Building Integrated Pathways to Sustainable Careers: An Introduction to the Accelerating..

“Accelerating Opportunity responds to the nation’s growing need for improved pathways from Adult Basic Education to credentials of value in the labor market. It builds on promising practices developed in Breaking Through, an initiative of Jobs for the Future and the National Council for Workforce Education, and Washington State’s Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST). Accelerating Opportunity will take those proven practices to statewide scale. The size of this initiative [could reach] up to a total investment of $19 million over four years” (p. 3). (Abstractor: Author)

Full Publication Title: Building Integrated Pathways to Sustainable Careers: An Introduction to the Accelerating Opportunity Initiative

Four reasons for low success in the Adult Basic Education system include: • Education programs are profoundly disconnected from one another • Inadequate instructional models • Supports are lacking • Labor market payoffs are limited (p. 5). “Accelerating Opportunity is committed to using evidence-based models for integrated and accelerated Adult Basic Education. In particular, it builds on strategies developed through two groundbreaking initiatives: Breaking Through… and Washington State’s Integrating Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST). The evidence from these efforts makes a compelling case for a large-scale expansion of Accelerating Opportunity pathways” (p. 5). “A 2010 evaluation of Breaking Through suggests that: • Participating colleges demonstrate higher retention levels for students in Breaking Through programs than for students in comparison groups… • 75 percent of students enrolled in Breaking Through programs at scaling-up colleges were retained from the first to the second term, compared with about 60 percent reported in studies on term-to-term retention rates for all first-time community college students (full time and part time). • Students at several scaling-up colleges were reaching key momentum and transition points, as defined by each campus, at higher rates than those in comparison groups. • A number of early indicators pointed to academic gains at higher rates among scaling-up students” (p. 6). Additionally, • “By the end of the third year of the [Accelerating Opportunity] initiative, at least 3,600 students in each implementation state will have earned at least one marketable, stackable, credit-bearing credential and at least one term of college-level credits (15 for a quarter system or 12 for a semester system)” (p. 8). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Pleasants, Rachel
• Organizational Author(s): Jobs for the Future; Accelerating Opportunity
• Funding Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Open Society Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies