The intention of the program is that conditioning additional financial aid on certain behaviors will lead students to increase their effort towards their studies, which in turn will lead them to perform better in their classes in the short-term and progress through their degree requirements at a quicker rate in the medium-term. The program is…

Across the United States, community colleges offer millions of students an open-access, low-cost postsecondary education. However, of the students who enroll in community college hoping to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year institution, only about half achieve their goal within six years. For students who enter college needing…

"Free To Grow"--a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)--supported efforts by Head Start agencies and their community partners to strengthen the families and neighborhood environments of high-risk preschool children living in low-income communities. The goal was to reduce the children's vulnerability to substance…

The Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families was developed in the late 1990s in response to the growing concentration of joblessness, underemployment, welfare receipt, and poverty in some of the nation's most economically deprived communities: public housing developments and their surrounding neighborhoods. In many…

The expense of attending college is one factor that may explain why low-income students often drop out of school. In California, despite generous state aid and relatively low fees at community colleges, many low-income students still have substantial college-related costs that they cannot cover. To compound matters, federal support for students…

While studies have examined the relationship between financial aid and college access, few have evaluated the relationship between financial aid and academic success. Factors that are associated with financial need, such as being low income, are also associated with a lack of academic success, making it difficult to isolate the effect of…

A 3-year demonstration program on interagency coordination among California employment and training agencies is reviewed in this six-chapter report. The history and rationale for the demonstration program is described in chapter 1. Chapters 2 through 4, written by the three project directors, describe the cooperative planning experience in…

The School Attendance Demonstration Project (SADP) was designed to improve school attendance among teenagers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits in San Diego County, California. An impact study was conducted from March 10, 1996 to March 10, 1998, to evaluate the effects of providing social services and imposing…

The Yale-New Haven Teachers' Institute was founded in 1978 on the belief that "university and school teachers across the country have a strong, mutual interest in the improvement of teaching and learning in the schools." The core goal of the model is to establish a sustainable partnership between districts and universities in order to…

The paper discusses recommendations for a statewide (California) plan to provide transitional services to severely handicapped high school students. Initial sections trace the state and federal commitment to transitional services for work and other aspects of life. Thirteen model programs in California and eight in other states are summarized. A…

Break the Cycle is a private, nonprofit organization that seeks to end domestic violence by working proactively with youth. Founded in 1996, it includes a preventive education and outreach program, a legal services program, and a peer leadership program. All three programs focus exclusively on youth aged 12-22 years. In 2000, Centers for Disease…

Case studies of eight exemplary schools demonstrate that language-minority students can learn the same academic curriculum as native English speakers while pursuing English literacy. Common school characteristics include a schoolwide vision of excellence, creation of a community of learners engaged in active discovery, and well-designed, carefully…

In 1996, California provided funding to 14 county probation agencies to implement multiagency, comprehensive services to keep troubled youths from recommitting crime and progressing farther into the justice system. We report results of a randomized experiment used to evaluate Ventura County's 4-year demonstration project called the South Oxnard…

From July 1985 through September 1987, the County of San Diego, California, operated the Saturation Work Initiative Model (SWIM) as a demonstration project. The demonstration tested the feasibility and effectiveness of requiring ongoing participation in employment-related activities by a high proportion of persons on welfare. SWIM provided job…

The case studies contained in this document were developed as part of a national project to identify communities that have made substantial progress toward developing comprehensive, coordinated, community-based systems of care for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances and their families. After initial identification,…