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Strengthening Pathways to Economic Mobility

Building postsecondary and career pathways to economic security and opportunity for all learners

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WestEd recognizes that advancing economic mobility provides security and opportunity, encompassing financial well-being, stability, and growth. Supporting all learners on their path toward opportunity requires alignment between local education institutions, employers, and workforce systems.

Our staff works with employers, education institutions, and workforce systems to codesign solutions that meet the needs of both learners and employers. We offer tailored research, evaluation, professional learning, and technical assistance services to help local leaders gain valuable insights and enhance strategy implementation to improve economic mobility. 

Our Capacities

As a leading national research organization, we provide you with research and evaluation studies that build evidence and produce insights to inform practices. We take a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach that reflects the needs of our clients and the communities they serve. 

Featured Project

Sub-Baccalaureate Career and Technical Education: A Study of Institutional Practices, Labor Market Demand, and Student Outcomes in Florida

WestEd and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, collaborated with the Florida Department of Education to better understand how community and technical colleges align their CTE programming to the labor market. Our work supported the project objective to build evidence on how institutions can streamline pathways to economic opportunity for learners in their local communities. 

Featured Project

Driving Student Reenrollment Through Tailored, Collaborative Support 

As more colleges consider new strategies to drive student reenrollment, collaboration and shared best practices are crucial. WestEd works with higher education leaders and policymakers to shape reengagement approaches, including financial aid supports, to meet the unique needs of institutes of higher learning and their student populations. Our teams provide guidance, share insights, and directly support efforts to implement effective solutions to engage and motivate student completion. 

We codesign and implement strategies to strengthen education, workforce, and regional systems so you can better serve your community, learners, employers, and workforce. Our support includes leading state and local plans, program design, and facilitation and implementation support.  

Featured Project

Supporting California’s Regional K–16 Education Collaboratives Program

The Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd supports California’s Regional K–16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program by providing technical assistance, including developing implementation plans, facilitating K–16 convenings, and advising leadership teams. By building strong partnerships and innovative approaches, we are supporting efforts to strengthen coherent, career-focused pathways for all students. 

Featured Project

California’s State Educator Workforce Collaborative

WestEd facilitates the California State Educator Workforce Collaborative, a statewide collaboration that aims to strengthen the educator workforce and address teacher shortages. The Collaborative convenes staff from major state agencies and institutions implementing educator workforce initiatives, including the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, State Board of Education, Student Aid Commission, Department of Education, and higher education institutions. 

We provide partners with relevant information and user-centered data tools to help improve systems. Our services include leading design processes, building data-driven platforms, providing analytics, and developing resource toolkits.  

Featured Service

California’s First Statewide Database Linking Adult Education to College Pathways

In 2023, WestEd partnered with California community colleges to bridge data gaps between adult education programs and colleges to strengthen pathways for learners. We created a first-of-its-kind linked data set to provide visibility into student journeys, discovering that only one in five students successfully transitioned from adult basic education to postsecondary education. Taking a data-informed approach, we identified solutions to strengthen adult education pathways in California. 

Featured Service

Data Integration and Support Center at WestEd 

State integrated data systems combine cross-sector data, enabling policymakers and leaders to more effectively evaluate programs, identify gaps, and make evidence-based decisions. The Data Integration Support Center (DISC) at WestEd provides comprehensive support and customized assistance to public agencies with a challenge or need related to integrated data systems. Learn about how DISC can help your state.  

Through our professional development offerings, we work with educators, leaders, and providers across K–12, postsecondary, and adult education systems to help advance learner-centered best practices, both in the classroom and throughout interconnected systems.  

Featured Service

Carnegie Math Pathways 

Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd aims to empower all students to reach their college and career goals by transforming their mathematics learning experience. In addition to its proven math pathways course solutions, Quantway and Statway, Carnegie Math Pathways offers robust training, onboarding support, and mentorship to all new faculty, helping you feel prepared and supported in teaching the Pathways. 

