Education and Literacy;Employment and Labor
This program specifically focuses on innovative strategies that connected a state's adult basic education system with its community and technical college system. It purposely examines the extent to which the six Shifting Gears states gained "traction on the ground" by incorporating these innovative strategies into existing programs. Gaining this traction among adult basic education providers and community and technical colleges signals that states may be on a positive trajectory toward systems change.
By the end of the five-year period, four of the six Shifting Gears states had implemented innovative strategies to serve low-skilled adults. Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin succeeded in enrolling a total of about 4,000 low-skilled adults in their innovative programs -- a modest number that is expected to grow considerably during the next several years as these strategies and program are embraced by more organizations within the states.
Each of the four states Shifting Gears teams pursued a "career pathway framework," creating new programs to help low-skilled adults transition from adult basic education to community and technical colleges and gain credentials with economic value.
The state teams stopped using Joyce resources to finance local projects at the start of Phase Two. Instead, they financed local program development and implementation by leveraging state dollars, encouraging use of traditional funding streams and engaging other stakeholders within state government and in the community (e.g., local philanthropy, community non-profits). These funding strategies have moved the Shifting Gears initiative beyond a "boutique" effort and closer to the desired goal of systems change.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Midwestern) / Illinois;North America / United States (Midwestern) / Indiana;North America / United States (Midwestern) / Minnesota;North America / United States (Midwestern) / Wisconsin
This paper offers an opportunity for state leadership to reflect upon their efforts and share their insights into re-engineering the policy and practices of our K-12 systems that were built over hundreds of years. In this paper, we introduce the concept of competency education and explain why the traditional time-based system is holding back our children and our nation. We will discuss the important initial steps taken by states in introducing competency education. Then we will draw on interviews with state leadership about their strategies, lessons learned, and the emerging policy infrastructure that is needed for full alignment with competency education. We close with some thoughts about creating a culture of competency within state agencies.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
This report contributes to the discussion of charter schools by providing evidence for charter students' performance in Massachusetts for six years of schooling, beginning with the 2005-2006 school year and concluding in 2010-2011.
With the cooperation of the Massachusetts Department of Education, CREDO obtained the historical sets of student-level administrative records. The support of Massachusetts DOE staff was critical to CREDO's understanding of the character and quality of the data received. However, it bears mention that the entirety of interactions with the Department dealt with technical issues related to the data. CREDO has developed the findings and conclusions independently.
This report provides an in-depth examination of the results for charter schools in Massachusetts. It is also an update to CREDO's first analysis of the performance of Massachusetts's charter schools, which can be found on the organization's website.
This report has three main benefits. First, it provides an updated rigorous and independent view of the performance of the state's charter schools. Second, the study design is consistent with CREDO's reports on charter school performance in other locations, making the results amenable to being benchmarked against those nationally and in other states. Third, the study includes a section on charter performance in the Boston area, where much attention has focused.
