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Customizing Adult Learning and Career Development Models in Indiana

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By: AIF Staff

More so than any other year in modern history, 2020 showed how important having a structurally sound education system capable of delivering quality instruction is for Americans of all ages. During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and administrators learned first-hand how challenging it can be to provide instruction to students who are facing turbulence and difficulties in their lives. And coming out of this turbulent time, educators and policymakers would be well-served to learn from this challenging year and expand flexible learning modalities to meet America’s students where they are.

Part of modernizing how America educates its population is by changing our perception: Too many in America view education in a linear fashion, believing that everyone generally proceeds from pre-K to high school to higher education programs in a straight-forward and uninterrupted way. The reality, however, is much different and for millions of Americans, obtaining and education is often more circuitous. Life often gets in the way of students achieving a full education, and the lack of a high school diploma can hold folks back from reaching their potential.

Given the correlation between educational attainment and lifetime earnings – to say nothing of other social outcomes that improve based on a person’s level of education, America needs educational programs and systems to help those who may not be able to take a linear schooling path.

One such educational program that is making a difference in the lives of adults around the country is The Excel Center, operated by Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana. Since 2010, the Excel Center has been providing adults in Indiana with a cost-free high school education and a customized approach to learning that empowers people “to increase their independence and reach their potential through education, health and employment.”

The idea for the Excel Center started with a simple observation by the leaders of Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana: Too many Indiana adults were not successfully completing high school and it was having cascading repercussions for the students, their families, and their communities.

So, working with local officials and the community, they developed a solution, starting with one school in 2010 and gradually expanding to 30 different Excel Centers: 18 of which are in Indiana and 12 across 5 different states.

In the past decade, Excel Centers have helped nearly 35,000 people improve their lives through the attainment of a high school diploma. The Excel Center uses an accelerated adult learning program, allowing student to earn high school degree within 12 months on average as well as industry-recognized certifications. Fox59 of Indianapolis reported on the Center’s unique approach:

“At first glance, it looks like an ordinary classroom. But at the Excel Center, these aren’t ordinary students. They’re all adults who have dropped out of high school the first time and are back and ready to graduate… The center also provides free childcare, transportation assistance and dual credit courses, which allows students to focus on completing their course work.”

Because of their customized model, the Excel Center is having a real impact and changing lives through education. As an Excel Center graduate told WISH TV: “I feel like I couldn’t have done it without them and my family. So I feel like I have accomplished one of my major goals in life.”

Beyond the anecdotal impacts, the Excel Center’s approach has been increasingly validated by data and evidence, thanks to a partnership with Notre Dame’s Laboratory for Economic Opportunities which has studied the program’s outcomes. A statistical summary from Goodwill showed the promise and the power of the Excel Centers:

  • 73% of graduates earned an industry certification and/or college credit;
  • 38% of Excel Center graduates enroll in post-secondary education within one year of graduating;
  • Recent state data suggests that 2017 Excel Center graduates that participate in the workforce saw a $14,000 increase in annualized wages compared to when those same students enrolled at The Excel Center.

According to a self-reported student profile produced by Goodwill, only 19% of enrollees had full time employment, 84% were unemployed and/or receiving public assistance, and 66% had been out of school for more than a year.By providing an accessible education model, coupled with assistance that meets students’ specific needs, Excel Centers are giving people a real chance at achieving a diploma and career certification and at realizing the benefits that come with it.

As Notre Dame noted:

“For adults who don’t graduate from high school, average weekly earnings hover around $520. Adults who have a high school diploma, on the other hand, earn an average of $712 per week…. And those with high school diplomas are also less likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate for high school graduates is about 5%, compared with 7% for people without a diploma.”

An education can unlock opportunities to a better life, not just for the student but for their families and communities as well. By developing models that allow adults to obtain high school diplomas and to receive industry certifications, programs like the Excel Centers are giving thousands the chance to pursue their American Dreams and provide policymakers with an example of how an innovative model can be scaled to make a major impact.

Celebrating the Impactful Life of Urban Specialists’ Founder, Bishop Omar Jahwar

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By: AIF Staff

On March 11, 2021, the people of Dallas lost a pillar of their community with the passing of Bishop Omar Jahwar. Few make such a big impact in such a short time as Bishop Omar and fewer still embody the awesome power of redemption better than he did.

Bishop Omar was one of the founders and leaders of Urban Specialists, a Texas-based organization dedicated to promoting positive change in inner-city communities and to reducing destructive and violent behavior. Bishop Omar’s life was a personal testament of transformation, as he went from a juvenile criminal offender to one of Texas’ first gang-interventionists to receiving the White House’s Achievement Against the Odds Award. As all those who knew Bishop Omar mourn, they should take comfort in the fact that he is undoubtedly looking down saying: “There is a time for grieving, but then the work must go on.”

