Fall 2021 Pathways to Prosperity Network Institute Materials

Opening Plenary

This session considers how we can drive innovation in our collective pathways work and further blur the boundaries between high school and college.

From Report to Action: An Introduction to Pathways to Prosperity

Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century was published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011. A year later, Harvard and JFF launched the Pathways to Prosperity Network in collaboration with state and regional leaders from across the country. This session provides an overview of the research and data making the case for Pathways to Prosperity. We also share our Pathways to Prosperity Network’s goals and strategies—and how they have evolved over time.

What is the “New Normal”? Reframing College & Career Readiness for the COVID Generation

This session on secondary-postsecondary integration addresses how the pandemic has changed (and continues to change) the nature of school and learning, workforce needs and opportunities, and the modes, norms, and value of work for a generation of learners. Given these new realities, we reflect on how the "new normal” for school, work, and career will shift how they operate and why.

When and How Can We Use Remote or Virtual Work-Based Learning to Help Scale Work-Based Learning Delivery Systems?

This session explores how remote or virtual work-based learning (WBL) can support scaling WBL systems. This includes identifying when remote or virtual WBL works for students and employers and when it doesn’t, and what lessons we should take from transitions to remote or virtual WBL as we think about high-quality WBL in the future.

Policy and Leadership for the Future: Toward Improved Transitions

This session explore what alignment and incentives are needed to move us forward toward the vision outlined in the Big Blur. It prompts us to consider the policy changes and leadership structures it would take to develop more seamless and equitable transitions—or eliminate these transitions altogether—between high school and college and the worlds of education and work.

How an Intermediary's Identity Shapes, and is Shaped by, its Work with Secondary and Postsecondary Education

Drawing on insights gathered from leading regional, state, and national initiatives, this session explores how an intermediary's functions and features—its identity—shape the work that it does (and vice versa), especially at the intersection of secondary and postsecondary education.

What is the “System” in Career Navigation Systems? The Challenge of Building "Next-Generation" Career Navigation Systems

By leaving career navigation to individuals faced with structural discrimination from K-12 through the labor market, we are defaulting to inequitable systems. This session asks: What are the opportunities in and challenges to creating and strengthening systems that help all students—rather than put the onus on them individually to navigate education and career transitions on an uneven playing field, achieve and maintain economic security and mobility, and support their needs, passions, skills, and values?

Anna O’Connor, a director at JFF, closes out the Fall Institute and provides an update on our next Institute in the spring of 2022.