NIWL recognizes that education serves many functions in our society and provides many opportunities. A critical function is to prepare all students to live healthy, rewarding, and productive lives. Education provides the skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary for individuals to participate fully in the workforce and thereby become independent and self-sufficient while contributing to the greater good. Ensuring smooth transitions between education and meaningful employment is one of NIWL's main goals. Therefore, we are dedicated to reforming education and improving the interrelationships between education and work for young people. By exploring new models of instructional practice, building organizational capacity, and providing educators with professional development opportunities, we help transform the educational enterprise. NIWL's projects focus on informing policy, supporting program development, and conducting evaluation and research to improve transitions to and between careers, education, and training. Current projects include:

Bridge to Employment . In 1992, Johnson & Johnson Corporation established the Bridge to Employment program (BTE) in an effort to reform education by communicating to at-risk students that learning can be meaningful, engaging, and relevant.  The BTE program helps young people build solid futures by introducing them to a broad array of careers in health care and providing them with real world experiences.  In the summer of 2003, the AED National Institute for Work and Learning (NIWL) was selected by J&J to become a partner in the management and evolution of the BTE initiative.  More information is available here.

Central Educational Center Evaluation.  NIWL is conducting a two phase evaluation of the Central Educational Center (CEC), in Newnan, Georgia.  The first phase is designed to provide a critical assessment of the CEC model in general, reviewing critical dimensions including, but not limited to, curriculum design, instructional practice, career development of students, recruitment and professional development of staff, partnering relationships with business, higher education, and the community, and student assessment and credentialing.  The second phase of the study will focus on documenting and quantifying the economic benefit of educational innovations such as CEC to the county and region in which they are situated.  Areas of inquiry include: the relationship of the CEC initiative to economic development and community development; private sector motivation for participation; impact of participation at the workplace; and impact on the local workforce. The final report is available here.

Community College Labor Market Responsiveness Initiative.  With funding from the Department of Education, Westat and NIWL will be conducting activities designed to yield information and tools that will enable community colleges to keep pace with the needs of a diverse student body and a dynamic labor market and design programs and services that promote individual student success as well as economic competitiveness. Through a combination of  literature review, solicitation of expert opinion, survey research, in-depth case study analyses, and strategic dissemination activities, this project will: 1)  determine the characteristics of a "market responsive" college and identify the indicators and measures by which market responsiveness can be judged; 2) identify the policies and practices community colleges have put in place to facilitate and support labor market responsiveness; 3) determine how effectively community colleges are dealing with changes in the economy and workforce demographics; and 4) pinpoint the steps colleges can take to improve labor market responsiveness and the quality of customized programs they offer to students; and disseminate that knowledge to the field.

Contextual Teaching and Learning.  Under subcontract to MPR Associates, NIWL is conducting a meta analysis of seven contextual teaching and learning projects supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education. All of these projects are focused on expanding current and future teachers’ knowledge and use of contextual teaching learning strategies. Six are based at research universities. Although each of the three-year projects is responsible for supporting its own evaluation, NIWL and MPR will be synthesizing the findings across sites into a single document that describes how various contextual teaching and learning strategies can be used to drive changes in the classroom and spur improvements in student learning.

The Lansing Area Manufacturing Partnership Project.  In April 1998, NIWL began examining a business/union-driven, school-to-career initiative known as The Lansing Area Manufacturing Project (LAMP). LAMP is an innovative partnership sponsored by the United Auto Workers (UAW), General Motors Corporation (GM), and the Ingham Intermediate School District. The program combines classroom instruction with work-based learning at GM facilities.