Featured Project

Partnership With the National Association of System Heads to Build Skills-Focused Communities of Practice That Unlock the Value of College 

Working with the National Association of System Heads, WestEd developed a training series and a suite of open-source data tools to help 2- and 4-year institutions understand how the programs they offer relate to their regional labor markets. When equipped with skills-focused information, colleges can clarify and improve how their programs align with careers, ultimately supporting stronger pathways to careers for all learners. 

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Featured Services and Projects

Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd 

WestEd's Center for Economic Mobility partners with education and workforce systems to create stronger and pathways to economic mobility.
Center

Carnegie Math Pathways

Propelling students toward their college and career goals through improved student learning and increased success in mathematics.
Project

Data Integration Support Center (DISC)

DISC supports efforts to integrate data across key sectors while protecting privacy and ensuring the usefulness, fidelity, and transparency of the data systems.
Center

Reading Apprenticeship

Reading Apprenticeship is a professional development model and instructional approach that aims to improve academic literacy for middle, high school, and college students.
Service

Sub-Baccalaureate Career and Technical Education: A Study of Institutional Practices, Labor Market Demand, and Student Outcomes in Florida

Building evidence to help community and technical colleges better align their career and technical education programming to local labor markets.
Project

The Code Alignment Project

The Code Alignment Project ensures that course and program codes appropriately match the content of curriculum through a faculty-led process of review at California Community Colleges.
Project
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Insights & Impact

Adult teacher at whiteboard

BlogArticles

Filling a Missing Piece: Strengthening Adult Numeracy Education for the 21st Century 

Beyond the Science of Reading: Why Disciplinary Literacy Matters for College and Workforce Readiness" with headshots of two speakers—Thomas Torre Gibney and Rachel Tripathy

BlogArticles

Beyond the Science of Reading: Why Disciplinary Literacy Matters for College and Workforce Readiness

Two people wearing hard hats and protective clothing working on a control panel

BlogArticles

Driving Economic Mobility Through Career and Technical Education: Q&A With Angela Estacion and Alisha Hyslop 

Four adults sit at a table and engage in conversation

BlogArticles

Four Essential Best Practices for Engaging Partners and Practitioners to Advance Economic Mobility

BlogArticles

How Can We Help More Adults Get Good Jobs?

BlogArticles

Carnegie Math Pathways Courses Are Now Open Educational Resources (OER): What This Means for Math Educators

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Resources

Browse our high-quality publications and resources designed to inform and engage professionals in a variety of fields including K–12 education, early childhood, and health and justice.

BTS Collections Page

Building a Brighter Future: WestEd Resource Collection for Thriving Learners, Empowered Communities
POG resource image

So, You Want to Create a Portrait of a Graduate?: Factors and Considerations for the Field
Building Future Ready Students resource image

Building Future-Ready Students: The State of Portraits of a Graduate Frameworks
Data visualization featured image

Pandemic Effects on Career and Technical Education in Florida
Landscape of Middle School CTE in Nebraska cover image

The Landscape of Middle School Career and Technical Education in Nebraska
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Featured Experts

Kathy Booth

Kathy Booth

As the Director of WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility, Kathy Booth supports national efforts to clarify students' economic outcomes and delivers technical assistance on using labor market information to develop stronger pathways to living wages.
Expert
Randy Tillery

Randal Tillery

Randal Tillery is Director of Economic Mobility, Postsecondary and Workforce Systems, and the ​Co-​Director of the Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd.
Expert
Tracy Huebner

Tracy Huebner

As the Director of Special Programs and Initiatives at WestEd's Center for Economic Mobility, Tracy Huebner directs national research and outreach to enhance college and career preparedness.
Expert
Rachel Antrobus

Rachel Antrobus

As the Director of Intersegmental Projects within WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility, Antrobus aids projects related to K–12, higher education, and employment to create meaningful and equitable pathways to guide low-income people into living wage jobs across sectors and industries.
Expert
Angela Estacion

Angela Estacion

Angela Estacion is a nationally recognized researcher and evaluator with over 2 decades of experience. As Director of Research and Evaluation for the Economic Mobility,...
Expert

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