Engaging Disadvantaged Youth
The Hunt Institute is fully committed to making lasting improvements in the lives of disadvantaged children and youth through preventative programs that keep students engaged in learning and connected to key supports. With funding from the Atlantic Philanthrophies, the Hunt Institute tracks integrated student services trends and educates policymakers about the link between these services and student success. Learn more about how integrated services can effectively support disadvantaged youth and children to achieve academic success.
Tri-State Summit Spurs on Collaborative Relationships to Strengthen Lives of Disadvantaged Youth
The Hunt Institute's newest event, this Summit brought together state leaders and policymakers from Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina to discuss the importance of cross-sector collaboration and integrated services to meeting the needs of disadvantaged youth.
coNCepts, Issue 1 | Winter 2008 -- Integrated Services: Key to Academic Success
coNCepts is a Hunt Institute publication that dissects education issues impacting North Carolina. It is targeted towards legislators and education policy leaders across the state.
6th Annual North Carolina Legislators Retreat -- Thinking Forward: Preparing Our Students for the Future -- Briefing
The 6th Annual North Carolina Legislator’s Briefing, written by the Hunt Institute, serves as a companion piece to the NCLR sessions—providing data and detailed information on topics of discussion.
Thinking Forward: Preparing Our Students for the Future -- A Report from the 6th Annual North Carolina Legislators Retreat
This Report provides legislators with a summary of NCLR discussions and highlights potential reform implications suggested by the experts.
Childhood Obesity and Academic Outcomes: A Brief Review of Research -- Issue Brief, December 2008
Prepared by the Hunt Institute, this issue brief was developed in response to legislators who wanted to know more about how childhood obesity affects academic performance.
Integrated Services for New Mexico’s Disadvantaged Children -- State Profile
Researched and written by the Hunt Institute, this state profile highlights what New Mexico is doing to coordinate cross-departmental efforts, assess and maximize resource allocation, remove administrative barriers to obtaining departmental services, and track child and youth indicators within the state.
Valuable Web resources related to disadvantaged youth*
Closing the Learning Gap:
Through the Race to the Top (RTT) funds, states are being asked to focus on ways to provide interventions for struggling students. Specific to the turnaround school effort are improved instructional programs, extended learning time and community-oriented supports—including more time for students to learn and for teachers to collaborate—more time for enrichment activities, and on-going mechanisms for family and community engagement.
Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement (PDF, 87KB)
NC Center for Afterschool Programs (NC CAP) understands that effective afterschool programs keep children safe and foster academic performance—resulting in success in and out of school. The organization builds a network that addresses the afterschool program issues of quality, accessibility, and sustainable funding. NC CAP envisions that the result of this collective work will make access to quality afterschool a reality for all children and youth.
Afterschool Training Database:
http://www.nccap.net/news_details.cfm?id=4A61A09B-AA60-E02B-76D43CCD8DECB50E
The Mott Foundation believes education should offer the same pathway to success for youth in low-income communities that it does for their more affluent peers. In 1998, they entered into a private/public partnership with the U.S. Department of Education to focus on the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) initiative. This initiative's goal is to provide quality afterschool programming for low-income rural and urban children in thousands of schools across the country. Central to the initiative's design is the concept that schools partner with community-based organizations and other local institutions to provide broader learning opportunities.
Afterschool Toolkit:
http://www.mott.org/news/news/2009/asiasociety.aspx
Pathways Out of Poverty
http://www.mott.org/Home/about/programs/pathwaysoutofpoverty/improvingcommunityeducation.aspx
The Turnaround Model integrates social and behavioral support—not just academic support—directly into the learning environment. Turnaround works with school staff to develop systems, resources, and specific competencies to address the broad and intense set of needs presented by students to create a positive and successful school culture. The Turnaround Model helps schools address their most significant problems by creating organizational systems, building knowledge and skills, and expanding access to resources.
The Turnaround Model:
http://www.turnaroundusa.org/
The Wallace Foundation is nationally recognized for its involvement in educational and cultural programs. It aims to strengthen education leadership, improve student achievement and afterschool learning opportunities, and build appreciation and demand for the arts. The Foundation supports and shares effective ideas and practices that enable institutions to expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people.
Out-of-School Learning Research:
http://www.wallacefoundation.org/KnowledgeCenter/KnowledgeTopics/CurrentAreasofFocus/Out-Of-SchoolLearning/Pages/default.aspx
Afterschool Investments Project (AIP) is an out-of-school-time project providing technical assistance to Child Care and Development Fund grantees and other state and local leaders supporting afterschool efforts.
State Comparison:
http://nccic.acf.hhs.gov/afterschool/schoolAgeRep.htm
Annie E. Casey Foundation works to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. Grants are awarded to help states, cities, and neighborhoods develop more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs.
Kids Count Data Center:
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Default.aspx
The Education Trust works to close the achievement gap that separates low-income students and students of color from other youth. It provides advocacy to encourage colleges, communities, and schools; analysis and expert testimony on educational policies; research and public dissemination of data; and assistance to colleges, communities, and school districts to help raise student achievement.
EdWatch State Reports:
http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/summaries2009/states.html
National Center for Education Statistics is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing education data. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
Data Tools:
http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=5
Dropout Prevention Data:
Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools works to study how changes in the social organization of schools can make schools more effective for all students in promoting academic achievement, development of potential, and eventual career success. The emphasis on social organization is based in sound theory—changes in the structure of an environment will produce changes in the attitudes, behaviors, and accomplishments of the people in that environment.
Promoting Power (estimate of school-level graduation rates):
http://web.jhu.edu/CSOS/graduation-gap/power.html
National Dropout Prevention Center/Network’s mission to increase high school graduation rates through research and evidenced-based solutions. It is a national resource for sharing solutions for student success through its clearinghouse function, active research projects, publications, and through a variety of professional development activities.
Model Programs Database:
http://ndpc-web.clemson.edu/modelprograms/
Juvenile Delinquency Prevention:
Children’s Defense Fund champions policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to healthcare, quality education, and a moral and spiritual foundation.
Children in the States Fact Sheets:
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/state-data-repository/children-in-the-states-factsheets.html
Child Trends DataBank is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by providing research and data to inform decision-making that affects children. In addition to conducting its own research, Child Trends works with federal and state officials and other researchers to improve the quality, scope, and use of data on children and their families. The DataBank has more than 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being.
Child Trends DataBank:
http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/search_alphabet.cfm
*Courtesy of the North Carolina Center for Afterschool Programs