What can K–12 and higher education systems do to foster increased collaboration in order to better prepare students for college?

Core to College, a three-year, multi-state initiative funded by the Lumina Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is designed to promote collaboration among K–12 and higher education systems in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and aligned assessments.

This evaluation report, prepared by WestEd researchers, examines organizational and leadership strategies that support collaborative stakeholder engagement among the initial 10 states participating in the Core to College Initiative.

Alignment Directors (ADs), located within these state education systems, are the catalyst for moving the initiative forward over the next several years. WestEd’s Core to College evaluation team, working with the ADs, found that strategic planning is intertwined with stakeholder involvement, which in turn is situated within the organizational structures of each state’s education systems.

The finding, in general terms, is that context matters a great deal, and that each AD is navigating his or her unique context thoughtfully, purposefully, and carefully to build partnerships and improve communication and collaboration.

Other reports in the Core to College series