Education Analytics (EA) is a long-time and proud member of the Knowledge Alliance (KA), a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on dramatically improving K-12 public education by advocating for the widespread, effective use of research-based knowledge in policy and practice. KA undertakes activities like advocating for education research funding and the use of rigorous research in education at the federal level, publishing blog posts and issue briefs, and serving as a venue for member organizations to learn, connect, and collaborate.
Each member organization has a designated seat on the KA Board of Directors, which collectively advises the KA President and CEO on the strategic priorities and direction of KA. KA provides opportunities for member organizations to learn from and with each other—through events like quarterly Board meetings, monthly meetings of the Policy Action Group, and two annual forums organized around a theme of interest to its members.
In September, the KA Fall Forum hosted in Portland, Oregon was titled Education to Employment: Building Bridges from K-12 to Careers. The agenda included roundtable discussions highlighting work led by KA member organizations to improve and innovate along the education-to-workforce pipeline, panels featuring leaders from different philanthropic foundations discussing success stories from their investments into the education-workforce pipeline, and updates from policy experts on recent federal legislation and trends related to education research, policy, and practice.
I have served as EA’s Board member for the Knowledge Alliance since 2022 and was extremely privileged to be elected as Chairperson of the Board for 2024-26. In my role as Board Chair, I’ve been able to collaborate closely with Rachel Dinkes, KA President and CEO, to help increase the reach and impact of KA’s work. I’ve also had the chance to work closely with other members of KA’s Executive Committee, who represent impressive peer organizations, to introduce process improvements to KA’s Board governance to better support the President and CEO as a leader.
During my opening remarks to kick off the Fall Forum, I reflected on how analog and old fashioned it felt for us to gather together in person in one room to think and learn about the modern solutions to these very modern challenges. Given that uncertainty and change is the only thing that seems to be predictable about the state of the field (and the world), these conversations are only one tool we need to use to foster the tight partnership and joint commitment needed to make sure our field is ready to absorb the rapidity and scale of change we’re undergoing.
I was most looking forward to hearing about how other organizations are reimagining the status quo of how students typically move from K-12 education to higher education and the workforce. I ended up learning far more in one short day than I expected, including these highlights:
- Pete Fritz and Tasha Austin from Deloitte (a KA member organization) shared how current trends in higher education—including declining enrollment, ongoing closures and mergers, the use of AI in back-office operations, and continued questions about the tangible value of a degree—have already begun redefining the postsecondary landscape for students and those who support them.
- Brooke Stafford-Brizard from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, talked about the concept of a new diploma that encompasses not just a traditional diploma but other features like mastery of soft skills, credentials and micro-credentials, apprenticeships and internships, becoming more like a living and evolving resume than a static transcript.
- Kyle Hartung from Jobs for the Future talked about the rise of a new economy, where our lifespan is not defined by a period of learning, then working, then retiring, but rather dynamic, non-linear series of engaging, learning, and reconditioning.
These trends mean we need dynamic, non-linear means to document the full breadth of students’ secondary and post-secondary experiences as they continually navigate learning experiences, working experiences, and everything in between.
In turn, we need technology and infrastructure that will actually enable these new diplomas in this new economy. As part of a KA member organization roundtable where presenters gave four-minute blitz talks on innovative research and policy work being done in this space, Education Analytics’ CEO Andrew Rice discussed our work as part of the Learner Information Framework. Creating the interoperable infrastructure across multiple states that will empower students to “connect the dots” of their learning and working experiences is critical to ensuring equitable opportunities and outcomes for students. The technical work to do this is difficult, and requires cooperation and collaboration across districts, states, institutes of higher education, philanthropic agencies, researchers, policymakers, employers, and educators.
I remain excited and humbled for the work ahead, which requires innovative collaboration that will enable us to be collectively more responsive to the changing education-to-workforce pipeline. The pace of the changes and challenges ahead means no one organization can independently build for our new future state; rather, it will require new ways of learning from and with each other—while retaining the best of the old fashioned, analog ways, too.