In 2025, the Illinois Education and Career Success Network (Success Network) continued to expand its reach and impact by welcoming new communities, hosting thoughtful convenings, engaging students, and supporting its Leadership Communities to make strides toward regional and state postsecondary attainment goals. Under the leadership of the Network Organizers, Advance Illinois, Education Systems Center at NIU, and the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the Success Network also updated its data dashboard and explored policy and practice. Highlights include:
Welcoming Two New Leadership Communities
Network Organizers were thrilled to welcome two new Leadership Communities.
- Led by Prairie State College and the Career Preparation Network, the Chicago Southland Collaborative for Education brings expertise in dual credit with established career pathways, regional-based collaboration, apprenticeships and internships, and career counseling.
- Highland Region Pathways to Success, led by Highland Community College, ROE 8, and Northwest Illinois Economic Development, brings expertise in employer engagement, career pathway development, postsecondary partnerships, and dual credit programs.
Supporting Leadership Communities
To further support Leadership Communities, the Success Network brought Leadership Communities together for two in-person gatherings—one in Peoria for communities in southern and central Illinois, and another in the northwest suburbs for communities in northern and western Illinois.
Communities dug into disaggregated data from the Success Network Dashboard to uncover which student groups need the most support. From there, conversations shifted to action as communities explored how to make a real difference for these students.
With Network Organizers facilitating discussions and capturing key takeaways, participants had space to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from peers across the state. Attendees valued connecting data to their goals, identifying concrete next steps, and gaining inspiration from other regions. For example, in one region, the community college is collaborating with its school district partners to review data from both the college’s data warehouse and the Success Network Dashboard to identify successes and areas for improvement in students’ access to dual credit courses across the region. The review has revealed that dual credit opportunities are unevenly distributed across the region, highlighting the need to consider reimbursing, or partially reimbursing, teachers for graduate courses.
Network Organizers also continued to support communities in enhancing their work on college and career pathways.
- Community colleges received support through an initiative led by EdSystems to develop explicit college incentives for College and Career Pathway Endorsement (CCPE) earners. The Leadership Community collaboratives funded in 2025 are Lake County (College of Lake County), NCI/Starved Rock Region (Illinois Central College), and Rockford (Rock Valley College). John A. Logan College, McHenry College, Prairie State College, and South Suburban College also joined the cohort. Learn how these colleges are rewarding college and career pathway earners with incentives such as scholarships and tuition waivers.
- In partnership with the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association Education Foundation, EdSystems continued to support the Chicago, Northwest Suburbs, Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford, Belvidere, and Sauk Valley Leadership Communities’ participation in the Scaling Transformative Advanced Manufacturing Pathways (STAMP) initiative. STAMP strengthens manufacturing pathways that articulate to community college programs and employment opportunities, focusing on under-represented students with one or more barriers to education, training, and employment. A data brief from EdSystems describes the results of this work.
- EdSystems continued to support two Leadership Communities, Lake County and Southern Illinois Region, in the second cohort of districts implementing Accelerated Model Pathways for Information Technology (AMP-IT). AMP-IT supports school districts in accelerating and deepening aspects of their existing IT pathways by designing opportunities for high school students to earn more than 15 hours of early college credit that seamlessly stack into associate and bachelor’s degree programs. AMP-IT also offered districts the opportunity to participate in a teacher credentialing program to increase the number of teachers eligible to teach dual credit courses in Information Technology. EdSystems continues to identify and elevate learnings since the initial case study to inform further scaling.
Updating the Success Network Dashboard
Based on feedback from Leadership Communities, the Success Network Dashboard expanded to include data views on Career and Technical Education (CTE) by EFE region. Network Organizers documented how the dashboard supports the work of Leadership Communities through Insights from the Success Network Leadership Communities Regional Meetings.
Engaging the Student Advisory Council
Network Organizers continued to grow and support the Success Network’s Student Advisory Council (SAC). In spring, 16 new members joined, replacing those who had graduated. Each fall, students learn about the PaCE Student Checklist from the ISAC Student Portal. Learn how the newest cohort shared information about the resources with their peers. This past year, the SAC also explored financial aid and tools to help plan for life after high school, discussed labor market information and how to identify a good job, and heard from SAC alumni about lessons learned since leaving high school.
Our goal for convening the SAC is to ensure that policy and practices center on students’ experiences. To that end, we invite SAC members to present at our annual conference each year. In 2025, the SAC shared their insights on preparing students for life after high school during the lunch plenary, then further explained how they engaged their peers in surveys about College and Career Pathway Endorsements and Career and Technical Education opportunities during a breakout session. For the 2026 conference, SAC leaders are preparing to present research on their schools’ college and career readiness metrics, including qualitative data gathered through surveys and focus groups.
Exploring Policy and Practice with the Policy Committee
The Success Network hosted quarterly meetings and a data deep dive with the Policy Committee to continue raising awareness of current policy issues, gather input for refinement, and identify new areas for exploration. Through a series of workgroup meetings, the group developed and released two memos: Addressing Challenges to College and Career Pathway Endorsement (CCPE) Implementation and Local Practices to Support CCPE Implementation. The committee encourages local leaders to consider implementing the highlighted local strategies, advocate for systemic solutions, and continue robust discussion on improving CCPE implementation for the benefit of students statewide.
Hosting the Annual Conference
The Success Network hosted its annual conference in February 2025 with 300 registrants. The conference theme was Building the Future We Want: Ensuring Equitable Postsecondary Attainment. Dr. Wil del Pilar, Senior Vice President at EdTrust, discussed the systemic opportunity gaps affecting students of color and students from low-income communities in Illinois. He also used data to highlight trends and actionable solutions at the institutional, state, and federal levels to advance postsecondary attainment.
Following the conference, the Success Network hosted supplemental webinars, attended by more than 300 attendees. The sessions are designed to build on the conference’s theme while reaching a broader audience who couldn’t attend in person. Topics included “Communicating the Value of Postsecondary Options to High School Students,” “Building Pathways to Career, Connection, and Choice,” and “Centering Students through Human-Centered Design.” (View the recordings.)
Work for the 2026 conference is well underway. On February 26, the Success Network will host an in-person conference at Moraine Valley Community College. The theme is Stronger Together: Creating Opportunity for Every Learner. Check out the agenda and register.
Looking Back and Looking Ahead
As we close out 2025, we will take stock of the state’s progress towards the 60 by 25 goal and look forward to what might come next to spur collaborative work across the state to improve education, employment, and economic development.
We look forward to connecting with you in 2026!
