Special Libraries, June 1911

Volume 2, Issue 6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1911/1005/thumbnail.jp

Special Libraries, June 1911

Volume 2, Issue 6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1911/1005/thumbnail.jp

A Great Reckoning: Healing a Growing Divide: A Summary of the Boston Indicators Report 2009

Summarizes the Boston Indicators Project's findings on the city's economic, social, and technological progress in civic vitality, cultural life and the arts, economy, education, environment, health, housing, public safety, technology, and transportation

Greater Philadelphia's Knowledge Industry: Leveraging the Region's Colleges and Universities in the New Economy

This report documents Greater Philadelphia's current standing as a knowledge region, compares its performance over a series of key indicators to the largest American knowledge regions, identifies activities being undertaken around the country, and offers a set of strategic recommendations for better linking the region's knowledge assets to economic development

Arts Service Organizations: A Study of Impact and Capacity

Evaluates the capacity of arts and cultural organizations during a two-year initiative while they assisted other small nonprofits and individual artists. Addresses issues of funding and partnerships; includes recommendations

Bringing the Good Food Purchasing Program to Buffalo

An investigation of potential environmental stakeholder participation in the Good Food Purchasing Program. The objective of this report is to investigate the GFPP’s value of environmental sustainability, to assess if this value is compatible with those of Buffalo’s environmental stakeholders, and to consider if these local organizations would be supportive of bringing the GFPP to Buffalo. In doing so, this report examines the characteristics and goals of local environmental stakeholders, and compares them to the successes that the GFPP has experienced elsewhere. Of particular importance to Buffalo’s environmental stakeholders is climate justice, water quality, and regenerative economies. All of these values correspond with the GFPP’s socio-environmental accomplishments, such as decreased greenhouse gas emissions and water resulting from reduced animal product consumption, increased local purchasing, and improved working conditions. However, these victories were not achieved without overcoming numerous barriers, such as policy regulation, financial constraints, and logistical limits

Can Nonprofits Increase Voting Among Their Clients,Constituents, and Staff? An Evaluation of the Track the Vote Program, Part 1

The Track the Vote program sought to answer questions about the effectiveness of nonprofit service providers in promoting voter participation within their regular services and programs, and their potential for increasing voter turnout among nonprofit clients and constituents. To do so, the program tracked 33,741 individuals who registered to vote or signed a pledge to vote at 94 nonprofits. The nonprofits included a diverse set of community health centers, family service agencies, multi-service organizations, and community development groups across seven states.Using demographic and voting history data, we were able to determine whom the nonprofits reached and at what rate contacted voters turned out to vote in the 2012 general election, as compared to all registered voters in the seven states involved. The results showed the impact of personal voter outreach by nonprofit service providers in raising turnout rates among those least expected to vote and in closing gaps in voter participation across all demographics.To complement the voter turnout information, we conducted standardized interviews with 27 of the participating nonprofits to learn more about the capacity issues they faced and the tactics they used to engage voters. Fifteen of those interviews were turned into case studies, contained in Part II of this report

Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic

This fourth annual update on America's high school dropout crisis shows that for the first time the nation is on track to meet the goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020 -- if the pace of improvement from 2006 to 2010 is sustained over the next 10 years. The greatest gains have occurred for the students of color and low-income students most affected by the dropout crisis. Many schools, districts and states are making significant gains in boosting high school graduation rates and putting more students on a path to college and a successful career. This progress is often the result of having better data, an understanding of why and where students drop out, a heightened awareness of the consequences to individuals and the economy, a greater understanding of effective reforms and interventions, and real-world examples of progress and collaboration. These factors have contributed to a wider understanding that the dropout crisis is solvable.While progress is encouraging, a deeper look at the data reveals that gains in graduation rates and declines in dropout factory high schools occurred unevenly across states and subgroups of students (e.g. economically disadvantaged, African American, Hispanic, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency). As a result, large "graduation gaps" remain in many states among students of different races, ethnicities, family incomes, disabilities and limited English proficiencies. To repeat the growth in graduation rates in the next ten years experienced in the second half of the last decade, and to ensure progress for all students, the nation must turn its attention to closing the graduation gap by accelerating progress for student subgroups most affected by the dropout crisis.This report outlines the progress made and the challenges that remain. Part 1: The Data analyzes the latest graduation rates and "dropout factory" trends at the state and national levels. Part 2: Progress and Challenge provides an update on the nation's shared efforts to implement the Civic Marshall Plan to reach the goal of at least a 90 percent high school graduation rate for the Class of 2020 and all classes that follow. Part 3: Paths Forward offers recommendations on how to accelerate our work and achieve our goals, with all students prepared for college and career. The report also offers "snapshots" within schools, communities, and organizations from Orlando to Oakland that are making substantial gains in boosting high school graduation rates

Why We Fight: How Public Schools Cause Social Conflict

It is all too often assumed that public education as we typically think of it today -- schooling provided and controlled by government -- constitutes the "foundation of American democracy." Such schooling, it is argued, has taken people of immensely varied ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds and molded them into Americans who are both unified and free. Public schooling, it is assumed, has been the gentle flame beneath the great American melting pot. Unfortunately, the reality is very different from those idealized assumptions. Indeed, rather than bringing people together, public schooling often forces people of disparate backgrounds and beliefs into political combat. This paper tracks almost 150 such incidents in the 2005-06 school year alone. Whether over the teaching of evolution, the content of library books, religious expression in the schools, or several other common points of contention, conflict was constant in American public education last year. Such conflict, however, is not peculiar to the last school year, nor is it a recent phenomenon. Throughout American history, public schooling has produced political disputes, animosity, and sometimes even bloodshed between diverse people. Such clashes are inevitable in government-run schooling because all Americans are required to support the public schools, but only those with the most political power control them. Political -- and sometimes even physical -- conflict has thus been an inescapable public schooling reality. To end the fighting caused by state-run schooling, we should transform our system from one in which government establishes and controls schools, to one in which individual parents are empowered to select schools that share their moral values and educational goals for their children