Congress has provided authority to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to fund off-duty voluntary education for Active and Reserve Component servicemembers. Congress and DOD have conceived of tuition assistance (TA) as a quality-of-life benefit, force-shaping tool, and a mechanism for developing human capital in the Armed Forces. The TA program,…

This article describes a university service-learning program with preservice teachers who volunteered as tutors to teach in an adult GED program. The adult participants were involved in a local drug court program, which is a branch in the criminal justice system. Project Literacy Instruction to Further Education (Project LIFE) was developed by the…

For many students, conforming to the traditional K-12 education system is not always compatible with their life circumstances. Map Academy in Plymouth, Massachusetts, now in its second year of operation, aims to provide an education that adapts to the needs and interests of its students while maintaining high expectations. This profile of Map…

Conducted in an urban alternative education program for adolescents ages 17-21, this study provides an overview of a professional development program that sought to support teachers in developing unit plans that incorporated backwards design principles and culturally relevant and sustaining instruction. The authors offer a qualitative thematic…

Adults who lack a high school diploma now have a new way to get a second chance. It's called "High School 21+," a competency-based high school diploma offered at Washington's community and technical colleges. Adults 21 years old and older can go to participating colleges to earn a high school diploma. An advisor will look at transcripts…

This article provides an overview of GED holders admitted into the Successful Transition and Retention Track (START) two-year pilot-project. An enhanced college-success course, career and mental-health counseling, and English and mathematics tutoring acclimated GED holders to college. Results suggest that postsecondary educational attainment of…

Family Rewards was an innovative approach to poverty reduction in the United States that was modelled on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs common in lower- and middle-income countries. The program offered cash assistance to poor families to reduce immediate hardship, provided they met certain criteria related to family health care,…

The goal of this research study has been to develop, implement, and evaluate a school reform design experiment at a continuation high school with low-income, low-performing underrepresented minority students. The complexity sciences served as a theoretical framework for this design experiment. Treating an innovative college preparatory program as…

This article reports on the development and implementation of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Program in a county jail system in New York State. The program is funded through the Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Act, which reserves a pocket of funds for individuals in county correctional institutions. This program integrated…

Dan Bloom of MDRC examines policies and programs designed to help high school dropouts improve their educational attainment and labor market outcomes. So called "second-chance" programs, he says, have long provided some combination of education, training, employment, counseling, and social services. But the research record on their effectiveness…

In the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District has achieved a startling success over the last two years: it has recovered and graduated over 600 dropouts and put them on a clear pathway to college. Just a few years ago, low graduation rates, struggling high schools, and poor staff and student morale…

North Queens Community High School serves approximately 200 students, 16-20 years old, as they strive to reach their personal and academic goals. All students at North Queens have previously been enrolled in high school elsewhere and are over-age and undercredited. Small class sizes, student-centered support, and an accelerated credit acquisition…

This brief describes the Academic Pathways to Access and Student Success (APASS) project, a research initiative that identifies and disseminates information about existing and emerging academic pathways that extend from high school to college. Drawing upon the results of a 50-state survey, an extensive review of literature and consultation with…