139,592 research outputs found

    Hard Lessons about Philanthropy & Community Change from the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative

    Get PDF
    Between 1996 and 2006, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation invested over $20 million in the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative (NII), an ambitious effort to help three neighborhoods in the Bay Area reduce poverty and develop new leaders, better services, more capable organizations, and stronger connections to resources. On some counts NII succeeded, and on others it struggled mightily. In the end, despite some important accomplishments, NII did not fulfill its participants' hopes and expectations for broad, deep, and sustainable community change. In those accomplishments and shortcomings, and in the strategies that produced them, however, lies a story whose relevance exceeds the boundaries of a single initiative. Our goal is to examine this story in the context of other foundation sponsored initiatives to see if it can help philanthropy support community change and other types of long-term, community-based initiatives more effectively.As we began to review materials and conduct interviews, we learned of NII's accomplishments in each neighborhood, including new organizations incubated, new services stimulated, and new leaders helped to emerge. We also quickly discovered multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives on NII's design, implementation, and outcomes that were hard to reconcile. Some of this Rashomon effect is to be expected in a complex, long-term community change initiative that evolves over time with changing players. Some can also be attributed to the different dynamics and trajectories in each of the three sites.We have tried to describe all points of view as accurately as possible without favoring any one perspective. Moreover, we have tried to look beyond the lessons drawn exclusively from NII and to position all of these varied opinions within a broader field-wide perspective, wherever possible.The frustrations of NII's participants and sponsors are mirrored in many other foundations' major initiatives. Indeed, our reviewers -- who have been involved in many such initiatives as funders, evaluators, technical assistance providers, and intermediaries -- all underscored how familiar they were with the challenges and pitfalls described here, both those related specifically to community change efforts and those pertinent to other initiatives. Because the opportunity to discuss the frustrations candidly has been limited, however, they often are relegated to concerns expressed sotto voce. So it was particularly important throughout the review to solicit from our interviewees ideas or suggestions for improving their work together. We offer these along with our own observations as a way to stimulate further reflection and debate, because we believe that philanthropy has an important role to play in improving outcomes for poor communities and their residents. Few foundations have been willing to contribute to this level of honest and sometimes painful public dialogue. But by commissioning this retrospective analysis, the Hewlett Foundation demonstrates a desire to help the field learn and move forward, and we applaud that

    Leadership for Learning Improvement in Urban Schools

    Get PDF
    Examines urban school leaders' efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning by supporting progress for diverse students, sharing leadership work, and aligning resources. Analyzes school environments and coordination of various leadership roles

    EXPLORING HOW INSTRUCTIONAL COACHING INFLUENCED TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF ASSESSMENT, DATA USE, AND LITERACY PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY OF AN URBAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

    Get PDF
    Low-income urban schools that have chronic student underachievement have championed instructional coaching as an effective education reform strategy. Studies have shown that instructional coaching can be a promising approach for teacher professional development aimed at building educators’ capacity to use student data to inform literacy instruction and increase student performance on standardized reading assessments (Bertrand & Marsh, 2015; Huguet, Marsh, & Farrell, 2015; Marsh, McCombs, & Martorell, 2010). The purpose of this qualitative case study was to better understand how teachers in a low-performing urban elementary school serving mostly minority students perceived student assessment, data use, and literacy instruction after participating in an externally funded professional development initiative. Of particular interest was exploring how instructional coaching and a professional learning community (PLC) led by an external literacy consultant influenced teachers’ perceptions of collaborative data use and literacy practices implemented in the school. The findings from this study suggest that during the three-year coaching project, teachers perceived an increased focus on using benchmark and progress monitoring assessments to measure student performance and progress with developing reading skills. Additionally, teachers experienced mounting pressure from school leadership to use data to improve student learning outcomes and to conform to a preferred approach to literacy instruction. Although there was increased teacher dialogue about student literacy data within the PLC, data conversations mainly focused on low-performing students who did not meet reading benchmarks, which resulted in assigning students to reading groups for targeted interventions. Data analysis revealed that teachers perceived student progress toward meeting mid-year and end-of-year literacy goals as being an outcome of the instructional coaching they received and the small-group literacy instruction they implemented in their classrooms.Doctor of Educatio

