Collaborating to Improve Statewide Career Preparation Systems in Rhode Island

Abstract

In January 2017, it was announced that Rhode Island was one of 10 states to win a $2 million grant for increasing career readiness. The state would use this grant to fund PrepareRI: A Unified Action Plan for Career Readiness, which called for the examination of Rhode Island’s current K-12 career education practices and pathways and their alignment with industry need. The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) was responsible for various parts of that plan, including assembling a group called “PrepareRI Ambassadors,” a cohort of educators tasked with developing the resources and toolkits necessary for improving career education statewide. This capstone documents the process by which the PrepareRI Ambassador cohort was assembled and reveals that this process is best achieved through collaboration. It also reveals that this same collaborative process can be used to initiate new relationships in the public sector while strengthening those relationships that already exist.