A growing number of Illinois high school districts are now offering students the opportunity to earn College and Career Pathway Endorsements. To help encourage learners to complete the rigorous requirements and earn an endorsement, as well as matriculate into postsecondary pathways, EdSystems is supporting the development of equity-centered strategies alongside incentives or currency that will help students and their families.
Our Role
With support from The Joyce Foundation, in 2022, EdSystems launched a community of practice with Illinois community colleges and their high school partners to support new opportunities for students who earn College and Career Pathway Endorsements in high school. The primary goal is to create secondary and postsecondary collaborations whereby students awarded an endorsement will receive unique currency in the postsecondary space. That currency could come in the form of specialized access to financial support upon enrollment in a postsecondary program within their pathway endorsement sector, as added application points on a highly selective academic program application, or selective employment. Each collaboration’s key deliverable is to publish documentation of the postsecondary currency for endorsements by fall 2023 and to communicate that currency to secondary students within the regional high schools to encourage higher levels of implementation and participation.
The collaborations must also incorporate strategies to ensure equity, i.e., all students, especially those from underrepresented populations in participating communities, have access to information about pathway systems and receive the necessary support to participate in the pathway and attain College and Career Pathway Endorsements. Partnerships must use data to identify areas of need, collect data on impact, and document and communicate their results.
Project Resources
- Blog: Rewarding Pathways: How Illinois Community Colleges Are Supporting College and Career Pathway Endorsement Earners
- Blog: Strengthening Student Currency in College and Career Pathway Endorsements: Community College Innovators
- Blog: Student Currency in College and Career Pathway Endorsements: Spotlighting Early Adopters
- 2023 Success Network Conference Session: “Strategies to Identify and Address Equity Challenges in Implementing College and Career Pathways”
