Deeper Learning

This toolkit provides a guide for creating and implementing work-based learning projects aimed at formalizing and rewarding learning that takes place in the workplace. Through work-based learning projects, students can earn academic credit or industry credentials once they master a set of competencies. The tools and resources included in the toolkit are focused on four stages of implementing the projects: planning, designing, doing, and sustaining. 

This toolkit provides strategies, resources, and partnerships to help students transition successfully to postsecondary education and training. The strategies, resources, and partnerships included are focused around several elements that are instrumental in preparing students for college and careers, such as developing a comprehensive academic plan, developing 21st century skills, emphasizing high expectations, identifying personal learning styles, integrating career-focused courses into academic content, and more.

This tool is intended for states attempting to connect high-barrier-to-employment populations to career pathway opportunities. The Career Advancement Model provides guiding considerations to help states determine best practice and policy research with respect to welfare reform. The Model recommends a series of skill- and opportunity-enhancing provisions for individuals to be able to transition from welfare dependency to higher levels of education and family-wage careers. 

This guide details how colleges can access and effectively use labor market data to maximize employment for their graduates. The guide inventories available data sources, describes how postsecondary institutions can best apply labor market data, and recommends what colleges can do to improve labor market data use and access. The examples provided come from community colleges, but are also relevant to four-year colleges and their graduates.

This report defines 21st century skills and describes the need for integrating these skills into teaching and assessment in order to improve student learning. This report also provides information about assessments for measuring these skills. 

This report discusses the benefits of competency education in the context of digital technology that increases personalization and customization, enabling the management of individual learning progression in a data-driven environment. The report outlines 10 capabilities of a competency-based system including flexibility in time and resources, measuring learning gains, and setting college- and career-ready expectations; and 10 design choices that inform the necessary changes in areas such as school structure, grading, and student support.