SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: AYPF IS NOW ON TWITTER
AYPF is now on Twitter. Please follow us at @AYPF_Tweets to keep up with events, read resources, and stay connected about education and youth policy around the country.
UPCOMING AYPF EVENTS
Webinar – The Use of Individualized Learning Plans to Help Students to be College and Career Ready, Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 1:00-2:30 p.m.
Preparing for college and careers requires far more than simply mastering rigorous academic content. College and career exploration and planning play a critical role in engaging students through creating personalized learning opportunities and preparing them for life beyond school. Individualized Learning Plans (ILP) are one tool that middle and high school students can use to define their personal interests, goals, and course choices through postsecondary education and careers. Many states have adopted or are exploring policies that require the use of ILPs.
The American Youth Policy Forum, the College and Career Readiness and Success Center, and the Institute for Educational Leadership are co-hosting this webinar on the use of ILPs across the country. The Center for Workforce Development at the Institute for Educational Leadership has conducted longitudinal research, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, to assess the effectiveness of ILPs, and it implemented a demonstration project to better understand their impact on post-school outcomes. Presenters will summarize the research findings and discuss experiences implementing and scaling up the use of ILPs. Presenters include Dr. Joe Harris, Director, College and Career Readiness and Success Center; Dr. Scott Solberg, Associate Dean for Research, Boston University; Mindy Larson, Senior Program Associate, Center for Workforce Development at the Institute for Educational Leadership; Misti Ruthven, Postsecondary Education and Success Manager, Colorado Department of Education; and Dr. Sabrina Moore, Director, Student Intervention Services, South Carolina Department of Education.
Capitol Hill Forum – Policy Perspectives in Expanded Learning: Lessons Learned at the Local Level, Monday, June 10, 2013, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Momentum is growing across the country to use expanded learning opportunities as an important strategy to support student success. Expanded learning organizations are increasingly seen as key players alongside the traditional K-12 system to help students develop the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors needed for success. As communities across the country continue to embrace collaborative efforts to support students’ holistic development, state and federal policy can play a key role in supporting such efforts.
This DC forum will highlight policy issues informed by best practices at the local level related to the value of intermediary organizations, quality and accountability, and school and community partnerships as these three areas are critical for influencing expanded learning and driving school change and youth outcomes. This event will be co-sponsored by the American Youth Policy Forum and the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems (CBASS), a coalition of organizations representing cities and regions around the county to expand the availability of high quality expanded learning opportunities that help children lead successful lives. Presenters will include Jennifer Peck, Executive Director, Partnership for Children and Youth in the Bay Area, California who will share the experience of an intermediary in coordinating diverse stakeholders, finding funding, developing community solutions, and informing public policy decisions; Laura Hansen, Director of Information Management and Decision Support, Metro Nashville Public Schools, who will discuss the school district’s success in engaging a wide range of stakeholders to support afterschool initiatives through data sharing; and Christina Russell, Managing Director, Policy Studies Associates, who will speak about how school and community partnerships impact student success.
We are pleased to announce a series of forums focusing on strategies that support student transitions between K12 and postsecondary education:
Capitol Hill Forum – College Match Matters, Friday, June 14, 2013, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2009 only 36 percent of youth in the United States ages 18-24 were enrolled in college. Of those that managed to navigate the system and gain access to higher education, only 53 percent attending four-year institutions were able to graduate within six years. While many factors contribute to the issue of postsecondary enrollment and graduation, a major challenge has been the matching of youth to appropriate colleges. Oftentimes youth may be the first in their families to apply to or enroll in college and are forced to navigate the process with little or no guidance. If students are to enter into and ultimately succeed in postsecondary education, greater support is required to match each individual student with an institution and course of study that meets his or her needs, both academically and financially.
Co-sponsored by MDRC, this forum will provide an overview of the research conducted by MDRC on the promising College Match Program in Chicago Public Schools, as well as a panel discussion on the implications for policy, specifically considering opportunities for sustainability and scaling up. Presenters include D. Crystal Byndloss, Senior Associate, MDRC; Michael McPherson, President, Spencer Foundation; Greg Darnieder, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education on the College Access Initiative, US Department of Education; and Mariana Saucedo, College Match Advisor, DeVry Advantage Academy High School and Lincoln Park High School.
Capitol Hill Forum – The AVID College Readiness System (ACRS): A Discussion of Comprehensive Strategies for Student Success and School Transformation, Friday, June 21, 2013, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Numerous studies have indicated that while most students aspire to attend college, less than half are academically qualified for postsecondary success and the rates for minority populations who are not academically qualified are significantly higher than their white peers. In order to address this knowledge and skill gap, AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) has developed the AVID College Readiness System (ACRS) which aims to accelerate student learning using research-based methods of effective instruction.
This forum will provide a close look at the AVID College Readiness System and its implication across K-12 and higher education institutions. Through an examination of this system, the panel will offer thoughts on the role of federal policy in supporting and improving transitions through K-12 and into postsecondary education for all students.