The analysis presented here takes two forms. We first present the findings about the effects of charter schools on student academic performance. These results are expressed in terms of the academic progress that a typical student in Massachusetts would realize from a year of enrollment in a charter school. The second set of findings is presented at the school level. Because schools are the instruments on which the legislation and public policy works, it is important to understand the range of performance for the schools. These findings look at the performance of students by school and present school average results.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Northeastern) / Massachusetts
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
This report explores the conditions under which middle-school teachers in New York City leave their schools, and the consequences of this turnover. The focus on middle schools stems from the widely-held view that the middle grades are a critical turning point in the lives of children, and that many New York City school children lose academic momentum in these grades, setting them on trajectories of failure as they move towards high school and life beyond it. This report is based on a survey of more than 4,000 full-time middle school teachers working in 125 of the nearly 200 middle schools in New York City serving children in grades six through eight in the 2009-10 school year. The participating teachers reported whether they had considered leaving their current school or leaving teaching during that school year, and the reasons that they considered leaving. The report links their responses to teachers' reports about their own backgrounds and experiences, to the demographic characteristics of the schools in which they teach, and to the collective perceptions of all of the teachers in a school about that school as a workplace. This report is part of a three-year, mixed-methods study of teacher turnover in New York City middle schools.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Northeastern)-New York-New York County-New York City
Education and Literacy;Employment and Labor
The Joyce Foundation launched Shifting Gears in 2007 with the goal of helping six Midwest states significantly increase the number of low-skilled adults with the education and skills they need to succeed in the 21st century economy. Between 2007 and 2011, the Foundation awarded a total of about $8 million in grants to Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, with the expectation that officials in these states would pursue a systems change agenda for making existing education and skills development systems work better for adult learners. Shifting Gears emphasized the need for aligning policy and priorities across adult basic education, workforce development, and community and technical college systems to improve adult transitions to postsecondary education. State officials were expected to identify innovative strategies for serving lowskilled adults in new ways that, over time, would be infused into these systems and the mainstream operations of their local providers and institutions. The premise of Shifting Gears was that states would be able to bolster postsecondary success of low-skilled adults if the old ways of delivering education and related services were replaced with more effective and aligned approaches.
The Joyce Foundation recognized that change would not come easily or quickly and was unlikely to be realized during the first five years of Shifting Gears. Accordingly, this evaluation focuses on the extent to which each of the six states "gained traction on the ground" by implementing their innovative strategies within local institutions and providers of education and skills development. This evaluation specifically focuses on the innovative strategies that connected a state's adult basic education (ABE) system with its community and technical college system. The overarching evaluative questions answered by this report from the first five years of Shifting Gears are:
- To what extent have states begun to adopt and implement an innovative strategy to improve transitions from adult basic education into community and technical colleges, including serving participants in these new ways?
- What are the factors that influenced progress in the states to adopt and implement these innovative strategies during the initiative?
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Midwestern)
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy
Large-scale public school closures have become a fact of life in many American cities, and that trend is not likely to stop now. This report
looks at what happens to the buildings themselves, studying the experiences of Philadelphia and 11 other cities that have decommissioned large numbers of schools in recent years: Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Tulsa and Washington.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Missouri-St. Louis County-St. Louis, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Missouri-Jackson County-Kansas City, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Michigan-Wayne County-Detroit, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Illinois-Cook County-Chicago, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio-Cuyahoga County-Cleveland, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio-Hamilton County-Cincinnati, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Wisconsin-Milwaukee County-Milwaukee, North America-United States (Northeastern)-Pennsylvania-Allegheny County-Pittsburgh, North America-United States (Southern)-District of Columbia-Washington, North America-United States (Southern)-Georgia-Fulton County-Atlanta, North America-United States (Southern)-Oklahoma-Tulsa County-Tulsa
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy;International Development
The Center for Global Safe Water at Emory University and UNICEF collaborated to create a capacity-building programme: the WASH in Schools Distance-Learning Course. Case studies by the graduates from 13 countries and one regional office are included in this report.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: Africa (Central);Africa (Northeastern) / Sudan;Africa (Southeastern) / Malawi;Africa (Western);Africa (Western) / Nigeria;Asia (Central) / Afghanistan;Asia (Southern) / Nepal;Asia (Southeastern) / India;Africa (Western) / Sierra Leone;Asia (Southern) / Sri Lanka;Asia (Central) / Kyrgyzstan;Eurasia / Georgia;Asia (Southeastern) / Myanmar;Africa (Southern) Angola;Asia (Southern) Bhutan
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy
For a century, most students have advanced from grade to grade based on the number of days they spend in class, but in New Hampshire, schools have moved away from "seat time" and toward "competency-based learning," which advances students when they have mastered course content. This report profiles how two high schools in New Hampshire made this shift and examines the changes that were necessary to make competency-based advancement an important part of New Hampshire's strategy for implementing the Common Core State Standards and ensuring that students graduate ready for college and a career.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Northeastern) / New Hampshire
