Strategies to Success
Breaking Through students include those who dropped out of high school and those who have a high school credential or GED but whose skill levels in reading, writing, and math are below the eighth-grade level. For the 93 million adults who fall into this category, low academic skills represent a serious barrier to finding family-supporting employment or entering technical training programs that lead to career advancement.
ACCELERATED LEARNING
Change delivery methods and content through the innovative use of assessment tools, restructured curricula, targeted instruction, contextualization, and other strategies so that students can meet their goals faster.
COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT SERVICES
Make academic, economic, and social support services easily accessible to students whose life challenges put them at risk of not completing their education.
LABOR MARKET PAYOFFS
Restructure both precollege and college-level instruction to connect course content with the workplace and to connect students with actual employers and workplaces.
ALIGNING PROGRAMS FOR LOW-SKILLED ADULTS
Reorganize college programs and link them with external programs to provide students with clearer pathways and a better understanding of how they can navigate them into and through college.
Breaking Through colleges use these four strategies as framework for creating programs customized to local needs. Some colleges serve recently unemployed factory workers or focus on entry into health care programs. Others seek to develop programs of English language learners or GED students. All seek to promote educational and economic opportunity for students in high-demand industry sectors in their regions.
