A selective look from the CFK Weekly at some of the latest news and research on issues important to children.

Updated July 31

Getting On, Staying On, and Getting Off Welfare: The Complexity of State-by-State Policy Choices
How does welfare work? The answer often depends on the state — states vary, for example, in the amount of hours participating parents must work, what counts as “work,” rules about emergency cash assistance, and other areas. And the recent legislation reauthorizing welfare and setting stricter work requirements is likely to have diverse effects in different states. This very readable new Urban Institute brief summarizes state programs and their differences.

Work-Plus: Boosting the Bottom Line for Low-Wage Working Parents
The 1996 welfare reform bill was designed to move public assistance participants from welfare to work, often quickly and without adequate supports to help families truly rise out of poverty. This policy brief from the National Assembly’s Family Strengthening Policy Center looks at “work-plus” strategies (as apposed to work-first approaches) that offer work supports like child care assistance, transportation help, tax assistance, etc. in addition to employment services. The brief includes recommendations for policymakers, businesses, and community organizations.

Finding Resources to Support Workforce Development Services for Youth
Workforce programs targeting youth (often after-school programs or vocational alternatives to education) can help the more than 5 million young people who are out of work and school get job skills, preparation for college and vocational training, and other critical supports. This report, originally published in April and now online, looks at challenges for youth workforce programs, and offers best practices and ideas for innovation. It also highlights four funding strategies.

“Just for the Kids” Best Practice Studies and Institutes: High-Performing Schools
What makes a school work well? Turns out, the top-performing schools in 20 participating states share similar characteristics including rigorous curriculums, higher expectations for all students, collaboration between administrators and teachers in developing and support curriculum, “break out” (differentiated) instruction for individual learners within a classroom, and a strong focus on writing and journaling. In addition, successful schools monitor progress and use the data to tweak their programs. This series of reports from National Center for Educational Accountability document a three-year study of nearly 200 high-performing schools in 20 states.