Uncovering the Secret Sauce to Intersegmental Collaboration
What we learned from Bridging the Gap about improving student transitions from high school to college
In 2015, The James Irvine Foundation launched the Bridging the Gap[1] initiative, designed to support successful student transitions from high school to postsecondary education. The initiative, now in its concluding phase, paid special attention to removing barriers for students of color, low-income students, and first-generation college students, who face unique challenges in their academic journeys.
Lead institutions in the California regions of Long Beach, Salinas Valley, and East Bay received grants to implement targeted strategies and practices along the educational continuum (See framework to the right).[2] Career Ladders Project led a community of practice and provided strategic supports; the Education Insights Center provided research and documentation to inform the work; and Equal Measure, Harder+Company, and Engage R+D partnered on a developmental evaluation to document the work and elevate key insights. To support learning among the initiative partners, the evaluation team organized periodic reflection conversations.
Here are high-level reflections from our collective processing about the initiative, which draw upon our experiences with related projects. Spoiler alert: There is no secret sauce for ensuring the success of intersegmental collaboration! However, we considered major “ingredients” or conditions necessary for supporting seamless student transitions. We summarize these below as five salient concepts: 1) leadership, 2) data, 3) mindset, 4) practices, and 5) incentives.
The Key Ingredients
Leadership. Intersegmental efforts require effective and committed leaders who can connect and rally people around ambitious goals. Bridging the Gap supported leaders across institutions and across levels of authority to partner together to generate shared goals and implement change. Across the sites, the quality, consistency, and capacity of leadership continued to emerge as an influential factor in the pace of cross-systems work. Effective leaders enable effective partnerships, which require infrastructure that supports cross-sector work, including effective communication processes, and opportunities for partners to come together, learn from each other, and make connections across parallel initiatives. Leading systems change is a complex skillset, which takes time to hone.
Try this: Convene leaders at multiple levels of the systems. Are these leaders aligned in their thinking about the change that needs to happen to achieve a shared goal?
Data. Cross-institution data-sharing and use persisted as pain points for Bridging the Gap partnerships. Long Beach institutions organized for shared data use more readily because of the trust they built over multiple partnerships, including data sharing efforts that took place over many years. They formed a work group focused on data-sharing — addressing the technical and adaptive challenges involved. Institutions use data in different ways (e.g., for planning, implementation, and assessing outcomes) and have different cultures of use. Lots of data exists — and people may not be clear about how to use data, and to what end. Sites needed guidance and coaching in the strategic use of their data, as well as support in getting their systems to “speak to” each other.
Try this: Identify the data challenges that hinder cross-institution collaboration. Reflect on the extent to which they are technical or adaptive issues.
Mindset. Those working on intersegmental systems change need to be open to working in a new or different way, which often requires a mindset shift. The status quo may reinforce deficit-based thinking and low expectations for students and educators. Challenging assumptions about what students of color, first-generation college students, and those who come from low-income families can achieve is critically important. The Education Insights Center conducted student focus groups to learn what students viewed as the necessary changes for increasing their persistence through college graduation. The rich information from this process reinforced that systems change should stem from incorporating the perspectives and voices of multiple people at different levels, including students who are at the core of everything, ensuring “nothing about us, without us.”
Try this: Gather insights from a variety of stakeholders on root causes of the problem. Engage a sample of stakeholders in a visioning session to open up thinking about possible solutions.
Practices. Linked to mindset change, intersegmental collaboration with tangible results requires people working within the systems to adopt effective practices. The three sites implemented several practices to improve student transitions from high school to college. One was soliciting the perspectives of students and educators. All sites demonstrated interest in understanding student and educator perspectives to inform their Bridging the Gap efforts. East Bay encouraged students and faculty to meet with administrators to voice their insights on what they needed to become more successful. This site also created a cross-institutional and intersegmental learning community among faculty related to mathematics instruction. CLP facilitated an intersegmental Community of Practice between Salinas Valley and Long Beach K-16 partners which resulted in a rich exchange between regions. Lessons from California’s Career Advancement Academies include a variety of practices that colleges can use to improve transitions from high school through postsecondary education.
Try this: Implement practices that directly engage students and educators, including opportunities for them to provide insights on improving programs and policies.
Incentives. Various incentives create a level of urgency that can make or break collaboration efforts focused on systems change. Besides institutional incentives, factors in the external context, including windows of opportunity, can prompt people to respond more quickly to a demand. While the sites were implementing Bridging the Gap, the state of California passed reforms in developmental education and Basic Skills, influencing the pace of change across community colleges and state universities. These reforms are helping to advance institutional changes that support student persistence and postsecondary completion.
Try this: Take stock of internal and external incentives influencing the pace of progress. Consider ways to incentivize behavioral change to support a shared goal.
Looking Back and Moving Forward
The Bridging the Gap initiative helped sites operationalize their approach to intersegmental collaboration across educational institutions through its offering of funding, strategic supports, and cross-segment and cross-site convenings. It forged understanding on the ground about one another’s systems, elevated the need for shifts in thinking from program to system, and highlighted enabling factors for intersegmental systems change resulting in better transitions for students from high school to college.
We invite you to share other ingredients that you consider critical to this work.
[1] To learn more about the Bridging the Gap grantmaking strategy, visit https://www.irvine.org/blog/we-re-following-the-student. For information on Irvine’s current strategy for postsecondary success, visit https://www.irvine.org/blog/irvine-s-new-way-of-investing-in-postsecondary-success.
[2] East Bay’s grant concluded during summer 2018. Long Beach’s grant concluded during fall 2018. Salinas Valley’s grant concludes during fall 2019.
