Back on Track: Postsecondary Success Assessment

This assessment tool will help you determine the state of key Back on Track features at your school.  JFF will use your assessment data to help you better understand which program features your school or program has in place that support the three phases of Back on Track.

JFF clients can also access a rich set of resources, including recommendations for action, best practices and resources based on their specific assessment results.  Contact JFF for more information.

Back on Track: Postsecondary Success Model

Each year, 1.2 million young people drop out of high school. Nearly 40 percent of our young people between ages 16 and 24 are under- or unattached to school and work at some point during this formative stretch of their young lives. Even young people who graduate from high school on time or return for a high school equivalency diploma, such as the GED, and then proceed to postsecondary education are highly unlikely to complete a degree or credential. In addition, despite reported openings in the labor market, particularly in mid-skill level jobs, very few good jobs are available to young people who lack skills, postsecondary credentials, work experience, and connections to working adults.

Based on its work with innovative schools and programs around the country and with the national organizations and networks that support many of them, JFF has developed a Back on Track model to drive growth and scale in this emerging field of practice. The model draws on lessons learned in JFF's work with innovative diploma and GED-granting programs, districts, intermediaries, and networks that support many of them, and a decade of JFF's work developing and scaling up early college high schools for low-income, first-generation college goers.

Back on Track models are the next generation of alternative schools and programs, designed to prepare off-track and out-of-school youth for college and career success. JFF's Back on Track school design incorporates three phases:

·       Enriched Preparation

·       Postsecondary Bridging

·       First-year Support

Back on Track schools offer rich academic preparation, professional skills and a clear path to postsecondary and career success, supporting young people who have fallen off track from graduation or dropped out to reengage and achieve their postsecondary and career ambitions.