Report Highlights Innovative Education Development
NEW YORK — With support from the Citi Foundation, New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (NYU Wagner) and the Center for an Urban Future (both located in New York) released a report, titled Innovation and the City, in November that highlights 15 bold urban policies that are helping change government innovation across the globe. Two of the policies instituted in Los Angeles and Tacoma, Wash., are key examples of innovation in education development.
NYU Wagner and the Center for an Urban Future selected the 15 urban policy reforms after conducting hundreds of interviews with mayors, agency chiefs, policy experts, academics, business leaders, labor unions and philanthropic foundations. The 15 were chosen based on three criteria: whether or not the innovation had a fresh approach, whether it was exportable and could be adapted by other cities, and whether it had success at scale and had enough data to prove its value.
“Real and lasting change is happening across cities in the U.S. and around the world,” said Ed Skyler, Citi’s head of global public affairs, chairman of the Citi Foundation and a former New York City deputy mayor, in a statement. “These wide-ranging examples of innovation at the public policy level show how we can address longstanding challenges and improve the lives of residents globally.”
In Los Angeles, YouthSource Centers serves as a model for integrating workforce and educational services for youth. In a city where 17 percent of high school students drop out without a diploma, the 13 youth workforce centers assist youth in developing education plans that get them back on track for receiving a high school diploma or help finding a job. YouthSource staff members encourage youth to start by meeting with a school counselor who can retrieve school records, and then help them get into a community center that will help them create educational goals.
The Tacoma Education Project in Tacoma, Wash., brings the local school system and Tacoma Housing Authority together to leverage residential access to low-income families to help boost student success in local schools and colleges. The project is set up in McCarver Elementary School and helps support 50 homeless families with children enrolled in kindergarten through second grade at the school, which has more homeless students than any other elementary school in Washington state. The project also collaborated with Tacoma Community College to house 22 homeless students and their dependents during enrollment, which typically lasts about three years.