Search

The Wallace Foundation commissioned Research for Action and McClanahan Associates to study how out-of-school time intermediaries (OSTIs) responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the role they could play in supporting communities moving forward. Citywide out-of-school time (OST) systems encompass a wide variety of afterschool and summer programs and associated provider organizations, youth participants, and their families. These systems were stretched during the COVID-19 pandemic and the national racial reckoning to respond to community needs in new and more equitable ways. Also impacted were OSTIs that manage OST systems within individual cities. OSTIs operate through various governance structures and perform a range of coordination functions intended to ensure quality, access, and equity in OST systems so that all youth have access to the unique out-of-school resources and opportunities they need to thrive.

The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) presents an unprecedented opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to lead in an era characterized by rapid technological advancement and societal transformation. This report explores the integral role HBCUs--with their history of academic excellence and commitment to inclusivity--can play in steering the AI revolution, ensuring that the Black community remains at the forefront of educational, economic, and social progress. Institutional leaders, faculty and instructors, and instructional support staff can benefit from the findings of this report, which is presented in the following sections: (1) Why AI Matters and the Unique Role of HBCUs in the AI Revolution; (2) An AI Policy and Practice Framework for Institutional Development; (3) AI and Curricular Innovation; (4) The Importance of Industry Partnerships and Student Development; and (5) AI at HBCUs: A Path to the Future. [This report was created in collaboration with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.]

Almost daily, media headlines draw attention to students struggling academically and emotionally from interrupted learning, high student absenteeism, declining enrollment, teacher and leader burnout, staffing shortages, polarized communities, and school boards at the center of broader political debates. How did we arrive at this current state of affairs? This study, conducted during the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, provides some answers to this question. In March 2020, the research team set out to understand how seven California school districts--varying in size, geographic location, urbanicity, and grade span--responded to the unfolding health crisis. As the research progressed, the authors began to explore not only the challenges posed by COVID-19 but also the unfolding national reckoning with issues of racial injustice. Later, as data was analyzed alongside a rapidly changing pandemic and set of conditions in public schools nationwide, the authors realized the research had much to say about the challenges currently facing school systems in general. This report: (a) highlights the ways in which particular relationships and conditions contributed to school districts' efforts to advance learning and support school stakeholders between March 2020 and May 2021 by examining patterns across study districts and calling out cases where strong relationships assisted districts' crisis response; and (b) presents evidence that points to some of the origins of the troubling state of affairs that are witnessed today. [This report was written with research support from Alison Bloomgarden and Monica Santander. For the Policy Brief, see ED624679.]

Public education today faces a troubling set of challenges, including declining enrollment, staffing shortages, and polarized communities, with school boards at the center of broader political debates. How did we arrive at this current state? This study--described here and, in more detail, in a related report--of seven California school districts conducted during the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic explores how districts responded in real time to the unfolding health crisis as well as to the growing national reckoning about structural racism. Our case studies show that districts--often bolstered by relationships with labor, the community, and leadership--stepped up to a tremendous challenge, demonstrating resourcefulness, collaboration, and commitment to serving students and their communities. However, our findings suggest that challenges for district leaders have been relentless and show no signs of abating. [For the full related report, see ED624681.]

Informed and inclusive charter school authorizing means taking a community-based approach to better understand and meet the needs and interests of the students, families, and communities that charter schools intend to serve. This shift is unfolding in the context of state statutes and regulations and, in some places, local policies or processes that require authorizers to assess "district impact"--that is, the impact of opening a new charter school on traditional public schools or the district as a whole. This brief supports charter school authorizers in making decisions rooted in evidence of local communities' wants and needs as well as analysis and projections about the impact on traditional public schools and the school district as a whole.

The Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment (CLNA) was an exciting and innovative change under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). The CLNA was identified to support data-driven decision-making and more closely align planning, spending and accountability activities under Perkins V. After the reauthorization of Perkins V, Advance CTE released a guide to help states identify the major decision points that will impact the design, development and implementation of their CLNA and related local needs application. As states near the end of the first and ramp up their second CLNA process, Advance CTE and The Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) interviewed state and local Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders to identify what worked and what can be improved. "Lessons in Collaboration and Innovation: The Impact and Promise of the Comprehensive Local Needs Assessment" shares findings on: (1) State approaches to the CLNA process; (2) State perspectives on CLNA successes; and (3) State perspectives on areas for improvement. The new resource also provides a set of six recommendations for state leaders to consider as they support the CLNA going forward to ensure they continue to build on early CLNA success and drive quality and equity within their CTE systems and programs of study.

