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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Education and Reform Assurances: Positioning Schools and Interventions for Off-Track and Out-of-School Youth Jobs for the Future (2009)
Summary: Of the $5 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund reserved for the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants, the department will conduct a national competition among states for a $4.35 billion, state-incentive Race to the Top Fund to improve education quality and results statewide. The fund will help drive substantial gains in student achievement by supporting states that are effectively using other ARRA funds to, and have begun making significant progress on, ARRA’s four education reform goals: establishing and raising standards; implementing data systems and using data to drive instruction; improving teacher and principal quality and equity; and turning around historically low-performing schools.
The recommendations in this paper are meant as guides for dialogue with and among state-level counterparts to advance ongoing efforts to launch and sustain schools and interventions for off-track and out-of-school youth. JFF prepared this paper with input from district and city leaders in the Pathways to Graduation Workgroup. JFF convenes this cross-sector, five-city workgroup to inform efforts across the country to create options and improve outcomes for these youth. To seize the opportunity presented by the Race to the Top Fund, strategies and components of the agenda serving off-track/out-of-school youth should be positioned as key to improving overall student academic achievement and advancing state education reform.
