AYPF PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES

Publication – Career Pathways Systems: Lessons From Miami

In order to help federal policymakers and national education leaders better understand how to develop a career pathways system, AYPF staff and a group of national leaders visited Miami-Dade County Public Schools, renowned for its commitment to providing students with multiple pathways to success. Their career pathway efforts center around programs of study which build students’ competencies in core academic and career areas and provide the opportunity to earn postsecondary and workforce credentials. This work relies on strong partnerships between Miami-Dade County Public Schools, higher education institutions, business leaders, and community organizations.

Forum Brief – 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, YVLifeSet has demonstrated excellent results with young people transitioning out of foster care or with a history of involvement in the juvenile justice system. This forum focused on these research findings and their implications for scaling effective practices and policy.

Webinar ­– Ensuring Professional Capacity to Support English Learners

Educators and policymakers alike are recognizing the urgent need for more sophisticated curricula and assessments to truly prepare students for success in a global economy. English Learners (ELs), a continuously growing share of the student population, will particularly benefit from meaningful learning and re-imagined accountability systems. In order to do this successfully, however, it will be necessary to boost professional capacity among schools and educators. This webinar provided information and tools about building professional capacity to better support students, particularly ELs. Additionally, this webinar highlighted the latest research on ensuring positive outcomes for ELs, shared concrete professional development strategies for teachers and administrators, examined policy supports at the federal, state, and local levels, and explored the inherent challenges in ensuring sufficient qualified teachers for ELs.

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.

• Even though high school graduation rates are high, 2.6 million youth between 16 and 24 are off-track to earning their diplomas. Jenna Tomasello and Betsy Brand highlight three ways that Competency-Based Education (CBE) practices can support these at-risk youth.
• Former teacher Zachary Malter reflects on his experiences with students involved in Miami’s juvenile justice system, and five things he wishes he’d known about juvenile justice at the time.
• New Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) draft provisions provide states with new levels of clarity around accountability and assessment. But how will they serve at-risk youth, particularly students in the foster care or juvenile justice systems? Zachary Malter explains.
• Loretta Goodwin shines a spotlight on a D.C. public charter school that prepares students for long-term success via learning expeditions and student projects that emphasize adopting an “academic mindset.”

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RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES

Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff:

Every Hour Counts Every Hour Counts Ten-Year Convening Report

This report provides an overview of major developments in the expanded-learning field in the last ten years, and sets forth a vision for the future. The report describes the pressing social issues that impact student learning, including poverty and inequity, and examine the ways in which expanded learning can help remove some of the associated barriers. 

Data Quality Campaign District Actions to Make Data Work for Students

The Data Quality Campaign’s Four Policy Priorities to Make Data Work for Students shows how policymakers at the federal, state, and district levels can take action to grow students into knowledgeable and successful adults.This report illustrates how district leaders are uniquely positioned to spearhead this work at the local level and provides recommendations on how to use data at the district level.

Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) Classroom to Career: Leveraging Employment Data to Measure Labor Market Outcomes

This report assesses the current landscape of employment data. Rachel Zinn, Director of the Workforce Data Quality Campaign, proposes technical enhancements to help agencies and institutions more effectively collect and share information, and provides recommendations on federal and state policies to better inform students and other key stakeholders.

ICF International Lessons in Reentry from Successful Programs and Participants

This report summarizes observations and findings from a yearlong benchmarking study of the Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) program and highlights successful REO grantees and their practices in connecting justice-involved youth and adult returning citizens to work, education, and training programs.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Talent Orchestrators: Scaling Youth Employment Through Business-Facing Intermediaries

This paper explores how employers and employer associations can leverage business-facing intermediaries as talent orchestrators to manage their human capital needs and scale youth employment efforts. It can also serve as a guide for how existing intermediaries can improve and scale in partnership with employers. The paper also defines business-facing intermediaries and introduces a set of design principles for how this group can serve as talent orchestrators, and investigates how business-facing intermediaries are providing new opportunities for employers and business associations.

Wallace Foundation Connecting the Dots: Data Use in Afterschool Systems

This interim report presents early findings from a study of how afterschool systems build their capacity to understand and improve their practices through their data systems. It examines afterschool data systems in nine cities that are part of The Wallace Foundation’s Next Generation Afterschool System-Building initiative, a multi-year effort to strengthen systems that support access to and participation in high-quality afterschool programs for low-income youth.

U.S. Department of Education Foster Care Transition Toolkit

This toolkit serves to inspire and support youth currently in foster care and young adults who have aged out of care to pursue college and career opportunities. As students prepare to transition to adult life in today’s economy, it’s important to be prepared to independently make decisions, advocate for personal needs, manage financial or health concerns as well as secure housing and transportation. Recognizing that these systems may be challenging and that the transition from foster care can be confusing, this toolkit includes tips and resources to help youth and young adults tackle social, emotional, educational skills and resource barriers.