Opportunity Austin: College and Career Readiness and Placement

This Impact Plan captures Austin’s Opportunity for All goal to accomplish near universal readiness and placement of area high school graduates either into post-secondary education or the high-performance workplace.

CAP (College Access & Persistence) and Gown: Building Community Connections to Increase Postsecondary Degree Attainment

A deep-dive study of a state or region to highlight where in the pipeline students are most likely to fall through the cracks, followed by a playbook of recommendations to address systemic opportunities. Consideration of both K-12 and postsecondary lenses.

Developing a Purpose-Driven Approach to Learning

The move from consumption to competency is starting to take shape at all levels of education, though the process is slow. In this paper, we will explore how this much needed change can be accelerated.

How Policymakers Can Support Equal Learning Opportunities Beyond the Bell

A policy paper on an enrichment-allowance program where parents whose children qualify based on income or other risk factors (e.g. foster care) would be able to receive a monetary allocation, administered by a third party (a nonprofit or a government agency) to access out‑of‑school enrichment opportunities.

A More Enterprising Approach: How Public Trusts Can Help Address School Facility Challenges

A policy paper describing the creation of real estate trusts to manage real estate holdings and make space available for schools, clinics, childcare centers, and other community organizations. This trust would centralize how schools (traditional and charter) obtain real estate by using a third party to assess the school’s need for space and match that need with available space that has been acquired within the respective jurisdiction.

Redefining the Measurement of Early Childhood Program Quality and Child Outcomes

This Impact Plan seeks to identify a common set of indicators observed in high-quality early childhood programs that correlate to long-term academic and workplace success outcomes. This would enable early childhood programs to be consistent in accurately targeting meaningful elements of quality and actions for improvement.

Fast Track To and Through College Act

This Impact Plan develops for students academically prepared at the end of 11^th grade two new pathways to fast track to college. Pathway (1) offers a 4+3 model of high school to and through college (4 years of high school & 3 years of college), whereas Pathway (2) offers a 3+4 model (3 years of high school & 4 years of college). In both cases, savings would be generated that could reform traditional 12^th grade courses.

Stop Remediation Before It Starts

This Impact Plan redesigns the 12^th grade year utilizing “transition” courses that provide opportunities to catch up on knowledge/skills not yet mastered. These courses would be co-developed by K-12 and higher education educators to ensure they meet the required level of rigor to succeed in entry-level college courses.

GoGetter Online Skilled Trades Community

This Impact Plan seeks to increase the supply of workers in skilled trades by recruiting young people to these careers, and build a more effective online connection tool between individual students and workers, businesses looking for employees to hire, and organizations which provide services to these individuals and businesses.

Policy That Enables Pay-for-Performance Dropout Recovery Programs to Re-engage Opportunity Youth

This Impact Plan outlines a “Pay-for-Performance” dropout recovery program with an open process to identify statewide providers who would receive compensation based on students completing accredited courses, earning diplomas and certificates, and job placement.

Coordinated Care for the Whole Child – Sustainability Model

The Impact Plan aims to expand its “Coordinated Care for the Whole Child Program,” a program designed to remove the physical, mental and social health barriers to learning, to more schools in Louisiana. The proposal includes leveraging the use of Medicaid dollars to support service provision.

Mapping the Knowledge Domains in ELA Curricula

This Impact Plan describes a tool to analyze an ELA curriculum by “mapping” the knowledge domains that are implicit in the selection of the texts to be read. The analysis and reports provide critical resources that enable leaders to make the best ELA curricular decisions for the students they serve.

Parents as Change Agents: Deepening Connections between Schools and Families so Parents Know What Schools Know about Student Achievement

The Impact Plan seeks to “road test” in a local setting the Readiness Check, an interactive tool that gives parents a “gut check” on how their child has mastered the foundational skills needed for success as they progress from grade to grade.

A Comprehensive Policy & Practice Approach to Serving Adult Learners & Meeting Workforce Demands

The Impact Plan captures their program, WorkReady U, as part of a system of public community and technical colleges coordinating to offer a series of state and institutional policies to solve social and economic challenges.

STEMpath: Advancing STEM Education through Educators

The Impact Plan creates a graduate-level teacher certification program in STEM (e.g. computer science), starting in Colorado. This certification program would combine coursework and industry externships.

A Blueprint for Educating Students with Disabilities in Portfolio School Districts

The Impact Plan outlines a robust and multi-pronged blueprint to educate students with disabilities well in portfolio districts.

An Early Learning Movement to Advance Hispanic School Readiness

This Impact Plan seeks to build a resource for Hispanic families on how to engage with the early childhood system and what to expect to help children get ready for academic success.

Neuroteach Global

This Impact Plan seeks to design and launch a professional development tool using technology to revolutionize how educators develop their understanding of the Science of Learning and their ability to translate research into actions through virtual micro-learning experiences.

Closing the skills gap through last-mile training

To address the technological skills gap, the Impact Plan opens up Pell Grant eligibility to “Last-Mile” training programs. Last-Mile Training takes a Design Thinking approach to the skills gap: designing backwards from good entry-level jobs rather than forward from high school.