In 2007, Jobs for the Future launched a multi-year effort to promote the adoption and implementation of policies at the state and national levels that advance the “dual agenda” of high achievement and high graduation rates from high school. This initiative addresses difficult “next generation” obstacles to ensuring that all students graduate from high school ready for college success. JFF’s policy and advocacy activities build from and reinforce our work with school developers, intermediaries, schools, and districts, so that our efforts can have greater national impact. This effort is at the core of our campaign to help double the number of low-income and low-skilled young people who enter and successfully complete postsecondary credential programs.
Rationale
This is a critical time in education reform. The standards movement has propelled many states to set increasingly ambitious standards for high school performance and to strengthen transparency and incentives that can increase levels of academic achievement and college-readiness.
Yet serious challenges remain for the next generation of high school reform. These include:
- Implementing policy frameworks in districts and schools across the nation in ways that address the biggest challenges to getting all students college-ready;
- Avoiding unintended consequences of the high achievement agenda, including potential for push-outs and weak response to poor performance; and
- Maintaining public interest and support as the difficulty of this reform agenda becomes clear and reform fatigue starts to set in.
Goals
JFF’s overarching goal is to double the number of low-income students who earn college credentials. Analysis of where the greatest leakages occur in students’ progress through the nation’s educational system has reinforced JFF’s commitment to focus on:
- Lower-income students, who disproportionately enter high school ill-prepared to succeed and disproportionately fail to complete high school or college;
- The weak holding power, low expectations, and inadequate capacity for improvement that characterize too many school districts and high schools where lower-income students are concentrated; and
- The dramatic differences between high school and college expectations and experience that further disadvantage lower-income and struggling students in their quest for educational and economic success.
This initiative promotes the adoption—in policy and practice—of the “dual agenda” of high achievement and high graduation rates from high school. It supports the enactment of state and national policies that:
- Promote the adoption of the “dual agenda” of high achievement and high graduation rates as a top education goal for states and nationally;
- Promote the expansion of effective pathways through high school and into college characterized by high achievement and high support, including alternatives for those not on track to graduate; and
- Promote the development of state and district capacity to create and scale up quality schools and better-aligned secondary/postsecondary systems.
JFF Approach
To meet the goal of doubling the numbers, JFF is committed to a comprehensive strategy that combines policy and advocacy work with efforts to build the capacity of states, districts, and school developers to increase and strengthen the supply of quality pathways and learning options for students who need greater support and acceleration in order to succeed in high school and become ready for college and career. JFF’s approach is to strengthen on-the-ground capacity to develop high achievement/high support schools that achieve the “dual agenda,” while simultaneously working to create, promote, and help implement enabling policies. The policy and advocacy agenda is focused on work that will support and promote change in states and at the national level that can support districts and schools trying to move all students to college-readiness. Products, tools, convenings, conferences, and other methods of raising visibility for particular policies and their adoption will focus on actions that can be taken by states. Over the course of this initiative, we will work with a group of 8-12 states interested in advancing this agenda, through multi-state activities and deeper engagement with individual states. We will also use the state level activity to inform national and federal efforts to promote an expansion of the supply of quality high school options and secondary/postsecondary pathways.
Partners
JFF is undertaking this initiative in close partnership with key national organizations that are grantees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, including Achieve, Inc., the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Data Quality Network, and their respective state networks. We are collaborating with statesother national organizations and with states on aspects of the dual agenda, and in ways that maximize benefits for the areas of expertise of partner organizations and minimize the duplication of effort and strain on leading states and their personnel.
Related JFF Projects
Early College High School Initiative: Early college high schools blend high school and college in a rigorous yet supportive academic program—compressing the time it takes to complete high school diploma and the first two years of college. This innovative school model is based on the understanding that a postsecondary education is essential for economic and personal success, and that the students who are least likely to achieve a postsecondary degree are most in need of early and engaging experiences with college.
Moving Forward: High Standards and High Graduation Rates: Selected from Achieve’s American Diploma Project and the National Governor’s Association Honors States competition, three states are enhancing their capacity to collect leading indicators of dropping out and use those indicators to assess the value of their investments. The work will result in frameworks and tools for other states and districts to use in engaging with this agenda and enacting a policy development process that is rooted in the practice.
Double the Numbers 2007: Diplomas, Degrees, and Credentials for Underrepresented Youth: In October 2007, DTN07, a national conference hosted by Jobs for the Future, will ask the nation to take on the urgent goal of doubling the number of low-income students who earn postsecondary credentials. To do so will require a dramatic increase in both high school and postsecondary completion rates. Over two days, several hundred invited participants will examine promising practices and policies designed to reach that goal.
Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It: This forthcoming book advocates for an integrated secondary/postsecondary system, one in which a post-high school credential is the default end point, and in which the transition between sectors is eliminated to the greatest extent possible. It will be released in fall 2007 at DTN07.
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Add and Subtract: Dual Enrollment as a State Strategy to Increase Postsecondary Success for Underrepresented Students 