Despite warnings that the school schedule that has been around for more than 100 years is not optimal for serving students' needs, little has changed. The needs of kids and families look very different today than they did 50 years ago. One-size-fits-all prescriptions do not meet the needs of a diverse student population. Rethinking the school schedule could address these issues. This can be accomplished by proactively surveying parents to understand who schools are serving and what their specific needs are, examining state laws and regulations that sometimes make more flexible scheduling impossible, reimagining how time is used within the hours that kids are in school, and using existing funding streams, such as Title I, to support innovative school schedules. Policy recommendations put forth in this report include: (1) The education community needs to gain a better understanding of the needs of families; (2) States should make more flexible scheduling possible; (3) Schools should rethink their roles in communities; and (4) Funding streams can be used to support innovative school schedules.

Data collected from across the child care and early education (CCEE) field, both during and prior to COVID-19, have been critical in helping policymakers identify and scale public resources to meet the increasing needs of children, families, early educators, and providers. Much of the data collected throughout the global health crisis has shown how the pandemic exacerbated long-standing inequities for communities with low incomes. As states seek to implement strategies to identify and address these inequities, program administrators and researchers must expand data strategies beyond disaggregating outcomes by race/ethnicity. The authors propose a set of recommendations for expanding data strategies. When coupled with equitable community engagement frameworks, these expanded data strategies can have a lasting impact on how states support the range of CCEE needs across communities--and specifically within communities of color. [For the full report, see ED617028.]

This first-ever look at the national charter school pipeline--what schools are being proposed and by whom--reveals a diverse sector, with a tremendous variety of applicants and school models. Working with Public Impact, National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) collected and analyzed nearly 3,000 charter school applications submitted to authorizers, located in 20 states, that oversee nearly two-thirds of all charter schools nationally. The analysis shows the significant impact authorizers have in shaping the public education landscape across the country.

This article describes process and outcome evaluations of a blended Cyber ESL program for native Spanish speakers in Chicago who could not use regular ESL classes. The outcomes measured against before and after scores and several comparison groups showed large gains in English language proficiency. 58% percent of students from the cohorts which took the appropriately normed English tests advanced at least one grade level and 31% advanced two grade levels in a sixteen-week course. Focus groups with students revealed large satisfaction with the course. The students had a wide-age range of characteristics but the majority were women and from lower-income households. The results showed an advantage for combined online and in-person tutorial approach over just class-room or just online approaches especially for certain students. Forty-one million U.S. residents are native Spanish speakers. An innovative approach to improving their English is a major contribution to their integration into the economic mainstream. [This research was carried out under the auspices of the Center for Urban Research and Learning at Loyola University of Chicago.]

Although research has been done on the effects of Service-Learning in nursing, medical and engineering students, there is very little information about the effects that this methodology has on English pedagogy students. The present study conducted over two semesters attempted to identify the effects that this methodology had on EFL pedagogy undergraduate Chilean students. The participants were seventy English pedagogy students and one hundred and fifty community members. The needs of the community as well as the English level were identified with a needs analysis and diagnostic test. Reflection logs were used to identify the effects of the methodology on students while a satisfaction survey was used to identify the impact the methodology had on the community members. The analysis of the logs revealed that undergraduate students became aware of the importance of identifying the community´s needs, having clear objectives, preparing material and activities before designing a course and teaching a class. This methodology showed to have a positive effect on the teacher training students when referring to their professionalization and application of theory. For the community the results were positive but further research is needed to identify the full impact in the community members.

The challenges to education brought about by the pandemic provide an opportunity to take a fresh look at how universities in England can best deliver on access and participation and accelerate education recovery. With John Blake due to start as the new Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students (OfS) in early 2022, we believe now is the time to both take lessons forward from the current access and participation plan (APP) process, and to think innovatively about ways to drive social mobility in the years ahead. This includes a strong focus on how to expand and strengthen university-school partnerships, aimed at improving attainment for those in primary school as well as older pupils that may be considering higher education. A collection of case studies showcasing how universities can best deliver on access and participation and accelerate education recovery is included in our briefing. Universities stand ready to play a significant part in the government's 'levelling up' agenda, including through placing a greater focus on the needs of their local communities and employers. This includes designing access and participation plans based on the challenges of their specific area (eg existing levels of participation amongst specific groups), and working with employers to diversify their graduate intakes and deliver the skills they need.

