SHINING A LIGHT ON INNOVATION: JFF’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE PARTNERSHIP WITH METLIFE FOUNDATION

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COLLEGE READY

NC EARLY COLLEGE A FINALIST IN PRESIDENT’S GRADUATION CONTEST (VIDEO)

Wayne Early Middle College High School, which opened in 2007, was one of six finalists to have President Barack Obama speak at its first graduation ceremony. Wayne is one of 71 early colleges in North Carolina. In the national Early College High School Initiative, 230 schools are giving more than 50,000 students a year the opportunity to earn up to two years of college credit—tuition free.

FROM GED TO COLLEGE DEGREE

Less than 5 percent of GED holders ever earn a postsecondary degree. In response, innovative GED programs have begun creating clear, effective pathways to postsecondary education, preparing their students for college and careers. John Garvey and JFF’s Terry Grobe share lessons from “best in class" GED to College programs that show early, positive results in preparing youth for college and helping them persist once there. It also explores key issues connected to the growth of this programming within the field and lays out a framework for transforming short-term GED programs into more intensive, college-connected designs.

TURNING SENIORS INTO FRESHMEN: AN “EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP” FEATURE

Since opening in 1997, the University Park Campus School in Worcester, Massachusetts, has had a near-zero dropout rate, and 95 percent of its students enroll in college—nearly all of whom are from minority or low-income families. To help more of those students advance in college, UPCS has redesigned its senior year to more closely resemble a college freshman year, with semester-long, college-level courses and college-style syllabi, and assessments. As UPCS founder Donna Rodrigues and JFF’s Cecilia Le detail in the April issue of Educational Leadership, 93 percent of UPCS graduates who experienced the redesigned senior year are on pace to earn a college credential within six years, suggesting that the redesign can help address the broader education system’s college retention issue.

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COLLEGE SUCCESS

INNOVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENTAL MATH

Students are more likely to fail developmental math than any other course in higher education. Cecilia Le, Kimberly R. Rogers, and Janet Santos look at three community colleges that have invested in and improved student outcomes in this area.

GREENING COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The emerging and expanding green economy has the potential to create not just jobs but career opportunities. Kimberly R. Rogers and Rachel Pleasants highlight community colleges that are “greening” their curricula and their own operations—and simultaneously addressing employment and environmental needs in the communities they serve.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTH CARE

Community colleges are well positioned to strengthen the workforce in one of America’s most critical sectors: health care. Radha Roy Biswas and Jeremy Kelley highlight how community colleges are preparing frontline health care workers and low-income individuals for family-sustaining careers in health care.

FIVE COLLEGES USE DATA TO SCALE UP ADULT BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Community colleges must fundamentally change the way they deliver Adult Basic Education in order to help all students earn credentials that hold value in today’s economy. In Achieving Ambitious Goals, Barbara Endel, Nate Anderson, and Jeremy Kelley highlight what five Breaking Through colleges are doing to not only advance adults’ skills and career prospects but also to scale up successful programs across campuses and state systems. Breaking Through, a partnership of JFF and the National Council for Workforce Education, is helping adults enter and succeed in college.

PROFILE: RACHEL PLEASANTS

Two years ago, Rachel Pleasants came to JFF through the Education Pioneers program and then stayed on, becoming a vital partner in our efforts to help adults succeed in community colleges. She now conducts research, creates tools, and maintains relationships with the 41 colleges and 22 states in the Breaking Through network.

Enabling lower-skilled Americans to navigate the education pipeline—the goal of Breaking Though—has long been a commitment of Rachel’s. Before coming to JFF, she was an administrator and after-school instructor in K-12 programs. She also has worked on career development efforts for high school students, including the Met School in Providence, Rhode Island, and Just-A-Start in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Outside the office, Rachel is an avid biker, rock climber, potter, and nationally competitive crossword puzzler. And Rachel’s own education reflects her diverse interests: a Master’s in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Iowa—one in Spanish, the other in painting.

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CAREER ADVANCEMENT

THE PROMISE OF WORK-BASED LEARNING: A JOBS TO CAREERS PRESENTATION

Jobs to Careers projects at Mississippi and Texas hospitals have engaged frontline workers in work-based learning and partnered with community colleges to award college credit for acquired skills. In April, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Nurse Executives, leaders of these efforts and JFF’s Randall Wilson detailed how hospitals and colleges have teamed up. Jobs to Careers is a $15.8 million initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in collaboration with The Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor.

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POLICY SOLUTIONS

DRIVING INNOVATION: IMPROVING OUTCOMES IN DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION

Nearly 60 percent of incoming college freshmen require developmental education before they can enter credit-bearing courses, and many of these students drop out of college before getting that far. In Driving Innovation, Michael Lawrence Collins describes how six states have set out to improve these outcomes. In 2009, those states helped launch the Developmental Education Initiative, focused on helping students complete developmental education programs and move into credit-bearing courses.

MICHIGAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES LEAVE NO WORKER BEHIND

In 2007, Michigan set out to retrain tens of thousands of dislocated workers and other low-skilled adults for emerging jobs. Through No Worker Left Behind, community colleges trained these workers while the state covered up to $5,000 a year for college and related expenses. By 2011, more than 150,000 adults had enrolled in NWLB-financed training, and 59 percent of participants eligible for federal workforce programs had found new jobs after completing their training. In Leaving No Worker Behind, Tom Hilliard examines what community colleges learned about serving dislocated, jobless, and low-skilled adults.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF WIA’S EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING SERVICES

In April, JFF Policy VP Ray Uhalde testified on Capitol Hill, advocating for both reauthorizing and restructuring the Workforce Investment Act. “It is absolutely essential that the urgency of deficit reduction not override critical investments in the education and skills development of U.S. workers,” Uhalde said, “especially at this fragile point in our economic recovery with 13.5 million Americans still unemployed.”

ACHIEVING THE DREAM’S STATE POLICY NEWSLETTER: BETTER THAN EVER

Join the 2,000 community college faculty, administrators, state-level stakeholders, and others who receive Achieving Success. This free state policy newsletter of Achieving the Dream and the Developmental Education Initiative includes news, essential resources, and special features on how states in these initiatives use policy as a lever for improving outcomes for community college students.

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Jobs for the Future develops, implements, and promotes new education and workforce strategies that help communities, states, and the nation compete in a global economy. In more than 200 communities across 43 states, JFF improves the pathways leading from high school to college to family-sustaining careers.

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