After helping bring attention to California’s drop-out crisis through support of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, The James Irvine Foundation founded ConnectEd to bring attention to the most promising solutions to this crisis. Irvine believes that ConnectEd will play a central role in reaching the Foundation’s goal of increasing the number of low-income youth in California who complete high school and achieve a college degree by the age of 25.

ConnectEd’s board of directors includes:

	Ted Mitchell CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund and chair of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Advisory Committee on Educational Excellence
	Ramon Cortines Deputy Mayor for Education, Youth, and Families, City of Los Angeles
	Paul Hudson CEO, Broadway Federal Bank, Los Angeles, California
	Jeannie Oakes Presidential Professor of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles

Gary Hoachlander, a national expert on career and technical education, is ConnectEd’s President.

ConnectEd is closely affiliated with MPR Associates, one of the nation’s leading education research and development organizations.