About three-fourths of the states have already adopted the Common Core State Standards, which were designed to provide more clarity about and consistency in what is expected of student learning across the country. However, given the brief time since the standards' final release in June, questions persist among educators, who will have the…

In order to assess how completely a Small Learning Community (SLC) and/or Career Academy is implemented in any given site, and to connect the degree of implementation with the amount of improvement in student performance, two kinds of information are needed. The first is information on the quality of implementation, which can be collected by…

This document is a practical manual to assist community-based organizations and coalitions in using voluntary industry skill standards in programs preparing people for success in the workplace and further education. The following are among the topics covered in the manual's six sections: (1) developing and maintaining systems (things partners can…

This document chronicles the experience of the National Training Institute (NTI) for Community Youth Work and four of its Building Exemplary Systems for Training Youth Workers (BEST) affiliates in establishing youth development practitioner apprenticeship (YDPA) programs. Part 1 describes the work of NTI and BEST intermediary organizations to lay…