In 2010, Evanston Township High School in suburban Chicago, Illinois, dramatically changed its freshman year for incoming students. The school detracked freshman English, history, and biology courses for the vast majority of students, thus removing barriers for historically under-represented student groups and providing greater access and…

At a recent national forum at the Ford Foundation in New York, 140 education and youth development professionals discussed how to better support adolescent learning. Drawing on the discussion and the latest research in neuroscience, psychology and cognitive learning science, TASC presents an action agenda that can be tailored to circumstances in…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

State prekindergarten initiatives can only succeed if they actually reach at-risk children. This brief summarizes findings from three studies conducted by the Urban Institute. Two studies supported by the McCormick and Joyce Foundations focused on whether smaller immigrant communities in metro Chicago face access barriers to enrolling their…

What happens when local school leaders sit down to talk with teachers, parents, and other members of the community about the ends and means of local education? Can people bringing different perspectives and experiences to the issue agree on top goals for their communities? Can they settle on needed changes and decide what signifies genuine…

The nation's changing economy requires workers to attain increasingly higher job skills. Leaders in education, workforce development, and economic development recognize the need to help workers meet this challenge and to help employers find qualified employees. Barriers to educational and career opportunities will need to be removed so that…

This handbook is designed to assist women in and aspiring to vocational education administration in planning for entry into and success in vocational education administration. It consists of five sections. Section 1 describes the following barriers inhibiting the progress of women in administration: self-concept, career choice, career preparation,…

Older cities in the United States have long been trying to "bring back" the middle class in order to increase tax base. The poor quality of schools and the presence of public housing often were cited as deterrents for attracting higher income families. When the 2000 Census data revealed improvements in many cities, some elected officials…

The third annual survey of the Illinois Rural Life Panel included questions on school taxes, improvements to strengthen local schools, satellite technology, extracurricular activities, and career opportunities after high school. Results from a sample of approximately 2,000 residents in the 76 Illinois nonmetropolitan counties included: (1) 54…

The authors identify ways to facilitate work among current and recent welfare recipients with mental illness. Their analysis assesses the relationship between a particular mental illness, depression, and labor force involvement in a statewide sample of welfare recipients, identifies the factors that promote work for those with depression, and…

Sport and recreation-based approaches to the social problems of "at-risk" urban youth have become very popular in recent years. Yet the lack of a proper theoretical understanding of these initiatives threatens to minimize their effectiveness and could generate a backlash against them. To begin to fill this void, this paper presents a…

This booklet, which is part of a series demonstrating the scope of employer involvement in school-to-careers, highlights the efforts of six manufacturing employers and three "intermediary" organizations connecting workplace experiences to classroom learning for secondary education students. The introduction presents a series overview and…

This document contains reports summarizing the highlights of seven state forums that were held in fall 1994, modeled after the 1993 national forum on "Hard Truths/Tough Choices: An Agenda for State and Local Reform." The following conferences are summarized: "Reinventing New Jersey: Innovative Approaches under Fiscal Pressure"…

According to the most recent National Adult Literacy Survey, nearly half of Illinois adults lack sufficient reading proficiency to ensure job success and advancement in 21st century workplaces. The Test of Adult Basic Education is currently used as a pretest/posttest in Illinois' existing adult basic education, adult secondary education, and…

This guidebook is intended as a road map to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III) for career-technical education (CTE) practitioners and policymakers in Illinois. The following topics are among those covered: (1) framework for Perkins III (national educational reform, Illinois provisions for quality CTE,…