Opportunity Youth in Rhode Island Providing Engaging Learning

Opportunity Youth in Rhode Island Providing Engaging Learning Experiences for All Rhode Island Youth

Agenda • Background: Creating Pathways for all students • Defining Opportunity Youth • Data on Rhode Island’s Opportunity Youth • Small Group Discussion on Barriers and Best Practices • Whole Group Share Out & Discussion • Looking Ahead: Next Steps & Closing

Background • Creating pathways for all students. • In 2016 RIDE and GWB began developing strategies for K-12 youth. • In 2017 RIDE was awarded the NSFY award to implement those strategies. • In 2018 the Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner, URI, RIC, CCRI and AICU began work to focus on developing strategies for college students. • Missing: A comprehensive approach to better preparing disengaged youth for a career.

Defining Opportunity Youth • Proposed Definition: Youth ages 16 -24 who are not in school and are unemployed, including those who are completely and partially disconnected. • Completely disconnected • K-12 dropouts who are unemployed • Young adults with no high school degree AND are unemployed • Young adults who have a high school degree AND are unemployed AND are not in postsecondary education • Partially disconnected • K-12 enrolled who are not attending class regularly AND are not progressing • Young adults who are either enrolled in postsecondary education part-time OR are underemployed

Data on Rhode Island’s Opportunity Youth • We have partnered with Data. Spark at the University of Rhode Island to create a comprehensive picture of Rhode Island’s opportunity youth • Data will be collected from multiple sources: • Publicly-available data from the American Community Survey and Youth Risk Behavior survey for a “landscape” view of opportunity youth • Linked individual-level data from the RI Data. HUB for a more granular view • Data collection and analysis are still in progress but we have some initial findings to share

RI Disconnected Young Adults at Age 24 • For the purposes of this exercise, a disconnected young adult is an individual at age 24 who: a) went through the RI K-12 education system; and b) are unemployed; or c) are underemployed, as defined by making less than the federal poverty limit during their 24 th year • Used RIDE K 12 data as well as a wage record and unemployment claim data to produce an analytic sample of 19, 271 individuals who were 24 years old between 2010 -2017

Rhode Island Disconnected Young Adults at Age 24 34% HS Graduate, Part-Time Post Secondary w/ No Degree 20% HS Graduate, No Post Secondary HS Dropout 10%

Other Key Findings: RI Disconnected Young Adults at Age 24 • High school dropouts and high school graduates with no postsecondary enrollment are disproportionately male • 24 year olds who had graduated high school but had not enrolled in postsecondary education were less likely to have grown up in one of Rhode Island’s core cities; only about 30% lived in a core city during K-12 • Of the K-12 dropouts who were still disconnected at age 24 in 2017: • 83% were ever on Free or Reduced lunch • 38% had an IEP • 10% were ELLs • 9% had been in foster care as children

Small Group Discussion: Barriers & Best Practices • Split into two groups; record discussion to share out to whole group • 10 min: Barriers Discussion • What are the barriers facing opportunity youth? • What are some challenges in serving opportunity youth? • 10 min: Best Practices Discussion • What is going well in serving opportunity youth? • What are some best practices you can share?

Whole Group Share Out & Discussion • Share out the 3 biggest barriers and 3 best practices your small group discussed • Whole Group Discussion: • Anything else that should be highlighted in this discussion? • Who are we missing? What other stakeholders should be engaged with this issue? • RI Opp Youth Data: What resonated with you? What needs to be explored further?

Looking Ahead Goal: Develop a plan for re-engaging Rhode Island’s opportunity youth to education and employment. To be accomplished: • Continue exploring and analyzing data on opportunity youth • Developing targeted strategies for engaging populations • Setting goals and developing a multi-year plan with annual benchmarks Next Steps: • Continue the conversation and engage stakeholders

Closing Thank you for your participation today! Additional questions can be directed to: Heather Hudson Executive Director, Governor’s Workforce Board Heather. w. hudson@dlt. ri. gov Cara Harrison Policy Analyst, Governor’s Office Cara. harrison@governor. ri. gov