Search Results

Jobs for the Future commissioned this report to provide an international perspective on the productivity agenda of ‘Making Opportunity Affordable’, a multiyear initiative focused on increasing productivity within United States (US) higher education, particularly at two-year and four-year public colleges and universities. Hauptman and Kim compare and analyze data on: cost - the amount that countries spend on tertiary education per student; commitment - the share of [gross domestic product] GDP a country spends on tertiary education; and attainment - the share of working-age adults holding a tertiary education degree. The report suggests three approaches that the US should consider to achieve higher attainment at sustainable levels of costs and commitment: focus more resources and attention on community colleges; pay more attention to developing and implementing strategies to improve completion rates at both two-year and four-year institutions; and consider increases in enrollments as a means for moderating costs per student and improving productivity.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

In March, Congress authorized the Community College and Career Training Grant Program in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, with appropriations of $500 million each year for fiscal years 2011 through 2014. Institutions can apply for grants for the purpose of ‘developing, offering, and improving educational or career training’ for workers eligible for training under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act. Based on [Jobs for the Future’s] JFF’s experience in the field, the authors recommend how this grant program can encourage community colleges to help more dislocated and unemployed workers move quickly through effective programs that result in successful employment and educational outcomes.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

In 2009, a team of researchers completed the baseline evaluation report for the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a multi-year initiative launched in 2007 by the Annie E. Casey, Ford, Hitachi, and Harry and Jeanette Weinberg foundations and the U.S. Department of Labor. The National Fund is designed to build workforce partnerships rooted in industry sectors, and to transform institutions to improve labor market outcomes for low-income individuals and employers. This report describes the National Fund in its first period of implementation, including how the changing environment has begun to shape its strategy and tactics. Because it will serve as a baseline for future evaluations, it describes the goals, strategies, characteristics, and initial outcomes of the initiative in its early stages. The evaluation found that between 2007 and spring 2009 the National Fund built a strong foundation for meeting its goals, and the initial outcomes in the young initiative appear promising. The National Fund raised approximately $22 million nationally and leveraged $100 million in pledged local funding to expand workforce services for employers and low-income workers, implement promising models of service delivery, and drive reform in workforce institutions and employer practices. The initiative included 21 regional funding collaboratives, with several more expected to join, and 37 local workforce partnerships. The partnerships provided services to 6,306 individuals and 504 employers, placing the National Fund on track to achieve its five-year goal of helping 50,000 low-income workers and 1,000 employers improve their economic futures.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [ARRA], better known as the economic stimulus plan. Congress and the Obama Administration acted in the wake of an economic crisis spurred by a deepening recession. Among its aims in passing the ARRA, Congress moved to help states and local jurisdictions reduce growing fiscal shortfalls that threaten the work of community leaders across the nation. Yet the intent of Congress went beyond acting to stabilize state and local budgets and create jobs: it also uses this one-time, unprecedented appropriation to lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth. The act dedicates funding for innovation in and the expansion of many federal investments. This document summarizes selected ARRA funding streams for struggling students and disconnected youth. Funds authorized under ARRA will flow quickly to states and localities. This summary is designed to help community leaders who seek to maintain and advance efforts to create pathways for struggling students and disconnected youth. It addresses what is known of the intent, the allocation process, and the most relevant sections of ARRA. However, beyond the legislative language and the accompanying House-Senate conference report, there is little information on how ARRA funds will be dispersed and how states may access them. In the coming weeks, executive branch departments will provide guidance and, where applicable, application procedures for accessing the funds.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Of the $5 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s [ARRA’s] State Fiscal Stabilization Fund reserved for the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants, the department will conduct a national competition among states for a $4.35 billion, state-incentive Race to the Top Fund to improve education quality and results statewide. The fund will help drive substantial gains in student achievement by supporting states that are effectively using other ARRA funds to, and have begun making significant progress on, ARRA’s four education reform goals: establishing and raising standards; implementing data systems and using data to drive instruction; improving teacher and principal quality and equity; and turning around historically low-performing schools. The recommendations in this paper are meant as guides for dialogue with and among state-level counterparts to advance ongoing efforts to launch and sustain schools and interventions for off-track and out-of-school youth. [Jobs for the Future] JFF prepared this paper with input from district and city leaders in the Pathways to Graduation Workgroup. JFF convenes this cross-sector, five-city workgroup to inform efforts across the country to create options and improve outcomes for these youth. To seize the opportunity presented by the Race to the Top Fund, strategies and components of the agenda serving off-track/out-of-school youth should be positioned as key to improving overall student academic achievement and advancing state education reform.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This guide was developed by Jobs for the Future and the College in High School Alliance (CHSA). The CHSA is a coalition of leading national organizations dedicated to promoting policies in support of high-quality dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and early college schools. The work of the CHSA is coordinated by a steering committee comprised of Jobs for the Future, Bard College, KnowledgeWorks, the Middle College National Consortium, and the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP). The guide, which has three parts, is designed to provide state and local policymakers with a clear roadmap for leveraging [Every Student Succeeds Act] ESSA to support the implementation of early college and dual enrollment in their states and communities.

