JFF in the News

For many adults, basic-skills classes are the best hope for a brighter future

April 21, 2011, The Hechinger Report (also ran in The Seattle Times)

Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based nonprofit that developed a nationwide program with 17 companies in the healthcare industry to train frontline workers for careers, has found that about 60 percent of its participants earned some sort of certification or degree and 47 percent received raises...

New Reports Highlight Promise of Early College High Schools

April 1, 2011, Education Week

Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit organization based in Boston that promotes education and workforce strategies and has managed the Early College High School Initiative since 2002, released four new reports last week highlighting the promise of early college high schools...

Reclaiming the 'Early College'

March 17, 2011, Inside Higher Ed

“JFF supports the creation of pathways that help students succeed in high school and beyond, whether it is the highest achieving student or those that are underrepresented in higher education...” said Joel Vargas, vice president of High School Through College at Jobs For the Future, which coordinates the Early College High School Initiative.

Former Ohio higher ed leader takes fellow position

March 14, 2011, The Boston Globe

Jobs for the Future announced Monday that Eric Fingerhut will be a senior fellow, effective immediately, advising the group on higher education policies and practices...

Nonprofit Group Provides Road Map to Increase Hispanic Degree Attainment

March 9, 2011, Chronicle of Higher Education

Excelencia in Education released a sweeping policy road map on Wednesday explaining how it believes communities, colleges, states, and the federal government can increase Hispanic graduation rates... The road map is the culmination of more than a year's worth of work in which 60 organizations, including Jobs for the Future...

Trading Places: Unemployed challenging gender roles

February 23, 2011, Chicago Tribune

After breaking into the once all-male bastions of law and medicine, women now are making inroads into other highly segregated fields, such as information technology, criminal justice and fire science. "It's not a revolution, but an evolution," said Fred Dedrick, director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, which advocates for increased and improved job training.

When plenty is not nearly enough

January 12, 2011, The Huffington Post

Just last week 20 education innovators grappled with [the issue of college grads having workforce-ready skills] at a meeting convened by Jobs For the Future with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We have a rare opportunity to focus the national discussion on not just completing the degree but "what" degree people complete...

Making college the goal helps non-college dreams too

January 7, 2011, The Washington Post

Thad Nodine, a researcher and writer based in Santa Cruz, Calif., recently sent me a report he did for the much-admired nonprofit organization Jobs for the Future. It was about the Hidalgo school district in one of the poorest parts of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and what it was doing to disprove myths about the inability of poor Mexican American kids to get far in life...

Students in Poor Counties Get Creative Opportunities

December 23, 2010, The New York Times

Daniel P. King was the Hidalgo Independent School District superintendent in 2005 when… he created the first “early college district” in the country, according to Joel Vargas, a vice president at JFF, the Boston-based organization that coordinates the nationwide initiative.

Baltimore County announces diploma-to-degree program

November 18, 2010, The Baltimore Sun

"Nationally, it is quite a success story," said Joel Vargas, president [sic] of the Early College High School Initiative based in Boston. The organization, funded by the Gates foundation, has encouraged states to begin opening schools. It has become "a real major strategy for raising college readiness rates..."

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