Policies & Systems

Key Takeaways

Overview

Getting Started

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Key Takeaways

• Dozens of federal, state and local policies impact pathway learning. 
• All school systems face challenges developing, staffing, and sustaining relevant pathways.    
• Regional goals can mobilize business and postsecondary partnerships and benefit priority pathways with application and acceleration opportunities.

Vision

Policies and systems define pathway options available to learners. For more than 100 years, learning options were limited by school district boundaries. Now, they often include unbundled, networked, and virtual learning experiences. Systems create equitable access to pathway learning across a region by considering location, enrollment, transportation, and support systems. 

Policies create enabling environments for pathways to cross the boundaries of school and work and between secondary and postsecondary learning.  

In 2022, the Department of Education released a vision for Unlocking Career Success that included four components: 

• Received personalized career guidance and career advising and navigation that is informed by labor market data, plans for next steps, and empowers students and their families to make real choices about their futures; 
• Engaged in paid work-based learning in which they solve real world problems, hone their skills, build networks of social capital, and gain experience in the workplace; 
• Received their first industry credential(s) that demonstrates that they have the competencies and skills that employers are seeking; and 
• Earned at least 12 college credits, including academic content and career connected courses through dual enrollment opportunities.

Overview

Pathways represent choices about integration and application around career opportunities. Some pathways are longstanding institutions, some are dynamic creations. Serving all learners requires an intentional portfolio of pathways. Given increasingly personalized approaches to pathway formation, heightened interest in entrepreneurship, and new digital models of work and learning,  a pathway ecosystem might be a better metaphor–an ecosystem enabled by policies and systems that extend opportunity to all learners.   

Policies 

“State policy is a critical lever for ensuring all learners—regardless of age—have access to high-quality pathways that lead to higher-wage careers,” according to ExcelinEd. They identified 

20 key education-to-workforce policies, organized within 6 focus areas, that can deliver success to learners and value to communities.

American Student Assistance commissioned Extending the Runway, a report on state policies influencing middle school career exploration. It concluded that “Most states have identified middle school career exploration as an important component of a student’s education (73%), dedicate funding to support activities (92%), and have some sort of requirements in policy (92%); but few states measure and support the quality of these practices by collecting data (20%), including in accountability plans (16%), or having a strong ecosystem of organizations supporting the work (8%).  

ASA recommended a unified state vision and measurable goals for middle school career exploration. They urged coordination across state leadership and leveraging state Perkins V and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plans. 

Systems 

State policies set parameters, but in America’s decentralized system, school districts are the local education authorities (LEA) that are the primary actors. As taxing entities, most school districts raise operating and capital funds through local levies, build and operate schools, and define curriculum and graduation requirements. Most are small districts serving small communities (more than 11,000 school districts serve less than 5,000 students) making it challenging to organize, staff, and sustain multiple pathways relevant to the regional economy.

The 120 largest school districts (serving more than 43,000 students) are urban and suburban participants in major metropolitan areas. Most big districts offer a collection of pathways via comprehensive high schools, specialty schools and career centers. Some have created equitable pathway portfolios (with intentionality around location, enrollment, and transportation) and collaborated with the broader metro ecosystem. Many leading large districts developed career academies with national intermediaries including NAF, Linked Learning, ConnectED, and Ford NGL and support STEM pathways with Project Lead The Way (PLTW) curriculum. 

In 46 states and jurisdictions, charter schools are also local education authorities but without taxing authority and the associated facilities funding. Most charter schools are independent nonprofits while 43% are part of managed networks. Historically, most charter high schools offered a single college preparation pathway and operated as a school of choice. Only six cities have unified enrollment systems that present district and charter options to families as a portfolio. 

School systems large and small, urban and rural, district and charter, all face challenges in creating equitable access to high quality relevant pathways. A few examples of local solutions are shown below. 

About a quarter of states offer Education Savings Accounts which provide direct funding to parents for educational purposes. About half the parents use ESA funds to subsidize private school tuition, the other half use the funds to support individual and collective homeschooling activities. While they serve a small percentage of students nationally, in a few markets (like Phoenix) ESA options are a growing part of the pathway ecosystem.