Sarah Hooker

The fate of the Dreamers remains up for grabs, as Congress and the White House spar over competing policy priorities that could determine the future of this vulnerable group. Lawmakers must improve, rather than erode, the shaky protections under DACA.

The Early College Expansion Partnership aimed to increase the high school and college success of 30,000 low-income youth. This brief highlights the core elements of the partnership and key lessons learned that can inform school improvement efforts everywhere.

Seven school districts in the Central Ohio Partnership for College and Career Readiness Expansion (CCRE) are collaborating to increase educational achievement and close equity gaps. The districts will implement early college design principles. This brief, the first of a series, describes the history of cross-sector collaboration in central Ohio and the origins of the CCRE, and offers recommendations for other colleges.

A shortage of qualified instructors threatens to derail dual enrollment. Creating a long-term pipeline of faculty who can teach college in high school requires systemic solutions that align complex interests.

Interest in dual enrollment is rising in California and nationwide, but students from special populations—including English learners, students with disabilities, foster youth, and young people experiencing homelessness—are too often left on the sidelines. This report explores promising practices and recommendations for designing dual enrollment with the assets and needs of these students at the center.

English learners have tremendous potential but too often are held back from participating in the courses that lead to postsecondary degree completion and career success. Dual enrollment can be a powerful tool to increase college enrollment and success rates, especially if implemented with attention to English learners’ unique assets and needs. This brief explores the current state of dual enrollment participation for English learners, highlights promising practices, and provides recommendations for creating a more seamless transition between high school and college for this group.

Cross-sector partnerships require a foundation of trust in order to withstand external shocks and achieve impact. This publication describes how the Central Ohio Partnership for College and Career Readiness Expansion evolved over a five-year grant period to create stronger collaboration across all partners and how the purpose of the work became even clearer in a time of national crisis.

How California K-16 Collaboratives are leveraging regional partnerships and initiatives to achieve equitable outcomes.

Despite alarming projections of an economic downturn and state budget shortfalls this year, leaders in California are starting to see progress stemming from pandemic-era investments focused on building and strengthening regional collaboration.

It’s time to extend the social contract to the many immigrant frontline workers who are risking their lives during this pandemic. They deserve access to health care, fair wages, sick leave, and other basic rights.

Equitable economic growth requires inclusion at every step of the way, from how we design our education and training systems to how we use collaborative strategies and coordinated investments for regional economic development. JFF presents a vision for growing our economy differently, prioritizing asset-based, cross-sector approaches to build community resilience.

The Fresno K-16 Collaborative is a signature initiative of the California Governor’s Council on Post-Secondary Education that aims to increase college degree attainment in high-demand industries, align educational preparation with the demands of regional employers, and close race and equity gaps by developing an integrated system and seamless set of educational experiences across the region’s K-12 districts, community colleges, and four-year universities.

This report describes the process of participatory design and asset mapping facilitated by JFF from July 2021 to March 2022; lays out a set of recommendations for deepening, scaling, and sustaining the progress that has been made by the engineering pathway during the pilot period; and offers lessons for other stakeholders interested in launching K-16 regional collaboratives.

Dual enrollment has long been recognized as a powerful strategy to increase college enrollment, success, affordability. Yet compared to many other states, California has been slow to embrace this proven approach. With support from the College Futures Foundation, JFF and Career Ladders Project have conducted research on the evolution and current state of dual enrollment policy and practice in California. Together we have developed joint recommendations for expanding dual enrollment in California and expanding its impact.

Transforming traditional high schools to better prepare all graduates to succeed both in college and the new world of work is a daunting task. But it can be done—and in a relatively short period of time. This report shows how one of the largest school districts in Ohio has doubled college course taking and raised expectations for all students by systematically changing the culture of its high schools in three years.

Many communities are embracing "inclusive economic development" as a way to address inequity that persists even as the economy grows. In an effort to spark a national conversation about the conditions needed to achieve inclusive economic development, this report gives an overview of what JFF has learned about the topic through our research and in the field.

A Chapter from 13 Ideas that Are Transforming the Community College World

In order for dual enrollment to deliver on its promise of increasing postsecondary enrollment and success, there needs to be an increase in efficiency within higher education transfer systems.