Search Results

More and more young people are enrolling in postsecondary education, particularly in community colleges, with the goal of preparing for jobs that provide access to middle-class wages. Unfortunately, too few students succeed. There are many reasons for this, but one of the biggest is the large number of students who lack the academic skills to do college-level work upon enrolling, and the dearth of tested, effective ways to help them catch up. A significant redesign of remedial education, how it is organized, delivered, and taught, is required if the nation’s community colleges are to achieve more than incremental progress in increasing student success. The vast majority of our nation’s community colleges need substantial ongoing supports to do so. The most logical and efficient locus of such support is on the state level, through policies and capacity-building efforts that identify promising practices, test program outcomes, and disseminate proven models quickly and effectively. Six states (Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia) are putting the state policy strategy into action through the Developmental Education Initiative [DEI], launched in 2009 by MDC and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation. [This report] describes what the DEI states have set out to do and why, the momentum they have developed, and next steps in their efforts to overcome obstacles to better results.

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

This report is the first analysis of demographic and outcome data reported on career pathway programs participating in the scale up of the national Breaking Through initiative. The five Scaling Up institutions are: Durham Technical Community College (Durham, North Carolina), Lake Michigan College (Benton Harbor, Michigan), Owensboro Community & Technical College (Owensboro, Kentucky), Pamlico Community College (Grantsboro, North Carolina), and Tacoma Community College (Tacoma, Washington). These programs reported unit data for the 2009-2010 academic year in a template developed by Voorhees Group LLC. This data is preliminary, since key outcomes that should be attributed to career pathways programs require time to mature.

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

This brief explores the potential of competency-based education [CBE] to meet the needs of underprepared adult learners who would benefit from a faster route to college completion. Interest in CBE is surging, but most programs serve students who are already well prepared for higher education. [Jobs for the Future] JFF is leading an effort to examine how postsecondary CBE models can be designed to better serve low-income, low-skilled adults who are not yet college ready. [JFF] kicked off this initiative with a convening of educators, policymakers, and researchers, the results of which are captured in this paper.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

Jobs for the Future is developing Career First, a new postsecondary pathway offering young adults, ages 18-26, an alternative to a traditional two- or four-year degree. Career First is a highly focused program tailored to low-income, under-prepared high school graduates (diploma or [General Educational Development] GED certificate) who are seeking a fast-track program that connects them to careers in high-demand industries with advancement potential. This document describes the key design features of Career First designs.

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

Increasing demand for at least some postsecondary education in today's labor market has met with stagnating college completion rates. As a result, states have a growing interest in better understanding the challenges to improving graduation rates and in tracking student progress and success. Six states in the 'Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count' initiative have designed and tested a more complete and accurate way of measuring community college student performance and success. [This report] describes this new approach and compares it to the current federal system, highlights key findings from the pilot testing process and the links between state policies and the varying state results, and identifies the group's priorities for further refining the new measures and related benchmarks. The ultimate goal is to design a set of measures that accurately describe and track the multiple successful outcomes that community college students attain and to identify the warning signs of struggling students early enough in their educational careers to help keep them on track. This richer set of measures will help colleges tell a more complete and true story of their students' educational progress and help them identify stumbling blocks in the road and ultimately improve progress and outcomes.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

Housed in the Georgia College & State University School of Education, Georgia College Early College (GCEC) offers hope of a brighter future to its students and their families in its rural community. This case study examines how GCEC achieves its mission of college success for all. The college-going culture, small class sizes, and the adults and college students who work with the school’s students enable these young people to believe in themselves as learners, achieve academically and socially, and raise their aspirations.

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

Careers in technology can open doors to economic opportunity for Black learners and workers. Our market scan identifies innovative career preparation, technology training, and advancement programs and platforms that offer a unique combination of best practices for building pathways to and advancement within tech jobs, including tailored supports and a commitment to transforming the systems in which we all learn and work. This market scan is part of a series of work centered around our first goal: reimagining education and workforce systems to create more effective pathways for Black learners to enter high-growth and high-wage sectors of the economy, and creating more equitable and inclusive workplaces where Black workers can thrive and advance.

Excerpt from publication. Show less

Today, US immigrants represent an often untapped pool of workers that hold the potential to fill significant labor market needs. As a result, the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation (SFF) has invested in bridge-to-college programs aimed at helping immigrant English language learners make successful transitions to postsecondary education and training and employment. The results of the evaluation offer insights into the multiple ways that bridge-to-college services can help immigrants make progress in their education and work lives, and findings suggest ways that philanthropy can play a valuable role in supporting these efforts.

Abstract from publisher's website. 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 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] JFF 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 post-secondary 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 first in the world in the percentage of our young people who complete high school and earn a post-secondary credential as well.

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