SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

AYPF is now accepting applications for the position of Research/Policy Intern for the Fall 2015 period. The Research/Policy Intern will:

• Work with program staff to collect data for briefing papers, fact sheets, and publications.
• Research promising practices to help identify potential programs to highlight in publications, forums, and study tours.
• Track and analyze effective youth policies and practices in states and districts.
• Assist with communications to key contacts on Capitol Hill.

For a full position description, please visit our employment page.

AYPF PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES

Competency-Based Learning in 60 Seconds What does Competency-Based Learning (CBL) mean and what makes it valuable? Our short animated video shows how CBL engages students, offers transparency, and uses student mastery as the ultimate metric of success

Event Resources: Growing Together, Learning Together The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) and Youthprise, with support from the Wallace Foundation, teamed up to host a half-day event in St. Paul, Minn.to learn more about building and sustaining strong afterschool systems from the recently released Growing Together, Learning Together. The event enabled participants to share lessons learned, interact with national experts in afterschool coordination, and to generate ideas for local action. Saint Paul Mayor Christopher Coleman served as the event’s keynote speaker.

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.

• There’s nothing more important to a student’s education than an effective, engaged teacher. Communications Associate George Knowles talks to Patrick Riccards from The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation about not only preparing quality teachers, but how to keep them in schools that need them the most.
• Where you live can make a difference in your high school education. Program Associate Jenna Tomasello illustrates the link between education and housing.
• Research/Policy Intern Mikaela Zetley on how perceptions matter when it comes to the titles of high school equivalency credentials.
• How can we best stem summer learning loss? Guest blogger Rachel Gwaltney from National Summer Learning Association illustrates some promising practices and resources.
• Senior Director Loretta Goodwin talks about closing high school achievement gaps, and Pedro Noguera thinks we have to ask the right questions.

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:

Wallace Foundation Growing Together, Learning Together This report offers a digest of the latest thinking on how to build and sustain an afterschool system, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for this promising work. The report focuses on the four components of system building that the most current evidence and experience suggest are essential: Strong leadership from major players: Coordination that fits local context: Effective use of data: A comprehensive approach to quality.

College and Career Readiness Center Integrating Employability Skills: A Framework for All Educators This interactive module introduces participants to the Employability Skills Framework and explains why it is important for all students, connects employability skills with other education initiatives, and provides tools and strategies to prioritize employability skills at the state, employer, district, and individual teacher levels. 

America’s Promise Expanded Learning, Expanded Opportunity: How Four Communities Are Working to Improve Education for Their Students This report examines Grand Rapids, Mich.; Louisville, Ky.; Memphis, Tenn. and Rochester, N.Y. to see how time spent out of the classroom improved outcomes for students in low-income neighborhoods and low-performing schools.

MDRC We Always Want to Get Better: Teachers’ Voices on Professional Development This brief explores the changes in professional development systems and introduces the case study component of MDRC’s evaluation from 12 case study teachers and presents some early findings from interviews.

Aspen Institute A Snapshot of Courses to Employment Partnerships This report describes the educational programming, support services, and industry engagement strategies partnerships implement, the ways the two entities work together, the funding and resources that partnerships use, and the innovative strategies that support their work.

Education Commission of the States GED, HiSET and TASC: A Comparison of High School Equivalency Assessments This report provides a comparison of these three assessments’ features, aspects of testing programs states have weighed when deciding which high school equivalency exam to offer and the decision-making process states have used to select one or more alternatives to the GED. 

Bellwether Education Partners Mind the Gap: The Case for Re-Imagining the Way States Judge High School Quality This report proposes new, more multidimensional ways of judging high school quality rather than achievement scores and graduation rates, such as focusing on higher-order skills, challenging coursework, and annual progress toward college and career readiness.