Upon his passing, American Idea Foundation President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who struck up an unlikely friendship with Bishop Omar — one that spanned almost a decade and one that transcended race, socioeconomic status, and party affiliation, offered the following statement:

“At first glance, it wouldn’t seem that a Congressman from Janesville and a preacher from Dallas would have a lot in common, but I was honored to call Bishop Omar a friend. He taught me a lot about redemption and the power of community. I’ll miss his personality, his passion, and his unwavering belief in every person’s inherent goodness.

“Bishop Omar lived his work. He showed me, and the people of Dallas, that real change happens one person at a time. Bishop Omar’s legacy will live on through the ongoing work of Urban Specialists and through all the people he saved during the course of his ministry. The best way we can honor Bishop Omar’s life is to draw inspiration from his example and be a catalyst for positive change in our communities.”

In a Forbes column entitled The Gangster, the Preacher, & the Speaker of the House, Bishop Omar summarized his work succinctly: “This is my role. I tell these young men, ‘There are landmines in this field, this gang life, but if you allow me to lead you, brother if you take my hand, I can show the path around the mines, and you can cross unscathed.’”

He continued, “What we do in communities is we attempt to bring social change through individuals who are closest to the problem, those who can actually deliver help from a hand-to-hand point of view. I recruit guys who’ve lived that lifestyle in some of the roughest zip codes in the nation, and I’m asking them to become front-line soldiers fighting for one idea: that urban life does not have to be stunted by violence and a sub-culture of abuse.”

In 2016, the impact of Bishop Omar was made abundantly clear in a video entitled: Become a Hero, which was a part of the Comeback video series that focused on transformative efforts underway in our communities. 

Speaker Ryan first met Bishop Omar during his travels with Bob Woodson travels as he was looking for inspiring examples of individuals and organizations tackling pressing issues in our communities. Almost immediately, it became clear that Bishop Omar and the Urban Specialists were making a difference and developing a model that could be exported to other cities around the United States. In 2018, as Speaker of the House, Ryan continued to draw lessons and inspiration from Bishop Omar, visiting Urban Specialists to discuss their efforts to combat multi-generational poverty and reduce gang violence in Texas.

The efforts being undertaken by Bishop Omar and his organization were highlighted in National Review, which summarized their efforts in the following way: 

““Urban specialists” are Pastor Omar’s team of mentors, largely former gang members, who have returned to the neighborhoods they grew up in to try to steer the newest generation onto a better path. Pastor Omar insists that the best people to solve social problems such as gang violence or drug addiction are those who experienced those problems and overcame them….

“Pastor Omar’s urban-specialist model has proven itself in Dallas. The Dallas Independent School District works with Pastor Omar to get urban specialists into schools across the district, and he has an enthusiastic supporter in Dallas police chief David Brown. And he believes that the model can be applied anywhere — from schools to courtrooms to corporate America.”

Bishop Omar’s work was hands-on and sometimes, it was messy. But Bishop Omar lived a purpose-driven life. He created force-multipliers in communities, developing a network of mentors who could meet young people involved in gangs and criminal behavior and speak to them from a position of shared experiences. He saved lives. He prevented violence. He promoted hope and optimism. He made an impact that will reverberate for years to come.

Where others saw problems, Bishop Omar saw solutions. Where others saw dead-ends, Bishop Omar saw ways to turn around. The American Idea Foundation joins his family, his friends, and all those touched by Bishop Omar in grieving his passing and honoring his decades of service to others by drawing inspiration from his amazing work.  

Paul Ryan discusses efforts to better fight poverty, offers advice on reducing polarization, & assesses the first months of Biden-Harris Administration

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Date: March 12, 2021

Janesville, WI – In the Fall of 2020, former Speaker of the House and American Idea Foundation President Paul Ryan was named an Honorary Fellow at the Tommy G. Thompson Center for Public Leadership. The Center, located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, works to elevate the policies and solutions that were the cornerstones of Governor Thompson’s decades of service to the state of Wisconsin. Earlier this month, Speaker Ryan had the opportunity to talk with the Thompson Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Ryan Owens, about the policy issues that he has been focusing on since leaving the House of Representatives in 2019.

During the podcast, Speaker Ryan discussed the need for revitalizing civil society – the institutions and spaces between citizens and their government. He touched on ongoing efforts by the American Idea Foundation to highlight locally-implemented, evidence-based solutions that tackle problems like persistent poverty and the skills gap. Speaker Ryan also provided some guidance to younger Wisconsinites who are looking to make an impact in their communities.

You can listen to the Tommy G. Thompson Center Badgercast featuring Speaker Ryan by clicking here.  Some excerpts of Speaker Ryan’s answers (which have been edited slightly for clarity) follow.

A continued focus on tackling poverty:

“You mentioned Janesville, my home town. My downtown Janesville office is where the American Idea Foundation is based and that’s the Foundation that I built to focus on poverty solutions. During a lot of stages in my career, I spent a lot of time working on understanding poverty — specifically stubborn, multi-generational poverty, and understanding the policies that alleviate poverty. Near the end of my tenure, I was able to put into law through the tax code and other mechanisms, some policies that I think are really going to make a difference in the poverty space.

