57 items | 30 visits
Foster Care Alumni in college and higher education.
Updated on Dec 09, 14
Created on Sep 01, 11
Category: Schools & Education
URL:
Clint Rodenfels's List: Foster Care Alumni in College
-
Dec 09, 14
First in a series of findings from a recently launched longitudinal study. From the Introduction: "This report presents findings from the Baseline Youth Survey of the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH). CalYOUTH is an evaluation of the impact of the California Fostering Connections to Success Act on outcomes during the transition to adulthood for foster youth. CalYOUTH includes collection and analysis of information from three sources: 1) transition-age youth, 2) child welfare workers, and 3) government program data."
-
Nov 14, 14
Research report from ACT Research & Policy with a primary finding of, "...students entering college with dual credit are more likely to be successful in college than those who do not...."
-
Nov 09, 14
Department of Education site to, "Help students and parents prepare for college or career school. The Financial Aid Toolkit provides federal student aid information and outreach tools for counselors, college access professionals, nonprofit mentors, and others."
-
Nov 01, 14
San Diego Union-Tribune article about a high school student hosting a teen club fundraiser to raise money for foster youth. Showcases efforts of a 17-year old social entrepreneur.
-
Jul 11, 14
US Department of Education page devoted to initiatives in support of students in foster care.
-
In the U.S. today, approximately 400,000 children and youth are in foster care at any given time and each year about 20,000 of these students emancipate (i.e., age out) of foster care.
-
National research shows that children in foster care are at high-risk of dropping out of school and are unlikely to attend or graduate from college. A coordinated effort by education agencies and child welfare agencies is necessary to improve the educational outcomes for students in foster care.
-
-
Jul 11, 14
PDF document of US Department of Education guidance on application of FERPA for students in foster care noting changes resulting from the Uninterrupted Scholars Act requiring greater access by caseworkers and courts.
-
Jul 08, 14
An article from Community College Daily, the news site of the American Association of Community Colleges. Discusses efforts of various colleges around the country, along with other organizations, in supporting former foster youth college success. Includes quotes from John Emerson and a reference to Education Reach for Texans (among others).
-
In a growing number of states, the higher education and child welfare systems are working together to help students who’ve been in foster care, he says. The Education Reach for Texans program, for example, convenes experts from both spheres to share ideas on how best to support former foster youths in higher education.
-
-
Jun 18, 14
Texas Tribune article highlighting foster care alumni (FCA) participating in the 5th Annual Education Reach for Texans Convening. Provides quotes from 6 FCA.
-
In late May, a nonprofit group called Education Reach for Texans, which seeks to promote post-secondary success for former foster youth, held its fifth annual conference at Austin Community College.
-
-
-
researchers examined the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which interviewed 9,000 young people born between 1981 and 1998 annually from 1997 to 2011. They found that the more education a mother has, the less likely she is to have a baby out of wedlock
-
It's harder to plan when you're poor. People without college degrees tend to be poorer, and poverty has been shown to tax the brain’s capacity for rational decision-making.
To a wealthy person, of course it doesn’t make sense for a high-school dropout to have a kid by herself. But as Maria Konnikova wrote in the New York Times this weekend, poverty actually robs you twice: First by making resources scarce, and second by making it harder for the poor to plan long-term. “The demands of the moment override the demands of the future, making that future harder to reach,” she writes.
-
-
Jun 17, 14
Texas Tribune article discussing college benefits available to foster care alumni (FCA). Highlights the 5th Annual Education Reach for Texans Convening at Austin Community College.
-
“These are teenagers, many of which have been living in difficult environments, and a lot of them have a distinct distrust or dislike of anything institutional,” said Clint Rodenfels, the president of Education Reach for Texans, a nonprofit group focused on promoting post-secondary success for former foster students. “Their mind-set is on getting out. It’s hard to have them retain some of this information that’s going to be really helpful when they are thinking they just want to get away and be on their own.”
This month, Rodenfels’ organization, as part of its annual conference at Austin Community College, held its first daylong gathering of former foster youth who are currently enrolled in colleges and universities. Vollette was among them.
