Bridge-to-college programs aim to help people complete high school and enroll in postsecondary education, two milestones that increase access to economic opportunity. These programs help students obtain their high school credentials while encouraging postsecondary transition and success. Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC) in Green Bay,…

A recent study found that one in three Americans between the ages of 16 and 65 lack the skills needed to succeed in middle school math, let alone math at the high school or college level. In some instances, states or colleges have raised standards for developmental courses and routed students who score below the minimum skill level for…

The Reconnecting Youth project aims to systematically understand what programs and practices are available in the United States to support young people who experience disconnection from school and work during the transition period to adulthood (typically defined as ages 16 to 24). It focuses specifically on services to help them reconnect to…

The United States must raise the graduation rates of community college students if it is to increase economic opportunity for individuals and improve the competitiveness of its workforce. Yet too many students arrive on campus academically underprepared and get placed into developmental (or remedial) courses where they fail to progress. For this…

Nearly 39 million adults in the United States lack a valid high school credential and face a significant barrier to both higher education and employment opportunities. High school equivalency exams, primarily the General Educational Development (GED) exam, are the primary gateway to college for high school dropouts, but relatively few people are…

In 2015, the Annie E. Casey Foundation partnered with the Corporation for National and Community Service's Social Innovation Fund to launch Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP), a multimillion-dollar initiative to increase employment and educational opportunities for young people ages 15-25 who have been involved in the child welfare and…

Currently, one of the foremost questions many in the career and technical education (CTE) field are asking is: How can the design and delivery of CTE programs promote equity? CTE is currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity with policymakers and practitioners, and its proponents want to avoid repeating the history of vocational education,…

Although high school completion rates have slowly increased over the past several decades, nearly 30 million adults today still lack a high school credential and, as a result, face a significant barrier to both higher education and employment opportunities. Policymakers and practitioners in the adult education field are searching for ways to…

There is a growing belief that access to academic opportunities during the summer can help close the achievement gap between low-income students and their higher-income peers. But while significant research is emerging on summer programs for school-age children, information on the preschool period is limited. The Expanding Children's Early…

Graduation rates from community colleges in the United States are quite low overall, but they are even lower for the many entering students who need some remediation. This brief provides a first look at an evaluation of CUNY Start, an innovative developmental education program at the City University of New York (CUNY) that was designed to improve…

Large numbers of young people in the United States were in foster care or in juvenile justice custody as teenagers, and many of them have a difficult time making a successful transition to independent adulthood as they leave these systems. Most of them faced a number of disadvantages during childhood and often have poor outcomes across several…

Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural…

The "Youth Villages Transitional Living Evaluation" is testing whether the "Transitional Living" program, operated by the social service organization Youth Villages, makes a difference in the lives of young people with histories of foster care or juvenile justice custody. The program, which was renamed "YVLifeSet" in…

MDRC develops and studies programs to help young people who face major barriers in finding a path to stable adult life. Their recent roster of youth-related projects mainly targets three groups: at-risk high school students; dropouts disconnected from school and work; and system-involved youth at risk of disconnection, including youth exiting…

YouthBuild is intended to help high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24, who face an array of impediments to their educational and employment success as they progress into adulthood. Stemming from one program launched in the late 1970s, today over 270 YouthBuild programs operate nationwide. YouthBuild is a principles-based model that values a…