National Council for Workforce Education Conference October 22, 2012 Long Beach, CA

1. Building Benchmarks and Metrics for Quality Career Pathways: A State-Led ApproachVickie Choitz and Marcie Foster, CLASP National Council for Workforce Education Conference October 22, 2012 Long Beach, CA

2. CLASP: Policy Solutions that Work for Low-Income People • CLASP develops and advocates for policies that improve the lives of low-income people. • Our Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success, launched in 2010, advocates for policies, investments, and political will that help increase the number of income adults and out-of-school youth who earn postsecondary credentials. • CLASP managed the Shifting Gears initiative and provided technical assistance to the six partner states. Shifting Gears supported state-level inter-agency teams to build pathways to postsecondary credentials for low-skilled adults in the Midwest.

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4. Career Pathways: A Brief Historical Perspective • Rooted in longstanding approaches (apprenticeships, career ladders) and expanded to include low-skilled adults and out-of-school youth over time. • Backed by early signs of success through welfare-to-work evaluations of programs that combined basic skills instruction with occupational training. • Increased awareness though major reports on career pathways in community colleges and sectors by the Workforce Strategy Center, Aspen Institute. • Seeded innovation and took to scale promising practices through large-scale, multi-site initiatives supporting career pathways and other strategies: • Bridges to Opportunity, NGA Pathways to Advancement, Breaking Through, Shifting Gears, Transitions to College and Careers • Backed by federal Guidance and technical assistance (Career Pathways Institute, Joint Letter, competitive grants). • Evaluation of CP Success through Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency (ISIS). • New efforts to scale promising I-BEST practices through Accelerating Opportunity.

5. A National Movement • At least 12 states have significant career pathway efforts aimed at adults or out of school youth. • AR, CA, FL, KY, IL, MA, OH, OR, VA, WA, WI • At least 12 states have significant career pathway bridge initiatives. • IL, IN, KY, KS, MD, MN, NC, OH, OR, VA, WA, WI • Hundreds of local, career-focused basic skills bridge programs, according to 2010 WSC bridge survey. Little uniformity.

6. Career Pathways: The State of the Field • Significant experimentation at the local and state level • Early promising evidence of student success, credential attainment, and positive labor market outcomes • Increasing interest in scaling, yet confusing array of guidance on best practices and policies • Urgency to build new programs and systems because of labor market needs and economic imperative for workers = Aneed to develop evidence-based understanding of high quality career pathway systems to move the field forward and ensure quality.

7. State Career Pathway System Career Pathway Systems v. Programs • Alignedprogram in local CP • Alignedprogram in local CP • Alignedprogram in local CP Types of Local Career Pathway Systems Local Career Pathway in a Single Institution • Aligned program in local CP Multiple aligned programs in local CP

8. The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways • The goal of AQCP is to identify a framework that defines a high-quality career pathway system, including: • Benchmarks and quality indicators • Shared set of performance metrics for measuring and managing their success. • 10 Alliance States: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. • National Advisory Group of ~10 national organizations. • CLASP is the lead and facilitator.

9. The Alliance for Quality Career Pathways (cont.) • The final product of AQCP will be a customizable framework and self-assessment tool that can be used to: • Enhance quality of existing career pathway efforts; • Fast track and improve new career pathway efforts; and • Inform evaluation(s) of career pathway efforts. • A beta framework will be launched in Spring 2013; Final work will be completed in 2014 after Alliance states have tested the appropriateness and usefulness of the benchmarks, indicators, and metrics.

10. Building from Previous Work to Define Components of Career Pathways • The foundation of the AQCP framework will be the previous work of partner organizations in the National Advisory Group and other leader stakeholders, including but not limited to: • Six Key Elements of Career Pathways, U.S. Department of Labor, 2012; • Framework for Developing a System of Linked Learning Pathways, ConnectEd, 2011; • Guide to Adult Education for Work, National Center on Education and the Economy, 2009; and • The Career Pathways How-To Guide, Workforce Strategy Center, 2006. • Do you have suggestions?

11. Career Pathway Systems: Core Elements and Overarching Principles

12. Career Pathway Systems: Core Elements and Overarching Principles

13. Responsive to LM and target pop’s Data driven Alignment Sustainability & scale Employers and partners Shared vision/strong leadership Data driven Sustainability & scale Alignment Responsive to LM and target pop’s Employers and partners Shared vision/strong leadership

14. Test Case: Benchmarks and Quality Indicators • Core Element: Strong academic and non-academic supports and navigation assistance to help participants move through the system. • Benchmark: Program staff and/or instructors work with students to identify career goals and personal, financial, and academic barriers to their persistence and success in the program. • Quality Indicator: Students have identified a career goal and potential barriers to persistence and success. • Benchmark:There is a systemic and transparent method by which students are referred to and can access supportive services within an institution or through partners, such as community-based partners. • Quality Indicator: Students have accessed necessary supportive services to ensure persistence in the program. The examples above are for illustrative purposes only. They are not representative of the final Alliance framework.

15. How to Learn More and Get Involved with AQCP • If your state is an Alliance member, contact your state lead to identify ways to participate in your “home team” (contact Marcie for name). • Sign up to receive the AQCP bi-annual newsletter with updates on the Alliance’s progress and relevant career pathways materials. • Visit our website: www.clasp.org/careerpathways.

16. Thank you! Contact Us: Vickie Choitz, Project Directorvchoitz@clasp.org Marcie Foster, Assistant Project Director mwmfoster@clasp.org Visit our Website: www.clasp.org/careerpathways Sign up to receive a bi-annual newsletter regarding the progress on AQCP and other relevant career pathways news.

17. Continuous Improvement Performance Measurement Benchmarks Core Elements of Quality Programs Quality Indicators Indicators of Progress Toward Desired Participant Outcomes “Leading Indicators” Interim Outcomes (tentative) Evidence-Based Indicators of Progress Toward Desired Participant Outcomes Performance Metrics Indicators of Desired Participant Outcomes “Lagging Indicators”