful enough to build and maintain a 21st–century workforce; multifunctional, to meet the needs of youth, workers, employers, and communities; and flexible, to adapt to a dynamic, competitive global economy..

In a report commissioned by JFF, Arthur M. Hauptman and Young Kim provide an international perspective on the productivity agenda of Making Opportunity Affordable, a multiyear initiative focused on increasing productivity within U.S. higher education, particularly at two-year and four-year public colleges and universities. After comparing and analyzing data on cost, commitment, and attainment, the report suggests approaches that the United States should consider to achieve higher attainment at sustainable levels of costs and commitment.
The report is also featured on EdWeek’s blog.

President Barack Obama has called for intensified efforts to increase degree attainment in the United States, arguing that raising education attainment rates will sustain and enhance the country’s economic competitiveness globally. This discussion paper highlights the lessons learned by the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative about improving higher education outcomes. It seeks to leverage the important work underway in colleges and states to help make student success in postsecondary education an important national goal. The paper highlights institution-wide change and data-driven improvement strategies that have led to significant improvement in outcomes for community college students.

Also from Achieving the Dream is the spring 2009 issue of the Achieving Success state policy newsletter. Robert Shireman, the Department of Education’s Deputy Undersecretary for External Affairs and Outreach, discusses the federal agenda for higher education policy and the role of community colleges in shaping that agenda. JFF publishes Achieving Success for Achieving the Dream, a national initiative to help more community college students succeed (earn degrees, earn certificates, or transfer to other institutions to continue their studies).

When Richard Kazis came to JFF as an MIT graduate student two decades ago, he joined a staff of five. Today, in collaboration with a staff of eighty, he leads JFF’s policy and research efforts, including convenings like Meeting the Invention Challenge.

Richard’s presence is strong as JFF increasingly engages in state and national policy discussions around education and workforce development. He coordinates JFF’s efforts to advance state and national policies that can significantly increase the number of young people who make it to and through college and the number of low-wage workers who advance to jobs with family-sustaining incomes. This work crosses almost every JFF project, and has led to an expansion of JFF’s policy and advocacy efforts.

Over the years, Richard 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. He is the author or coauthor of many publications, including two books, Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth and Low Wage Workers in the New Economy: Strategies for Productivity and Opportunity.

A former teacher at an alternative high school for returning dropouts, Richard 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 serves on the boards of the Institute for College Access and Success and the Workforce Strategy Center. And he is rumored to play a mean alto saxophone.

CAREER FIRST: FILLING A CRITICAL GAP IN POSTSECONDARY OPTIONS

The goal of Career First, a program model being developed by JFF with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is to build a new, high-quality pathway that improves postsecondary outcomes for older youth, ages 18-26.

This three-year project of the U.S. Department of Labor responds to critical needs for a more highly skilled labor force caring for America’s aging population. The initiative supports six partnerships of long-term care employers, educational organizations, and in some cases, workforce intermediaries. JFF manages technical assistance to the initiative.