Howard Samuels Center Research

CURRENT RESEARCH
Ford Community Organizing Initiative Evaluation Project

The Economic Status of Working Women in New York and the Mid-Atlantic Region

PAST RESEARCH
Old and New Frontiers in Education Reform: Confronting Exclusion in the Democratic Tradition

Welfare Policy and Access to Higher Education

Community Organizing And Community Development

The Empowerment Zones

Most recently, in May of 2004, the evaluation team of Marilyn Gittell, Charles Price and Barbara Ferman completed a report on the second round of funding. The report suggests, "that the Ford Foundation Community Organizing Initiative was successful in achieving the four objectives articulated by the Foundation. Organizations across all three sites increased their capacity, as measured by increases in membership and funding, diversification of funding base and broadened base of organizational leadership; their was a heightened prominence of community organizing across the three sites as evidenced by increased media coverage of community organizing activities and increased adoption of multi issue policy proposals coming from community organizations; all three sites demonstrated increased networking activities as indicated by increases in the number of meetings across community organizations in a region, the number of issues organizations engaged in, and the establishment of formal and informal coalitions; finally, their was increased support for community organizing across the three sites as demonstrated by increases in local, regional and national foundation contributions to community organizing and by the establishment of funders collaboratives."

Ford Community Organizing Initiative Evaluation Project

The Samuels Center has been conducting an ongoing evaluation of the Ford Foundation Community Organizing Initiative. The Initiative utilized local intermediaries to re-grant funds to local community groups and to provide technical assistance. Three sites were chosen, Chicago, Los Angeles and the South (which included organizations from seven states). Through the local intermediaries the Ford Foundation was interested in increasing organizational capacity, fostering collaboration and promoting community organizing and outlined four key measures for the evaluation:

Strengthened organizational capacity of grassroots community groups
Heightened prominence of community organizations in local and/or state or regional-level debates and decision making, and increased success of community organizations on multi-issue reform agendas
Greater networking of community organizations in selected regions
Increased support for community organizing groups

Volume I
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Volume II
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The Economic Status of Working Women in New York and the Mid-Atlantic Region

Throughout the United States, regardless of regional residency or race, women do not share economic parity with men. American women have achieved significant economic advances particularly in the last thirty years, however, a considerable earnings, and hence, socio-economic gap still persists between men and women. Analyzing data from the U.S. Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), the HSC is studying the situation of working women in a statistically interesting grouping in the northeastern and middle-Atlantic region: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington DC. By quantifying and presenting graphically the extent of the gap between the economic status of working women and men along various measures including employment history and family type the policy areas which require reform are highlighted.

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Old and New Frontiers in Education Reform: Confronting Exclusion in the Democratic Tradition

In this two-year comparative study of education reform in South Africa, Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico, and the United States funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center has attempted to look at education reform from an interdisciplinary bottom-up perspective. Our research and case studies focused on education reform and exclusion in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa; Salvador and Porto Alegre, Brazil; Bluefields and Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua; Mexico City and Oaxaca, Mexico; and Jackson and DeSoto counties of Mississippi, United States. The study used research teams based in these localities to assess the degree to which education reforms facilitated broader democratic participation and allowed for more inclusion among marginalized populations. It integrated the often ignored dimensions of race, ethnicity, and gender in order to determine if the education reforms under consideration produced more inclusive democratic governance in schools and in the surrounding community.

In 1996 the Center sponsored a seminar on inequality and urban school reform which brought together scholars, lawyers, and school activists. They concluded that community activity was essential to achieving the much-needed comprehensive reform of the American school system, and their papers were collected in the 1998 book, School Equity: Creating Productive Schools In a Just Society. In June 24-25, 1999, the Samuels Center sponsored the Seminar on Constituency Building and Advocacy for Education Reform, a meeting of over 35 scholars and activists. The papers presented at this seminar have been collected in Constituency Building and Advocacy for Education Reform: A Collection of Seminar Papers.

The Center's newest education report, State Power, Suburban Interests, and City School Reform, was published in 2001. State Power, Suburban Interests, and City School Reform examines the politics of school reform on the local and state level in nine states, exploring the effects of suburbanization on two school policy issues, charter schools and school finance equity issues. America has become a suburban nation, and as the population has shifted to the suburbs, so has political power, with the result that state politicians pursue the interests of suburban voters and neglect the dire needs of failing urban school systems. The Samuels Center also examines CUNY schools and programs, demonstrating how important education can be to improving people's lives and making recommendations on how CUNY can be improved to better serve the people of New York City. Samuels Center reports provide a valuable corrective to the all-too-often flawed conventional wisdom about CUNY. "The Benefits of College Attendance: A Case Study of BMCC" and "Community Colleges Addressing Student's Needs: A Case Study of LaGuardia Community College" answer critics who complain that CUNY's community colleges' low rates of graduation suggest that the schools have failed. Extensive interviews of former students demonstrate that, in fact, many "drop outs" went on to study at other colleges, within or without the CUNY system, and that their time at a community college served as valuable training. Many new immigrants, despite not graduating, learned English skills that were essential to their getting jobs. "Why Good Students Leave CUNY" points the way for those who want constructive reforms of the City University that will help more people attend college, uncovering such problems as a lack of financial support for students and poor scheduling, advisement and registration systems.

