In 2014, The Atlantic Philanthropies awarded two grants totaling $21 million to agencies charged with working together to support and expand health career pathways for high school students in Oakland. Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency (ACHCSA) received a grant of $11 million, and the Alameda…

Opportunity Works was a three-year effort led by Jobs for the Future to help opportunity youth--young people ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or meaningfully employed--access postsecondary and career pathways. Based on the Back on Track framework, seven cities across the country undertook collective impact approaches with diverse partners to…

In the United States, less than half of the students who enter into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate curricula as freshmen will actually graduate with a STEM degree. There is even greater disparity in the national STEM graduation rates of students from underrepresented groups with approximately three-fourths…

Educators and researchers have long recognized the importance of mastering reading by the end of third grade. Students who fail to reach this critical milestone often falter in the later grades and drop out before earning a high school diploma. This study relies on a unique national database of 3,975 students born between 1979 and 1989. The…

The United States Department of Education (2008) noted that the percentage of ethnic minority students in public education increased from 22 percent in 1972 to 43 percent in 2006. This increase largely reflected the growth of the Hispanic population, especially in the state of Texas. Richard (2003) reported that Hispanic students drop out of…

Comparisons between participants and non-participants in supplemental instruction classes at San Francisco State University over a six-year period show positive impacts in terms of increased student performance and progression through subsequent courses in a sequence, despite the lower academic indicators of the supplemental instruction…

Describes and assesses the effectiveness of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, designed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who pursue graduate and professional degrees in science and engineering. Indicates that the Meyerhoff students achieved higher grade point averages and graduated…

This study examined associations between quality of social and physical environments in preschools and children's development of academic, language, and literacy skills, and the extent to which preschool quality moderated the associations between child risk and development. Participants were a diverse sample of 540 four-year-old children in…

Supplemental instruction classes have been shown in many studies to enhance performance in the supported courses and even to improve graduation rates. Generally, there has been little evidence of a differential impact on students from different ethnic/racial backgrounds. At San Francisco State University, however, supplemental instruction in the…

Assessed whether the Student Diversity Program (SDP) at Cal State Fullerton increased retention, examining graduation rates and ending grade point averages (GPAs) of students and matched controls in four cohorts. Found that SDP students graduated at twice the rate of comparable students after 5 years, although GPAs were not different. (EV)

The impact of Student Support Services (SSS), a large federal program to help disadvantaged students complete college, on retention in college was studied with approximately 2,800 SSS participants and similar nonparticipants. SSS had a positive impact for the three measures of retention used, but the impact varied with services used and student…

In 1997, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes partnered with Pueblo School District 60 (PSD60), a heavily minority urban district with many Title I schools, to implement a theoretically based initiative designed to improve Colorado Student Assessment Program reading scores. In this study, the authors examined achievement in Grades 3-5 during the…

This report is a formative evaluation of the YouthBuild Demonstration Project that began in 1991 and ended in 1994. The YouthBuild Model, developed in earlier programs, was directed at young people who were largely disconnected from schools and jobs. Major components of the project were counseling, academic remediation with preparation for the…

The Augmenting Thinking through Language Acquisition Skills (ATTLAS) program was designed to increase analytical thinking abilities and English language capabilities of limited English proficient (LEP) elementary school students. The program concentrates on first through third grades, although there are some pull-out classes for grades 4-6; and…

This volume, first in a series, contains a literature review of the college access field, as well as case studies and lessons for community leaders interested in designing or reforming college access programs. The college access field contains many well thought out programs that are widely believed to be effective in helping minority and…