News & Press

by Jonathan Rogers and Michael Karpman

At last week’s spring meeting of NLC’s Mayors’ Education Policy Advisors Network (EPAN) in San Francisco, more than 35 mayors’ education advisors joined representatives from the Alternative High School Initiative (AHSI) and Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI), along with other top education leaders from across the nation, to discuss ideas for adapting and expanding innovative school improvement models.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson addressed the EPAN meeting attendees on Monday, June 1, kicking off a two-day discussion on local innovations and policies that strengthen the education-workforce continuum. Sponsored by NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute) and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, EPAN is a national network that supports mayoral leadership in education and enables mayors’ education advisors from the nation’s 75 largest cities to share best practices for improving student achievement.

Federal Support for Education Innovation
The EPAN meeting began with an address by Jim Shelton, assistant deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. Shelton provided insight regarding federal education priorities and new opportunities stemming from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding.

“This is an unprecedented opportunity for investment in education,” said Shelton, who went on to describe four key federal priorities: educational standards and assessments, human capital, data systems and accountability, and radical intervention in failing schools. Urging mayors to ensure that ARRA education funds are used efficiently and are leveraged to fulfill a sustainable, long-term vision, Shelton explained that there “is an opportunity for mayors to push for greater productivity and more investment in the areas where students struggle.”

Following Shelton’s remarks, Patrick Ainsworth, assistant state superintendent and director of the secondary, postsecondary and adult leadership division for the California Department of Education, highlighted the link between schools and economic development, and emphasized that career and technical education are now central to every student’s experience.

“Cities need to be a partner with boards and schools,” said Ainsworth. “We need a shared vision, shared facilities, and the partnership has to come before the funding.”

Later at San Francisco City Hall, Mayor Newsom talked about the investment his city has made in education, such as the SF Promise scholarship endowment to expand college access and the city’s partnership with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Newsom shared how the city was able to make up a recent SFUSD funding shortfall to save many teachers’ jobs.

At an evening dinner, Mayor Johnson described “a public education crisis in the country, one that we are not talking about as much as we should.” Noting that in California, prisons are built based on third grade reading scores, Mayor Johnson encouraged mayors to lobby their state leaders for education support and “play a strong role on the front lines as agents of change, because we cannot have great cities without great schools.

“Our window of opportunity is small, and we have an Administration that is willing to challenge the status quo head on. If we do not do our part, we will squander it,” said Johnson.

Multiple Pathways, Alternative High Schools, and Early College Enrollment
Tuesday’s opening session used California as a case study to examine the impact of state policy challenges on the development of multiple pathways to graduation. EPAN members gained an in-depth understanding of state education initiatives, such as ConnectEd’s advancement of career and technical education programs, the state’s charter school movement, and promising efforts by San Francisco and other cities to ensure that students graduate from high school and receive postsecondary education and training.

A round of small group sessions deepened the connections among EPAN members, AHSI — a network of youth development organizations that targets dropout rates by developing alternative high schools — and ECHSI, a group of organizations that have started or redesigned high schools that help youth simultaneously earn a high school diploma and college credit. Meeting participants discussed the crucial role that cities can play in providing wraparound services — such as housing, health and social services, and out-of-school time programs — to young people in alternative schools and early college high schools who have greater needs than students in traditional high schools.

A concurrent session provided attendees with an update on the AHSI Place-Based Partnership Project sponsored by the YEF Institute with Gates Foundation support. This project is helping Indianapolis, Nashville and Newark bring alternative high schools to scale to make a significant impact on local graduation rates. EPAN members also discussed programs such as YouthBuild that build connections among city government, education and workforce development systems.

Administration Priorities
In a March op-ed, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined the Obama Administration’s education agenda, which is “aimed at preparing Americans from the cradle up through a career. That means raising the quality of early childhood programs; ending state caps on the number of allowable charter schools; rewarding good teachers and removing bad ones; adding learning time to the school year; and putting the dream of a college degree within reach for anyone who wants one.”

In a Tuesday afternoon roundtable session, Professor Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, who headed President Obama’s education transition team, discussed the implications of these plans for cities and schools.

“We haven’t seen this scale of investment since the 1960s,” said Darling-Hammond, who focused on how community school models can bring cities and schools together. “We have to look outside [school district] borders to redesign school systems that work for all kids. With wraparound services and schools’ connection to their communities, mayors have a big role to play. The mayor can facilitate the partnerships, so education functions like a village, creating the context to best benefit kids.”

Reacting to Darling-Hammond, Gregory McGinity, senior director of policy for the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, stated that “mayors have a role as a watchdog, a role to nudge, to have a place at the table with school districts.” McGinity said that mayors could also be “talent recruiters for principals, superintendents and teachers,” engage children and youth in broad-based out-of-school learning, and work with school districts as they determine how to use stabilization funds.

The Education Continuum
EPAN members began Wednesday, June 3, by describing their efforts to help young people move through an education continuum. There was significant interest in St. Paul’s Circulator bus, which reduces transportation barriers to neighborhood afterschool programs. There was also strong interest in the Louisville Education and Employment Partnership, which helps students with the transition from high school to college, vocational school, employment or military service. Both of these initiatives were informed by ideas from other EPAN meetings.

During the meeting’s closing session, Stanford University Professor Michael Kirst focused on roles that mayors and education innovators could play in connecting high school and postsecondary education. Kirst oversees Stanford’s Bridge Project, which aligns higher education admissions criteria with K-12 curricula, standards and assessments.

“We have the most ambitious generation ever, but the educational performance hasn’t matched that ambition,” said Kirst. “Kids are under the misconception that meeting minimum high school requirements makes them college ready. Mayors need to support P-16 systems, to reduce the fractured and vague message students receive separately from the K-12 and postsecondary systems.”

Details: To learn more about EPAN, visit www.nlc.org/iyef or contact Marjorie Cohen at (202) 626-3052 or cohen@nlc.org. For more information on AHSI, visit www.ahsi.org. To learn more about ECHSI, visit www.earlycolleges.org.