Cradle to Career - A Road Map to Education Reform

Special thanks to Lois Mitchell, Orfalea Foundations President for her help with this post.

 

I recently learned a new term, “Cradle to Career.”  I learned this term from Lois Mitchell, Orfalea Foundations President, when she mentioned to me that she was attending a convening in the Washington, D.C. area on the topic. The convening, put on by Strive, was titled, The New Normal: Building Cradle to Career Education Partnerships to Support What Works for Kids.  It was also the launch of the National Cradle to Career Network, and included speakers from the federal government.  At the event, leaders from regional place-based efforts across the country worked toward developing plans to build civic infrastructure that creates the underlying framework and systems necessary for creating and sustaining systems of learning where every child is successful, every step of the way.

“Cradle to Career” is the perfect term for this because we hear a lot about:

• the importance of Early Childhood Education on impacting a child’s future academic success,
• the dire state of our K-12 program, and
• that we are not only not preparing students for college, but that we aren’t fostering enough innovative thinkers to compete in the global market. 

Additionally, the White House web page  on education reform addresses these same three focus areas.

At the convening, the group committed to actions, including specific next steps for strengthening progress in this area.  One of the tools reference during these discussions and customized by various regional, collaborative initiatives was the following “Roadmap”

I know, I know you can't read it.  I exhusted my blogging abilities trying to bring this in so you can see it.  So let me explain, the items in gray above the time line are academic milestones, the items in blue below the time line are social/emotional milestones and the years on the time line in gray are key transition year.  Too see this roadmap better click here and then in the upper right hand corner click the plus sign to blow it up.  Sorry I wasn't able to bring it in better here.

I am brushing the surface of understanding the complex concepts behind this roadmap, but a few things strike me as impactful about the convening Lois attended and the concepts on which it focused:

TAKEAWAY #1:

The fact that there is a national collaborative effort working with the same framework, or Roadmap, gives me hope that our nation can succeed at improving education.  Call me a structure junkie, but its similar to my feelings about the Millennium Development Goals.

TAKEWAY #2:

The fact that the Roadmap covers 1) academic milestones, 2) social/emotional milestones, and 3) key transition years also impresses me and further strengthens my sense of hope.

TAKEAWAY #3

There are leaders in our community, like the Orfalea Foundations, Santa Barbara Foundation,  J.S. Bower Foundation, First Five, and Hutton Foundation that are leading the charge in working with this Roadmap and are making serious investments in it.  The existing efforts underway weave school districts, non-profit agencies, service providers, government, business, families, higher ed, and other public-private partners into a supportive safety net focused on strengthening families, neighborhoods and students ability to succeed.  In the recent Santa Barbara Foundation newsletter, Lois was quoted as saying, “Santa Barbara has the resources, expertise and passion to improve education.” I am proud to be living in a community where such focus and investment is being made. More on what our community is doing to improve education to come in future posts. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

An earlier post on Education Reform 101 and What You Can Do included actions to help support Education Reform.