SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: AYPF SURVEY
We hope that you will participate in a short survey about how you utilize our resources. Please take a few minutes to complete our online survey to provide us with feedback on our events, services, reports and other resources. Your feedback is important to us as we strive to continually improve how our work informs youth policy and practice.
The online survey should take you approximately 5 minutes to complete. To take the survey, please visit: http://www.surveyshare.com/s/AQAE9MA. Thank you!
UPCOMING AYPF EVENTS
All Forums will be held in Washington, DC.
The American Youth Policy Forum will be hosting a series of Capitol Hill forums designed to challenge participants to think differently about how research informs policy and practice. At this forum, presenters will discuss how research has been used in schools and districts. Researchers Alan J. Daly, University of California, San Diego and Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester, will discuss how educators define, use and diffuse research evidence and the importance of social networks in mediating and disseminating evidence. Superintendent Joshua Starr of Montgomery County Public Schools andRon Rode, the Executive Director of Accountability in San Diego Unified School District, will discuss how this research is being used to support policy and practice in their districts, as well as the larger policy context.
This forum is part of a series of events showcasing a body of work supported by the W.T. Grant Foundation that examines how research is being used in state and local education agencies and in the development of the Common Core State Standards.
Forum– Fostering College and Career Readiness through Afterschool and Expanded Learning Opportunities, February 8, 2013, 12:00-1:30 PM
NOTE THAT THIS IS A RE-SCHEDULED FORUM, PREVIOUSLY CANCELED DUE TO HURRICANE SANDY. This forum will highlight programs and policy efforts that are helping students strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to prepare for college and careers through learning opportunities that occur beyond the school day. Presenters will discuss the programming and policy efforts that have led to positive student outcomes in their states and communities, highlight the valuable role that afterschool and expanded learning stakeholders can play in supporting college and career readiness initiatives, and address policies and systems that supported or hindered their success. Speakers will include Debbie Zipes, Executive Director, Indiana Afterschool Network; Robert Kizer, President and CEO, Starfish Initiative; and Mary Ellen Caron, CEO of After School Matters.
Forum- The Use of Individualized Learning Plans to Help Students to be College and Career Ready, February 15, 2013, 12:00-1:30 PM
AYPF is partnering with the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Center for Workforce Development to present the findings of the Center’s research on the use of Individualized Learning Plans (ILP), which provide middle school and high schools students with a tool to define their personal interests, goals, and course choices through postsecondary education and careers. Many states have adopted policies that require the use of ILPs and research is starting to show its benefits.
The Center on Workforce Development 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 practitioners’ and policymakers’ experiences implementing and scaling up the use of ILPs. Presenters will include Dr. Terry Holliday, Kentucky Commissioner of Education, Joan Wills, Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Workforce Development, Institute for Educational Leadership, and Dr. Scott Solberg, Associate Dean for Research, University of Boston.
Forum- Using Competency Education to Improve Student Outcomes, March 1, 2013, 12:00-1:30 PM
States and school districts around the country are beginning to challenge the time-based educational system that has been in place for decades by moving to a competency education approach. Competency education can be described as flexibility in awarding credit or defined as an alternative to the Carnegie unit. The reasons for moving away from the restrictions of a time-based system include: ensuring that all students succeed in building college and career readiness, consistent with the Common Core of world class knowledge and skills; taking advantage of the extraordinary technological advances in online learning for personalization, allowing students to learn at their own pace, any time and everywhere; and providing greater flexibility for students that might not otherwise graduate from high school. This forum, cosponsored by CompetencyWorks and the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, will showcase state and district efforts to implement and expand competency education.
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RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES
Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff
DQC’s Breaking Down Silos Series Data Quality Campaign
Just as state policymakers worked together on a common-sense solution to the need for common state standards, it is critical that state policymakers take the lead in finding collaborative solutions to states’ interdependent data challenges. It is vital that policymakers understand these challenges and work with other state policymakers to standardize education data, support student record exchanges, share limited and appropriate data across state lines, and define and use common metrics. The Data Quality Campaign has recently released two reports, Limited Out-of-State Data Needed to Produce Robust Indicators and Meeting Policymakers’ Education Responsibilities Requires Cross-State Data Collaboration, Sharing, and Comparability which address these issues.
Strategies for Smarter Budgets and Smarter Schools Fordham Institute
This policy brief offers advice to school districts seeking to provide a well-rounded, quality education to all children in a time of strained budgets. The brief highlights three major strategies, including: prioritizing both achievement and cost-efficiency; making staffing decisions based on student needs, not adult preferences; establishing guidelines for what constitutes a full and fair workload for staff members, then staff accordingly; and managing special education spending for better outcomes and greater cost-effectiveness.
Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education: A Joint Statement Charles A. Dana Center; Complete College America, Inc.; Education Commission of the States; and Jobs for the Future
As a result of new research and promising practice, we have more clarity than ever about how we can fundamentally transform our developmental education system to improve success for all students. To propel the movement forward, this statement offers a set of clear and actionable principles that, although not the final word on developmental education reform, sets a new course that can dramatically improve the postsecondary success of millions of students across the nation.
AYPF events and publications are made possible by a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and others.
Special Announcement: AYPF Survey
Upcoming Events
Recommended Readings and Resources
