Only in Miami

It may be hot hot hot here (and everywhere else), but cooler heads are certainly prevailing at the 2011 ATD-DEI Summer State Policy meeting. Led by Jobs for the Future, representatives from ATD & DEI states have gathered for a day and half of learning, a little commiseration (it IS a lousy economy), and a lot of thoughtful planning for the year to come. The discussions are organized according to the DEI State Policy Framework, so we're diving into data-driven improvement, investment in innovation, and policy supports.

Yesterday began with state-to-state sharing; teams covered current budget situations (context is important), and then reported on recent legislative action, the most important progress on developmental education and college completion policy; the groups also discussed where they were headed and what they hoped to achieve in 2012. While there were many familiar frustrations regarding budget constraints, states reported movement on policy priorities and picked up some good ideas from their colleagues about other ways to approach the work.

The remainder of the day was chock full of working sessions on performance funding, ABE and dev ed alignment (see Bruce Vandal's take on the session here), and closer looks at how some states are identifying and responding to policy barriers and state mandates. Sara Goldrick-Rab presented some thought-provoking research on cost-effectiveness studies and Shanna Smith Jaggers assessed the evidence of recent dev ed research. We also got updates on the developmental ed redesigns in Virginia and North Carolina, learned more about new centers for student success in Michigan and Arkansas  and delved a little deeper into MDRC's recent dev ed research literature review. Scott Jaschik from Inside Higher Ed was also here, with some frank advice on how to tell the community college story.

Today is all about connecting the ATD-DEI work with other national completion initiatives, like Complete to Compete, Accelerating Opportunity, Getting Past Go, and Complete College America. We'll be digging into data, too, considering how to organize and present information to make clear, compelling arguments for all sorts of constituents. And that's all before lunch!

Check back in the next week or two for additional recap. Jobs for the Future packs a meeting with too much good info for one blog post!


Abby Parcell is a Program Manager at MDC.