Career Development Experience Toolkit
The Career Development Experience Toolkit, aligned to the PWR Act, supports scaling high-quality career pathways and work-based learning.
Our Work
Focus Areas
College & Career Pathways
- Scaling and strengthening College and Career Pathway Endorsements, aligned programs of study, and work-based learning systems
- Defining and implementing pathway models and competencies that prepare students for promising credentials and careers
- Establishing a comprehensive and supportive state policy environment
Bridges to Postsecondary
- Steering the scaling of Transitional Math and English
- Fostering dual credit partnerships
- Building systems for youth to demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed for postsecondary success
Data Impact & Leadership
- Strengthening state- and community-level data capacity and systems
- Delivering integrated data through tools for practitioners, policymakers, and youth
- Engaging with communities to utilize quantitative and qualitative data and evidence to inform pathways and transitions into postsecondary; and establishing evaluation frameworks to assess and improve policy and program implementation
Our Approach
Statewide
We form and lead key interagency and public-private collaborations that drive policy priorities, deepen public system integration, grow public and private financial support, and enable integrated data to inform continuous improvement.
Community Networks
We build networks that connect communities to policy frameworks, by providing in-depth technical assistance, facilitation, and policy support. These communities serve as exemplars to inform our state policy efforts.
Innovation
We spearhead innovative education and workforce models aimed at tackling systemic inequities and positioned to scale to regional and statewide implementation.
Our Projects
Chicago Equity-Centered Innovation Forum
The Chicago Equity-Centered Innovation Forum promotes models of personalized instruction, competency-based approaches, performance assessments, project-based learning, and other emerging innovations that provide promising education frameworks.
College and Career Pathway Endorsements
Education Systems Center worked with public and private stakeholders to define key competencies for the College and Career Pathway Endorsements and is now working with community networks to support implementation of endorsement systems in line with the PWR Act.
Expanding Elgin’s College and Career Pathways
Elgin’s Alliance for College Readiness engaged EdSystems to support alignment to the new College and Career Pathway Endorsement system and the State’s new Perkins V plan.
Great Lakes College and Career Pathways Partnership
Since 2016, EdSystems has provided the Great Lakes College and Career Pathways Partnership with strategic expertise and technical assistance.
Greater Peoria Essential Abilities and Knowledge (GPEAK)
To help stabilize and grow the local economy, community partners in Peoria are working with EdSystems through the Illinois 60 by 25 Network and in partnership on GPEAK.
Illinois 60 by 25 Network
Illinois 60 by 25 Network supports communities to increase meaningful and equitable postsecondary attainment and civic engagement.
Illinois 60 by 25 Network Cradle to Career Community Dashboard
The Cradle to Career Community Dashboard assesses progress towards the Illinois 60 by 25 Network goal of 60% of Illinois adults having a high-quality postsecondary credential by the year 2025.
Illinois Advanced Apprenticeship Consortium
EdSystems’ role with the Illinois Advanced Apprenticeship Consortium is implementing a Manufacturing Pathway aligned to the College and Career Pathway Endorsement system for students that meets the expectations and requirements of the PWR Act.
Illinois Longitudinal Data System
The Illinois Longitudinal Data System (ILDS) provides the governance and technical systems that support the integration of longitudinal data across participating Illinois state agencies.
Illinois Postsecondary Profiles
Illinois Postsecondary Profiles (IPP) is an online resource for data describing 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions in Illinois.
Illinois Work-Based Learning Innovation Network (I-WIN)
I-WIN supports employers, educators, and students to leverage innovative and equitable models for scaling high-quality work-based learning, virtually or in person, in school districts and community colleges across the State.
Liberia Career Pathways
EdSystems worked with Liberian partners to launch the Liberian nongovernmental organization and the U.S. based nonprofit organization.
Middle-Skills Pathways in Chicago
Beginning in 2020, EdSystems is conducting a deep landscape analysis of middle-skills pathways in Chicago that lead to priority occupations.
Model Partnership Agreement for Dual Credit
In early 2019, ISBE and ICCB appointed EdSystems to facilitate the Dual Credit Committee to develop the Model Partnership Agreement.
Model Programs of Study Guides
The Model Programs of Study Guides were developed in consultation and collaboration with the Illinois State Board of Education through a process led and facilitated by Education Systems Center.
Preparing Chicago Public Schools Students for College and Career Success
With the support of Crown Family Philanthropies, CPS brought in EdSystems to provide strategic counsel and support of the OCCS pathways vision framework and Student Success Roadmap.
Pro Path Illinois
EdSystems supports the Common Program Information component of Pro Path Illinois, to enhance and align data captured across state administrative systems.
PWR Act
EdSystems staff and their partners led a multi-year process to develop and enact the PWR Act in close collaboration with a broad range of education and workforce stakeholders.
Scaling Education Pathways in Illinois (SEPI)
Scaling Education Pathways in Illinois (SEPI) guides communities in creating streamlined teacher career pathways.
Support for Career Pathways in Rockford
Since 2015, EdSystems has provided strategic counsel and technical assistance to RPS 205 and RVC and their partners as they build and expand their college and career pathway systems.
Transitional Instruction
EdSystems leads the interagency efforts to define statewide transitional instruction competencies, policies, and implementation plans.
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