Higher Education and Career-Connected Learning

Our Work

Our team of experts has extensive experience — in educational settings, federal and state government, philanthropy, and as organizational leaders — creating policies and programs that enable high-quality pathways into postsecondary education and the workforce. We believe in the transformative value of postsecondary education and fulfilling careers to individuals, families, and communities. We also believe there’s an urgent need for quality options that work for all students, including accessible pathways to the workforce that bridge the gap between traditional K-12 and postsecondary systems and programs of study.

We partner with educational systems, government, research and advocacy organizations, nonprofits, and foundations on our higher education and career-connected learning efforts, and provide services including policy analysis, strategic planning, implementation support, and program improvement and evaluation.

Our work spans many aspects of the higher education and career-connected learning space, including:

• College Enrollment and Persistence
• Work-Based and Other Career-Connected Learning Opportunities, Including Apprenticeships
• Dual Enrollment
• Skills-Based Credentials
• Student Supports, Including College and Career Advising
• Federal and State Policies Governing Public Financing and Programmatic Quality for Students, Institutions, and Training Providers

We work with partners on a range of individually tailored efforts to help them achieve their goals and ultimately improve students’ lives. We facilitate shared learning, support alignment on shared goals and objectives, develop and execute implementation plans, and publish research and resources that shape national conversations about postsecondary and career-connected learning.

Our Impact

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) on supporting career readiness: Bellwether partnered with CPS to reimagine how the district supports career awareness, exploration, and preparation — a key component of its three-year blueprint. We worked with the district’s Office of College and Career Success and key leaders across the district to create a strategic plan for the work based on an analysis of the career education landscape, lessons from other large urban school districts, and stakeholder input. We also helped CPS create a vision and plan for integrating non-college, enlistment, experience, and trades (NEXT) pathways into existing postsecondary advising experiences for students. We’re now supporting CPS in scaling a yearlong cohort program for postsecondary advising teams that began at 15 CPS high schools throughout the city.

A Playbook for State Pathways Programs: Our analysis, Pathways to Implementation: Building and Sustaining Effective Career Pathways, uncovers valuable lessons and promising practices across seven core elements (including design, data, and continuous improvement) that can serve as a blueprint for states seeking to drive economic growth while helping students thrive in fulfilling work. We interviewed nearly 40 leaders and experts across 14 states to highlight innovative strategies and effective models in career pathways policy, implementation, and programming, as well as challenges states encounter in this work.

State Higher Education Finance: Each year, state higher education funding provides one-third of all revenues to U.S. higher education, while impacting the educational experiences of nearly three-quarters of American postsecondary students. However, most states employ complex policies and processes to allocate these critical resources, creating barriers to understanding how funding affects student and state outcomes, and, ultimately, inclusivity in shaping policy. To address these challenges, Bellwether developed a variety of publications, including our Dollars and Degrees series, to break down technical topics and highlight opportunities for change. We also build the capacity of organizations with varied interests, including student success, a strong labor force, and economic prosperity in several states, by helping them understand their state’s funding and policy context, its relevance to their priorities, and potential policy changes to pursue and partners to engage.

Admission: In this field-facing publication, we explored the barriers and challenges that students furthest from opportunity face when pursuing postsecondary education in America. Though conventional higher education is often framed as a crucial investment, the reality for students differs: value is inconsistent, unevenly distributed, and not transparent for those making the critical choice to invest in a pathway. In this publication, we explore the challenges students face and propose next steps that could address them.

Our Team

Nick Lee
Senior Partner

Mark Baxter
Partner

Katrina Boone
Senior Associate Partner

Colleen Campbell
Senior Associate Partner

Alex Cortez
Partner

Lauren Schwartze
Partner

Christine Wade
Senior Associate Partner