Resources
Smarter Systems, Stronger States: Opportunities to Improve State Data Systems Based on Insights and Learning from the Launch Initiative
As part of the early work of Launch, seven site teams completed a data capacity assessment that allowed them to dig deeply into how they currently gather, analyze, and share learner data. In aggregating results across these seven sites, the national partners noted that limitations in available data and/or ineffective data sharing created challenges that hindered the programmatic decision-making necessary to mitigate barriers to access and success learners might experience.
Authored by Education Strategy Group for the Launch Initiative, Smarter Systems, Stronger States highlights the “smart opportunities” states should invest in to improve their data systems and shares examples from Launch work in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia. This brief includes actionable recommendations and a self-assessment tool to help state leaders
- Strengthen state infrastructure;
- Choose the right tools for data collection and sharing;
- Build state and local expertise and data literacy; and
- Push for quality data collection and reporting beyond compliance.
Navigating the Navigators
Questions State Leaders Must Consider to Solve the Career Advising Puzzle by Lindsey Phillips, Senior Policy Manager, Postsecondary Pathways for Youth, New America.
Reframing the Future of Career Guidance in the Age of AI
The Conversations We Should Be Having Right Now about AI, Advising, and Career Pathways by Jerre Maynor, Senior Director, Solutions Design & Delivery, and Leah Eggers, Director, Jobs for the Future (JFF).
Maryland Leads the Nation with New Career Technical Education Standards Rooted in Rigor, Relevance, and Flexibility
With the Maryland State Board of Education’s (MSBOE) approval of the new Career Technical Education (CTE) course standards, Maryland has set a new benchmark for consistency, rigor, and relevance — not only for its own learners, but for the nation’s CTE landscape. Read more in this blog by Brenna Bartlett, Director of Technical Assistance, Advance CTE.
LAUNCHing the Next Generation of Pathways
Casey Haugner Wrenn, Director at ESG, writes about a two-year technical-assistance deep dive with two states positioned to accelerate their nation-leading pathways work: Tennessee and Colorado. These states are both poised to take their lessons learned from the first phase of Launch into the future we envision for college and career pathways.
Launch States Chart Different Paths to Success
Deep collaboration and a sound strategy are crucial to pathways. Two Launch states, Colorado and North Carolina, have different approaches, but both are paving the path forward.
Launch “Accelerates” Pathways Work in Six States Across the Nation
Lindsey Phillips, Postsecondary Pathways for Youth with New America’s Education Policy Program, shares details on the new Launch Community of Practice and the six Accelerator sites.
Conditions For Sustainable Pathways Systems
Over the past two years of collaboration, Launch leaders and participants learned a great deal about the conditions that must be in place to advance high-quality and sustainable pathways systems related to a framework of five levers that are critical for driving lasting systems change: policy, funding, partnerships, data, and access.
Drawing on that experience, as well as evidence from a national literature review and the expertise of the local, state and national leaders involved in Launch, the first collaborative publication from the Launch partners Conditions For Sustainable and Equitable Pathways Systems synthesizes these conditions to provide a framework for college and career pathways system leaders to follow as they pursue accessible, sustainable high- quality pathways systems at scale.
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