Although foster youth approaching the transition to adulthood have postsecondary educational aspirations similar to those of young people in the general population, for too many foster youth with these aspirations, a college education remains an unfulfilled dream. Previous analyses of data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of…

The seriousness of the readiness gap--the gap between being fully credentialed and fully prepared--is the reason why the Forum for Youth Investment started the Ready by 21 partnership and the reason why American Association of School Administrators (AASA) joined. Numerous organizations and associations interested in the K-12 system's end…

This work introduces a model of university outreach in rural communities which promotes increasing post-secondary options for rural dwelling African American youth. KEMET (Knowledge and Excellence in Mathematics, Equilibrium, and Technology) Academy is a comprehensive academic enrichment program targeting African American students enrolled in…

The present article discusses the importance of community-based field experiences as a feature of teacher education programs. Through a qualitative case study, prospective teachers' work with homeless youth in an after-school initiative is presented. Framing community-based field experiences in teacher education through "third space" theory, the…

Despite progress in urban teacher preparation over the past 40 years, concerns still remain about transforming programs and practices in order to affect teachers' capacities to work with culturally diverse communities. These concerns include time in course curricula for discussion and reflection on field-based work, adequate supervision in…

Constructivism theory (Crotty, 1998) served as the framework to investigate the reciprocal nature of a service-learning project that involved physical education pre-service teachers and urban underserved youth. Participants included three physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates and 15 youth between the ages of 6 and 13 who were…

In 2007, the presidents and chancellors of nearly two dozen public postsecondary systems created the Access to Success Initiative to pursue two goals: (1) increase the number of college-educated adults in their respective states; and (2) ensure that their institutions' graduates included more young people from low-income and minority families by…

In this essay, Joe Robert Gonzalez describes the process of his own growth as a Mexican American from Brownsville, Texas, who attended Villanova University. Coming from a majority-minority town, Gonzalez identifies the importance of safe spaces for Mexican American youth, many of whom doubt their own potential to thrive within university settings.…

This article describes several community colleges across the country that provide services tailored to immigrant learners. The majority of colleges offer basic English as a second language (ESL) classes, but many programs strive to do more than simply breach the language barrier. The most successful programs teach important job skills with a focus…

Forum Syd (Forum Syd Balkans Programme [FSBP]--Organizations Co-operating for Global Justice) is an umbrella organization for 200 member organizations in Sweden. It has worked in the Balkans for more than a decade. FSBP believes that community based youth work is a valuable tool for building and sustaining peaceful communities and its mission is…

The first decade of the current Labour Government had been characterised by a whole raft of education reforms aimed at driving up standards--a focus on early literacy and numeracy, standards funds to push up exam results, the much greater use of technology to track individual pupils' progress and to ensure a growing number achieved the benchmark…

The Great Recession left a crater in the labor market that has been devastating for unemployed Americans of all ages. After more than two years of unemployment at well over 8%, there is a hole of more than 11 million jobs, with average spells of unemployment lasting nearly nine months. The weak labor market has been particularly tough on young…

This article describes a service-learning project implemented at Colorado State University to assist a South African non-profit organization in enhancing their music education program, while at the same time advancing the international perspectives of American students in a senior capstone course on program development and grant writing. In the…

This paper discusses the findings of a small-scale qualitative study exploring the aspirations and learning identities of three groups of Level 1 students in two English further education (FE) colleges. Emerging identities are explored in the context of classed and gendered dispositions and the educational positioning of the young people.…

The 2009 Worldwide Education and Training Workshop brought together over 375 members of the international development community to share best practices in addressing the growing challenges in the field of education for social and economic development. This paper presents synopses of the presentations delivered during the workshop.