Strategies
Our Approach
We are a diverse community of educators, employers, and advocates on a mission to ensure that every student can discover and pursue their potential. We are committed to providing opportunities that allow young people to create a better world for themselves and for others.
Here is how we’re helping students succeed beyond the classroom:
Employer Engagement
Employers play a key role in creating access to quality real-world learning that allows students to explore how their interests, aptitudes, and skills align with local opportunities. Whether providing students with hands-on, authentic problem-solving experiences or connecting them to professional resources, we help employers find ways to get involved that work for them.
Client-Connected Projects
Client-connected projects are authentic problems that students solve in collaboration with professionals from industry, not-for-profit, and community-based organizations. CCPs allow students to:
- Engage directly with employers
- Address real-world problems
- Develop essential skills
Entrepreneurial Experiences
Young people need opportunities to make and test assumptions. They must experience success to gain confidence in their abilities, as well as failure to learn resilience. RWL entrepreneurship provides the space, support, and resources to do just that. We are improving outcomes for students and society by giving the leaders of tomorrow a head start.
Internships
Internships allow students to gain exposure to professional environments, experience work-based learning and enjoy the benefits of mentorship while establishing critical networking connections. Beyond providing value for students, they allow employers access to young talent with fresh perspectives and create opportunities for current employees to grow leadership skills.
Industry-Recognized Credentials
Industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) are an important Market Value Asset (MVA) category that requires special attention and deep consideration. Among 16 area school districts in Cohort 1 in the first year of the Real World Learning pilot, IRCs accounted for 19% of total MVAs earned, second only to college credit.
- Vet IRCs for their value to students and employers
- Co-create a framework for assessment
Badging
Digital credentials and badging currently serve as important mechanisms for helping students understand their skills and to share evidence of program efficacy. And as we continue to accumulate insights, students’ learning data will unlock progressively valuable information that will inform the long-term RWL strategy. Our goal is to support districts in badging Market Value Assets in a way that is sustainable, integrated, and valuable to students.
- Build a two-sided market
- Integrate badging throughout the course schedule
- Ensure that badging provides value to students
Data
Our data strategy supports equitable implementation of Market Value Assets that makes collective learning more effective, cost-efficient, and impactful for administrators and educators, and ultimately results in students owning their own data.
- Collaborate on data collection, evaluation, and reporting
- Create and share tools and platforms
- Inspire informed policy and systems changes
Student Voice
Student Voice is a student-led, educator-guided working group that supports Real World Learning in their districts through:
- Peer-to-peer engagement
- RWL storytelling
- Marketing & promotion of RWL
- Client-connected project development
- Equity strategy
Professional Development
Professional Development that provides classroom teachers the agency, understanding, and tools to implement MVA attainment as part of the course curriculum.
- Teacher externships
- Peer-to-peer learning
- In-person networking and conferences
- Regional & national school tours
- Embedding of RWL into core course
Career Education Landscape
Outline and clarify in grade level scope and sequence format, interest, aptitude, career exploration and professional skills.