All-in Nation: An America that Works for All

The Center for American Progress and PolicyLink have collaborated to write “All-In Nation: An America That Works for All.” Making the case that strong communities of color - and other communities that have been left behind - are critical to America’s economic future, the book includes a series of essays that lay the groundwork for federal policies that can create an equitable economy where everyone has the opportunity to participate and thrive.

As the book illustrates, communities of color have continued to face substantial barriers and inequities when it comes to economic security, educational attainment, health and other critical outcomes. In the midst of our nation’s economic recession, black family wealth fell 31 percent between 2007 and 2010, with Hispanic family wealth falling by 44 percent. Yet, white family wealth fell by only 11 percent within the same period. The impact of our struggling economic climate has continued to intensify the disparities that have long existed in communities of color.

Highlighting the economic imperative of ensuring success in communities of color, “All-In Nation” uses economic indicators to demonstrate the how racial disparities perpetuate inequality. According to the book, if racial and ethnic disparities were eliminated, the average total personal income in 2011 would have been 8.1 percent higher and 13 million people would have been lifted out of poverty. As demographics shift across the nation – the book estimates that communities of color will be 53 percent of the population by 2050 - our policies must reflect the need to ensure that these communities have access to the tools, resources and skills needed to succeed.

“All-In Nation” explores a policy agenda that includes infrastructure, jobs, health care, education and workforce development, immigration, criminal justice and democratic participation – issues that many communities across the nation are working hard to tackle. For example, many low-income communities have limited access to healthy, affordable food options. However, the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative has spurred access to loans and funding for local grocery stores in an effort to increase access and, as a result, healthy food options. Milwaukee’s Fondy Farmers Market, for example, supports more than 36,000 shoppers and brings in nearly $500,000 in annual sales. Similarly, without access to reliable transportation, residents in low-income communities are often disconnected from jobs, as well as access to health care, education and other essential services. However, as the book suggestions, ensuring that transportation funds are invested in projects that increase mobility in marginalized communities can increase jobs and improve the well-being of children and families.

Want to learn more about “All-In Nation” and the policy agenda it explores? Click here.

Want to learn more about policy strategies that can improve outcomes for communities? Check out the PolicyforResults.org.

Recommendations for Successful District Summer Learning Programs

While summer is nearing its end, and kids across the country are heading back to school, it is not too early to start thinking about how your school district can plan a successful summer learning program. Earlier this month, the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit focused on public policy research and analysis, released a research brief entitled "How to Get the Most out of a Summer Learning Program" that presents a set of recommendations for making school district summer learning programs as effective as possible.

Research has shown that, over the course of the summer, students often lose some of the skills and knowledge they gained during the previous academic year. While this phenomenon, termed “summer learning loss”, affects most students, it can be particularly harmful for low-income students. Combined with the other challenges, such as a lack of positive activities, many children in low-income neighborhoods face during the summer, the presence of summer learning loss has led some school districts to look at how summer learning programs can reduce, if not reverse, summer learning loss.

The research brief draws on findings from a recently published RAND report entitled “Getting to Work on Summer Learning: Recommended Practices for Success."  That report is the second in a five-part series that is exploring best practices in summer learning programs by sharing the results of a demonstration project taking place in five large urban school districts: Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Duval County (Florida), Pittsburgh, and Rochester (New York).

Based on hundreds of surveys, interviews, and hours of direct observation of summer learning programs, the RAND researchers made several recommendations for school districts and organizations working to implement a summer learning program in areas such as planning, staff selection and training, and the tracking of program costs. Selected recommendations include:

• Commit to having a summer program by January.
• Establish firm enrollment deadlines and keep electronic student records.
• Develop a rigorous selection processes to recruit motivated teachers.
• Keep in mind that it is not necessary to disguise academics to boost attendance.
• Anchor the program in a commercially available and evidence-based curriculum.
• Operate the program for five to six weeks. 
• Schedule three to four hours a day for academics and focus on academic content during those hours.
• Put resources into tracking and boosting attendance.

While the researchers caution that these are not "proven practices" - the academic performance of the students in the programs they are studying through the demonstration project is currently being evaluated - they are evidence-based and provide the best guidance on summer learning programs that is available at this time.

For more information on this summer learning program research, please visit RAND’s website to view the research brief or the full report.

Leading for Results

Individual and organizational leadership is a key capacity in community change work. As described by the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, “it’s one of the ingredients that help innovate, guide, govern, track and maintain the efforts that will bring about substantive and lasting change.”

What capacities do leaders themselves need to improve results for children and families? The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently published a report on lessons learned from its twenty years of work on leadership development, “helping people develop the skills, the behaviors and the relationships they need to lead organizations and public systems toward lasting improvements in child and family well-being.”

Leading for Results: Developing Talent to Drive Change identifies five core competencies of results-based leadership:

• Be results based and data driven, establishing clear goals and using data to assess progress and change course as needed.

• Use the self as an instrument of change to move a result, based on the belief that individual leaders are capable of leading from whatever position they hold.

• Bring attention to and act on disparities, recognizing that race, class and culture impact outcomes and opportunities for vulnerable children.

• Master the skills of “adaptive leadership,” which makes leaders aware of the impact of values, habits, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors associated with taking action to improve results.

• Collaborate with others, understanding that the capacity to build consensus and make group decisions enables leaders to align their actions and move work forward to achieve results.

The final competency, which focuses on collaboration, is core to the Casey leadership development philosophy. While the individual is key in driving change, the ability to achieve results requires “bringing diverse groups together that can work across race, class and ethnicity to create equitable opportunities and improved outcomes for children and families.”

The report highlights the State of Maryland’s efforts to bring together nonprofit and public agency leaders working to improve children’s school readiness. Through the inaugural Leadership in Action program in 2001, the foundation convened 40 mid- to-high level leaders to engage in a learning process about what it would take to create a state where all children are ready for school.

At the end of the ten months, the collaborative had developed a road map for collective action that was later adopted by the state legislature and served as a beacon to keep the diverse group of partners focused on achieving results. These initial efforts informed the creation of the Maryland Early Childhood Advisory Council. Now with a Race to the Top Early Learning grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the state is developing 24 councils who are working at the local level to improve school readiness.

Much of the foundation’s leadership philosophy can be summed up by seeking “high alignment, high action.” According to this goal, an effective leader is only capable of implementing the shared strategies necessary to achieve results when he or she is also working to strengthen relationships. In other words, leadership development is most durable when it occurs within the context of collaborative decision-making.

For more information on the knowledge, skills and attitudes of collaborative leaders, see this extract from the Center for the Study of Social Policy’s Handbook for Using Community Decision-Making to Improve the Lives of Children, Youth and Families.