Working collectively to improve high school graduation, and college and career readiness for San Bernardino County’s students was the impetus for the Nov. 5 kick-off meeting of the Cradle to Career Task Force, a group of approximately 50 educational stakeholders representing all cross sections of the community who gathered at the Roy C Hill Education Center.
Task Force members are working to identify evidence-based strategies and metrics to achieve success indicators across the grade spans of the Cradle to Career Roadmap.
The Cradle to Career Roadmap identifies key milestones in a child’s academic/career and personal/social readiness, encouraging partnerships with all sectors of the community to support the goal of meeting the educational needs of all students from cradle to career.
The Roadmap was adopted on October 10, 2013 and solidified a significant milestone for Collective Impact efforts in San Bernardino County.
“It’s exciting to see this work coming to fruition through collective, community action—or a Collective Impact approach,” said County Superintendent Gary Thomas. Superintendent Thomas and Tomas Morales, president of Cal State University San Bernardino chaired the Education Element Group of the Countywide Vision that initially engaged a group of community members—including early education, higher education, government, business, labor, faith and community-based organizations, along with parents and families—in the development of the Cradle to Career Roadmap.
“Academic readiness is a necessary condition for college success and is multi-dimensional,” said President Morales in his welcome. “Your work as task force member will look at some of the research and proven practices that can continue to move the marker in an upward direction for our students and our region.”