State Power, Suburban Interests, and City School Reform: A Nine-State Comparative Study 2001
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Constituency Building and Advocacy for Education Reform: A Collection of Seminar Papers April 2001

Community Colleges Addressing Student's Needs: A Case Study of LaGuardia Community College
Marilyn Gittell and Tracy Steffy
January 2000
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Redefining Education Regimes and Reform: The Political Role of Governors
Marilyn Gittell and Tracy Steffy
A reprint from Urban Education, September 1999

The Benefits of College Attendance: A Case Study of BMCC
Marilyn Gittell and Tracy Steffy
October 1998

The New Education Regime: The Role of Governors and their Conservative Direction For Education
Marilyn Gittell and Laura McKenna
August 1997

Regimes and Reform: State Politics and Urban School Reform: Preliminary Findings
Marilyn Gittell and Kirk Vandersall
June 1996

Creating Social Capital at CUNY: A Comparison of Higher Education Programs for AFDC Recipients
Marilyn Gittell, Kirk Vandersall, Jennifer Holdaway, Kathe Newman
January 1996

Why Good Students Leave CUNY
Marilyn Gittell and Jennifer Holdaway with Laura McKenna
January 1996

The Family College at the City University: An Evaluation Report
1995

School Reform in New York and Chicago: Revisiting the Ecology of Local Games
by Marilyn Gittell
A Reprint from Urban Affairs Quarterly, September 1994

Achieving Excellence with Equality: The Federal Role
Marilyn Gittell
Testimony prepared for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, August 3, 1993

Special Programs in American Colleges & Universities for Low-Income Women
Compiled by the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center
1993

Welfare Policy and Access to Higher Education

Education is the key to achieving self-sufficiency for low income people, and welfare policy should reflect this fact. "From Welfare to Independence: The College Option" and "Building Human Capital: The Impact of Post-Secondary Education on AFDC Recipients in Five States" make very clear the value of education to welfare recipients. Education holds enormous benefits for welfare recipients, both professionally and in their personal lives, and education had a prominent place in the JOBS program begun in 1988.

The 1996 welfare reforms which replaced AFDC with TANF, however, did away with JOBS and abandoned education as a way of helping poor women. Policy instead was now focused on getting women off the welfare rolls and into a job, any job, as soon as possible. All across the country women dropped out of school, leaving the track to a good career that is higher education for dead end jobs. This startling development was very evident at CUNY, which traditionally has been a resource for low income people, where hundreds of female students were forced to drop out. To address this important issue in September 1999 the Samuels Center co-sponsored a national conference in Washington D.C. which was attended by nearly 300 college students, academics, legislators, researchers and activists. The attendees discussed strategies on how to work for change at the state and local level, and began setting up a national network of those concerned with welfare reform to allow for more sharing of information and joint efforts.

The Samuels Center is in the forefront of these networking efforts, working to develop a national network of scholars who study the relationship of welfare policy to higher education, and on June 26 held a seminar in New York City, attended by thirty scholars. Out of this meeting developed LIPSERN, the Low Income Post-Secondary Education Research Network (LIPSERN). In November 2000 the Samuels Center participated in the Applied Research Center's National Strategy Meeting on welfare reform, and in Spring 2001 the Center helped the COPE Program prepare its first annual student conference. More than 300 students who are receiving welfare benefits participated in this conference, attending workshops on such topics as the benefits of a liberal arts education, organizing and advocacy, and issues of domestic violence.

In 2003 the Samuels Center published Continuing a Commitment to the Higher Education Option: Model State Legislation, College Programs, and Advocacy Organizations that Support Access to Post-Secondary Education. Our report is a national survey of legislation, college programs, and organizations that facilitate acquisition of post-secondary education by welfare recipients. The report focuses on the laws and programs most supportive of obtaining associate�s and bachelor�s degrees, but does not overlook vocational programs and policies that lead to jobs that offer living wages and social mobility. Continuing a Commitment to the Higher Education Option describes many of these education-sustaining efforts and crucial pro-family programs, passing on the lessons of years of activism and research and offering recommendations on how to build upon these efforts and continue making education an vailable option for low-income women.