    United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Kenya

    Get PDF
    The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2014-2018) for Kenya is an expression of the UN's commitment to support the Kenyan people in their self-articulated development aspirations. This UNDAF has been developed according to the principles of UN Delivering as One (DaO), aimed at ensuring Government ownership, demonstrated through UNDAF's full alignment to Government priorities and planning cycles, as well as internal coherence among UN agencies and programmes operating in Kenya. The UNDAF narrative includes five recommended sections: Introduction and Country Context, UNDAF Results, Resource Estimates, Implementation Arrangements, and Monitoring and Evaluation as well as a Results and Resources Annex. Developed under the leadership of the Government, the UNDAF reflects the efforts of all UN agencies working in Kenya and is shaped by the five UNDG programming principles: Human Rights-based approach, gender equality, environmental sustainability, capacity development, and results based management. The UNDAF working groups have developed a truly broad-based Results Framework, in collaboration with Civil Society, donors and other partners. The UNDAF has four Strategic Results Areas: 1) Transformational Governance encompassing Policy and Institutional Frameworks; Democratic Participation and Human Rights; Devolution and Accountability; and Evidence-based Decision-making, 2) Human Capital Development comprised of Education and Learning; Health, including Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Environmental Preservation, Food Availability and Nutrition; Multi-sectoral HIV and AIDS Response; and Social Protection, 3) Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, with Improving the Business Environment; Strengthening Productive Sectors and Trade; and Promoting Job Creation, Skills Development and Improved Working Conditions, and 4) Environmental Sustainability, Land Management and Human Security including Policy and Legal Framework Development; and Peace, Community Security and Resilience. The UNDAF Results Areas are aligned with the three Pillars (Political, Social and Economic) of the Government's Vision 2030 transformational agenda

    Evolution of a Mission-Driven Youth Development Agency: Making a Difference

    Get PDF
    This report describes the evolution of a mission-driven youth development agency, Good Shepherd Services of New York City. In the more than six decades that good Shepherd Services (GSS) has served New York's neediest children and youth, it has evolved from a small provider of residential care for adolescent girls to a large, comprehensive, multi-faceted youth development, education, and family services agency. Incorporated in 1947, GSS's work on behalf of New York's most vulnerable is underscored by its original mission and core values, which are driven by the belief that despite the challenges people face, if gevn the right set of supports and opportunities, they have the ability to change and grow over time. This unique strategy and commitment to building on people's strengths rather than focusing on their deficits has shaped GSS' growth and service model of strength-based youth development

    Setting the Stage for Community Change: Reflecting on Creative Placemaking Outcomes

    Get PDF
    As interest in measuring and understanding the impact of arts investments in community development continues to grow, this new study, Setting the Stage for Community Change: Reflecting on Creative Placemaking Outcomes, commissioned by the Levitt Foundation and led by Slover Linett Audience Research, examines how "creative placemaking" interventions build social capital in communities, using permanent outdoor Levitt music venues as case studies. This research offers insights into arts-based strategies to promote social connectivity, a central goal of many creative placemaking efforts, and is a working illustration of what can and can't be learned from different impact measurement approaches

    The Veterans Health Administration: Taking Home Telehealth Services to Scale Nationally

    Get PDF
    Since the 1990s, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has used information and communications technologies to provide high-quality, coordinated, and comprehensive primary and specialist care services to its veteran population. Within the VHA, the Office of Telehealth Services offers veterans a program called Care Coordination/Home Telehealth (CCHT) to provide routine noninstitutional care and targeted care management and case management services to veterans with diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other conditions. The program uses remote monitoring devices in veterans' homes to communicate health status and to capture and transmit biometric data that are monitored remotely by care coordinators. CCHT has shown promising results: fewer bed days of care, reduced hospital admissions, and high rates of patient satisfaction. This issue brief highlights factors critical to the VHA's success -- like the organization's leadership, culture, and existing information technology infrastructure -- as well as opportunities and challenges

    How Leaders Invest Staffing Resources for Learning Improvement

    Get PDF
    Analyzes staffing challenges that guide school leaders' resource decisions in the context of a learning improvement agenda, staff resource investment strategies that improve learning outcomes equitably, and ways to win support for differential investment

    Priorities and Public Safety: Reentry and the Rising Costs of our Corrections System

    Get PDF
    Examines trends in the state's corrections budgets, prison population, and recidivism and the impact of the economic crisis on corrections policies nationwide. Argues for more cost-efficient evidence-based policies, with examples from other states
    corecore