Portfolio

Bridges to Postsecondary

Through the Bridges to Postsecondary portfolio, EdSystems:

  • Shapes and scales more seamless transitions from secondary to postsecondary, including steering the growth and equity-focused implementation of transitional instruction.
  • Fosters policies and partnerships for strategic and accessible dual credit to accelerate learner progress into and through postsecondary.
  • Builds systems for learners to demonstrate the competencies needed for postsecondary and career success.
Current Projects
College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Chicago Public Schools: Preparing 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.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Community College Competency-Based Education Pilot Project

Together with the Illinois Community College Board, we are supporting a cohort of community colleges to develop competency-based education programs in both welding and industrial maintenance.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary, Data Impact & Leadership

Great Lakes College and Career Readiness State Advocacy Network

To support actionable policy development for high-impact college and career readiness strategies, EdSystems is participating in a cross-state community of practice.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Greater Peoria Essential Abilities and Knowledge (GPEAK)

To help stabilize and grow the local economy, community partners in Peoria are working with EdSystems to design and implement GPEAK, which translates the state’s ten competencies into a practical system to prepare individuals for meaningful and fulfilling careers.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Illinois Education and Career Success Network

Illinois Education and Career Success Network supports communities to increase meaningful and equitable postsecondary attainment and civic engagement.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary, Data Impact & Leadership

Illinois Education and Career Success Network: Policy Committee

EdSystems staffs the Success Network’s Policy Committee to foster collaboration and peer learning, elevate local practice to inform state policy, and support local practitioners.
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Illinois Math Badging Initiative

In partnership with XQ Institute and Student Achievement Partners, EdSystems is launching an initiative to create an Illinois high school math badging system as an alternative credentialing mechanism wherein students can certify learning gained through a broad range of sources including coursework, independent study, summer school, and work-based learning.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Increasing Dual Enrollment Access and Success (IDEAS)

In partnership with JFF and College of Lake County, EdSystems is supporting the design and implementation of a new dual enrollment hub to help improve educational outcomes for high-need high school students.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Launch: Equitable and Accelerated Pathways for All

Through the national Launch initiative, EdSystems is leading the Illinois team in designing a pilot program that will support seamless transitions for learners from secondary to postsecondary.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

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.
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Bridges to Postsecondary

Transitional Instruction

EdSystems leads the interagency efforts to define statewide transitional instruction competencies, policies, and implementation plans.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Youth Apprenticeship

Youth apprenticeships at EdSystems offer a unique blend of hands-on experience, networking with industry professionals, and postsecondary planning.
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2025 Policy Agenda

EdSystem’s policy agenda outlines the core challenges we seek to address across four pillars: leadership, governance, and vision; student experiences and conditions; policy evaluation and continuous improvement; and future readiness. For each challenge, we identify policy aims that describe the conditions we aspire to and practices to drive college and career success for students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities. Through these levers, we seek to support college and career readiness efforts at the state, regional, and local levels.

Success Network 10-Year Impact Report

Assessing the collective impact of the Illinois Education and Career Success Network’s first decade: 2013–2023.

Lessons Learned from the ICCB CBE Design Team

In partnership with EdSystems and the Competency-Based Education Network, the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) engaged a group of community colleges to develop a competency-based education (CBE) program in the high-demand sectors of industrial maintenance and welding for implementation in academic year 2023–24. This report describes the process and the colleges’ lessons learned.

Transitional Math Implementation in Illinois — Quick Takes

This one-page summary is based on a recent study, Transitional Math Implementation in Illinois, highlighting key takeaways in high school and community college implementation, plus what we learned from the case study.

Transitional Math Implementation in Illinois: Investigating Secondary and Postsecondary Implementation and Data Utilization

This report covers the findings from an initial evaluation of transitional math in Illinois, focusing on understanding the implementation of transitional math programs in secondary and postsecondary education institutions, a key part of the larger evaluation effort that examines the impact of transitional math programs on participating students. The report also covers a case study of data utilization related to transitional math within one Illinois region.

Student Insights into Postsecondary CBE

Students in the CBE Welding Technology Program at Lewis and Clark Community College, a frontrunner in competency-based education, provided valuable insights into the value of a CBE framework and how to help students be successful.

Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness (PWR) Act Website

Learn about the PWR Act’s components and the latest updates on implementation, including resources from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission and EdSystems, at pwract.org (relaunched in 2022).

College and Career Readiness Metrics and Evaluation Framework

This master metrics list includes data metrics recommended or employed by members of the Northern Illinois University P-20 Research & Data Collaborative (RDC) across their portfolio of collaborative, college and career readiness-related projects. EdSystems is a member of the RDC.

Strengthening Supports for Dual Credit Instruction in Chicago: Takeaways and Promising Practices

The continued expansion of dual credit is a core strategy of the Chicago Roadmap, a comprehensive partnership between City Colleges of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools. This analysis identifies strategies to shift the dual credit support system from its foundations in a modest number of course offerings into a model that can meet the scale of the joint Roadmap objectives.

Local Advisory Panels for Transitional Instruction: Processes, Promising Practices, and Lessons Learned

Our conversations with five established transitional math Local Advisory Panels across Illinois have resulted in a document that is intended to guide all phases of establishing and running a Local Advisory Panel.

Statewide Transitional English Course Parameters, Competencies, and Policies

The Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Board of Higher Education, and Illinois Community College Board have jointly agreed upon the course parameters, competencies, and related policies outlined in this document, adopted in January 2021. These course parameters, competencies, and related policies will guide the local partnerships between high schools and colleges necessary for the successful implementation of transitional English instruction.

Statewide Transitional Math Competencies and Policies

This document, updated in January 2021, includes an overview of the three transitional math pathways established by the Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness (PWR) Act Act and approved by the Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Board of Higher Education, and Illinois Community College Board. It includes the competencies recommended for transitional math, including process competencies for all three pathways related to mathematical and student success and content competencies for each of the three pathways.

The report cover for "A Framework and Resources for Measuring Student Needs and Development During Remote and Blended Learning," released November 2020 by the Illinois P-20 Council: Data, Assessment, and Accountability Committee and Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University
A Framework and Resources for Measuring Student Needs and Development During Remote and Blended Learning

A guide for developing information gathering systems in remote and blended learning environments. Facilitated by EdSystems, this is a project of the Data, Assessment, and Accountability Committee of the Illinois P-20 Council.

60 by 25 Network Impact Report Cover
Illinois 60 by 25 Network Impact Report

This report captures the impact of the Illinois 60 by 25 Network from 2013–2020. The Network’s Leadership Communities are driving state policy implementation, deepening and validating collaboration by using the organizing principles of collective impact, increasing cross-sector collaboration, and enhancing leadership and governance structures within their communities. (The Illinois 60 by 25 Network is now known as the Illinois Education and Career Success Network.)

Bridges to Postsecondary

Chicago Equity-Centered Innovation Forum

The Chicago Equity-Centered Innovation Forum promoted models of personalized instruction, competency-based approaches, performance assessments, and project-based learning.
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Bridges to Postsecondary

Elgin Community College Second Chance

EdSystems supported Elgin Community College in its efforts to better serve its students with experiences in the carceral justice system.
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Bridges to Postsecondary

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.
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College & Career Pathways, Bridges to Postsecondary

Postsecondary Leadership Series

In support of the OneGoal team and their Postsecondary Leadership Series, EdSystems supported capacity-building for OneGoal staff and advising for partner-facing content relating to college and career pathways, early college credit, transitional instruction, work-based learning, and data.
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Creating clear, unambiguous paths to college and career opportunities

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