The "Learning through Disruption" research project ran between May-August 2021, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. The project was based at UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and data collection began in May 2021, shortly after primary schools in England had emerged from the spring 2021 national lockdown, and were beginning to assess what kinds of support might be most appropriate in their specific context. Given the very challenging circumstances that COVID created for education, the authors wanted to identify the actions individual primary schools had taken in response to local circumstances and what the knowledge they had accrued might contribute to rebuilding a more resilient and more equal education system going forward. Therefore the Learning through Disruption study set out to identify: (1) how primary schools had been dealing with the varied impacts of COVID over the course of the pandemic; and (2) what calculations they were making about their most immediate needs during the summer term. In the light of what the authors' case study school staff and parents told them, they wanted to clarify: (1) the extent to which variation in primary school and community experiences should inform funding for recovery; and (2) whether primary schools would benefit from having much more direct control over how any recovery funds should be spent over what length of time. This report describes the study methodology, discusses the findings, and offers recommendations based on the findings.

In June 2012 the Scottish Government issued the "Community Learning and Development (CLD) Strategic Guidance." While directed at Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) and recognising the vital role played by a wide range of organisations and services, the guidance clearly identifies a lead role for local authorities 'to provide clear leadership and direction, and to drive the action needed to ensure we maximise the contribution of CLD partners in the reform of public services'. This expectation was formalised by "The Requirements for Community Learning and Development (Scotland) Regulations 2013" ("the CLD Regulations"), which place a legal requirement on local authorities to fulfil this role. The "CLD Regulations" place a duty on local authorities to secure the delivery of community learning and development in their area, working with other CLD providers and communities. As an output of this process, the local authority must publish a plan every three years setting out: (1) what action it and its partners intend to take to provide CLD over the period of the plan; (2) how delivery will be coordinated by the local authority; and (3) what needs have been identified but will not be met during the relevant three years. The first plans made under this legislation were published by 1 September 2015. The CLD team in Education Scotland began to look at these plans within an aspect review. Education Scotland published an initial report on the plans shortly after their submission. Following that report Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools (HMI) visited a number of authorities to look at implementation of the policy in more depth. This report outlines their findings.

This document is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focused on the question: "How could a philanthropist make the biggest improvement on social mobility with an investment of $1 billion?" In answering this question, the authors have sought to understand "what matters most" for improving social mobility outcomes. To do this, the authors have drawn from extensive research conducted by leading scholars in the field. They have also outlined a range of tools to assist philanthropists seeking systemic and field-level changes that go well beyond scaling direct service interventions. Using the research and identified tools, the authors have created an illustrative set of "bets" that provide concrete roadmaps for high-leverage investments of $1 billion with the potential for sustainable change at scale. From a list of 15 high-potential bets through which philanthropists could have a significant impact on increasing upward mobility, six bets were selected that are particularly timely, suited to the unique role of philanthropy, have the potential to create significantly outsized impact, and, as a package, could truly sum to $1 billion. This concept paper illustrates one of the six bets. The paper discusses potential solutions to place-based barriers--such as limited job opportunities, restricted access to good schools, and high rates of crime--focusing on investments that help break apart the structural forces of economic and racial segregation that have created communities of concentrated poverty and that help improve conditions in distressed neighborhoods. [For the main report, "'Billion Dollar Bets' to Create Economic Opportunity for Every American," see ED606509.]

Recruiting and retaining talented individuals into the teaching workforce, especially in schools in underserved urban and rural communities, is challenging when college graduates face more lucrative professional alternatives and often carry significant student debt. Two promising approaches to attracting and keeping teachers in the profession are to offer loan forgiveness or service scholarships to prospective teachers--similar to what the medical profession has used to attract practitioners into underserved communities. Existing research on teacher and physician loan forgiveness and service scholarship programs suggests that, when the financial benefit meaningfully offsets the cost of professional preparation, these programs can successfully recruit and retain high-quality professionals into fields and communities where they are most needed.

In this second annual summary of the their work, the Investing in Community Initiative provides practical advice for community leaders and policymakers around four critical issues. First, how should local needs be defined? Chapter 1 argues that data about local economies can show whether communities are best served by creating new jobs, strengthening tech clusters, boosting education or training, or expanding housing supply. Chapter 2 explores a range of approaches for linking job creation and skills development. To enact these strategies, strong local leadership is needed, and Chapter 3 addresses how best to mobilize the right kind of local leadership. In Chapter 4, the authors emphasizes the need to understand if place-based strategies are working. Rather than viewing evaluation efforts as a "secret sauce" added at the end of an experiment, they urge leaders to integrate data collection, tracking, and evaluation into their community initiatives during the planning stages. The authors hope this report generates new thinking about how communities can pursue a jobs-based strategy for local prosperity by simultaneously investing in the skills of residents and providing targeted support to business. [For the first report, "Building Shared Prosperity: How Communities Can Create Good Jobs for All," see ED598173.]

