Home - Education Systems Center | Northern Illinois University

We Work At the Intersection of Policy & Practice

College & Career
Pathways

We build and support coalitions that align education and workforce preparation with state or regional economic needs

Data &
Outcomes

We establish performance measures that build a consensus for collecting, merging, and reporting data across multiple agencies

Education & Workforce
Policy

We develop policies that support successful student transitions from high school and postsecondary education into careers

Est. in 2013 to respond to a need for a community-level approach to Pathways implementation that was aligned to the implementation of the new Learning Standards and high school to college transition activities.
Provides assistance and aligned funding to communities across the state.

New and exciting strain of work around addressing the youth employment gap
Aligning business and youth needs through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the work of business-facing youth employment intermediaries,

Building high-quality pathways that equip students to thrive in college, career, and beyond.
Engage multiple stakeholders in aligning secondary and postsecondary education with career opportunities in high-demand industries.
Enables students to graduate from high school with a credential valuable in the labor market, as well as pursue a two- or four-year degree

Various programmatic areas to develop career pathway systems at the state and regional level
National movement to empower learners to explore, progress through, and transition from high quality, structured career pathway systems into rewarding careers that are powered by critical growth areas

New mechanism for education to employment alignment in Sub-Saharan Africa
Struggling economies and underfunded schools are encouraged to manage public resources effectively and business partners are encouraged to play a meaningful role in developing a talent pipeline

In 2011, Illinois launched the Illinois Pathways initiative, which was designed around strategies that align State resources and support regions to create career pathway systems that reflect the labor market needs of their communities
Provides the foundation for regional work on Workforce, Innovation, and Opportunity Act (WIOA) regional planning, community economic development planning across the state, and crucial public-private partnerships to drive employer engagement with young people.

This was such a great panel! Big thanks to the students and advocates who shared their stories and insights. #edequity twitter.com/ErinSteva/stat…

The #PWRact of 2016 represented a sea change in how we approach #collegeandcareerreadiness in IL. One of its 4 core components are the #competencyed pilots being supported by @ISBEnews across the state twitter.com/nacol/status/1…

Spending this afternoon sharing lessons from our IL #PWRAct & other #collegeandcareerpathways policy work & the @GLCCPP w/@JoyceFdn @ConnectEdOrg @Getting_Smart to help districts in the Kansas City region think through their approach

We'll be there tonight at @BG_Bison This is a great opportunity to learn about how the State is approaching #CTE planning & to provide input. We'll be looking out for how #equity, #collegeandcareerpathways, #workbasedlearning, & the #PWRAct are incorporated for #studentsuccess twitter.com/ISBEnews/statu…

Our Q4 Team Retreat is well underway! We've got big plans for how to wrap up 2019 with deep work on #collegeandcareerpathways, #bridgestopostsecondary, & #data Thanks to @BG_Bison for hosting us! pic.twitter.com/okJWrE7HRs

We're proud to be a part of the IL team working on how to develop a thoughtful Perkins plan that drives #collegeandcareerreadiness & #equity! twitter.com/jasonklein/sta…