David NoeJournal #1
I’m spending my summer as an intern with Boston-based Jobs For The Future, a nonprofit aiming to “strengthen our society by creating educational and economic opportunity for those who need it most.” It’s an ambitious goal, to say the least, but JFF has organized itself so well that it seems (distantly) possible…
I’m also an Education Pioneer Fellow, so I’m spending a lot of time with other graduate students working for the summer in positions related to education leadership and management.
My position here is with the group that works on “Achieving The Dream.” ATD is a multi-state, multi-year effort to increase the opportunities for and success of community college students, particularly those of color and from low-income households. Especially around the Boston area, one that has so many great schools but with graduates that leave the area after school, the community college students are often the foundation of much of the area’s workforce. Community colleges have been financially neglected over the last decade, and restoring their stability will allow many of these students to actually graduate.
One of my primary goals for the summer is to see the way that a nonprofit really functions. JFF is large, well-structured, and well-financed; even though its mission is purely societal, it almost has a corporate feel to its offices, with plenty of opportunities for internal advancement and career building. While many of the employees work on one or two particular projects for a couple years at a time, they’re all very aware of the strategic goals of the organization and what each other is working on. Employees at JFF don’t seem to wear blinders…
Journal #2
I’m primarily working with a group that works on “Achieving The Dream,” a multi-state, multi-year effort to increase the opportunities for and success of community college students, particularly those of color and from low-income households. We’re working hard to prepare a policy paper on the success of individual states and their community college developmental education policies.
When students arrive at undergraduate institutions and are underprepared for credit-level coursework (based on the results of entry exams), they are often required to complete Developmental Education classes that will bring them to a necessary knowledge level. Interestingly, there’s no national policy for DE and each state controls the way it’s managed at its community colleges. We found that each state establishes their DE policies differently – either through legislation, education board policy, or simply as a budget line-item – and manages them differently too. The expansiveness of a state’s DE policy is not indicative of the apparent success of the programs either, as some states that were known for robust and successful DE programs had little “on the books,” instead managing the program with great autonomy at community colleges.
Working at Jobs For The Future has been a great opportunity to see a nonprofit organization from the inside out. The focus on policy and legislation support at JFF requires many small groups (and individuals) working on separate programs. The ATD team is normally three people, all of whom only work on ATD; since the subjects are different and often very separate, JFF has to work hard to connect all the different teams and keep them all aware of the organizational strategy and its mission. For JFF to stay strong and relevant, it must continue to manage its teams, connection them all with a common purpose.
I’m excited to continue helping the ATD team and learning more about work at places like JFF.
Journal #3
The data that I collected about Developmental Education at community colleges across the country illustrated several important issues.
During the collection process itself, I was amazed at how few state experts – often, the statewide coordinator for community college curriculum – didn’t really know the specific policy or legislation that governed their own programs. They always understood how it was practiced, and operationally, how the DE programs were begun and run, but usually couldn’t site their governing documents. In explaining our goal at JFF, most of these statewide coordinators were honest about not knowing what they should have, but eager to get into the policy and get to know their specific policies.
Another surprise was the lack of policy in some states and the differences in way DE was even managed. Michigan, for example, had no specific DE statewide policy, and only had a budget line-item that mentioned it. Each Michigan community college that offered DE had tremendous discretion on how it is run. Florida and Connecticut, however, had expansive DE policy and legislation that is carefully managed from an easily-recognized, easily-accessible central office.
While I really enjoyed helping the ATD team prepare for their policy paper, what I enjoyed most was working at such a well-structured nonprofit. While JFF has to work hard to keep everyone aware of what each group is doing – because the projects are so diverse – it is amazingly effective at keeping morale high. The leadership isn’t normally involved in the minutiae of the policy research that’s going on, but guides the program managers and directors and works hard to keep funding levels high. Everyone – even the administrative staff – believes in JFF’s workforce development mission, and is tremendously proud to work there.
