Family and Community Engagement

On January 14, 2013, the Alliance for Excellent Education hosted The Role of Business Leaders: Expanding Learning Opportunities Through Digital Learning, a Webinar focused on how businesses can assist schools in increasing digital learning opportunities for students. Panelists for the event included Steve Andrews, U.S.

The National Academy Foundation (NAF) and the Alliance for Excellent Education hosted a Webinar on January 10th, 2013, entitled College and Career Readiness for All Youth: The Role of Businesses. The event focused on business-education partnerships, specifically those aimed at preparing high school-aged youth for college and career.

Looking for new high school-related resources? Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*

The Career Readiness Partner Council is a coalition of nearly 30 education, business, policy, and philanthropic organizations, formed in 2012 and led by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium. The group is charged with developing and articulating a clear vision of what it means to be career ready and leading efforts to help bridge the gap between education and workforce preparation.

REL Appalachia at CNA Analysis & Solutions hosted a Webinar on September 24, 2012, entitled Increasing Access to College Preparatory Courses in Rural Communities through Dual Enrollment. The Webinar addressed the latest research pertaining to dual enrollment programs and highlighted how these programs are implemented at a district and state level.

The National Association for Secondary Schools Principals (NASSP) hosted a Webinar, “Early College Programs, A Win-Win for Everyone,” on September 26, 2012 on models for preparing high school students for higher education. Janice Bell Ollarvia, NASSP Professional Development Specialist and a former school principal, compared features of high school initiatives that link secondary education with two and four year institutions of higher education and allow high school students to participate in college-level courses.

Last week, the National College Access Network hosted its conference, “Changing the Odds: College Success for All,” in Las Vegas and included both in-person and virtual events. The virtual conference spanned all three days, with as many as six virtual events held in one day.

The National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research, in collaboration with the American Youth Policy Forum and the Educational Policy Improvement Center, hosted an invitation-only “College and Career Readiness Symposium: The Role of Technical Assistance in Actualizing College and Career Readiness,” in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2012.

The Alliance for Excellent Education (The Alliance) recently hosted a Webinar to discuss the results of a recent report, The Economic Impact of Communities in Schools. Dan Cardinali, President of Communities in Schools (CIS), joined Governor Bob Wise, President of the Alliance, to discuss the report and its implications for CIS’ future work.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) hosted a Webinar, “Utilizing the Village: Building Community Support for Dropout Prevention and Recovery Work in Rural Communities.” It was the first in a series of three Webinars that will focus on dropout prevention and recovery efforts in rural areas. This presentation emphasized that dropout recovery and prevention efforts are not possible without community-wide support and a strong system in place to identify struggling students.