6 27 17 JCBE Work Session Audio

On August 9, 2016, the Board approved a letter of commitment to participate in the Say Yes to Education initiative. The Board reaffirmed its support with a letter approved on February 22, 2017.

Say Yes to Education’s strategy provides tuition scholarships for postsecondary education to high school graduates in a city, with the goal of creating a college-going culture. Tuition scholarships become a powerful incentive for K-12 students, families, and community to work to ensure that every student graduates high school prepared for college and career.

To get students ready for college, the Say Yes to Education strategy provides comprehensive wrap-around services to address the significant barriers to learning that many of our student's face.  The specific initiatives within Say Yes to Education are locally developed through a collaborative governance structure and are paid for using a reallocation of existing local resources from public and private sources. Specific goals are established against measures of identified milestones along the P-12 continuum, and robust data collection and analysis forms the basis for decision making.

The Say Yes model calls for full-tuition, last-dollar postsecondary scholarships for all public school graduates, to be paid for from an endowed scholarship fund using locally-raised money. Due to local circumstances (lower percentage of Pell-eligible graduates, higher public postsecondary in-state tuition, and lower state student financial aid), it is beyond Louisville’s capacity to raise enough money to cover the cost of full-tuition scholarships for all JCPS graduates. So, Louisville was not selected as a Say Yes City.

Despite that setback,  key community partners, including JCPS, Louisville Metro, Metro United Way, 55,000 Degrees, KentuckianaWorks, the Louisville Urban League, Centerstone, GLI, and others, convening as the Cradle to Career Cabinet, determined that Louisville should work to develop and implement a modified plan, the Louisville Cradle to Career Strategy, based on the Say Yes model, taking into account local realities.

Under the modified plan, the Cradle to Career Cabinet will guide the effort, and 55,000 Degrees will act as Project Manager during the initial phases (approximately 12 months). The expectation is that the management function will be transferred to a different entity after start-up.

The Cradle to Career Cabinet and 55,000 Degrees will receive significant support and technical assistance from Say Yes to Education. The specific components of the support and assistance are set forth in a Collaboration Agreement between the Weiss Institute (a partnership between Say Yes and America’s Promise Alliance to expand the capacity of communities to make it possible for all young people to earn a college degree or other postsecondary credential), and Community Foundation of Louisville. The $1.3 million cost for the technical support through will be paid through privately-raised funds.

The long-term objectives of the plan are for the community to work collaboratively to:       

1.      Galvanize the entire community around the goal of postsecondary completion for all students.
2.      Prepare and support students to be able to attain, afford, and complete a postsecondary education.
3.      Leverage and integrate resources across sectors to serve the needs of students and families.
4.      Develop viable incentives at scale to drive student educational attainment, which will drive the economy and a robust work force and community.
5.      Develop tools that address and reduce the barriers for students of color and students in poverty to achieve a sound education.
6.      Increase equity by reducing racial and poverty gaps in educational outcomes.

This Work Session will provide the Board with a status report regarding the modified plan, and provide Board Members the opportunity to ask questions. A Memorandum of Understanding regarding Louisville Cradle to Career Strategy will be brought forward for consideration at the July 25, 2017, Board meeting.

Submitted by: Jonathan Lowe on behalf of Superintendent Hargens

• 6 27 17 Meeting Notice
• C2C Say Yes- Weiss Presentation 06-27-2017 v2
• C2C - Say Yes- Weiss Background Information 06-27-2017 v2
• Weiss Institute FAQ 4.17.17
• Weiss Institute One-Pager 4.17.17