State & Local Leaders Collaborate to Scale Equitable College & Career Pathways

The Launch Pathways Initiative (Launch) is a national college and career pathways initiative focused on advancing high-quality, equitable and sustainable pathways models at scale. Working in close collaboration, the Launch Partners--Advance CTE, Education Strategy Group (ESG), ExcelinEd, JFF, and New America--provide technical assistance to 12 teams from 11 states, organized into two cohorts: the Impact Cohort and the Innovation Cohort. While state teams in both cohorts are focused on building more equitable and sustainable college and career pathways systems, the cohorts will follow two distinct paths through Launch. This blog post provides a glimpse into the work of the Impact Cohort; the next post in this series will dig into the Innovation Cohort in August.

The Impact Cohort includes teams of state and local education, workforce, and industry leaders from Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington. The Launch partners selected these states because of their leadership in establishing policy and conditions to support college and career pathways, and because of their commitment to cooperation across state and local levels. “Watching local and state folks get into alignment on their vision is really powerful,” noted Casey Wrenn, director of career readiness at ESG and Impact Cohort lead within Launch. “The local districts are excited to be at the table with state leaders. They’re excited to have a chance to look at their own data through this lens of national best practice.’’ 

Though the states have different strengths and priorities coming into Launch--Colorado, for example, will focus on credentials of value and pathways integration into the K-12 curriculum, while new legislation in Indiana has career advising a priority--they share a commitment to better understanding barriers that persist for specific student groups and lead to gaps in outcomes, despite many years of effort to improve pathways opportunities. 

With this commitment in mind, the Impact Cohort states kicked off this past February by completing a robust self-assessment, with support from coaches from the Launch partner organizations. The self-assessment process allowed sites to set goals for their states based on an analysis of existing policy strengths, program offerings, and data availability. Overall, states tended to rate themselves more highly on data and policy and lower on work-based learning and individualized advising. 

State teams also completed data capacity assessments to understand the data currently available on their college and career pathways systems. The assessment looked at career and technical education enrollment and completion data; data on early postsecondary opportunities (e.g. dual or concurrent enrollment); and any information the states currently collect related to work-based learning participation and career advising. Then, using available data, state teams conducted an equity analysis to identify strengths and gaps in their existing college and career pathways systems. While the results varied by state, one cross-cohort pattern was clear: states had limited data on their work based learning activities and advising models, confirming the results of the self-assessment. 

The Impact Cohort teams are currently working with their coaches to develop action plans to address barriers and gaps identified through this trio of assessments. Over the next year, as part of the planning process, they will participate in four Launch Academies, each designed to advance a particular topic critical for a successful college and career pathways system. The academies will cover (1) pathways alignment to credentials of value, (2) seamless transitions between K-12, postsecondary, and workforce (acceleration and articulation), (3) individualized career advising and student supports, and (4) work-based learning experiences. Designed and hosted by the Launch partner organizations, each academy will share promising practices in data, policy, funding, partnerships, and equity related to its topic. State teams will have an opportunity to design action plans grounded in these foundational pillars and to network and collaborate with peers in the cohort as part of their learning. 

The Alignment Academy and the Transitions Academies kicked off this spring and will conclude in fall, when both Launch cohorts reconvene in Indianapolis. By then, the Impact Cohort teams will have developed action plans related to these topics and participate in peer-to-peer consultancy meetings through the end of the year to continue working together to strengthen their plans for implementation. The final two academies (Advising and Work-Based Learning Systems) will kick off in January. 

Reflecting on the progress the Impact Cohort state teams have made to date, Casey Wrenn explained that, ‘’it’s inspiring that states who are national leaders are still being self-critical of their work to date and striving for more equitable, higher-quality systems. And that’s true in both red states and blue states. Even when they’ve been at it for a decade, they’re continuing to ask, ‘Is what we want to be true for all kids true?’ And, when, it’s not, how do they continue to push harder and deeper? That’s what the Impact Cohort - and the Launch initiative, more generally - is all about.” 

This is the first post in a short blog series introducing the Impact and Innovation Cohorts and their progress during the first phase of the Launch Pathways Initiative.

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