
Institute for Educational Leadership
The Institute for Educational Leadership(IEL) has equipped leaders to work together across boundaries to build effective systems that prepare learners for postsecondary education, careers, and citizenship. The Minds that Move Us initiative is a challenge to communities to design innovative education and training models that create social equity and economic mobility, driven by the market demands of business and industry as well as the needs of youth and adult learners.

Design Challenge
How might we build communities’ capabilities to better support and create the conditions for adult learners achieve their goals?
In the United States, 63% of all jobs are expected to require education beyond high school. But nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce—about 88 million of 188 million adults aged 18 to 64—has achieved less than a high school education, not to mention low English language proficiency (Bonney, Sharon & Tyler, Patricia (2018)). The lack of pathways has a deep impact on families and communities. This project is catalyzing community-based solutions and programs that will provide relevant, learner-centered that will change the adult education and training experience.

Approach
The Minds That Move Us (MTMU) Adult Career Pathway Design challenges ten diverse teams from across the nation to create innovative programmatic solutions to address common barriers that prevent adult students (26 and over) from entering, persisting and completing career pathway programs.
The community-based teams are building their capacity to design innovative, sustainable models. Throughout their journey, the BIF team will evaluate their growth, chronicle the process, and provide storytelling support.

Impact Statement
The gap between adults and the workforce is wide and current education and training programs are not doing enough to reform their models. This approach uplifts communities and adult learners as the expert in designing new models and practices.