Education
You are in the Education section of the Casey Foundation Knowledge Center, which offers resources that are either published or funded by the Casey Foundation.
See also the Our Work: Education, an overview of the Casey Foundation's investments in this issue.
Featured Publications
Community Schools: Connecting Partners for Success in Indianapolis (DVD)
2008
This video describes how families, educators, and community members are creating community schools in Indianapolis. These schools provide a wide range of supports and services to the young people and families served by schools. (DVD length: 18:30)
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The Connection Strategy: Preparing Young People to Succeed in College and Beyond
2008
For many young people, the "pipeline" to educational and economic success is truly broken. This report describes how some of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's education grantees in Atlanta are working to mend the pipeline for young people in their communities by connecting standards and expectations for learning from early childhood to college entry or the workforce and providing needed services, supports and partnerships that add value to the work of schools. The report discusses academic content and state policy strategies, and describes Casey's work in Atlanta as one example of what schools and community organizations can do to strengthen the pipeline.
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Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades
2008
Although students must be present and engaged to learn, thousands of this country’s youngest students are academically at-risk because of extended absences when they first embark upon their school careers. Nationally, an estimated one in ten kindergarten and first grade students are chronically absent (i.e., miss nearly a month or more of school over the course of a year). This report, commissioned by Casey, raises awareness of this issue, presents data on the scope of the challenge, and shares emerging insights about how to address it. The good news is that chronic early absence can be significantly reduced when schools, communities, and families join together to monitor and promote attendance, as well as to identify and address the factors that prevent young students from attending school every day.
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2007 Charter School Facility Finance Landscape
2007
This report, supported by the Casey Foundation, provides an updated and expanded snapshot of the public and nonprofit financing programs for charter school facilities across the nation. Based on extensive research and over 150 interviews, the survey includes descriptions of financing products and geographic markets for 25 private nonprofit providers currently active in the sector and two public-private partnerships in Indianapolis and Massachusetts. The document also details public initiatives for charter school facilities at both the federal and state levels, as well as an exhaustive listing of all state-level grant, loan, and credit enhancement programs in the 41 jurisdictions with a charter law.
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Getting Organized: Unionizing Home-Based Child Care Providers
2007
The authors of this report highlight how communities benefit when workers join unions. The report focuses on three states where home-based child care providers have joined unions, and have used their political power to advocate for increased wages and improved working conditions.
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Executive Summary - Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in Early Grades
2008
This executive summary highlights the Casey-funded report from the National Center for Children on how schools and communities can work together to reduce chronic absenteeism among young school-age children.
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Closing the Achievement Gap - Exploring Quality Choices: VOUCHERS
2008
The Casey Foundation invests in creating quality educational choices that improve outcomes for kids and families. This publication provides an in-depth look at Casey’s investment in the Washington, D.C. voucher effort and a summary of results and lessons learned. Stories about the Foundation’s contribution to vouchers in Florida and Milwaukee are highlighted.
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Closing the Achievement Gap - School, Community, Family CONNECTIONS
2008
The Casey Foundation believes that strong relationships among schools, families, and communities are necessary if schools that serve low-income children are to help young people graduate ready to succeed in life. The publication includes stories about the Harlem Children’s Zone Practitioners Institute, parent organizing in Texas and Denver, one California school district’s innovative parent engagement policy, and the Foundation’s contribution to results measurements in the field.
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Closing the Achievement Gap - Getting to RESULTS
2008
The first publication in this series describes the Casey Foundation’s efforts to develop a flexible but rigorous results measurement system that enables the Foundation and its grantees to reflect on practice and then change course as necessary to achieve the desired result. It also presents the Foundation’s own progress in the area of education results measurement.
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Closing the Achievement Gap - Creating Quality Choices: DISTRICT SCHOOLS
2008
The Casey Foundation has supported a number of different efforts at district school improvement in order to learn how small investments might contribute to closing the achievement gap. This publication provides an in-depth look at the Foundation’s multi-year investment in a school district in Atlanta. It also includes stories about Casey’s contributions to district improvements in Oakland and Philadelphia.
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View the Closing the Achievement Gap Series Series >>