When Systems Align, Learners Succeed

The learner is at the heart of all we do at Ascendium, but for learners to succeed, we must connect and align the systems that create and shape a learner’s journey. We must ensure agencies, organizations, and individuals work together to strengthen and align education and workforce opportunities. Only after fixing these systems will we create open paths to employment in high pay, high demand fields that provide learners with upward mobility.

Unfortunately, far too many learners do not have access to such pathways. There are many reasons for this, but much of it stems from the disconnections among postsecondary education, workforce training, and employment. That is why, as a nation, we have:

• Over 40 million Americans who have some postsecondary credit but no postsecondary credential (Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center).
• Military veterans whose education and experiences while in service are often not recognized by postsecondary institutions or employers (Source: American Institutes for Research).
• Rural learners who need postsecondary education and workforce opportunities that connect to good jobs and allow them to remain in their communities (Source: Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges).

I am acutely aware of these problems, and the state and system level disconnects that lie upstream from them. I spent over a decade working at the multi-state level to create better connections, reciprocity, interoperability, and consistency in higher education policies and practices. At the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, I led initiatives to align state dual enrollment policy with practice; created reciprocity for institutional state authorization to facilitate wider and easier access to online education; brought consistency to the development, use, and assessment of open educational resources; and facilitated the use of a common language to describe and catalogue postsecondary credentials.

It is this experience that brings me to my new position as the Deputy Director of the Connect and Align Systems strategy at Ascendium. Under this strategy, we work to help states create the enabling conditions to better support learners from low-income backgrounds in achieving a credential that puts them on a path to upward mobility. We award grants that connect data systems to help verify and document learners’ skills and accomplishments; coordinate higher education, workforce, corrections, and community-based entities to improve the delivery of postsecondary education in prison; improve the ability of learners to transfer credits across institutions and systems; and support states in aligning public education and workforce training resources with employer needs, particularly in rural areas.

Connecting and aligning systems is foundational to all of our grantmaking. When data, policies, and practices are coordinated, education and training opportunities and student supports become more effective. Our Connect and Align Systems grantmaking will address critical learner transition points where system fragmentation continues to impact success.

• In the area of credit mobility, we aim to support systems, practices, policies, and technologies that allow more learners to receive credit for their learning from prior postsecondary institutions, workforce training organizations, and employers. This will allow learners to spend less time repeating coursework, save money on redundant coursework and training, and reskill or upskill without having to start over. Their paths will be shorter, less expensive, and more flexible.
• In the area of prison education, we support work to create collaborations within and among states that will result in high quality educational opportunities for learners in all prisons. We envision a cohesive system in which learners have education opportunities that lead seamlessly to post-release opportunities for additional learning and/or employment in high value, high demand jobs. Learners with a history of incarceration will be able to access the opportunities that truly provide them with a fresh start.
• In the area of dual enrollment, we will support better connections between K-12 and postsecondary education systems, collaborations within the postsecondary ecosystem, alignment of programs and pathways from K-12 to and through postsecondary education on to the workforce, and the alignment of state policies and funding with the goals and practices of dual enrollment. Our grantmaking will largely sit in the data, policy, and practice space between K-12 and higher education. We are especially interested in work that results in more high-quality dual enrollment opportunities for students in rural areas where postsecondary educational options are often limited. Learners who are early in their education and career pathways will have choices and opportunities that lead to reliable, valuable outcomes in higher education and/or the workplace, regardless of where they live.

We know that a learner’s path is never simple and that disconnected systems make it even harder. We know that by connecting systems we can help learners succeed. And we can only be successful because of the work of our grantee partners. This is hard and incredibly important work, and we are grateful to all who share our commitment.