Since 2015, EdSystems has supported partners in Lake County to increase postsecondary attainment through the region’s involvement in the Illinois Education and Career Success Network. In 2023, the region expressed a need for targeted support for alignment to the Illinois College and Career Pathway Endorsement and work-based learning.
Our Role
In 2023–2024, EdSystems provided strategic counsel to Waukegan CUSD 60 to map college and career pathway frameworks in priority sectors and support the implementation and scaling of the pathways based on the Illinois Model Programs of Study Guides. Following EdSystems’ backward-mapping approach, the work included desk research on labor market information and consultation with regional employers to identify high-priority occupations, identifying aligned, promising credentials and strategic early college courses available through College of Lake County, and then mapping an ideal sequence of secondary and postsecondary coursework for Waukegan High School students.
In 2024–2025, EdSystems is launching a regional initiative, based on our work with Waugekan CUSD 60, to develop a comprehensive college and career pathway system. The initiative will support districts in meeting the requirements of HB3296 while ensuring the college and career pathways designed in the region are high-quality: offering students robust early college credits through the College of Lake County, opportunities to build social capital and essential skills through work-based learning, and credentials and degrees that lead to living-wage careers that meet industry demands in the region. This work will build on and align existing efforts of Lake County’s workforce ecosystem, including those of the Lake County Workforce Development Board, Lake County Partners, College of Lake County (including the High School Alliance and monthly dual credit advisory group), University Center of Lake County, Lake County Regional Office of Education, Lake County Tech Campus and the region’s high schools. Together with our Increasing Dual Enrollment Access and Success project, these efforts will better and more equitably prepare Lake County students for college and career success.
Designing Regional Model Programs of Study
Building on the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy report from Lake County Partners, current labor market information, and existing college and career pathway infrastructures, EdSystems will work with key stakeholders from the Lake County workforce ecosystem to identify three to five priority industry sectors for the development of a regional model pathway system. The regional model system will align with Illinois’ College and Career Pathway Endorsement framework and build on EdSystems’ work with state agency partners to develop the State of Illinois Model Programs of Study Guides. The result will be a framework that high schools across the county can use to develop and implement high-quality pathways leading to living-wage careers in Lake County. That framework will include:
- Identifying priority early college credit coursework and credentials foundational to the industry area and well-situated for regional scaling and articulation.
- Ensuring the industry-specific competencies defined in the statewide Model Programs of Study Guides are incorporated in the program of study course sequences to prepare students for the future of work in that industry area.
- Incorporating regional opportunities for meaningful work-based learning that fit the College and Career Pathway Endorsement standards.
For each college and career pathway, EdSystems will work with regional leaders to identify a set of promising credentials, i.e., certificates and degree programs offered by the College of Lake County, which hold significant value in the regional labor market and are promising options for students to pursue. EdSystems will then tabulate the courses in those programs, identifying the most common courses applicable to the promising credentials. EdSystems will also obtain baseline information on existing pathways from the partner districts, including courses offered, existing early college opportunities, teacher qualifications, and college readiness indicators of the student body. A deeper analysis by EdSystems will then identify the strategic early college courses foundational to the targeted pathways and gauge their feasibility for expansion based on course eligibility criteria, existing teacher credentials within secondary districts, and scheduling barriers at partner districts.
EdSystems will then support the development of regional model pathway course sequences that (a) incorporate the most strategic early college courses, (b) enable students to have access to 15 or more hours of early college credit, (c) align to the College and Career Pathway Endorsements framework, and (d) address Illinois’ Essential Employability and Technical Competencies.
EdSystems will also support the region in defining the course approval processes and supports needed for implementation and strategies for scaling throughout the district partners.
Once regional model pathway maps are established, future work will include supporting individual districts in customizing them to reflect their unique pathways and support implementation.
Defining and Scaling Work-Based Learning
While various regional partners have programs expanding work-based and experiential learning opportunities, no clearly defined continuum of these activities or a regional strategy for coordinating and scaling them exists. EdSystems will support the Lake County workforce ecosystem by defining a continuum aligned with state policies and definitions. Then, EdSystems will recommend quality criteria for the various experiences and work with regional leaders to develop a strategy for scaling throughout the region. Building on the Lake County Workforce Development Board’s efforts to catalog internship opportunities in a heatmap, our work-based learning supports will include:
- Support district partners in inventorying current work-based learning offerings through a survey developed by EdSystems.
- Aligning regional work-based activities with the defined Illinois continuum of employer engagement and work-based learning experiences.
- Using the definitions provided in Illinois’ Career Pathways Dictionary, establish quality indicators for related work-based learning experiences on the continuum. Quality indicators should include the established Essential Employability and Technical Competencies.
- Include work-based learning opportunities offered by individual districts and the College of Lake County for high school students, i.e. the college’s regional team-based challenges.
- Determine any PD or training needed to ensure systemic awareness of expectations for quality.
- Map out the current state of processes for students to participate in work-based learning experiences and determine the ideal state to work towards to ensure experiences are meeting the needs of both students and partners.
- Determine the data collection methods to capture and report student and partner participation in work-based learning.
- Develop flowchart documents for (a) students and families on how to get involved in work-based learning, (b) workforce partners on how to support work-based learning, and (c) faculty and staff on how to students connect to opportunities and enroll them in a work-based learning experience.
- Determine any needed PD or training to ensure systemic awareness of accessing and participating in work-based learning.
