UPCOMING AYPF EVENTS
As our education system works to keep pace with the demands of the 21st century workforce, a lack of coordination across policies and insufficient cross-sector alignment has resulted in a disconnect between our education and workforce systems. This disconnect contributes to gaps in the workforce, as well as a “completion crisis” in postsecondary education, in which a large number of students enter postsecondary education but leave before obtaining a degree or credential. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that all students have access to a well-rounded education that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers. Additionally, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) encourages the development of high-quality career pathways. As Congress looks to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and the Higher Education Act (HEA), it is critical to consider the opportunities to align policies and to encourage coordination across systems and sectors to facilitate the creation of multiple pathways to success for all students. Presenters at this forum will share evidence-based strategies for aligning systems and policies around student and workforce needs, as well as opportunities within policy at various levels to promote structured and supportive pathways to postsecondary and workforce credential attainment. Presenters included Betsy Brand, Executive Director, American Youth Policy Forum;Michael Collins, Vice President, Building Educational Pathways, Jobs for the Future; Marcia Ballinger, President, Lorain County Community College, Elyria, OH; and Nate Easley, Executive Director, Denver Scholarship Foundation, Denver, CO.
AYPF RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Foster, Juvenile Justice, and Crossover Youth: An AYPF Resource Hub
Young people involved in the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems often face significant challenges as they transition to college and career. This resource, which draws upon national, state, and local research and data, provides snapshots of the education and workforce outcomes of these populations and explores the challenges they face. AYPF will continue to update the resource hub with our resources and those from our partners.
The goal of this study tour was to learn how schools are promoting equity, diversity, and personalized learning to ensure all students have access to ‘deeper learning’ – the mastery of rigorous core academic content; critical thinking and problem solving; teamwork and collaboration; effective communication; learning how to learn; and cultivation of an academic mindset. On this tour, participants visited two high schools in Oakland, CA that are providing students with rich, student-centered curricula that incorporates personalized, project-based, and work-based learning. Through conversations with students, teachers, and administrators, as well as explorations of classrooms and internship sites, participants witnessed first-hand how to create a culture that supports traditionally underserved students, including recent immigrant, English learner, economically disadvantaged, and students of color, as they acquire deeper learning competencies.
Webinar Recording – Promoting Pathways to Success for System-Involved Youth (June 6, 2017)
Young people involved in the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems often face significant challenges to long-term success. Systems-involved youth may struggle with an array of education and workforce barriers that hinder their path to postsecondary opportunities and a family-sustaining career. This webinar explored critical elements at the intersection of policy and practice for supporting systems-involved youth on a pathway to long-term success. Presenters Darrin McCall, Youth Empowerment Project (New Orleans, LA); Serita Cox, Co-Founder and Executive Director, iFoster; and Alan Lessik, Executive Director, Civicorps (Oakland, CA) discussed issues of data and information sharing, flexible funding, and education and workforce experiences to better support youth through systems involvement.
Please visit our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/amyouthpolicyforum for video clips of events, interviews and more.
- AYPF Intern Amber Verhoorn asks “What Makes Quality Education Programs in Secure Juvenile Facilities?” as she shares insights from her current project. Read More
- Introducing AYPF’s Resource Hub, Deputy Director Jennifer Brown Lerner shares the power of data to help shed light on the foster, juvenile justice, and crossover youth populations. Read More
- Policy Associate Jenna Tomasello reminds us how essential supports are for young people especially those who are involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Read More
- The question “Do you See Me?” prompted Policy/Research Assistant Jessica Kannam to explore the role of youth voice in addressing barriers for systems-involved youth. Read More
AYPF’s Forum for Thought blog also had great content from our partners:
- Education Development Center (EDC) Senior Research Associate Sarah Ryan discusses the need to better understand the conditions under which researcher-practitioner collaboration yields the kinds of positive and sustained changes necessary to effectively support student success. Read More
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Click here to find all briefs and reports
RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES
Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff:
CompetencyWorks Papers for National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education:
- An Introduction to the National Summit on K-12 Competency-Based Education
- In Pursuit of Equality: Guiding Principles for Equity Strategies in Personalized, Competency-Based Education
- Meeting Students Where They Are
- Fit for Purpose: Taking the Long View on Systems Change and Policy to Support Competency Education
- In Search of Efficacy: Defining the Elements of Quality in a Competency-Based Education System.
ExcelinEd Policy, Pilots and the Path to Competency-Based Education: A National Landscape
This report, published together with EducationCounsel, offers a survey of current state laws and policies on competency-based education in K-12 systems and explores the potential challenges they may pose for states implementing this innovative learning model.
ExcelinEd Competency-Based Education & School Finance: Lessons from Online and Community-Based Courses
This white paper examines how leading states are funding nontraditional learning experiences—like online and community-based courses—and how states can use these lessons learned to align their funding systems with competency-based education.
Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count 2017
A go-to resource for understanding the well-being of children and youth in America.
Education Commission on the States Equity in Education: Key questions to consider
This brief supports states in identifying their equity needs and bringing together thought partners across the education field to better understand, develop, and implement policy options that improve opportunities for all students across the P20 spectrum.
Data Quality Campaign States Can and Must Include Postsecondary Enrollment Data on Report Cards
This report explains why postsecondary enrollment data is important and how it can be shared in meaningful ways to help parents, school leaders, and communities make better decisions.
The Future of Children, Spring 2017
Saying that the field of social and emotional learning “is at a crossroads,” this issue’s editors review the state of the evidence for SEL and explore a set of policy questions that educators and afterschool leaders are facing.
Policy Study Associates (PSA) Analysis of the Impacts of City Year’s Whole School Whole Child Model on Partner Schools’ Performance
A third-party study by Policy Studies Associates (PSA) examined the impact of City Year’s service model, Whole School Whole Child, on City Year’s partner schools’ performance in comparison to similar schools without City Year. PSA found that schools with teams of City Year AmeriCorps members were two to three times more likely to increase English Language Arts (ELA) and math proficiency rates compared with similar schools that did not partner with City Year, as measured by state assessments. Schools that partnered with City Year also gained the equivalent of approximately one month of additional learning in math and ELA.
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) Coordinating TANF & WIOA: High Interest, Slow Progress During Early Days of WIOA
This report presents findings from the survey TANF and WIOA agency leaders about their level of coordination between programs along with federal and state policy recommendations to improve coordination and better serve low-income people.
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, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and others.
