JFF RECEIVES $15 MILLION TO SCALE UP EARLY COLLEGE DESIGNS

FEDERAL “i3” GRANT TO BENEFIT 30,000 STUDENTS IN CO, TX

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded JFF $15 million to scale up Early College Designs in Denver, CO, and two school districts in South Texas, Brownsville and Pharr-San Juan-Alamo. The grant, part of the DOE’s Investing in Innovation “i3” program, will help roughly 30,000 students across the three districts to prepare for college success and earn free college credits by the time they graduate from high school. The DOE selected JFF and 19 other nonprofits and school districts from among 727 applicants. Read more . . . 

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ADULT STUDENTS BREAKING THROUGH

NATIVE AMERICAN NURSES “BREAK THROUGH” BASIC ED BARRIER

Most high school dropouts in America end up in low-paying jobs with little opportunity for advancement. But at 19, Doralee Ortez is already a certified nursing assistant and soon-to-be dental assistant, thanks to her own hard work and dedication, as well as a fast-track certification program at Northwest Indian College, supported in part by Breaking Through, a national adult ed initiative. While Doralee, a former high school dropout, was preparing to earn her GED, her older sister Jessica, an aspiring RN, was in an accelerated, 1.5-semester nursing assistant program at NWIC, and urged Doralee to join her. Read more . . . 

MICHIGAN EMBRACES “BREAKING THROUGH”

There are four specific ways that state funding can help adult students complete basic skills training and move onto credit-bearing college coursework. Michigan has successfully put these strategies to work, benefiting students at six community colleges, according to Forging New Pathways, a Breaking Through report. The practices are: 

• Scale up successful programs instead of creating many small, “boutique” efforts. 
• Fund the creation of clear career pathways that start as early as noncredit coursework, advance through credit-bearing workforce training, and lead to valuable postsecondary credentials. 
• Invest in upfront program elements that are essential to determining students’ eligibility for financial aid, ascertaining their academic skill levels, and evaluating their technical aptitude and skills. 
• Invest in spreading these strategies throughout a college. Read more . . . 

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INCREASING COLLEGE CREDENTIALS

PRINCIPLES FOR TRANSFORMING DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION

In a joint statement, JFF and three other leading education groups address the need for a much more effective and efficient way to raise community college students’ pre-college academic skills. In Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education, JFF, the Charles A. Dana Center, Complete College America, and the Education Commission of the States outline seven principles for “creating a fundamentally new approach for ensuring that all students are ready for and can successfully complete college-level work that leads to a postsecondary credential of value.” Principles include enrolling students in “meta-majors” upon enrollment to maximize their chances of earning a college degree, enrolling more students in gateway courses as a default placement, and providing developmental education as a co-requisite with college-level courses, not as a prerequisite. Read more . . . 

PORTABLE, STACKABLE CREDENTIALS

Well-defined career pathways offer one of the best ways to connect unemployed and underemployed adults with high-skill job opportunities. Portable, Stackable Credentialshighlights the most innovative efforts—across the country and the world—to develop pathways leading to jobs with family-sustaining wages. It also describes what skills and credentials are needed to obtain those jobs and how to guide students on how to begin. JFF CEO Marlene B. Seltzer coauthored the McGraw-Hill Research Foundation report along with JFF board member and LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow and others. Read more . . . 

STATE POLICIES THAT PROMOTE COLLEGE-TO-CAREER PATHWAYS

States have an essential role to play as colleges develop structured pathways to guide students to college credentials and transfer. JFF’s Lara Couturier has 10 recommendations for state policies that can support and sustain these pathways. State priorities should include: faculty-led curricular alignment, accelerated developmental ed, heightened college advising, and real-time labor market information. Read more . . .

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: RESULTS FROM THE DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Less than 25 percent of community college students who take a developmental education course earn a postsecondary credential within eight years. Over the past three years, the six states in the Developmental Education Initiative have made unprecedented changes in policy and practice in an effort to improve these dismal outcomes. Ahead of the Curve is their success story: The reform agendas of Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia are designed to accelerate the advancement of students from developmental education into credit-bearing college courses—and to continue their momentum through to credentials with value. Read more . . . 

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REENGAGING OPPORTUNITY YOUTH

PUTTING STUDENTS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT: GOOD SHEPHERD SERVICES’ LIFELINK APPROACH TO POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS

A great example of a bridge program into college for struggling students and former dropouts comes from New York City. Putting Students in the Driver’s Seat explains how LifeLink (run by Good Shepherd Services) provides an efficient, centralized pathway into higher education for students who had fallen off track to graduation and then enrolled in multiple pathway schools and programs run by Good Shepherd. This guide by Sam Seidel explains how the program works for educators and community leaders seeking to improve postsecondary outcomes for their off-track and out-of-school populations. Read more . . . 

ALIGNING COMPETENCIES TO RIGOROUS STANDARDS FOR OFF-TRACK YOUTH

Boston Day and Evening Academy is tackling one of the toughest education assignments of our time: recovering students who are two or more years off track to graduation by providing them with a rich, rigorous education aligned with the Common Core State Standards, and then graduating them quickly and ready for college. Over 80 percent of BDEA students have passed state exit exams in math and English since 2009, and 82 percent of 2012 graduates are now in college. Aligning Competencies to Rigorous Standards for Off-track Youth captures how the school does it. Read more . . .

NEW WEBSITE A RESOURCE FOR AIDING OFF-TRACK AND DISCONNECTED YOUTH

JFF is pleased to announce its redesigned Back on Track Through College website, making it easy to explore how we and our partners and clients reengage youth and young adults who are off track to graduation, or disconnected from school and work, and put them on a path to postsecondary credentials. Check out our introductory Back on Track video, our Self-assessment tool to help schools and districts gauge what program elements could best benefit their students, and our blog—guest bloggers welcome! Read more . . . 

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JFF IN THE NEWS

Jan. 10: In his State of the State address, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the launch of an Early College High School Challenge Grant to replicate successful early college models that currently serve 5,600 students statewide each year--90 percent of whom are minorities, and 85 percent of whom graduate high school. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has urged his legislators to double state funding for dual enrollment programs and “authorize an early college initiative aimed at expanding the number of students who simultaneously complete their senior year of high school with their first year of college.” Last month, Jeff Meadors, a county school board member in Georgia also publicly endorsed expanding dual enrollment opportunities. 

Jan. 10: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a new “Next Generation Job Linkage” program during his State of the State address. The program strengthens the state’s community colleges and their role in addressing regional skill needs. 

Dec. 13: Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education featured JFF’s co-released statement on why and how to fundamentally transform developmental ed. 

Dec. 6: Tallahassee’s ABC affiliate reported that “Florida is ‘Ahead of the Curve’ in preparing students for college,” citing JFF’s report on the Developmental Education Initiative. 

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ON THE ROAD

Jan. 30, AACC’s Workforce Development Institute, San Diego, CA: 

• JFF workforce expert Stephen Lynch is presenting information on the Virtual Career Network, an online portal where aspiring health workers can find available jobs and the skills and certifications required to obtain them. He is also on a panel on fostering relationships between community colleges and community-based organizations. 

Feb. 21, American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education, Los Angeles, CA: 

• Early College Designs leader LaVonne Sheffield is leading a session titled: “From Remediation to Acceleration: How Early College Designs Move Students from Dropout to College-Ready.” 

Feb. 22, The Achieving the Dream Hawaii Strategy Institute, Honolulu, HI: 

• Lara Couturier is speaking about her latest publication, Cornerstones of Completion, which includes 10 recommendations for state policymakers on how to best develop and support structured pathways through college.

SEE YOU ONLINE!

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