Published abstract. Show less

The [US] federal government last reauthorized its investment in the nation’s workforce system in 1998 with the Workforce Investment Act [WIA]. As Congress and the Obama Administration move forward with reauthorizing WIA, building on the successes of the current system gives us a head start. WIA is also an important vehicle for aligning incentives and strategies across economic development, secondary and postsecondary education, and the employment and workforce systems, and for doing so at the federal, state and local levels. [Jobs for the Future] JFF provides these recommendations to help Congress revisit the act as part of a broader push for coherent, comprehensive, and effective support of workforce and economic development in the nation. JFF envisions a modernized workforce development system that is: powerful enough to build and maintain a 21st century workforce; multifunctional, to meet the needs of youth, workers, employers, and communities; and flexible, to adapt to a dynamic, competitive global economy.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The [US] federal government has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to stimulate significant progress in solving the nation’s graduation crisis, according to this report from Jobs for the Future and the Everyone Graduates Center. While high schools with low graduation rates exist in every state and many communities across the country, they are concentrated in a subset of 17 states that produce approximately 70 per cent of the nation’s dropouts. Data from these states are used to develop new analytic tools for examining the characteristics of schools, districts, and states that make certain approaches more likely to succeed in certain places.

Immediate federal action would make a significant difference in efforts to help hundreds of thousands more high school students earn a diploma and prepare for postsecondary education. The report’s authors make the following recommendations to the federal government: require states seeking [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] ARRA Race to the Top funding to use analytic data on graduation rates and low graduation-rate high schools as part of their plans for turning around failing schools; build the capacity of states, districts, and schools to implement appropriate high school reform strategies; designate additional federal innovation funding for development and replication of effective school designs to use in transforming or replacing low graduation rate high schools; and target federal financing to high schools, districts, and states with the most pressing dropout problems.

The growing knowledge base of promising strategies, combined with a more concerted effort to match reforms to the circumstances where they are most likely to succeed, can go a long way in helping the nation reach the President’s goal of once again being the first in the world in the percentage of our young people who complete high school and earn a postsecondary credential as well.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This report is the third in a series designed to highlight potential ways for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to work more effectively with the federal government. The first report in this series, 'Maximizing federal support and opportunity for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts', examined a number of opportunities by which Massachusetts might work with the federal government to receive additional federal funding, more effectively utilize existing funding, or improve efficiencies in various state-federal partnerships. This report focuses solely on the healthcare workforce, which holds many opportunities in Massachusetts, particularly for low-income workers. The report provides an overview of the state of the healthcare workforce, explains strategies for moving more youth and adults through health career pathways, and explores federal funding sources for workforce training.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

President Barack Obama has called for intensified efforts to increase degree attainment in the United States, arguing that raising education attainment rates will sustain and enhance the country’s economic competitiveness globally. This discussion paper highlights the lessons learned by the Achieving the Dream initiative about improving higher education outcomes and seeks to leverage the important work underway in colleges and states around the country to help make student success in postsecondary education an important national goal. The paper highlights Achieving the Dream’s emphasis on institution-wide change and data-driven improvement strategies, which has served as a catalyst for significant improvement in community college student outcomes. It also outlines the integral role state policy support has played in the initiative as states have explored ways to alter resource allocation, rules, and procedures to be more supportive of colleges’ student success initiatives.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less