Albany Promise Evaluation

Albany Promise Cradle-to-Career Partnership is a cross-sector initiative that brings together community partners to improve the academic outcomes of students from the neighborhoods of West Hill, Arbor Hill, and the South End. Launched in May 2012, the objective of Albany Promise is to use a collaborative and evidence-based approach to ensure that all Albany students have the opportunity to succeed in school and beyond.

Since February 2011, Albany-based education, business, civic, and community leaders have been meeting to develop a common vision, articulate a mission, and identify goals. The stakeholders agreed on three key areas as the initial focus for strategic action:

1) Early Childhood Learning
2) Fourth Grade Success
3) High School Success

During the 2012-2013 school year, the Albany Promise leadership will convene action teams around each of these focus areas. Using data to inform their decisions, the action teams will develop objectives and outline action plans, with the goal of leveraging and aligning existing resources to improve student outcomes in each focus area.

Evaluation & Research

CHSR serves as the data support and evaluation team for the Albany Promise initiative. During the startup phase of the initiative, CHSR provided foundational support by 1) developing data indicators to measure educational outcomes from early childhood through college and career; 2) working with the stakeholders to focus on measurements of greatest import; and 3) convening a data committee to advise on the development of indicators and collection of baseline data. This process culminated in a baseline report released in May 2012, which presents baseline data on critical indicators of progress along the educational continuum. As the Albany Promise initiative moves into a strategic planning phase in Fall 2012, CHSR will provide ongoing data support to the action teams. CHSR researchers will supply the action teams with relevant data, assist them in defining concrete goals, review the teams’ data plans, and provide technical assistance with selecting outcome measures and instrumentation. Once the implementation phase begins in 2013, CHSR will continue to provide evaluation services, assisting the action teams with monitoring progress, analyzing data, and reporting results. CHSR will also author an annual report summarizing yearly progress toward the goals of the initiative.

Contact: Margaret Gullick,Ph.D.