TURNING 10

THE EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL INITIATIVE

When conceived in 2002, the Early College High School Initiative aimed for an ambitious goal: create 60 innovative schools that enable students underrepresented in higher education to earn free college credit while in high school. Ten years later, over 270 schools across 28 states are part of the largest secondary school reform movement in America. 

Last week (March 25-31), JFF and our partners are celebrating the achievements of the initiative. During and following Early College High School Week, we invite you to visit our Facebook page to learn how schools are celebrating. Hear inspiring student success stories from South Texas to San Diego. And learn how JFF is expanding the early college concept to whole school districts. 

JFF is inspired by the difference that early college schools make in the lives of young people—93 percent graduate from early colleges (versus 76 percent who graduate from all schools in their districts); 24 percent earn an Associate’s degree or college certificate in high school. And we’re also excited that these schools keep the original focus on serving underrepresented populations—79 percent are students are of color, nearly half are the first in their families to attend college. 

It’s been said many times, but it bears repeating: a college credential is key to earning a family-sustaining wage. The young people who attend early college high schools can get that college degree or certificate faster and at a lower cost. And most important, early college high schools engage students deeply in their own education, helping them realize their true academic potential. 

Here’s to another 10 years . . . 

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STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

JFF RELEASES FINDINGS FROM SIX RESEARCH TEAMS

JFF has released new findings on reading practices for African-American male adolescents, math practices for Black and Latino/a students, and how all students can learn better with the aid of technology. These research reports are the latest in a series JFF is producing with funding from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. The Students at the Center project is building the knowledge base for the field of student-centered approaches to learning. 

Three other papers, released two weeks ago, look at student-centered classrooms, how school systems can adopt student-centered approaches, and what neuroscience tells us about how students learn best.

Student-centered approaches, which embrace the student's experience as the starting point of education, are critical at a time when there must be an unwavering commitment to ambitious learning standards geared to today's educational and economic challenges. Too frequently, teaching and learning can take a back seat to isolating and assessing a narrow band of skills and student outcomes. Students and their teachers must be engaged and motivated learners. Read more . . . 

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TYING FUNDING TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE OUTCOMES

MODELS, TOOLS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STATES

Traditionally, states have based funding for public higher education on student enrollment numbers. Now, several states are experimenting with new funding models that allocate some portion of state support based on how many students meet certain academic benchmarks and complete credentials. JFF has produced a set of tools to help states design performance-based funding systems that can influence student and institutional behavior, avoid unintended consequences, and withstand shifts in political and economic climates. These tools capture valuable lessons from 11 Achieving the Dream and Developmental Education Initiative states that fund community colleges in ways that reward student success, not just access. Read more . . .

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COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS

BEST OF TWO WORLDS: A PIONEER IN ENGAGING AT-RISK STUDENTS

If our nation is to draw upon the resources of all of its young people, and to reduce the social costs of those who fail to progress to independent adulthood, we must create a range of postsecondary pathways that combine investments in education, work, and youth development. This is central to the work of JFF’s Back on Track team, which has developed a three-phase model of how schools and whole districts can reengage dropouts and accelerate the skills of young people who lack the skills and habits necessary for college success. 

We also draw encouragement from the kind of collaborative arrangement piloted in New York City’s College Access and Success initiative, featured in a new JFF report, The Best of Two Worlds. Launched in 2004 by the NYC-based Youth Development Institute, this initiative demonstrates how colleges and community-based organizations can integrate education and youth development to improve student success. Read more . . . 

PRE-APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING FOR LOW-SKILLED WORKERS

Community-based organizations also are part of strategies to prepare workers for registered apprenticeships in the building and construction trades, which can lead to higher-skilled, family-sustaining careers. The Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, developed by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, provides a union-recognized gateway for low-skilled workers into labor management-sponsored registered apprenticeships. Becoming certified to implement the MC3 can be an important tool for forging connections between community-based organizations and union-sponsored apprenticeship training programs. 

A Working for America Institute webinar looks at the curriculum, how it is delivered, and how workers and employers in Cincinnati have benefited from it. The webinar is part of technical assistance we provide to workforce partnerships under a U.S. Department of Labor Pathways Out of Poverty grant. Read more . . . 

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WORKFORCE POLICY

MARY CLAGETT AT CONGRESSIONAL CITY CONFERENCE

Communities striving to get people back to work should be aware of all state and federal resources available to them, and they should be proactive about pursuing them, according to Mary Gardner Clagett, JFF’s workforce policy director. 

Clagett urged this action at the National League of Cities’ annual Congressional City Conference in March, featured in Governing. For example, she recommended that communities pursue part of the $125 million Workforce Innovation Fund that Congress approved last year. Read more . . . 

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IN THE NEWS

• Mar. 4: JFF Program Director John Dorrer tells The Boston Globe and Communities & Banking that the future of reporting labor market data involves software that can scan online job posts for required skills and certifications. 
• Mar. 9, 16: U.S. News & World Report Education and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch cited the Early College High School Initiative as a leading example of how to prepare high schoolers for college success, comparing it to emerging local efforts in New York City and Missouri, respectively. 
• Mar. 15: JFF Program Director Barbara Endel talks with WNPR in Connecticut about Adult Basic Education and how important it is for ABE students to not only build their skills quickly but also to earn certificate or college credentials of value in getting and keeping employment. (Her segment starts around 38:20.)

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ON THE ROAD

Mar. 27, Education Sector’s “Getting to 2014” Roundtable Event, Washington, DC: 

• Joel Vargas and other panelists discussed how the Common Core State Standards, new teacher evaluations, online learning tools, and other ed reforms and practices should be implemented, and the challenges of doing so simultaneously. Watch the entire two-hour event HERE. 

Mar. 29, Best Health Care Practices Conference, Summerdale, PA: 

• Randall Wilson led a presentation on CareerSTAT, a program that makes the business case for investing in frontline hospital workers. 

Apr. 2, Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, Hershey, PA: 

• Stephen Lynch and other panelists report what sectors are offering more jobs, what skills community colleges should teach in order to best prepare students for those jobs, and how colleges can best connect with potential employers. 

Apr. 22-23, American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention, Orlando, FL: 

• John Dorrer talks with leaders of states using performance-based funding to reward colleges for student progression and completion, not just enrollment. In a separate presentation, he explains how to produce real-time labor data and use it to determine which credentials have the most immediate value in local labor markets. 
• Michael Lawrence Collins co-presents Completion by Design, a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative that works with community colleges to substantially increase completion rates for these students, while holding down costs and maintaining access and quality. 

SEE YOU ONLINE!

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