This report, a follow-up to CEP's 2008 report on school restructuring in Ohio, examines the implementation and effects of differentiated accountability and related policies in Ohio. We looked at a range of questions. How is the differentiated accountability pilot affecting districts with large numbers of schools in restructuring? How successfully is the new system differentiating support and interventions for schools and districts in which only a few subgroups of students missed AYP targets from those in which students across the board missed the targets? What local approaches are districts taking to improve restructuring schools? To collect data for this report, we conducted interviews in the fall and winter of 2008-09 with two officials in the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). We also interviewed more than 20 local administrators, teachers, and other district and school staff in four school districts--Cincinnati Public Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Mansfield City Schools, and Mount Vernon City Schools--and in eight schools within these districts. In addition, we reviewed restructuring-related documents and analyzed test data at the state and local levels.

Some of the elements of RAISE-UP include:

• Community parternships would receive federal funds to integrate existing, often disparate, services, into an intentional dropout recovery system at the local level. Grants would be given to the partnerships, who would then subgrant out funds to provide services that focus on education, job training, and wraparound support services.
•  RAISE-UP would serve young people in disadvantaged situations that left secondary school without receiving a high school diploma. This also includes runaway and homeless youth, youth in foster care and those aging out of care, and young people with disabilities.
• RAISE-UP  gives priority to applications from eligible entities proposing to serve areas with disproportionately high numbers of young people who have left secondary school without obtaining a diploma, and applications that serve areas with high concentrations of young people from low-income families.
• RAISE-UP is authorized at $1 billion for FY10, and "such sums as may be necessary" for FY11-FY14. Of amounts appropriated, a total of no more than 10% can be used for evaluation, technical assistance, and dissemination of best practices.

To inform policy and practice, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the U.S. Department of Education sponsored a study that examined six purposively selected dropout recovery programs. The purpose of the study was to explore how programs seek to engage and teach participants, to identify implementation challenges programs face, to understand how they seek to overcome these challenges, and to explore implications for policymakers, program practitioners, and researchers. The six programs selected for the study include three that prepare participants for a GED, two that prepare them for a high school diploma, and one that provides both GED and high school diploma options. All of these programs also offer participants some preparation for postsecondary education, training, or assistance finding jobs. Drawing on site visit interviews as well as outcome data, this report presents findings on five topics: (1) program goals and partners, (2) admissions and attendance policies, (3) instructional approaches and academic outcomes, (4) methods used to address participantsâ?? personal issues, and (5) strategies to prepare participants for postsecondary education and jobs. The report concludes with some observations about issues facing policymakers and practitioners, and with questions for future studies.
Authors: R. Buschmann, J. Haimson, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Prepared for the U.S. Dept. of Education Office of Vocational & Adult Education

The Depression in the Nation's Teen Labor Market and the 2009 Summer Job Outlook: The Case for A Massive New Youth Workforce Development Response in All Job Sectors,

The nation's teens (16-19) and young adults (20-29 years old) have borne the brunt of the employment losses in the current recession, and teens and many young adults (20-24) fared quite poorly in the labor market from 2001-2008 An unprecedented "age twist" in employment rates took place in the nation over the past 8 years with older workers (55+) improving their employment rates strongly while teens and 20-24 year old males reached new post-World War II lows.3 The substantial growth in the labor market problems of the nation's teens over the past nine years can be characterized as a "labor market depression" rather than simply as a recession. This research paper is designed to briefly illustrate the steep declines in teen employment rates over the 2000-2009 period, to highlight the severe deterioration in the summer job market for teens between 2000-2008, to project the employment outlook for teens this summer, including the potential impacts of the ARRA youth jobs stimulus program, and to lay out alternative employment scenarios for the nation's teens in the years ahead, the job creation that will be needed to achieve these alternative teen labor market outcomes, and the types of public policies that will be required to make these youth employment outcomes possible.

Andrew Sum, Joseph McLaughlin, Sheila Palma, Ishwar Khatiwada, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts - June 2009