Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/JacquelineRaphael

During summer and fall 2002, Urban Institute staff visited three communities for The Wallace Foundation to learn as much as possible about existing community-based programs for children and youth and the interconnections among them. This brief describes the goals of this work, what we did to accomplish them, and what we learned in the process. It focuses particularly on the technique of "community mapping" as we used it. We present results obtained for the three communities visited, not for their own sake but as illustrations of how other communities or funders might apply the technique to expand and improve their programming for children and youth. Because of its graphical nature, community mapping reveals otherwise hidden patterns in community programs, which can lead to more informed and effective decisions about these programs.

The LEF (local education fund) movement started in the early 1980s, when public schools, particularly in urban areas, were struggling with changing demographics and a need for greater community commitment to public education. These small independent community-based organizations were established to bridge the gap between the community and its schools. Almost twenty years later, the Public Education Network (PEN), the national representative for over 70 LEFs throughout the country, has begun to specify what its unique contribution to education has been and, subsequently, will be in the future. An important part of this work is the development of a research agenda around LEF leadership. This report describes efforts by the Urban Institute and PEN to better understand and describe a leadership model that characterizes the LEF movement.

This report describes implementation of the DC 21st Century Community Learning Center (DC 21st CCLC) program during the summer of 2001, with a particular focus on the use of computer technology to improve academic achievement. The report is based on direct observations of activities, document reviews, interviews with program coordinators and facilitators, and focus groups with student participants. The investigation revealed that the technology appears to have been well implemented, with large numbers of well-functioning machines in almost all observed classrooms and generally positive reactions from staff and students. Student enrollment is somewhat lower than hoped, and observations suggest that the use of the Internet, pretests, and aides could be improved to better support student achievement.

This report provides the results of the first phase of the Public Education Network (PEN) Leadership Study. This study focused on leadership of Local Education Funds, which are independent community-based nonprofit school reform organizations that seek to improve student achievement through partnerships with local school districts. Our results are based on a baseline survey administered to 59 Local Education Fund executive directors who belong to PEN. The survey had two purposes: to provide a snapshot of leadership characteristics and perceptions of executive directors and to gather contextual information on LEFs and the communities they serve. Initial findings suggest that LEF executive director leadership is best described by a community collaborative model of leadership. Survey results also revealed differences in the background and experience of newer executive directors and longer-term executive directors and a disparity between how executive directors would ideally like to spend their time and the way they actually allocate their time. On average, executive directors spend the least amount of time on strategic planning but believe it should be their first priority. Finally, respondents indicated a high level of satisfaction with their jobs, their compensation, and their boards of directors.

This U.S. Department of Education-funded project was designed to combine the best of local initiative with technical expertise for the purpose of studying how school districts measure the impact of professional development programs in a standards-based environment. With technical assistance from Urban Institute reearchers, and financial support from the Department, four school districts and one consortium of small rural districts designed and conducted evaluations of their professional development programs. These evaluations attempted to link professional development to student performance on assessments. This final report showcases high levels of effort among participating districts and some important lessons about evaluation for policymakers, evaluators, and educators.

This handbook is written to help district staff members gain a working knowledge of how to evaluate their professional development programs. The audience includes directors of research and evaluation, professional development, and federal programs, as well as staff in small districts who must perform several functions. We have assumed the reader is involved with a district engaged in systemic standards-based reform, that is, a district that has already adopted academic learning standards and is using student assessments that are well aligned with those standards. We also assumed that the district’s professional development efforts are linked to its overall plan for focusing all components of the educational system on helping all students meet higher academic standards.

This report is based on an analysis of information contained in the twelve EFD state reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in the spring of 2000. These reports summarize waiver activity in the states between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 1999, including the number and type of federal waivers granted to school districts or schools and the disposition of waiver requests. As required by the Goals 2000 legislation, the reports also include achievement data and other information for waivers that have been in place in districts and schools for two or more years. In addition, this analysis includes information from the EFD states' original applications for the Ed-Flex authority and information gathered through several telephone calls to SEA officials in the EFD states.

This report describes the implementation of the DC 21st Century Community Learning Center (DC 21st CCLC) Summer 2000 Program. The report is designed to provide feedback to the managers of the DC 21st CCLC program, and to inform Children and Youth Investment Partnership activities, of which the DC 21st CCLC program is a part. The report is based on observations of program activities and interviews with program coordinators, facilitators, and parents at the nine DC 21st CCLC summer 2000 school programs. The results suggest that in general the program has been implemented with sufficient resources and support, and that it has responded with flexibility to implementation challenges beyond the program's control. Parent reports were positive, staff appeared satisfied with program implementation, and activities appeared to give students many opportunities to develop a variety of skills. The next step in an evaluation is to explore the use of a comparison group to document results more fully.

This report describes the implementation of the DC 21st Century Community Learning Center (DC 21st CCLC) After-School Program between October 1999 and May 2000, as well as the implications of current implementation for continued evaluation of the program. The report is also designed to inform Children and Youth Investment Partnership activities, of which the DC 21st CCLC program is a part. This report is based on interviews with program coordinators and student participants at the 10 DC 21st CCLC sites. The investigation revealed that many key elements of the program have been implemented at all sites, with positive student reactions to activities but lower-than-expected student enrollment.

In this project, researchers developed and piloted key components of a multi-year evaluation to assess the impact of standards-based reform at the local level on both schools and students. After summarizing the literature on evaluation of systemic standards-based reform, staff developed a conceptual framework and methodologies for a national evaluation of standards-based reform at the state and district levels. A scale for assessing implementation was developed and is recommended as a tool to be used in conducting the evaluation, and for use in ongoing monitoring by the U.S. Department of Education. This scale included quantified benchmarks of state-, district-, and school-level progress along a set of parameters that emerged from the literature review.

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