December 15, 2023 / Basic Needs, Early Childhood, Education, Equity

There are 79 neighborhoods throughout Greater Atlanta with low and declining child well-beingImage

A few months ago, United Way of Greater Atlanta published the 2023 update of their Child Well-being Index. This data serves as a diagnostic tool to tell where each neighborhood is progressing toward saying that “all the children are well” and to guide how United Way directs its resources to most effectively improve child well-being and transform lives for the better.

Here are some key insights from this year’s update:

  • There are 79 neighborhoods throughout Greater Atlanta with low and declining child well-being.
  • Nearly 500,000 of Greater Atlanta’s 1.2 million children and youth live in high-need areas.
  • Data also shows that low child well-being scores disproportionately impact BIPOC populations.
  • Nearly 14,000 youth are not connected to school or work.
  • The overall regional score remained stable compared to 2018 – largely due to public and private funding and resources to offset damage from the pandemic. However, it is important to mention that since the data for the 2023 index scores was collected, these programs have largely ended.

Read the full report here.

September 22, 2023 / Education, Food, Hispanic

Hispanic families in Gwinnett county are struggling to pay for school mealsImage

Meal debt accumulates when children get food at school, but their families don’t have money in their accounts to pay.

Even though Georgia approved a $6.3 million grant to ensure children in families who qualify for reduced meals get them for free, many don’t meet that threshold but still struggle financially.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calculated that, as of June 2023, in the top 10 Gwinnett elementary schools with the most meal debt per student, 50.1% of students were Hispanic.

Note: this doesn’t include Title I schools. In Gwinnett, Title I schools provide free breakfast to all students.

Read the full story here.

April 27, 2023 / Education

Burnout is the main reason why just over half of Georgia teachers are unlikely to stay in educationImage

During their 8th Grade Math Network meeting earlier this month, Learn4Life presented insights from the 2022 Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) legislative survey. Nearly 4,600 educators participated in the survey, demonstrating the value of educators’ input in critical educational decisions at the state and local levels. Some of the key findings include:

  • Approximately 31%of all responding educators report that they are unlikely to remain in education for another five years.
  • More than 56% of educators with 20 years or less experience identified burnout as the first or second reason they are unlikely to stay in education.
  • About 93% of participating teachers report their school districts have difficulty recruiting substitutes.
  • Over 90% of school and central office administrators indicate their districts are facing a shortage of bus drivers.
  • Nearly 75% of teachers who graduated from college in 2005 or later carry student loan debt.

Despite these challenges, educators are drawn to and stay in education because of the professional satisfaction from helping students, employment benefits, and supportive colleagues and a positive work environment.

April 26, 2023 / Early Childhood, Education, Health, Mental Health

Estimating ACEs risk and protective factors statewideImage

Emory University’s recently launched Georgia Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action (PACE: D2A) webpage allows for exploring data related to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), student achievement, risk and protective behaviors, and much more.

Users can explore dozens of indicators in multiple layers using the friendly mapping interface and displaying relevant demographic and socioeconomic variables.

One of the key elements of this tool is the use of GaDOE’s student health survey to estimate ACEs risk and protective factors statewide.

Learn more about the project and explore the map here.

March 1, 2023 / Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Equity, General, Health, Housing, Policy, Workforce

The State of Black GeorgiaImage

“The State of Black Georgia is an educational tool and call to action for Black Georgians, public and private sector stakeholders and the general public that can inform civic engagement, non-profit organizations, elected officials, businesses, policy makers, grass roots organizations, philanthropists, faith-based organizations, researchers, advocates, and other key stakeholders. Together, we can promote inclusive economic development, influential partnerships, and implementation of best practice models that foster overall improvement in conditions for Georgia’s Black residents and the state as a whole.”

From the report:

  • The median wealth of Blacks will fall to zero by 2053 if no action is taken.
  • The percentage of Georgia Black students failing to read at third-grade level was 36%, a 25%
  • increase over the pandemic.
  • Approximately 50% of the inmates admitted in the Georgia Department of Corrections in 2021
  • were Black, yet Black Georgians make up 32% of the State’s population.
  • Fifty-four percent of infant deaths were Black children.
January 23, 2023 / Early Childhood, Education, Policy, Postsecondary

These are the Top Ten Education Issues to Watch in 2023Image

The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education recently published its 19th edition of the Top Ten Issues to Watch Report, informing leaders of Georgia’s most critical education issues.