Presenters include Rob Gira, Executive Vice President, Quality, Research and Communication, AVID National Center; Dr. Michael Grego, Superintendent, Pinellas County School Board; Dr. Peter Noonan, Superintendent, Fairfax City Public Schools; Derek Steele, AVID Program District Director, College Success Program, Fairfax County Public Schools; and Cindy Zavala, AVID Alumni, Junior, American University.
AYPF PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
Please visit our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/amyouthpolicyforum for video clips of events, interviews and more.
Issue Brief – Improving College and Career Readiness for Students with Disabilities
This issue brief prepared by AYPF for the College and Career Readiness and Success Center at the American Institutes for Research is intended to assist state policymakers in better understanding strategies to prepare students with disabilities and special needs for college and career. The brief provides context and background on the numbers of students with disabilities who are college and career ready; examines issues related to preparation and readiness for postsecondary education and careers; and includes examples of current programs and policies that help students with disabilities to successfully transition to college and careers.
Policy Brief – How Career and Technical Education Can Help Students Be College and Career Ready: A Primer
If educators and policymakers are to make good on the national commitment to graduate more students from high school prepared to face postsecondary challenges, schools must continue to improve career technical education (CTE), ensuring that students have access to high-quality pathways to success. This policy brief prepared by AYPF for the College and Career Readiness and Success Center at the American Institutes for Research provides an overview of the evolution of CTE in the U.S., reviews what CTE looks like in practice, and highlights issues CTE faces in the field that must be overcome for it to become an impactful and wide-reaching strategy for preparing students for postsecondary success. It also discusses the importance of these programs for allowing students the opportunities to acquire the competencies required in today’s workplace, and to learn about different careers by experiencing work and workplaces.
Click here to find all briefs and reports
Click here to view all AYPF publications
RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES
Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff
Eduployment: Creating Opportunity Policies for America’s Youth Youth Transition Funders Group
While the United States has seen graduation rates increase in recent years, national graduation data mask the fact that many of our students, especially low-income and youth of color, are not attaining the knowledge and skills to be successful in college and careers. One out of four African American and Latino students does not graduate high school within four years. This report calls for powerful “opportunity” policies to address the crisis in education and employment of youth in the United States, especially our young people who are falling through the cracks in public systems of education, child welfare, and juvenile justice. The paper also introduces the concept of “eduployment,” a term recognizing learning and work are inextricably linked and opportunity policies for youth must prepare young people for postsecondary success, rather than the outmoded college or career.
Rethinking Community College for the 21st Century The New Community College at CUNY
This case study documents the development of The New Community College at CUNY (NCC) from its initial planning in 2008 to its opening in August 2012. The NCC is the University’s first new community college in more than 40 years. The NCC was inspired by Chancellor Matthew Goldstein’s visionary charge in 2008 to develop an innovative approach to community college education with the goals to enhance student academic achievement and the timely attainment of degrees. This report highlights the creative thinking and complex work that has been done to create a new college from the ground up, and serves as a resource to understanding the potential of this new model and what it takes to implement.
Juvenile Justice Resource Hub Juvenile Justice Resource Exchange
The Juvenile Justice Resource Hub is a comprehensive source of information on juvenile justice issues and reform trends. The content of this website covers a wide range of issues, and resources include ready access to reliable, accurate, curated information and analysis on juvenile justice issues; relevant research; best practice models; experts in the field; policy levers for reform; toolkits and action-oriented documents; and examples of successful reforms.
Redefining the School District in Tennessee Thomas B. Fordham Institute
This policy brief examines the progress of the Tennessee Achievement School District (ASD), a statewide model for school turnarounds. This new policy brief is the first in a series by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute on the ways that statewide turnaround districts affect traditional governance relationships among public schools, school districts, the state, and the federal government. The next installments in the Redefining the School District series will focus on the efforts in Michigan, Virginia, and Louisiana, as well as providing an overview of RSDs.
Competency Education Series: Policy Brief One Knowledge Works
This policy brief includes a working definition for competency education, examples of states doing the ground breaking work in this area and an appropriate role for the federal government to remove policy barriers and to create diagnostic and assessment tools to measure effectiveness. Included in this publication is a continuum to help innovators and policymakers differentiate between full-scale competency models and those that have begun to pave the way for this work.
What Does It Really Mean to Be College and Work Ready? National Center on Education and the Economy
This study from the National Center of Education and the Economy examines the English Literacy and Mathematics required for success in the first year of community college. The report reveals that students are failing to learn the basic math and English skills and concepts needed for success in community colleges, and provides insights into specific areas in need of improvement.
The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.
AYPF events and publications are made possible by a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and others.
Special Announcement: AYPF Is Now on Twitter
Upcoming Events
AYPF Publications and Resources
Recommended Reading and Resources
