Capitol Hill Forum – Making Learning More Meaningful in a Reimagined Accountability System

This forum will showcase schools that are supporting meaningful learning by putting in place higher quality assessments. YouthBuild Charter School of California, a competency-based, dropout recovery school uses applied, project-based learning and authentic assessments to measure student growth. Building 21 Ferguson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a non-selective, competency-based public high school that allows students to design their own personalized learning pathways. Denver Center for International Studies is part of the Asia Society and prepares students for college by having students curate a portfolio of their best work, guided by four domains of global leadership, to earn a Certificate in International Studies Diploma.

Capitol Hill Forum – Seizing The Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning

The principles of Student-Centered Learning can positively impact ALL students, and there are lessons to be learned at the practice and policy levels that can leverage scalability. This forum will feature an hour Panel Discussion and Question & Answer session examining student-centered learning at the levels of practice (traditional K-12 and Alternative Education) and policy.

Capitol Hill Forum – Scaling Effective Practices for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care

Every year, 26,000 young people age out of the foster care system, often with limited resources and relationships to ensure they successfully transition into adulthood.  Providing the necessary supports and guidance to ensure these young people can navigate their own pathway to long-term success is critical. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of Youth Villages’ YVLifeSet program by providing intensive, individualized, and clinically focused case management, support, and counseling has demonstrated excellent results with young people transitioning out of foster care or with a history of involvement in the juvenile justice system. Join us for a discussion of these research findings and their implications for scaling effective practices and the role of policy.   

AYPF PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES

Webinar Recording – Moving the Needle for First Generation College Students: Comprehensive Advising from College Access to Success

This webinar highlighted comprehensive advising strategies for supporting first-generation students’ college access, transition, and success and discussed the role of policy in scaling these efforts.

Webinar Recording – Technology to Complement Advising for College Access and Success 

Considering the ever-present role that technology plays in our lives, online and technology-facilitated advising may be a promising strategy to get information faster and more reliably into the hands of students who need it most. For first-generation, low-income (FGLI) students who traditionally earn these credentials at lower rates than their peers, advising can be an especially critical tool for ensuring that the transition to and through postsecondary education is as smooth as possible. From social media to text messages, this webinar explored the ways in which technology can be leveraged to complement in-person college advising for FGLI students.

Forum For Thought Blog The Forum for Thought blog is operated by the American Youth Policy Forum, and highlights diverse points of view and information from the intersection of policy, practice and research.

·       What’s the big secret behind culturally relevant teaching? Zachary Malter explains.

·       It’s never too early for students to think about career pathways.

·       Why “soft skills” are anything but soft. Reflections on the SXSWedu conference.

·       How important is failure to the deeper learning process? More than one might think.

·       It’s time to suspend out-of-school suspensions, from AYPF intern Christopher Lemos.

·       VIDEO: Meet Ebony Rempson, the 2016 winner of the Samuel Halperin Youth Public Service Award.

·       How funding diversity can help meet the unmet need of afterschool and summer learning programs.

Click here to view all AYPF publications

Click here to find all briefs and reports

RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES

Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff:

National Association of State Directors of CareerTechnical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc) State Policies Impacting CTE: 2015 Year in Review

This report takes a state-by-state look at CTE-related policies passed in 2015, while drawing out major themes and trends from the year. View the webinar discussing report highlights, and the 2015 state policy tracker.

MDRC Building College Readiness Before Matriculation

This brief provides a first look at an evaluation of CUNY Start, describing the program model, the students in the study sample, and the outcomes being tracked. The findings from the evaluation will be important for CUNY but also for other colleges, policymakers, and anyone who is interested in strategies for boosting the success of college students who have very low basic skills.

Rand Corporation Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning

This report examines achievement in 62 public charter and district schools that are pursuing a variety of personalized learning practices, and examines implementation details in 32 of those schools. Researchers obtained achievement data for personalized learning students and a matched comparison group of students attending other schools serving similar populations, and also collected and analyzed data from site visits, interviews, and surveys to create a broad picture of the schools’ efforts to implement personalized learning and the perceptions of teachers and students.

National Center for Juvenile Justice Evidence-Based Policies, Programs, and Practices in Juvenile Justice: Three States Achieving High Standards Through State Support Centers

This case study details how three states established evidence-based practice support centers to promote research-informed juvenile justice systems through training and technical assistance, data collection and analysis, and stakeholder involvement.

Jobs for the Future Advancing Deeper Learning Under ESSA: Seven Priorities

This brief recommends seven ways for supporters of deeper learning to take advantage of the changing education policy landscape, as authority shifts from the federal government to states and local districts. The authors outline priorities to help the nation’s high schools move from a largely inequitable system to one that prepares all students for college and careers, with the full range of academic, personal, and social skills needed for life success.

AYPF NEWS/UPDATES

AYPF staff will be presenting on TWO upcoming webinars hosted by Connecting Credentials:

Flexible Learning and Credentialing Pathways for Young People: Where We are & Where We are Headed

Friday, April 29, 2016 1:00-2:30 pm EDT

Register now!

How can we evolve learning and credentialing pathways for young people in the K-12 system so that they include a broad ecosystem of credentialing and learning environments, and keep young people on the path to college, career and civic readiness? What will it take for these pathways to be robust and flexible enough to meet the needs of all young people, especially our most marginalized and vulnerable; to align with the needs of the credentialing marketplace and labor market? Hear three K-12 thought leaders talk about obstacles and opportunities within youth systems and current K-12 pathways initiatives. Twitter hashtag: #youthpathways

Panelists:

•    Lillian Pace, Senior Director of National Policy, KnowledgeWorks.

•    Rebecca Wolfe, Senior Director, Jobs for the Future. Students at the Center Initiative

•    Jennifer Brown Lerner, Deputy Director, American Youth Policy Forum

College & Career Readiness: Credentialing Options & Looking to the Future

May 10, 2016 2:00-3:30 pm EDT

Register now! 

How is college and career readiness currently addressing and evolving to address the credentialing needs of traditional and non-traditional youth and adult learners? What’s critical for college and career readiness to incorporate stackable credentials, career pathways, on-ramps, badges, and other emerging credentialing options, especially for our most marginalized and vulnerable populations?  Twitter hashtag: #collegecareerready

Panelists:

•    Mary Kay Devine, Director of Community Initiatives, Women Employed; Adult college & career readiness coalition for adults/Illinois

•    Betsy Brand, Executive Director, American Youth Policy Forum

•    Gary Hoachlander, ConnectEd, California Center for College & Career

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: Andrus Family Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and others.