Metallica's All Within My Hands is a workforce education initiative that provides direct support to community colleges to enhance their career and technical education programs. In 2019, AWMH--alongside initiative sponsor the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC)--provided 10 schools with $100,000 each for tuition help, safety gear and…

When the federal government banned incarcerated students from accessing Pell Grants in the mid-1990s, a new model for supporting Higher Education in Prison (HEP) programs emerged--utilizing Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) as third-party facilitators to fill the gaps left behind in the absence of federal financial aid. With the long-awaited…

Community schools serve as the hubs of their communities by providing wraparound services and enrichment opportunities to students and families in need. If children lack eyeglasses, dental care, mental health counseling, school supplies, winter coats, sufficient food, or stable housing, a community school would connect students and families to…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to discover Direct Support Professionals' (DSPs) perceptions of a staff development session for creating a literacy-based social skills strategy known as social stories or story-based instruction. The participants in this study were six DSPs employed by a non-profit agency in the…

This report analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education on the outcomes of New York's federal student loan borrowers who entered repayment in 2012, covering the period from 2012 to 2016. This data brief--the first comprehensive analysis of five-year student loan outcomes in New York--reveals that the student loan default rate in New York…

Young people are repeatedly promised that internships will pave the way to the career of their dreams by providing the 'hands-on experience' necessary to differentiate themselves in a fierce job market. However, in many industries, internships -- and increasingly unpaid internships -- have become the obligatory norm. Young people quickly learn…

What incentive could be stronger in a community than full-tuition college scholarships for all graduates of a public school system? Could this be an answer to the question of how the nation can support children growing up in poverty so that they may access middle-class opportunities? When George Weiss, a successful young money manager, pledged to…

Metropolitan universities are well poised in communities to be intermediaries among various actors involved in social innovation. Pace University established one of the first institutes on social entrepreneurship. Its unique position at the university level allows programming to transcend certain institutional challenges. The emerging field of…

For Lynch View Elementary, a K-5 school in suburban Portland, the school day doesn't end when the bell rings at 2:22 p.m. As one of 64 "community schools" in Multnomah County, the school also provides homework assistance, academic enrichment, free breakfast and dinner for students, a weekly food pantry, a host site for local medical…

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of a New York City-based third-sector organization focused on what it calls "food justice." This study concentrates on how this organization, that I call Food Rights, has built a broad multi-sector network made up of a varied set of constituents and collaborators aiming to develop and promote an…

This report analyzes case studies of "more and better learning time" efforts around the country. With support from the Ford Foundation, America's Promise Alliance looked in Grand Rapids, MI; Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN; and Rochester, NY to see how time spent out of the classroom improved outcomes for students in low-income neighborhoods…

In 2012, the national non-profit Single Stop USA served more than 32,000 students across 17 community college sites in seven states. At each college, Single Stop acts as an integral partner in the college's efforts to meet the needs of students and their families. It helps introduce the provision of important services such as tax preparation,…

Virtually every study of the impact of college on incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people demonstrates a positive effect on income, civic engagement, family, and personal health, as well as dramatically reduced recidivism rates. College in and after prison offers a singularly effective strategy for redeveloping individuals, families and…

This report highlights 10 of the most advanced and talked-about teacher evaluation systems nationally: Delaware; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Hillsborough County, Florida; Houston, Texas; New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC (referred to throughout just as Washington); Achievement First (a charter management organization,…

The author of this document spent time as the Associate Artistic Director of The 52nd Street Project, a not-for-profit theater company dedicated to the creation and production of new plays for, and often by, kids between the ages of nine and eighteen that reside in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. Through a series of unique…