The issues in this report range from Early Childhood Support and Educator Burnout to School-Community Engagement and Ou-of-School learning. Each of them establishes a goal and a Call to Action laid out in three sections:

  • Invest in people-centered systems
  • Invest in school and community leaders
  • Invest in spreading and scaling local solutions
December 2, 2022 / Education

State of Education in Metro AtlantaImage

On December 1st, Learn4Life held their annual convening to share the factors shaping the state of education in Metro Atlanta.

  1. Interrupted learning from the pandemic is substantial
  2. School districts need our support
  3. Amplification of bright spots is essential
  4. Cradle to career view is necessary

View the data and proposed solutions — including a panel of superintendents answering student questions — in the Facebook Live recording here. And read the full report on L4L’s website.

November 29, 2022 / Education, Equity

Combining program and community data reveal insights into barriers to educationImage

The recently launched map of Georgia’s government-funded out-of-school programs highlights some communities with limited access to these learning opportunities. Out-of-school education programs are essential because consistent participation in these activities has been shown to improve academic outcomes, help to close the achievement gap, reduce school absences, and improve social-emotional outcomes. Some of GSAN’s highlights from the interactive map are:

  • 45 counties do not have government-funded programs.
  • Over half of these counties have high concentrations of children living in poverty, low educational attainment rates, low 3rd-grade literacy rates, and limited access to broadband internet and vehicles.
  • A major portion of these counties also fall under Georgia’s Black Belt – a historically underserved region of the state.
Atlanta Public Schools graduation rate by race and ethnicity
October 12, 2022 / Education, Equity

APS graduation rate reaches all-time highImage

Atlanta Public Schools reached an all-time high graduation rate in 2022 of 84.0%.

From the press release:

  • Graduation rates for Black students (82.2%) reached an all-time high with the 2022 cohort, while the rate for Hispanic students (80.0%) and White students (95.4%) was slightly lower than the cohort 2021 rates but higher than the pre-pandemic 2019 rates of 75.5% for Hispanic students and 93.4% for White students.
  • Nearly 13 percentage points separated the graduation rates of Black students and White students. This is 4 percentage points lower than cohort 2021 difference.
  • Graduation rates for students with disabilities was 72.2%, a decrease by 1.6 percentage points over 2021, but the highest number of students with disabilities to ever graduate in one cohort – 309 students.
  • The 2022 graduation rate of 76.1% for English learners was slightly lower than the 2021 graduation rate of 76.8%.
June 24, 2022 / Education

Learning loss due to the pandemic will likely have lasting effects for metro Atlanta students.Gallery

Learn4Life’s State of Education 2021 reveals a concerning trend: metro Atlanta students experienced interrupted learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighth grade math proficiency dropped 14 points from the 2018/19 academic year to the 2020/21 academic year. Reading proficiency has also declined since the 2018/19 academic year, reversing progress made in the year prior to the pandemic. Teacher burnout has exacerbated challenges in education, making it likely that learning loss will have lasting effects and be difficult to reverse.

January 10, 2022 / Aging, Education, Equity

GPEE recently released their list of ten issues to watch in 2022 with the goal of ensuring 65% of GA’s residents aged 25-64 will hold a postsecondary credential by 2032.Insight

Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) recently released their report listing the top ten issues to watch in 2022. The report highlights the lasting effects of the pandemic on education, especially for Georgia’s most vulnerable populations including students of color, low-income youth, rural residents, workers lacking postsecondary training, and adults caring for children and elders. GPEE is focusing on equity as the state recovers from the pandemic, and the list of ten issues to watch serves as a starting point for GPEE’s goal of ensuring 65% of GA’s residents aged 25-64 will hold a postsecondary credential by 2032. The ten issues are:

  1. Equity – Shifting Mindset and Strategy
  2. Unfinished Instruction – Equity through Acceleration
  3. Non-Academic Barriers – The School’s Role
  4. Improving School Culture – The Imperative of School Leaders
  5. Funding – School Transformation on a Deadline
  6. Accountability – What’s the Future?
  7. Early Learning – Protecting Investments in Early Learners
  8. Revamping the Teaching Profession – A New Moonshot
  9. Workforce Readiness – A Strategy that Pays Off
  10. Rural Transformation – From the Inside Out
November 18, 2021 / Education, Equity, Postsecondary

A new Learn4Life report found that 1,100 fewer students in metro Atlanta completed FAFSA applications during the pandemic with high-poverty schools seeing the biggest drop in completions.Image

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion has decreased by 4% during the past year. The pandemic has likely contributed to this decrease since students have had limited social support from peers and school staff to help them navigate the complex financial aid process. The drop in completions was especially pronounced in high-poverty schools which completed 27% less applications than other schools. FAFSA completion increases postsecondary enrollment from 55% to 90% and increases postsecondary persistence by 4% per $1000 in financial aid. Low-income students are disproportionately missing out on these benefits (Learn4Life).

Takeaway: Building capacity and opportunities for postsecondary enrollment and financial aid support should be prioritized in economically disadvantaged schools.

October 27, 2021 / Education, Mental Health, Policy

“School counselors in Georgia say they are overworked, understaffed” as demand for student mental health services increases.Insight

“Experts say the lack of counselors is impacting students now and could have implications for a proposal to raise the age when students must attend school from 16 to 17 that is under consideration by the Georgia Senate Study Committee on the Age of Mandatory Education…The mandated counselor-to-student ratio in Georgia is currently one counselor to every 450 students. The best practice ratio recommended by the American School Counselors Association is one counselor to every 250 students.” – Fresh Take Georgia

Takeaway: Focusing on retention and compensation for frontline social sector employees should be a high priority.

April 23, 2021 / Education, Workforce

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Of the 43,353 Career, Technical and Agricultural Education (CTAE) credentials earned in the 2018–2019 school year, only 16% were aligned with workforce demand. (GPEE’s Top 10 Issues to Watch in 2021)

January 12, 2021 / Early Childhood, Education, Equity, Policy, Postsecondary, Workforce

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Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) released its “Top 10 Issues to Watch in 2021” report, which includes:

  1. Equity – the imperative for recovery to success
  2. Funding – essential for achieving equity
  3. Early learning – the foundation for an inclusive economic recovery
  4. Delivery of instruction – new approaches to learning
  5. Teachers – professionalism, pay, and preparation
  6. Accountability and assessments – the opportunity to rethink and get it right
  7. Parent engagement– positioning families as partners
  8. Post-secondary completion – a pathway to prosperity
  9. Georgia’s workforce pipeline – creating equitable access and opportunities
  10. Reinventing education in Georgia – a call for leadership and collaboration
December 2, 2020 / Early Childhood, Education, Postsecondary

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The latest State of Education in Metro Atlanta report provides updates on key education indicators. Kindergarten readiness, 3rd grade reading, 8th grade math, and high school graduation are up.  Postsecondary enrollment and completion are down. Learn more in the report and webinar. And view school level data in the interactive dashboard. (Learn4Life)

October 19, 2020 / Basic Needs, Early Childhood, Education, Workforce

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A large share of low-income clients are parents — especially moms — with school-age kids having incredible difficulty finding jobs that allow working from home. Unclear return-to-school plans and timing add to job search barriers. (Family Advancement Ministries)

October 1, 2020 / Early Childhood, Education, Equity, Operations, Workforce

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A lack of publicly accessible and detailed cradle-to-career pipeline data from state agencies (e.g., CAPS, CTAE eligibility and enrollment by race, geography, industry and otherwise) makes decision-making, planning, and evaluation around equity nearly impossible. (Metro Atlanta Chamber)

September 30, 2020 / Education, Postsecondary

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Designing and offering structure/processes for students to address academic, engagement, and/or campus life issues is generating nuanced and successful solutions. (Emory University, The Hatchery)

August 21, 2020 / Education, Health, Mental Health, Workforce

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Access to computers and internet supports (1) virtual learning, (2) job seeking and workforce development, and (3) access to telemedicine and mental health services (Mental Health America of Georgia)

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