CBO Schools: Strengthening the Education-Youth Development Links

About this grant

Since 1999, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) has been working to document and promote discussion on the trend of diploma-granting schools operated by community-based organizations (CBOs) being responsible for educating at-risk and out-of-school youth. With the number of CBO schools increasing, the introduction and impact of No Child Left Behind legislation could reduce the ability of these schools to create options for out-of-school youth. There is a critical need to strengthen schools serving vulnerable and marginalized youth.Multiyear funding will enable AED to work with a variety of alternative and CBO schools to identify how their expanded assessment processes can be used to measure student achievement. Activities will include convening leaders from CBO schools to identify assessment-related issues; surveying schools about their assessment efforts related to No Child Left Behind mandates; preparing case studies on how CBO schools, school districts and state education agencies are integrating alternative assessment methods with state reporting requirements; producing and disseminating a series of audience-specific issues briefs; and creating an online community of organizations using alternative assessments to serve as a learning exchange and forum for information sharing.