Pathways Resource Library
Tools to help people understand their options
Explore messaging, research, and resources from across the field—along with customizable, white-label tools that you can adapt, brand as your own, and use in your organization’s communications—to help you reach key audiences with language that builds confidence and expands what’s possible.
Playbook or Guidebook
Tear the Paper Ceiling
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
The Tear the Paper Ceiling: STARs Hiring Playbook gives human resource professionals, talent leaders, and hiring managers practical tools and guidance to shift their hiring to include STARs - workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes.
Research Report
Unlocking Economic Prosperity
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
Toolkit
Communications Toolkit: Postsecondary Pathways and The Shifting American Economy.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
A toolkit communicating pathways with students and families. it includes: a) how different pathways can look like; b) how pathway career ladder can look like; c) how pathway support systems can look like.
Research Report
The Value of Community Colleges: Recent Students’ Motivations and Outcomes
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This study offers new insights about value community colleges provide and the range of needs that they serve. It examines recent community college students' motivations for enrolling, and their self-reported perceptions of the value of their education and training experiences, and the degree to which they acheived their goals for enrolling.
Blog Post
Telling the Right Stories: How Narratives Can Change Community College
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
The post highlights the gap between community college students' aspirations to earn four-year degrees and the reality that only a small percentage achieve this goal. It criticizes current narratives and policies that hinder successful transfers, particularly for low-income and minority students, and advocates for a shift towards focusing on credit mobility and recognition. By changing the narrative to value students' prior achievements and creating more flexible, student-centered pathways, the aim is to foster equitable educational and economic outcomes.
Book
Choosing College
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This report looks at how people make decisions regarding higher education through “Jobs-to-be-Done” theory which interrogates and exposes the real reasons people make personal choices, from buying a milk shake to make life-changing decisions. The analysis based on this theory, provides important insights, both for college-bound students and their families, but also institutions of higher education, many of which might be tooling themselves to perform the wrong job.
Toolkit
Making Opportunity Real: A Framework for Communicating About Racial Justice
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This Message Manual contains research-based language and guidance for anyone communicating about racial justice and equity in education. The manual introduces a Racial Justice and Racial Equity Frame that provides guidance for communicating about justice and equity in aspirational ways that move beyond buzzwords and invite new audiences into the conversation. The guide provides research-tested language and specific examples of how to apply the frame when sharing data, crafting story-driven content, and tailoring messages for different audiences.
Toolkit
Credit for Prior Learning Messaging Toolkit
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This toolkit provides effective messages targeted to key audiences and strategies for dissemination to increase participation in Credit for Prior Learning among adult learners who are pursuing career pathways and CTE programs of study that lead to jobs in in-demand fields.
Playbook or Guidebook
Making the Case
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This playbook gives people in the learn-and-work ecosystem key information they can use to make the case for incremental credentialing. Case-making requires different information for various audiences, including the campus community, employers and industry partners, funders, learners, and policymakers. The playbook covers: How to define incremental credentialing and incremental credentials, the benefits of incremental credentialing to various constituencies, and the four factors driving the case for incremental credentialing.
Filters
Playbook or Guidebook
Tear the Paper Ceiling
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
The Tear the Paper Ceiling: STARs Hiring Playbook gives human resource professionals, talent leaders, and hiring managers practical tools and guidance to shift their hiring to include STARs - workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes.
Research Report
Unlocking Economic Prosperity
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
Toolkit
Communications Toolkit: Postsecondary Pathways and The Shifting American Economy.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
A toolkit communicating pathways with students and families. it includes: a) how different pathways can look like; b) how pathway career ladder can look like; c) how pathway support systems can look like.
Research Report
The Value of Community Colleges: Recent Students’ Motivations and Outcomes
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This study offers new insights about value community colleges provide and the range of needs that they serve. It examines recent community college students' motivations for enrolling, and their self-reported perceptions of the value of their education and training experiences, and the degree to which they acheived their goals for enrolling.
Blog Post
Telling the Right Stories: How Narratives Can Change Community College
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
The post highlights the gap between community college students' aspirations to earn four-year degrees and the reality that only a small percentage achieve this goal. It criticizes current narratives and policies that hinder successful transfers, particularly for low-income and minority students, and advocates for a shift towards focusing on credit mobility and recognition. By changing the narrative to value students' prior achievements and creating more flexible, student-centered pathways, the aim is to foster equitable educational and economic outcomes.
Book
Choosing College
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This report looks at how people make decisions regarding higher education through “Jobs-to-be-Done” theory which interrogates and exposes the real reasons people make personal choices, from buying a milk shake to make life-changing decisions. The analysis based on this theory, provides important insights, both for college-bound students and their families, but also institutions of higher education, many of which might be tooling themselves to perform the wrong job.
Toolkit
Making Opportunity Real: A Framework for Communicating About Racial Justice
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This Message Manual contains research-based language and guidance for anyone communicating about racial justice and equity in education. The manual introduces a Racial Justice and Racial Equity Frame that provides guidance for communicating about justice and equity in aspirational ways that move beyond buzzwords and invite new audiences into the conversation. The guide provides research-tested language and specific examples of how to apply the frame when sharing data, crafting story-driven content, and tailoring messages for different audiences.
Toolkit
Credit for Prior Learning Messaging Toolkit
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This toolkit provides effective messages targeted to key audiences and strategies for dissemination to increase participation in Credit for Prior Learning among adult learners who are pursuing career pathways and CTE programs of study that lead to jobs in in-demand fields.
Playbook or Guidebook
Making the Case
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This resource may be shared with proper attribution to the organization.
This playbook gives people in the learn-and-work ecosystem key information they can use to make the case for incremental credentialing. Case-making requires different information for various audiences, including the campus community, employers and industry partners, funders, learners, and policymakers. The playbook covers: How to define incremental credentialing and incremental credentials, the benefits of incremental credentialing to various constituencies, and the four factors driving the case for incremental credentialing.