Dear Colleagues:
Implementation of Accelerating Opportunity (AO): Final Implementation Findings and Lessons from the Field (May, 2016) is an important addition to your investigation of policies and practices to support career pathways and integrated education and training.
The AO initiative encouraged states to change the delivery of adult education for students by allowing community and technical colleges to enroll them in for-credit career and technical education (CTE) courses at the same time as they earned their high school credentials, improved their basic academic skills, or built their English language abilities. Specifically, AO required colleges to implement “team teaching,” where an adult education instructor co-teaches with a CTE instructor in the same classroom. In addition, the report found that individual student supports provided by adult education faculty and college navigators were seen as key to student success.
According to Workforce Strategies Initiative at the Aspen Institute: These findings may be of particular interest to state policymakers and colleges planning for the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which provides new opportunities for integrated career pathway development within states and colleges.
Read more from the Aspen Institute here.
What do you think? What questions do you have? Have you been part of an AO program?
Cynthia Zafft
Postsecondary Completion Moderator