Pathways | January Newsletter

Dear Colleagues –

In December I wrote a bit about the foundational components of our strategy: high-quality dual enrollment, college- and career-centric advising, and cross-sector collaboration. These pieces have been part of our puzzle since the official launch of the Pathways strategy in 2021. We’re looking forward to building on them with three big focus areas over the next few years, all centered on getting young people access to the opportunities they need to design the future they want.

We believe in this work and our board does too. Our 2025 budget for this work has grown by 60% compared to last year. With that funding behind us, we’ll be:

Expanding our work in states and regions, both rural and urban, red and blue, big and small.

• Accelerate ED has taught us that regionally relevant, high-quality dual enrollment programs plus career-connected pathways work; the combo effectively gives students a head start on their futures. Over the next few years we’ll keep learning from this network, especially as established programs scale up and evolve.
  
  
• We’ll be going deeper in states where educators are innovating to prepare students for great futures. For example: in Massachusetts where an Early College Promise program is helping high school students earn credits and explore their options to earn valuable 4-year degrees without debt. We’ll also be doing lots of work in California, Texas, and our own home state of Washington—which will give us a broad perspective on what’s possible in different contexts.

Focusing on how tech can improve advising and credit mobility:

• Pilots like the Hybrid Advising Co-op demonstrated the potential to blend tech and human support to guide students at critical moments. We know advising works, and we know that students are already turning to GPTs for guidance. We’re excited to learn how tech, including AI, can help students access helpful, accurate advice at any time.
  
  
• Credit mobility is complex. It’s not just about a tech solution to sort out course equivalencies—it also takes policy and practice change at multiple levels. But, that said, the tech part is key. We’re excited about progress being made by the CUNY system to make it more possible for dual enrollment and community college students to get credit for the learning they’ve done.

Supporting the pathways ecosystem with more thoughtful coordination among key players.

• Past reform movements such as GradNation and Guided Pathways have shown us that simple ideas (increase high school graduation rates; help college students make coherent plans) can have transformational effects when spread far and wide, and with foundational research and implementation support. Alongside the Walton Family Foundation, we’re investing in a new entity, the Pathways Impact Fund, incubated by Strive Together, to spread another simple idea: all students should get on a promising path during high school.

I couldn’t be more excited about the work we have ahead. Let’s make 2025 a year of big wins for students.

Thanks for reading.

Patrick Methvin,
Director, Pathways and Postsecondary Success Strategies