The Pathways to Prosperity Network and the Role of Nonprofits in Leading and Supporting States’ Implementation of Ambitious Education Reform

Abstract

For my residency, I served as the Director of the Pathways to Prosperity Network (PtoP Network), a multistate initiative co-led by Jobs for the Future (JFF) and the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) that focuses on “ensuring that many more young people complete high school, attain a postsecondary credential with currency in the labor market, and launch into a career while leaving open the prospect of further education” (HGSE, 2012). JFF, my residency partner organization, is a national nonprofit that works with states, districts, and other partners to “design and drive the adoption of education and career pathways leading from college readiness to career advancement for those struggling to succeed in today’s economy” (JFF, 2013). The primary guiding questions for my residency were: “How does a state take a good idea and put it into practice with measurable outcomes on the ground?” and “What is the role of nonprofits in supporting and sustaining education improvements at the state and local levels?” The PtoP Network provided me with ample opportunity to exercise leadership by exploring and implementing responses to both of these questions. In 2011, HGSE released the report Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century, which challenged our nation’s “excessive focus on the four-year college pathway, arguing that we need to create additional pathways that combine rigorous academics with strong technical education to equip…young people with the skills and credentials to succeed in our increasingly challenging labor market” (HGSE, 2012). Launched in the summer of 2012, the PtoP Network was created in response to states’ expressed interest in doing something about the data and implications of the Pathways report. The PtoP Network is comprised of six states in the first cohort (summer 2012: Illinois, Maine, Masschusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee), and four states in the second cohort (winter 2013: California, Georgia, New York, and Ohio), with several other states requesting to join that are currently under consideration. Each state selected one to three regions in which to launch the PtoP initiative, with the goal of developing frameworks and guiding principles for building comprehensive career pathways that will be scaled statewide. JFF/HGSE organizes and guides the PtoP Network, provides technical assistance and resources for systems-level designs of grades 9 through 14 career pathways, and builds the capacity of states and regions to create, lead, and sustain the initiative. Through this strategic project, I am both helping to guide nine states through the change process of translating an idea for educational improvement into policy and practice, and investigating the role of nonprofit organizations in sparking, promoting, and sustaining change within states and state agencies. I describe in my capstone how I apply research about state education agencies, college and career readiness, implementation strategies, and adaptive leadership into practice through my role with the PtoP Network. While the Network itself is still in planning, development, and early implementation stages, it provides a helpful and hopeful model for substantively changing and improving the education sector.