Home visiting connects expectant parents, new caregivers, and their young children with a support person, called a home visitor. The home visitor meets regularly with the family, develops a relationship with them, and supports them to achieve their goals and meet their needs. To reach the thousands of additional families who could benefit from…

Traditional definitions of school readiness have focused primarily on the skills, knowledge and abilities children need for educational success. However, these definitions have evolved in recent years to encompass a multidimensional view, adding physical and mental health, social and emotional skills, executive functioning and self-regulation, and…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) University of North Carolina at Charlotte: Using the EIA [Excellence in Assessment] Application as a Catalyst for Intentional Improvement (Christine Robinson and associates); (2) Editor's Notes (Stephen P. Hundley); (3) Northern Arizona University's Journey to…

As community colleges across the country look for ways to promote student success, the need for scaling effective approaches is critical. This guide builds on a framework of four phases of scaling developed in Job For the Future's (JFF's) previous publication, "Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College…

Every community in the United States has the potential to transform itself into this kind of ecosystem that supports families and promotes digital inclusion. Resources for Digital-Age learning already exist in libraries, schools, multimedia spaces, and through parents' personal smartphones, but localities are not often tapping into them to help…

The persistent failure of public schooling in low-income communities constitutes one of our nation's most pressing civil rights and social justice issues. Many school reformers recognize that poverty, racism, and a lack of power held by these communities undermine children's education and development, but few know what to do about it. "A…

Over the past two decades, community organizing has emerged as an effective force for school improvement. In the context of shrinking education funding, stubborn opportunity and achievement gaps between low-income and wealthy children and between children of color and White children, and polarizing debate on school reform, community organizing…

The Ford Foundation began the Collaborating for Education Reform Initiative (CERI) in 1997-1998 by issuing grants and providing grantees with funds, guidance, and technical assistance to develop collaboratives and carry out activities to improve teaching and learning. CERI's collaborative activities were directed at three possible community…

Spurred by the economic boom of the late 1990s and a decades-old national standards movement that increased both the transparency of assessment results and the awareness of urban public school failure, communities across the country are turning to community organizing as a strategy for improving public education. As organizations confront the…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This executive summary summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida,…

State governments across the nation are engaging community colleges as cornerstones of their comprehensive economic development strategies. This report summarizes the efforts of 10 states, recommended by national experts, to deploy community colleges in support of state economic development priorities. The 10 states are: Florida, Mississippi,…

The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher education issues. This publication contains the following articles: (1) "Truth in Tuition" (Susan C. Thomson); (2) In Katrina's Wake (Kathy Witkowsky); (3) News from the Center: New Center Associates; (4) Colorado On the Edge…

In order to analyze the California system of community college finance within a national context, a review of recent literature was followed by an intensive study and survey of eight states, chosen to illustrate alternative solutions to California financing problems. National trends among community colleges that emerged included (1) the…

Problems associated with state support for community colleges are discussed with particular emphasis on situations where local college districts are responsible for providing a portion of total institutional revenue. Three of these problems, relating to the equity and efficiency of how state aid is distributed, are: (1) the integration of direct…