UPCOMING AYPF EVENTS
AYPF is happy to announce that we are launching our new and improved website in a few weeks. Stay tuned for more information!
Forum – Building a Comprehensive System to Support All Students Getting to High School Graduation and Beyond, Friday, April 27th, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
AYPF will host a lunchtime discussion of how policy influences the creation of multiple pathways to high school graduation and the preparation of all youth for postsecondary education and careers. Panelists will address how federal, state and local policies can support efforts to prepare diverse learners for success, sharing examples such as New York City’s portfolio of schools serving all students, including those off-track to graduation. Presenters will include: Kathryn Young, Director of National Education Policy, Jobs for the Future; Marissa Cole, Deputy Chief of Staff, Massachusetts Executive Office of Education (invited); and Vanda Belusic-Vollor, Executive Director, New York City Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Readiness. Please e-mail us to RSVP.
An Expanded Conception of “College” in Today’s United States – Washington University in St. Louis – March 22
On March 22, AYPF Founder and Senior Fellow Samuel Halperin will speak atWashingtonUniversity in St. Louis (WUSTL) on “An Expanded Conception of ‘College’ in Today’sUnited States.” WUSTL will also award Samuel Halperin one of four “Distinguished Alumnus Awards.”
AYPF PUBLICATIONS AND RESOURCES
Please visit our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/amyouthpolicyforum for video clips of events, interviews and more!
Forum Brief & Video – Dual Enrollment: A Strategy for Improving College Readiness and Success for All Students – February 10, 2012
Increasingly dual enrollment is becoming a strategy to support and encourage more students into postsecondary education and beyond. Yet, the research is only beginning to allow us to understand the long-term impacts on student success as well as understand the necessary design elements for student success. This forum reviewed the range of research conducted by the National Center on Postsecondary Research, as well as discussed ways that dual enrollment has been/can be used as a strategy to promote college and career readiness for all students. Presenters included Katherine Hughes, National Center for Postsecondary Research; Cecilia Speroni, National Center for Postsecondary Research; Julie Alexander, Florida Department of Education; and Chad Aldeman, US Department of Education.
Video – Understanding STEM Education: A Discussion of the Key Issues, Efforts, and the Role of Federal Policy – January 27, 2012
AYPF held a special briefing on January 27, 2012 exclusively for Congressional staff to learn about the role of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education (collectively known as “STEM” education) in preparing America’s youth with the skills needed for jobs in today’s economy. STEM-related jobs are among the fastest growing of all the occupational sectors in the global economy. Unfortunately, the U.S.is not currently producing enough individuals with the necessary skills in these jobs to meet the growing demand. This scarcity of talent must be addressed by strengthening education and increasing students’ opportunities for mastering STEM skills and content at every point along the educational pipeline, from early education through college and beyond. The issues related to the nation’s STEM pipeline were addressed by featured speakers Linda Rosen, Chief Executive Officer and Claus von Zastrow, Director of Research, both of Change the Equation, and Erik Robelen, Reporter and Assistant Editor at Education Week. A recording of the event and the presenters’ slides are now available on our website.
RECOMMENDED READING AND RESOURCES
Check these out – recommended reading from the AYPF staff
Special Edition Webinar to Launch CompetencyWorks iNacol
Across our country, schools, districts and even states are investing in innovations that re-design our education system around competency-based education. Moving beyond the current time-based, one-size-fits-all education system which reproduces inequities and low achievement, these innovators are designing new systems based around mastery and student-centered learning — in which student success is the only option. Join this webinar to hear about how you can be involved in CompetencyWorks, a new initiative to advance competency-based education so that all of our students can be successful. To register for this webinar, please visit http://www.inacol.org/events/webinar/special_edition.php
State Strategies for Awarding Credit to Support Student Learning NGACenter for Best Practices
According to this issue brief published by the National Governors Association, awarding credits based on student mastery of content and skills can remove barriers to increasing student readiness for college and careers. This brief illustrates how governors can lead efforts to foster alternative methods of awarding credit by working to build flexibility in state policy for students to earn credit based on learning; modify school funding formulas to allocate resources based on student mastery of content and skills as opposed to enrollment; ensure data systems are linked across state agencies and education providers; and require public institutions of higher education to accept student transcripts with credits earned by demonstration of mastery.
Better Schools Through Better Politics: The Human Side of Portfolio School District Reform Center on Reinventing Public Education
This working paper series examines the politics of portfolio school district reform, with a primary focus on the issues surrounding high school closures. The authors take an in-depth look at how school closure policies have played out in four urban districts—New York City, Chicago, Denver, and Oakland—and offer a political assessment of what worked or failed and why. The political analyses, case studies, cross-district comparisons, and analysis frameworks may help education leaders anticipate and better address the challenges of closing schools within their own communities.
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: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York , State Farm Insurance, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and others.
Upcoming Events
AYPF Publications and Resources
Recommended Readings and Resources