COVID has highlighted significant weaknesses in how the education system in England is currently managed and resourced. England needs to build a more resilient education system post-pandemic. The Institute of Education's project, "Learning Through Disruption," set out to explore what headteachers, teachers, other school staff and parents in English primary schools had made of keeping education going during the pandemic; and whether any more general lessons could be learnt for the education system going forward from their experiences. In a context where a relatively modest amount of funding had been committed for recovery in English schools the authors also wanted to understand whether such funding had been targeted at the issues that schools and parents considered most important. This report shares their findings and offers recommendations based on those findings. [For the main report, "Learning through Disruption: Using Schools' Experiences of COVID to Build a More Resilient Education System," see ED615116.]

The pandemic has shown how important schools are as networks of support for children and families. Our project, "Learning Through Disruption," also shows that schools have a particularly vital role in addressing the needs of high poverty communities, both directly and indirectly. Yet this work goes largely unrecognised and underfunded. This needs to change. [For the main report, "Learning through Disruption: Using Schools' Experiences of COVID to Build a More Resilient Education System," see ED615116.]

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It invested in the initiative for more than 10 years and spent more than $500 million. This effort led to a range of innovations in the field and both started and strengthened many local initiatives. Making Connections' positive outcomes are still influencing Casey and the broader field. In many notable cases, the programs and partnerships created during the initiative continue to thrive. Assessments of Making Connections have already produced a variety of lessons on program development, implementation, evaluation and other topics, with valuable implications for practitioners, public policymakers, funders and others involved in community development. This report takes a step back and outlines key findings from the initiative that can provide guidance to those involved with community-change efforts in the future. These principles can serve as guideposts at an exciting time in the community-change field. Many smart and promising initiatives are underway, fueled by foundations, nonprofits and others in the private sector. The federal government is also making important investments at the neighborhood and community levels. And learning communities of local leaders and state and local officials are actively sharing information and hard-won insights. The principles and strategies in this report can help inform and sustain these efforts and those to come in a field with so much to contribute to the strengthening and success of families living in disinvested communities.

Museums for America (MFA) is the largest IMLS grant program for museums; it supports institutions by investing in high-priority, high-value activities that are clearly linked to the institution's strategic plan and enhance its value to its community. MFA grants situate projects within a framework of meeting three strategic goals: engaging communities, building institutional capacity, and collections stewardship. MFA grants are awarded to eligible museums annually through a competitive process. Allowable activities include a broad range of museum work, such as digitization and collections management, exhibit and program development and implementation, research and evaluation, and staff development. This evaluation covers the first year (2004) of the Museums for America grant program through 2010. During that period, IMLS received 3,404 MFA applications from 1,817 eligible museums, awarding 1,191 grants to 830 museums, a total of $123 million in funding. This Executive Summary presents findings from the two-year study conducted by RMC Research Corporation. The study looked at the program's efficacy in serving the museum community and the impact of the MFA program and MFA-funded projects. RMC's analysis drew on IMLS administrative data from applications and awards, responses to an online survey administered by RMC to a subset of MFA applicants and grant recipients, interviews with representatives of 26 completed exemplary projects, and site visits to six of those 26 museums. (Contains 2 footnotes.) [For the full report, "Supporting Museums--Serving Communities: An Evaluation of the Museums for America Program. Full Report," see ED543074.]

Enrollment at Texas community colleges has increased substantially in recent years. Texas community colleges have a multitude of diverse missions, from academic degrees to technical certifications, remedial education, recreational self-fulfillment courses, and more. This diversity of student and community needs poses significant challenges to a community college's ability to produce successful outcomes for its students and community. TG's Center for Financial Aid Policy in Community Colleges commissioned a report to examine how high-performing Texas community colleges were meeting those challenges. In this report, a qualitative approach was used to gather descriptive information from three top-performing Texas community colleges: Northwest Vista College, Temple College, and Wharton County Junior College. This report provides a summary of recurring themes discovered among these institutions to help guide community colleges as they formulate future initiatives. (Contains 8 charts.)

Traditional grammar instruction is a challenging element of the English curriculum; both students and teachers struggle with the rules and dull nature of grammar. However, understanding grammar is important because students need to understand the language they speak in order to be effective communicators, and teachers provide grammar instruction with the express purpose of improving students' writing. The problem lies in the method of instruction; does traditional grammar instruction improve the quality of students' writing? This study examines the effectiveness of traditional grammar instruction on improving the quality of students' writing. Earlier studies conclude that traditional grammar instruction has little to no effect on composition. The findings parallel the previous research, and the English community needs to reevaluate their pedagogical approach to grammar instruction.

The study surveyed four career academies in Georgia that replicated the model of the Georgia Central Educational Center, which integrates technical instruction and academics at the high school level. The four replication sites adhered to the major tenets of the model. The model's flexibility helped the new sites meet community needs. [For the main report, see ED515067.]