Building a Community Resource: A Report on the West Philadelphia Family Center in its First 18 Months

Date: September 1994

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The West Philadelphia Family Center helps parents with young children tackle various problems related to school, housing, health, and employment issues. This report was written as a formative evaluation of the center in 1994. The authors found that families who participated in the program, many of who were single and young parents, considered the parent educators to be a valuable resource. The report offers recommendations for future directions that the center could take to improve and expand its services..

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The report explores the impact of race-specific state higher education funding policies in Minnesota, New Jersey, and North Carolina. It examines how these policies aim to dismantle racial inequities by directing resources toward Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students and the institutions that serve them. The research highlights the challenges and successes of outcomes-based funding and tuition discount programs in addressing racial disparities in college access and success. It emphasizes the importance of prioritizing equity at both the student and institutional levels. Key findings include the positive impact of race-explicit metrics in funding formulas. These metrics have demonstrably steered resources toward under-resourced students and institutions serving diverse populations. However, the report also acknowledges the difficulties faced by Minority-Serving institutions and HBCUs when competing for funds under zero-sum models that limit overall resources. Additionally, the study explores the potential consequences of Promise programs on neighboring states, highlighting concerns about enrollment shifts and the need to consider the impact on community colleges. The recommendations emerging from the research urge policymakers to consider the full ecosystem of postsecondary institutions when designing funding initiatives, ensuring that funding programs are additive rather than overlapping to maximize outcomes. The report also emphasizes the importance of supporting additional costs of college in Promise programs to promote equity for students affected by systemic barriers. Furthermore, funding basic needs support and conducting needs assessments are recommended to ensure that initiatives effectively address pertinent needs and promote student success. More research is needed. The report suggests following the implementation of initiatives in North Carolina and Minnesota to assess their impact on racial disparities in completion. It also highlights the need to examine how institutions adjust their selection of optional metrics in outcomes-based funding formulas to better support marginalized student populations. Additionally, the study points toward the importance of exploring the intersection of outcomes-based funding and Promise programs to understand their implications on institutional funding and student success in higher education.

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Examining the Effectiveness of Race-Specific Funding Strategies in Higher Education

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In partnership with Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), Research for Action conducted a year-long study of the impact and implementation of CLI’s Pre-K Intervention. Thirty-five district-operated and community-based Pre-K programs from Broward County Public Schools and…

Building a Community Resource: A Report on the West Philadelphia Family Center in its First 18 Months

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