Creating Common Assignments: The Impact of Teacher Designed Instructional Units

The foundation’s new director of Education Pathways, Cheryl Hyman, takes the pen in this month’s newsletter, sharing about her background and the values and motivation she brings to this work. In other news, two new reports on dual enrollment shed light on essential aspects of quality as seen in cities across the U.S. of quality and unpack how Indiana integrated new dual enrollment classes into their early college programs while maintaining AP class options. Plus, a new commission kicks off their work to better define and connect experiences that put students on strong, coherent pathways.

The United States has made progress in increasing postsecondary attainment – rising from rising from 38% in 2008 to over 53% today. There’s still work to be done, and this effort requires alignment across philanthropy, policy, and practice around a shared goal: ensuring more students complete credentials that lead to meaningful opportunity and mobility.

The “four-year college vs. everything else” frame around postsecondary education is both binary and unhelpful. A more helpful frame is to think about programs in terms of their purpose and payoff. A recent report from Excel in Ed shows a more holistic way of thinking about programs that expose students to a range of education and career options and outlines some essential ingredients for a quality, structured pathway.