“And so, the American Idea foundation is really focused on advancing these poverty solutions, getting them out into the country, and building solutions that can be scaled, replicated, and repeated so that we can really put a dent in poverty and go at root causes of poverty and focus resources so that we can really make a big difference. [We can make a big difference by] making sure the Evidence Act that we wrote is well-executed and by building a big database of poverty solutions that people who want to fight poverty can go to for support and assistance. We believe in all of this… using data, analytics, and random controlled trials to measure what works and then scaling and repeating, and then making sure you don’t repeat mistakes.”

Policies that will spur economic opportunity:

“We need lifelong learning. We need people to get skills for the jobs of tomorrow [because of the] technology displacements that are occurring. And so, one of the things that we’re focused on is how do you get people into school and get their skills acquired and get them to stay through it. There is a big problem with people not graduating with their Associate’s degree, but if you can get an Associate’s degree in the 21st century, you can often get yourself into a proven career.

“Another thing that I’m really enamored with is this Catholic Charities [approach of] case management navigators that help people who are deep in poverty. [These navigators] find people where they are and then bring services and knowledge to them. Every person has a case manager that helps them build a plan to get out of poverty and work themselves out of poverty and stay out of poverty. I work with the Laboratory for Economic Opportunity (LEO) at Notre Dame and we’re running trials on this right now in places across the country to really figure out how best to do this kind of service so it can be scaled and replicated using technology, data, and analytics….

“In the 20th century, the War on Poverty was basically a bunch of government programs run by government bureaucrats and they kind of missed out on a lot of innovative ideas and proper incentive structures which have really moved the needle and so that’s the kind of thing we’re trying to incorporate. We’re essentially using free enterprise principles and applying them to the problem of poverty and I think we’re going to get a difference in outcomes.”

Advice to younger Americans on the perils of polarization and seeking out diverse perspectives:

“The reason I’m concerned [about polarization] is it’s getting so out of control and it’s being digitized and monetized with 21st century social media technology…. I try and tell young people to identify and see the fact that when you have an online presence or when you just go online, you’re inevitably going to go into some ideological cul-de-sac and you’re probably going to be just getting reinforcing views and today, media and technology, just more or less tell you what you want to know.

“We have moral relativism. We have algorithms and we have all of these sites that feed you what you’re already biased toward and that confirmation bias is now digitized and there are a lot of people who make a lot of money feeding that….”

“There’s not a great answer to how do you reduce polarization or how do you get people to reintegrate into society, other than we’ve got to find ways to revitalize civil society, which is where we live our lives and is the space between ourselves and our government. How do we, as individuals, get involved at a human level, at a personal level, with people who don’t think like us and who don’t look like us and who aren’t like us, and build lasting relationships and get a sense of empathy and a sense of understanding?

“The thing I always tell young people is don’t lead with emotions. You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion and just really work on trying to understand the perspective of another person. Walk in their shoes and hopefully they’ll do the same to you and you can develop a better understanding.”

Assessing the first two months of the Biden-Harris Administration:

“I’m a little concerned… I like [President Biden]. He’s a nice person. He is an agreeable guy. He does deals. I’ve done agreements with him myself so he is naturally not opposed to finding common ground with people on the other side of the aisle and getting agreements done. The team beneath him is maybe less so.

“The thing that makes me a little concerned at this moment is on the COVID-19 bill. Ron Klain, his Chief of Staff, and others said: “Look, we made the mistake in 2009 when we tried to get Republicans to work with us on a stimulus and it took too long and then we finally did it on our own. We just want to learn from that mistake and try and cut to the chase and just ram it through….” They really didn’t ask for our participation in 2009. I remember then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen having one, 30-second conversation with me, which was: “Are you going to support this or not?…”

“This was different because COVID is a pandemic that everybody believes is a crisis that needs attending to and you had Republicans offering solutions and going down to the White House to say: “You know we agree on you know half of this stuff. Let’s work together….” Instead, they chose reconciliation which is a way of avoiding having to work with the other side and ramming it through. If you can’t get bipartisanship on something like COVID and getting the economy out of the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t know where else you are going to find bipartisanship in this day and age. I really think they whiffed on this one…”

Issues of common ground in 2021:

“Well, I think the thing that everybody more or less agrees on is that there is a challenge and a great power struggle with China. We call this “decoupling” and that’s going to happen. I think most Republicans or Democrats who look at this issue see it similarly, which is, we have to protect ourselves and our technology from cyber-attacks, from China, and from their competition. We want the free world to be able to stay free.

“When you look at all the technologies that are rolling out there — whether it’s artificial intelligence, machine-learning, the Internet of Things, cryptocurrencies, all of these things, it’s really important that the free world is led by America and that America leads in these cutting-edge technologies because if China takes over and dominates, then they can they can really intimidate the world. They can become a ubiquitous surveillance state and it gets kind of scary at the end of the day, so where I think America has to lead – and Republicans and Democrats agree on this, is in sort strategic decoupling with China. That, to me, is a pretty big deal and I think infrastructure and some other sort of meat and potato issues, you’ll see some people coming around on.”

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