-
-
Feb 26, 14
PDF report from CSH. From the Exec Summary: ""With support from the Conrad N. Hilton"
"Foundation and the W.M. Keck Foundation, CSH commissioned Dr. Eric Rice to develop a TAY Triage Tool for prioritizing homeless"
"transition age youth (TAY) age 18-24 for supportive housing. The tool was developed in consultation with providers of housing and services to homeless youth, consultation"
"with stakeholders from youth systems of care, and site visits with six providers of permanen supportive housing to youth. Data from Rice's NIMH-funded survey of 646 homeless youth, recruited from drop-in centers in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2012 was used to conduct the subsequent analyses. The results of the analysis were then vetted with both sets of stake holders. The resulting tool consists"
"of six items."" -
Feb 12, 14
PDF report from the National Human Service Assembly. From the executive summary: "Over 1.4 million youth ages 15–24 are out-of-school and out-of-work (OSOW) and are raising dependent children. When youth are out of
the education system, lack early work experience, and cannot find employment, the likelihood is poor that they will have the means to support themselves and the needs of their children. Too often, this traps their families in a cycle of poverty for generations." -
Jan 28, 14
PDF report. From the cover letter: "Five Idaho colleges increased retention rates for non-traditional students by 500 percent above the national average by simply changing key practices. Results were achieved through a three-year pilot designed to improve retention and completion rates at Idaho community and technical colleges and fuel the state's economy with skilled workers.
Non-traditional students -- unemployed workers, alternative high school students, young single parents and dropouts -- face work schedule conflicts, family obligations and geographic and financial barriers to higher education. Statistically, more than half of students who enter a two-year certificate or degree program in Idaho drop out in the second year, often debt-ridden. " -
Dec 13, 13
PDF guide published by Public Profit and hosted on the Foundation Center's IssueLab, describes various ways to gather input from youth.
-
To understand how our programs are doing, improve the quality of those programs and report to funders and other stakeholders, we collect information from a variety of sources: staff, parents, and the youth themselves.
We often ask youth for input or feedback through surveys. Other common methods to get information on how our programs are doing include observations (such as teacher observations in a classroom) or assessments (such as standardized tests).
This manual provides ideas for other, creative ways to get input from youth.
-
-
Nov 18, 13
New York Times article on alumni of care and their efforts to pursue a college education.
-
Nov 18, 13
Texas Tribune report on creation of Texas Success Center focused on coordinating community college student success programs state-wide.
-
Texas Association of Community Colleges on Tuesday announced the creation of a new Texas Success Center, which is designed to provide statewide coherence and coordination to the state's approaches to student success and to advocate for related policies.
-
30 different student success programs at Texas colleges. They are programs designed to help students complete their two-year degrees or successfully move on to a four-year university. "We find ourselves initiative rich," he said. "All of these initiatives must be herded."
-
-
Nov 18, 13
PDF report from Human Rights Campaign (HRC) looking at well-being outcomes for LGBTQ youth in America. Summary of key findings.
-
Oct 16, 13
PDF report on performance of foster youth in K-12 education in California. Long (116 pages). From the PND description of the report...
California public school students in foster care tend to underperform their peers on standardized tests and comprise a distinct at-risk subgroup, a study by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd finds.
Based on an analysis of statewide data from the 2009-10 school year, the report, The Invisible Achievement Gap, Part 1 (116 pages, PDF), found that only 29 percent of California foster care students in grades 2 through 11 scored at "proficient" or "advanced" levels on the state standards test in English, compared with 40 percent of students of low socioeconomic status and 53 percent of all students in the state. Similar achievement gaps were found in mathematics, with 37 percent of foster care students in grades 2 through 7 testing at "proficient" or above, compared with 50 percent among low-SES students and 60 percent statewide; and between 12 and 13 percent testing at proficient or above in high school Algebra I and II, well below the 23 percent and 32 percent among low-SES students and statewide. Youth in foster care, who have the lowest rates of participation in California's statewide testing program, also are more likely to be African American, to be classified with a disability, to change schools during the academic year, and to be enrolled in the lowest-performing schools.
Funded by the Stuart Foundation, the report also found that students in foster care have a single-year dropout rate of 8 percent — nearly three times the statewide rate of 3 percent and well above the 3 percent to 5 percent rate among other at-risk groups. In 2009-10, students in foster care also had the lowest high school graduation rate among at-risk groups, 58 percent, compared with 79 percent of low-SES students and 84 percent of all students in the state.
"These findings help all of us understand that we have a long way to go to meet our education responsibilities to students in foster care," said Holly Jacobson, director of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd. "Our hope is that this new research will provide California's policy makers, educators, and child welfare professionals with a timely baseline of information on which to build knowledge and actions to improve education opportunities for this resilient but vulnerable student group." -
Oct 07, 13
New laws in California may pave the way for similar efforts in other states?
-
establishes "runaway and homeless youth shelters” as a new kind of group home
-
estimated 200,000 minors in California who are homeless
-
-
Sep 18, 13
PDF report from the convening hosted by Orangewood Children's Foundation on November 7-8, 2005 in Fullerton, California. Impressive document detailing the discussions, best practices, areas for further study, and a contact list. Good gauge for what has and hasn't changed. Thanks to Alexia Everett for finding and sharing the document's location in September 2013.
List Comments
(0)
List Info