This post was originally published by CitiesSpeak.org,the official blog of the National League of Cities, on December 12, 2013.
By Andrew O. Moore
At
its second national meeting in 2012, the NLC Dropout Reengagement
Network set out a number of ambitious goals for itself. These included
extending the outreach of the Network further; creating a sense of
urgency around the need for reengagement; continuing peer learning;
informing federal policy; providing students a voice; and demonstrating
impact through narrative and numbers. One year has passed, and the
Network can point to accomplishments on all these fronts! But before I
dive into that good news, consider this vignette from Boston – the city
that hosted our first Network convening two short years ago.
April Mae Smith dropped out of Madison High School in
May, 2012. April briefly enrolled in the Re-Engagement Center (REC) to
earn enough credits to become a senior that fall. But her heart wasn’t
in it and she quickly dropped out, moved to Rhode Island to live with
her boyfriend, started doing drugs, became pregnant and ended up
homeless. Fortunately this interlude was relatively brief, and by fall
2012, April was looking for a way to turn things around so she could
provide a better life for herself and her child. “I decided I wanted to
graduate before my son was born,” says April, now 19. When April
returned to school, she again turned to the REC. She delivered her son
this June and about the same time, earned her diploma from the Boston
Adult Technical Academy. Now she is enrolling in nursing school with
assistance from REC staff. She credits the program with helping her get
back on track. “The REC staff always told me if I needed help, to just
ask,” April says. “I learned a lot more there than what I would have
learned in the classroom. When I graduated, I was one of the top
students.”
With that shining story of personal progress in mind, the Network’s 2013 convening in Los Angeles now
opens -- extending participation and purpose beyond reengagement to and
through college, thanks to co-sponsoring partnerships with the National
Youth Employment Coalition (NYEC) and Zero Dropouts. Once again, the
number of self-financed participants in the convening has doubled, such
that what was a Network is now on the verge of becoming a movement.
This
is not just a year of accomplishments; this is a year of clarifying
nationwide results and impact. Network members reached agreement around a
few common measures, and voluntarily submitted data compiled by NLC
interns and Matt Mendoza of the Boston Private Industry Council (PIC).
We learned that centers in 14 cities made initial outreach to more than
half of those on dropout lists. More than 10,000 young people received
referrals to education options from a reengagement center or program,
and for 6,000 of those youth, centers received confirmation of
enrollment. Of those enrolled, 73 percent completed a full additional
year of school or graduated.
In
addition to recruiting the national meeting co-sponsors, we looked for
strategic outreach and leveraging opportunities. This led to
reengagement discussions at high policy levels in the U.S. Department of Education and with members of the rapidly growing Gateway to College National Network. Education Week chose reengagement as the topic for a special pull-out section, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation provided just-in-time support for publication of the new NLC Municipal Action Guide on reengagement, released this week and already drawing media interest.
The
Network continues to grow from the ground up, thanks in large part to
ample practice sharing. Chicago launched three reengagement centers.
Washington State’s Open Doors initiative grew from 3 to 22 programs. Washington, DC commissioned a feasibility study, and plans to launch its center in April, 2014. The California Assembly formed a Select Committee on Addressing Out of School, Unemployed Youth, and in Congress, Rep. Jared Polis’
office completed drafting of the first ever federal reengagement bill –
suitable to serve as an amendment to the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
As
the Network and new partners gather in Los Angeles, opportunities
abound to discuss where to go next. One focus area to carry over from
last year and build upon: propelling former dropouts forward into
options to gain postsecondary credentials. A perennial issue involves
using the demand for reengagement to drive creation of many more high
quality school completion options. And the “new GED” and GED
alternatives waiting around the corner in 2014 surely pose challenges
for the broader “ecosystem” of alternative education.
Yet
the past three years show that this is a Network that constantly
reaches for new heights. So with those heights in mind, I look forward
to pursuing these questions:
• What shall the Network do to advance the federal policy ideas built into the draft Polis legislation?
•
What other states could emulate Washington and spread reengagement
programs via state policy and local determination? (Massachusetts,
Oregon, California - are you in the house?)
•
What city or district – or coalition of districts – in partnership with
Community-Based Organizations, will reprogram resources to expand
alternative schools rapidly?
•
Who will follow Los Angeles’ inspiration with the Workforce Incentive
Fund, to identify and use a federal funding source to expand
reengagement locally?
• How will we sustain the census of reengagement programs, and continue to add precision to our counting of results?
* Are the more experienced members of the Network ready for an external evaluation of their effectiveness and impact?
• How will the 21 cities involved in the high-profile Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund tackle the need for reengagement capacity?
•
What other philanthropies will join the CS Mott and Annie E. Casey
Foundations to lend their support to advance reengagement nationwide?
-------------------------------
Andrew Moore is a Senior Fellow in NLC’s Institute for
Youth, Education & Families. Follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewOMoore.
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