Continuing a Commitment to the Higher Education Option: Model State Legislation, College Programs, and Advocacy Organizations that Support Access to Post-Secondary Education
Charles Price
May 2003
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Welfare Reform and the College Option: A National Conference: A Summary of Conference Proceedings
Charles Price
May 2000

Higher Education in JOBS: An Option or an Opportunity?: A Comparison of Nine States
Marilyn Gittell and Sally Covington
September 1993

Building Human Capital: The Impact of Post-Secondary Education on AFDC Recipients In Five States
Marilyn Gittell, Jill Gross and Jennifer Holdaway
September 1993
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From Welfare to Independence: The College Option
Marilyn Gittell with Margaret Schehl and Camille Fareri
March 1990

Community Organizing And Community Development

Social capital is the norms, networks, and trust that allow civic action and make democracy work. Local organizations like CDC's (Community Development Corporations) and CDO's (Community Development Organizations) create social capital, thus enriching people's lives while working for social change and providing local people a voice in politics. The Samuels Center has conductednumerous studies of these groups, providing best practices advice as well as scrutinizing them to see how issues of race and gender impact their success and means of getting things done. The Center's most recent publication on community organizations, Women Creating Social Capital and Social Change: A Study of Women-led Community Development Organizations, described the particularly democratic and holistic nature of CDO's led by women and celebrated the key (and often unacclaimed) role of women in the community development movement. The study has been particularly well-received, and will be the basis of an article to be published in Urban Affairs Review in November 2000 as well as for a book to be published by Wayne State University Press in 2001.

In 1999 the Samuels Center sponsored a conference on "Civic Participation and Civil Participation: A Comparative Study," at the Rockefeller Foundation Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. The articles presented at this conference will be published as a book, Social Capital and Social Citizenship, edited by Marilyn Gittell and Sophie Body Gendrot, by Lexington Books in February 2003.

Starting in 2001 the Samuels Center have conducted research as part of an evaluation of Ford Foundation's funding of community groups in Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Southern United States. This research included archival research, site visits, and numerous interviews of Ford Foundation personnel and of local activists.

Assessing Community Change: An Evaluation of the Ford Foundation's
Community Organizing Initiative 2000-2004
2006
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Women Creating Social Capital and Social Change: A Study of Women-led Community Development Organizations
Marilyn Gittell, Isolda Ortega-Bustamante, Tracy Steffy
1999
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The Politics of Community Development: CDCs and Social Capital
Marilyn Gittell, Kathe Newman, Isolda Ortega-Bustamante, Francois Pierre-Louis
February 1999

Building Civic Capacity: Best CDC Practices
Marilyn Gittell and Kathe Newman & Isolda Ortega
January 1997

The Capacity of Grassroots Groups in the Environmental Movement
Marilyn Gittell and Sarah Gardner
December 1997

Race and Gender in Neighborhood Development Organizations
Marilyn Gittell, Jill Gross & Kathe Newman
May 1994

The Difference Gender Makes: Women in Neighborhood Development Organizations
Marilyn Gittell and Sally Covington with Jill Gross
May 1994

Race and Gender in Neighborhood Development Organizations
Marilyn Gittell, Jill Gross & Kathe Newman
May 1994

The Empowerment Zones

The 1994 Empowerment Zone (EZ) legislation, the centerpiece of President Clinton's urban policy, included a broad vision of revitalizing community through the joint action of government, business, and community actors. The Samuels Center has conducted an in-depth study of community participation and community capacity building in the Federal Empowerment Zones in six cites. The Samuels Center�s two preliminary reports, The Urban Empowerment Zones: Community Organizations and Community Capacity Building and Empowerment Zone Implementation: Community Participation and Community Capacity, and our final report, Empowerment Zones: An Opportunity Missed, examine each city in detail, describing the successes and failures in each EZ. As a whole, the results of the EZ legislation have been disappointing, with little increased interaction between the government, business and community, and only a limited increase in participation. The EZs represent a lost opportunity, because federal involvement in the planning stages led to a relatively high level of participation, but this effort to foster participation waned as mayors took possession of the program.

Empowerment Zones: An Opportunity Missed
Marilyn Gittell, Kathe Newman, Francois Pierre-Louis
2001
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Empowerment Zone Implementation: Community Participation and Community Capacity
Marilyn Gittell and Kathe Newman
January 1998

Expanding Civic Opportunity: Urban Empowerment Zones
Marilyn Gittell, Kathe Newman, Janice Bockmeyer, Robert Lindsay
A Reprint from Urban Affairs Review, March 1998

The Urban Empowerment Zones: Community Organizations and Community Capacity Building
Marilyn Gittell, Janice Bockmeyer, Robert Lindsay & Kathe Newman
May 1996