Our Mission & Solutions
Young people in our city experience a unique set of barriers in finding the right postsecondary path to a family-sustaining career. DC continues to grapple with a stark divide in educational attainment and income between lifelong residents and those who relocate here, with Black residents making three times less than white residents. Part of the reason why these barriers often persist is because the professionals and advisors working with youth and residents lack the tools, resources, and data necessary to effectively advise their learners on the multiple postsecondary pathway options available in DC.
The Collaborative, founded in 2024, seeks to answer these challenges by bringing together a diverse coalition of postsecondary success leaders across our city. Through collaboration and a shared commitment to improving early career outcomes, we are working to close the divide in educational attainment and income, ensuring that all young people and residents in DC have the chance to achieve their postsecondary dreams and sustain their families.
Desire for More Collaboration & Community
Today’s educators and service providers in DC feel disconnected from other professionals in the DC postsecondary landscape. We need to create consistent conversation across the ecosystem, especially between student-facing practitioners, those running postsecondary programs & resources, and leaders making decisions.
Our Current Challenges
Gaps in High- Quality Learning & Skills Training
Postsecondary success professionals want more professional development opportunities for a changing post-high school world. They want to feel better empowered to advise students and residents across multiple pathway options and in needs-specific ways for special populations.
A Needed Shift in Our Advising Paradigm
The “college for all” mentality has dominated postsecondary advising for years, but it is not serving all students. Young people need multiple pathway options that can lead to family-sustaining careers. These include 2-year and 4-year college, apprenticeship, workforce training, straight to work, & more!
Member Roundtables
Join us every other month for a membership-wide roundtable featuring guest speakers, professional development, and networking.
So, how is the Collaborative addressing these gaps in postsecondary success?
Our Solutions
Knowledge Networks
Knowledge Networks, our professional learning communities, meet every other month, focusing on topic-specific problems of practice and community building.
Monthly Newsletter
We send out a newsletter with resources, events, and information from our DC postsecondary ecosystem. Do you have an opportunity to include in our next newsletter? Use the button below to submit today!
Annual Summit
The next DC Postsecondary Success Summit will be in March 2026! Keep your eyes peeled for a call for proposals at the end of this year.