YEF Institute Case Studies

This case study report highlights an emerging city strategy for ensuring that more young children are poised for educational success: the alignment of early care and education programs with K-12 education systems. The report identifies five cities that are on the leading edge of efforts to create a seamless educational pipeline for children ages 0-8.  Innovative alignment strategies in Boston, Hartford, San Antonio, San José and Seattle aim to ensure that more children are succeeding in school and reading at grade level by the end of third grade. 

This report draws upon lessons learned from a YEF Institute project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in which five cities - Corpus Christi, Texas; Hartford, Conn.; Phoenix, Ariz., San Antonio, Texas; and San Jose, Calif. - increased the choices available to students who struggle in traditional high school settings or are at risk for dropping out.

Published by the YEF Institute and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this report features the experiences of six communities where city and school district leaders partnered in the development of community-wide wellness plans.

This report highlights local poverty reduction strategies from 13 cities across the nation. The survey responses compiled in the report demonstrate how municipal leaders are well-positioned to lead citywide initiatives to reduce poverty.

Published with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this report outlines seven key policy conditions that facilitate the expansion of alternatives and options for dropouts and other students who struggle in traditional high school settings. 

This report highlights lessons for promoting early childhood success from six cities that participated in NLC's Cities Supporting Parents of Young Children project.

This case study report highlights eight cities - Albany, N.Y., Baltimore, Boston, Corpus Christi, Texas, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose - in which municipal leaders are collaborating across public systems on behalf of disconnected youth. 

This report, developed through a project funded by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) and conducted in partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, highlights mayor-law enforcement partnerships to keep young people safe in 17 cities and towns.

This report describes lessons learned during NLC's 2002-04 Transitional Jobs technical assistance project, in which nine cities designed transitional jobs programs to help residents overcome significant barriers to work.

This report, published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University in cooperation with the YEF Institute, highlights five cities where mayors have engaged the public and built civic capacity around education reform, using the leverage of their offices in strategic ways.

This American Youth Policy Forum report provides background on the high school dropout problem and describes what 12 communities are doing to reconnect dropouts to education and employment training. 

This report highlights strategies and insights from the eight cities that participated in the YEF Institute's Municipal Leadership for Expanding Learning Opportunities technical assistance project.

The first in the YEF Institute's series of reports outlining "lessons learned" from technical assistance initiatives, this report highlights strategies from the six cities that participated in the Municipal Leadership in Education (MLE) project.