Across the country, members of the Cradle to Career Network are working to reduce barriers to postsecondary success for students in their communities. Here are three insights into how they’re getting results: Make data accessible and actionable. Using data to make informed decisions and improve strategies is critical to getting better outcomes for students. Cradle…
Communities across the country are grappling with the widening educational equity gap exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Black students, Latine students and students experiencing poverty have been most impacted by inequities in access to the internet and devices needed to continue learning. Research shows that middle and high school students with high-speed internet access at…
I was recently reminded of a poem by Wendell Berry that resonated strongly because it describes the very nature of our work. Berry is one of my literary heroes, we’re both Kentucky natives and University of Kentucky graduates. As an English major, I read much of his poetry and fiction. And I find myself returning…
Home is sacred. Home is safe. Yet as we heard from Matthew Desmond, author of “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” and Terri Ludwig, president of Ballmer Group Philanthropy at Tuesday’s keynote plenary at the Roots to Rise 2021 Cradle to Career Network Convening, home is, far too often, out of reach…
A shared vision for what’s possible for every child, cradle to career, is at the heart of our work. The systemic obstacles we’re facing are too large for any one entity to tackle on its own — it takes a collective approach to address the underlying challenges youth and families are facing. To be…
Change is most effective when we follow the lead of the stories, experiences and data shared by communities. Across the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, we use this information to illuminate challenges, guide conversations and make decisions to get to better outcomes for children and families. Every year, the Cradle to Career Network provides transformative…
When I was a child, I loved to hear stories. Frankly, I still do. And not just the stories of mythical creatures or fairy tales, but stories that help me understand who I am and where I come from. Storytelling isn’t just about entertainment, it’s also the primary means for building and cultivating culture, traditions…
The community of Summit County, Ohio, is committed to supporting youth and families to thrive. This commitment is led by Summit Education Initiative (SEI), a member of the Cradle to Career Network that recently reached a new milestone. SEI earned StriveTogether’s Proof Point designation, an advanced stage of progress measured along our guiding framework, the…
We have provided a roadmap for communities seeking to support the success of every child from cradle to career since 2013. The StriveTogether Theory of Action™ is our proven blueprint for getting better results for kids and families in nearly 70 communities across the country. Through this framework, we help our partners define and measure…
In Boston, 75% of students graduate from high school — a promising start to their postsecondary futures. But for those who go on to college, just 52% complete their degrees. How can data help predict which students will complete college and what support others need to reach that milestone? Cradle to Career Network member Boston…
(Caption for above photo) Teams from Porter Leath, Communities in Schools, Latino Memphis, Knowledge Quest and Literacy Mid-South participated in a series of Beyond the Classroom workshops to spread a culture of results and data within their organizations. Before we all held Global Positioning Systems in our hands, we used maps and compasses to navigate…
“What is the best way to visualize data?” asks Lee Feinberg, president of DecisionViz. Lee is standing in front of 17 data managers from across the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, all of whom are intent on identifying the correct answer. They offer several suggestions in response to his question — pie charts, bar graphs,…