Ready News: August 22, 2019

Local and State Children’s Cabinet Network Convene for Peer Learning
Recently, the Local Children’s Cabinet Network (LCCN) hosted its inaugural summit at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Nearly 100 participants from 27 communities around the country gathered for two days of collaborative peer learning.  The hands-on summit guided leaders through the new Children’s Cabinet Toolkit and sparked frank dialogue and problem-solving around shared challenges and opportunities.

Jointly founded by the Forum for Youth Investment, Harvard’s Education Redesign Lab and the Children’s Funding Project, the LCCN is a growing network of city, county, and community leaders from the U.S. and Canada who are establishing and strengthening children’s cabinets to improve outcomes for children and youth so that they can thrive as adults. The network supports leaders in developing common goals, sharing and analyzing data, aligning stakeholders, and addressing gaps in resources to improve policy and practice, ultimately serving children and youth more effectively.

Communities interested in joining the network are invited to complete our short contact form or email LocalCCN@gmail.com.

Additionally, the Forum joined the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Children’s Funding Project in the Fostering Cross-Sector Collaboration for Children’s Health and Success convening in Annapolis, Maryland. This convening brought together states that have recently launched or reinvigorated a children’s cabinet or coordinating body to engage in peer-to-peer dialogue and sharing, as well as to learn from leading experts and established members of the State Children’s Cabinet Network.

Ready by 21 National Meeting Plenary Videos
The Forum for Youth Investment’s Ready by 21 National Meeting brings together more than 600 local, state, and national leaders who are committed to improving partnerships, policies, and practices for children and youth. These leaders manage change at all levels – from state policy coordination and community-wide cradle-to-career efforts to out-of-school time systems, single-issue coalitions, and neighborhood-based initiatives. They come from business, nonprofits, education, policy, philanthropy, and intermediaries at the national, state, and local levels.

We’re on the cusp of releasing the date and location for the 2020 National Meeting, so please stay tuned in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we are excited to share the plenary session videos from the 2019 convening in Seattle, Washington, featuring leaders in the youth-serving field such as Karen Pittman with the Forum, Hal Smith with the National Urban League, Valerie Kinloch with the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, Camille Farrington with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, and many others.

Watch the videos.

Investing for Student Success: Lessons from State School Finance Reforms
Public schools in the United States are among the most inequitably funded of any in the industrialized world-a concern because research shows that money, invested well, can improve student outcomes in school and in life. A Learning Policy Institute report, “Investing for Student Success: Lessons from State School Finance Reforms,” by Linda Darling-Hammond examines recent research on the outcomes of school funding reforms nationally and in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina, states that implemented strategies that substantially improved learning opportunities.

ESSA Evidence Standards Matter: Find Out Why
A new blog by Every Hour Counts sheds light on key findings from The Wallace Foundation’s commissioned report, “Afterschool Programs: A Review of Evidence Under the Every Students Succeeds Act,” and highlights evidence of afterschool programs’ effects on student outcomes, the importance of using evidence and meeting student needs, and advocacy’s role in sustaining after-school.

Read the blog.

Implementing a Whole Child Approach: A Thought Leader Conversation with Jonathan Raymond
How can schools, communities and families work together to support the whole child?

The Forum’s Karen Pittman recently interviewed Jonathan Raymond, the former superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, and author of “Wildflowers: A Superintendent’s Challenge to America,” to look at the practical questions of:

  • How do we actually put children and youth at the center?
  • How do we strengthen adult capacity and commitment from the classroom to the citywide initiative?
  • ]How do we address the power imbalances that keep us tethered to old definitions of learning?
  • What can superintendents really do?

Watch the recording and read Jonathan Raymond’s thoughtful responses to questions that were posed during the session.