Building a more connected postsecondary ecosystem in DC.
We bring together the people and organizations supporting DC learners—from educators and advisors to workforce professionals, colleges, employers, government, philanthropy, and beyond—to strengthen practice, foster collaboration, and expand opportunity.
Our Mission: Invest in the educators, advisors, and career navigators who guide learners on their postsecondary journeys—improving postsecondary outcomes and ultimately closing the racial wealth gap in DC.
Opportunity isn’t equally accessible.
DC is home to a wealth of education, workforce, and career opportunities. But access to economic mobility remains deeply inequitable—and the path from high school to a fulfilling career isn't equally accessible to every learner.
43% vs. 86%
of Black vs. white DC alumni with bachelor's degrees earn a living wage—even when they have similar educational attainment and employment rates.
47%
of alumni who went directly into the workforce or stopped out of college cited financial reasons for why they did not pursue further education.
121
youth workforce programs were available to DC youth ages 14–24 in 2023–24 but they served only about 20% of high school students. Just 42% of those programs were aligned with at least one high-wage, high-demand occupation.
Data sources: DME’s Office of Education Through Employment Pathways (ETEP), Alumni Early Career Outcomes Survey.
The people supporting learners face challenges, too.
Young people don't navigate postsecondary pathways alone. Educators, advisors, career navigators, workforce practitioners, and other professionals help learners understand their options, make decisions, access opportunities, and move toward their goals.
But no one practitioner can do this work alone. DC's postsecondary landscape is broad and constantly changing, with pathways, programs, policies, and opportunities spread across schools, colleges, workforce organizations, nonprofits, government, and employers. Practitioners need relationships across that landscape, shared knowledge about what exists and what's working, and practical resources they can bring back to their day-to-day work.
When practitioners are better connected and equipped, they can help learners navigate more options, make more informed decisions, and connect to the people and opportunities that can help them move forward.
We believe practitioners do their best work when they have strong relationships, shared knowledge, and coordinated support.
That's why we invest in the people guiding learners every day while strengthening the broader systems around them.
Connecting the people and organizations working toward postsecondary success.
The Collaborative serves as a connector and coordinator across DC's postsecondary ecosystem, bringing together and equipping a cross-sector community of educators, advisors, career navigators, workforce professionals, nonprofit leaders, higher education institutions, employers, philanthropy, government, and research partners.
Together, we foster collaboration, strengthen practice, align strategy, and build a more connected ecosystem that expands opportunity and improves postsecondary and early career outcomes for DC learners.
Foster Collaboration
Build relationships across organizations and sectors so people can share knowledge, solve problems together, and connect learners to supports and opportunities.
Strengthen Advising
Create opportunities for practitioners to learn from one another, develop their advising skills across multiple pathways, and bring new ideas and mindsets into their day-to-day work.
Align Strategy
Bring practitioners and leaders together around shared challenges and opportunities, helping turn what people are seeing on the ground into stronger citywide approaches.
Build A More Connected Ecosystem
Strengthen the relationships, infrastructure, and shared understanding needed to expand opportunity and improve postsecondary and early career outcomes for DC learners.
Postsecondary success is a collective effort.
Our community brings together people from across the DC education, workforce, and career ecosystem including:
Public and public charter schools
Educators, advisors & counselors
Workforce professionals
Nonprofit leaders & practitioners
Colleges & universities
Employers
Government & public agencies
Philanthropy & research partners
300+ Individual Members
200+ Organizations, LEAs, & Agencies
Learn Together
From roundtables to leader convenings to small professional learning communities, our programs bring the postsecondary ecosystem into the same room to learn together, align on what’s working, and act in coordination.
Stay Connected
This is how the ecosystem stays coordinated. Our newsletter and blog pool resources, amplify what’s working, and celebrate the people moving this work forward. Have an opportunity to share? Add it to our next newsletter!
Build Alignment
We bring our community together annually through the DC Postsecondary Success Summit, the Practitioner Forum, and the DC Postsecondary Success Awards, celebrating excellence across the field.