Jon Zaff

Jonathan F. Zaff, Ph.D. is a Research Professor in Applied Human Development at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and the Director of the CERES Institute for Children and Youth.
The CERES Institute exists to drive positive educational and life conditions for children and youth, especially those in historically disenfranchised communities, so that they may emerge from childhood as thriving adults. To accomplish this, we conduct, support, and promote community-engaged, applied research and evaluation on positive educational and developmental ecosystems for today’s children and youth. We are intentional about presenting insights that are clear and actionable, and passionate about informing, influencing, and inspiring those who have the courage and the power to act: public leaders, influencers, educators, and parents.
Prior to his current role, Dr. Zaff was the founding executive director of the Center for Promise and on the leadership team for America’s Promise Alliance. Using a positive youth development framework, Dr. Zaff’s research has included studies, among others, of youth-focused comprehensive community initiatives, civic engagement, and the social and emotional competencies of young people who have left high school without graduating. Over the past few years, his projects have focused on the role that multiple relationships in a young person’s life (a “web of support”) and the multiple institutions within which they learn and grow can encourage their academic, vocational, and civic engagement and success, particularly those young people who are off track in school and life.
The results of his work have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals, books, and practitioner- and policy-focused reports. He is also a frequent presenter at local, national, and international conferences, as well as conducting trainings with practitioners and policy advocates.

AAPF19 Session

Synthesizing Scientific Methods with Authentic Student Voices
​Do you want an empirical explanation for your work with at promise youth to use with funders, policy makers and potential partners?
Jonathan has published more than 80 articles combining systematic, mixed methods social science methodologies and analysis with the authentic voices of young people to present an accurate depiction of who at promise young people are, what they can achieve, and what the most promising strategies are for providing supports for youth from historically disenfranchised communities, so that they emerge as thriving adults. If anecdotes aren’t enough to convince funders and policy makers, learn about the detailed research that Jonathan has undertaken to support students like yours.
His research focuses primarily on understanding how to create the conditions within which all youth thrive academically, socially, vocationally, and civically. His seminal work, “Don’t Call Them Dropouts” used rigorous mixed-methods science to survey more than 1,000 out of school youth about why they left school. The youth he surveyed rejected the dropout label. They perceived “dropout” as a sign of failure. Instead his work uncovered the adversities that young people faced and the strengths they expressed to meet life’s challenges. In short, Jonathan found at promise youth overwhelmed by “toxic environments”.

His follow up work has given an empirical basis to your at promise strategies. Success results from youth-focused comprehensive community initiatives, civic engagement, and building social and emotional competencies. Jonathan’s work demonstrates that multiple relationships in a young person’s life and multiple institutions within which they can learn and grow will encourage their academic, vocational, and civic engagement and success. In short, Jonathan found at promise youth need “a web of support”. Jonathan is intentional about presenting insights that are clear and actionable. He is passionate about informing, influencing, and inspiring those who have the courage and the power to act: public leaders, influencers, educators, and parents. You’ll find Jonathan’s research is particularly relevant to education leaders and advocates for the expansion and strengthening of youth-focused neighborhood assets – like dropout recovery schools, job training – and increasing the overall community's capacity to support its young people.

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AAPF18 Sessions: 

Meeting At Promise Students Where They Are – A Center for Promise Synthesis

Four years ago, Jonathan Zaff and his colleagues at the Center for Promise asked young people who had left high school without graduating: “Why did you dropout?” What they heard was dramatically different from the prevailing narratives about “bored,” “disaffected,” “deviant” youth who did not care about school, their own lives, or their communities.

The young people's answers started with, “I didn’t drop out.” They perceived “dropout” as a sign of failure, which did not gel with how they saw themselves. They described their lives in ways that busted through the narrative that they were lazy, that they lacked “grit,” or that they were destined for failure; instead, focusing on the adversities that they faced and the strengths they expressed to meet life’s challenges.
This presentation is a synthesis of the Center for Promise’s work over the past four years delving into the lives of these young people. By combining systematic, social science methodologies and analysis with the authentic voices of young people, Dr. Zaff will present what he believes is a more accurate depiction of who young people are, what they can achieve, what supports they need, and what the most promising strategies are for getting them these supports.
Come join a discussion about what we, throughout our society, are doing and can do to meet these young people where they are and provide the support they need to build upon their strengths and thrive.

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Past AAPF Sessions:

Leveraging Social Supports for At-Promise Students

​Dr. Jon Zaff the prime researcher for America’s Promise Alliance and Dr. Shannon Varga will provide a social support mapping app for understanding the social supports available to at-promise youth and levers for optimizing their academic (and life) success.   Participants will use provided tablets to work through an exercise using a social support mapping app that practitioners can use with youth to understand the youth’s web of supports. The session includes a discussion about how to use that information to optimize the supports that youth are and could be receiving. The session is relevant both for practitioners who work with at-promise youth as well as for policy advocates who are looking to design better policies to support at-promise youth.

An Evidence Base For Expanding Services to Disconnected Youth
As of 2010, more than one million 16-to-19 year-olds (6%) in the United States were classified as disconnected youth.  Being disconnected places a burden on individual youth and on the broader society. The combined lifetime social and fiscal cost has been estimated to be equal to $1 trillion for a single cohort of disconnected youth. The disconnection rate has declined from a high of 14% 40 years ago, with possible reasons for improvement including efforts to improve high school graduation rates and increases in funding and programming focused on disconnected youth, such as through the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act, Job Corps, and Youth Build.  Join America’s Promise Alliance researcher Jonathan Zaff as he provides a research-based alternative perspective for why the disconnected youth rate has improved: people. His research shows that the adult capacity in the community and the supports that these adults provide can put more young people on a positive pathway to adult success.  Jonathan’s research is particularly relevant to advocates for the expansion and strengthening of youth-focused neighborhood assets – like dropout recovery schools, job training – and increasing the overall community's capacity to support its young people.   ​​