American Youth Policy Forum

The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization that bridges youth policy, practice and research for professionals at the national, state, and local levels. With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AYPF is working with a number of other national organizations, including the Data Quality Campaign, to facilitate a series of field trips for state policy leaders to learn more about high school redesign. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) is a national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to improve the collection, availability and use of high-quality education data and to implement state longitudinal data systems to improve student achievement. This field trip provided participants the opportunity to experience the many facets of creating and using a longitudinal data system by visiting schools and meeting with leaders of promising efforts in Virginia. Virginia has built one of the most complete longitudinal data systems in the country and has found innovative ways to ensure that data can be shared between its local districts' data systems and the state system. The trip focused on, but not be limited to, Virginia's efforts to create a longitudinal data system that can inform decision making at the state, district, and classroom levels, as well as explore how districts with robust data systems can inform future development of the state system. Participants had an opportunity to visit a school that is using data effectively, interact with leadership from a large and a small district, and hear from Virginia's state education data leadership. In addition, some sessions during the trip will be structured so that state teams can learn about the efforts of their peers who have been grappling with using data systems in their own work. The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels. AYPF's events and policy reports are made possible by the support of a consortium of philanthropic foundations. For a complete list, click here.