Charter School Operator Chosen for Detroit School
AC client Matchbook Learning is reforming education one school at a time.
Tag Archives: innovative solutions
- 05
May 15
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- 06
Apr 15
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Alschuler Column on Innovative Organizations in Examiner.com
This is the time of year when state and local governments go through the annual budget ritual of trying to reconcile seemingly conflicting agendas: reducing expenses while also continuing to fund programs that, while expensive, are essential.
One area that has become a major point of debate around the country and, indeed, in other countries as well, is how to fund juvenile justice systems adequately and to design those systems so that we’re not spending many millions of dollars on models that don’t work.
As an example, in New York City, it costs $200,000 a year to incarcerate one juvenile offender. And at the end of their incarceration, when they are released, 80% of these juveniles are rearrested within 36 months. Is that the most prudent way to deal with this issue: $200,000 a year for each juvenile, with an 80% chance they’ll commit more crimes when they’re released?
To read the rest of the article click here.
- 09
Mar 15
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AC client New York Foundling on Juvenile Justice Reform
States Have Choices for Juvenile Justice Reform
By: Bill Baccaglini and Dr. Sylvia Rowlands, The New York Foundling
March 4, 2015
State and local governments around the country are dealing with issues related to incarceration of juveniles. Several, including New York, are considering proposals that would end sentencing 16- and 17-year-olds as adults and expand alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders.
Wherever these issues are raised, opponents with their own special interests inevitably arise and launch into a steady and predictable drumbeat equating incarceration with public safety. Their message implies that the choice is incarceration or nothing — and that by reducing the number of juveniles who are locked up, we are going to endanger public safety. In fact, the issue is far more nuanced than that.
It’s not incarceration or nothing. In reality, it’s incarceration versus approaches that have already been proven to yield better results.
- 15
Dec 14
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AC client New York Foundling at the forefront of Evidence Based Practices
“Evaluation Must Join Innovation When Using Evidence-Based Practices”
For those of us who have been at the forefront of the adoption of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for treating at-risk youth and families, the debate among professionals in this field has taken an interesting turn. With EBPs yielding excellent results in a variety of environments and across cultural settings, it now seems as if the composition of the model itself has become the focal point of debate.
Why not treat EBPs as a base, some argue, and adapt it to account for community, cultural or other population differences? “We know our population,” the argument seems to go, “and shouldn’t view EBPs as a one-size-fits-all solution.” While that argument sounds reasonable, it actually presents a number of issues and has the potential to undermine the credibility of the EBP movement through subjectivity, opacity and inconsistency.