从数据到机遇：成功之路项目的成果

Joyce Z. Schnieders, Cristina Anguiano-Carrasco, and Cindy Hill Executive Summary The Pathways to Success program pilot—funded by ECMC Foundation and implementedthrough the ACT®Work Ready Communities®(WRC) initiative—met or exceeded all ourtargeted success measures at the two participating sites: College of Southern Nevada (CSN)and Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Omaha, Nebraska. For this pilot, we collected data from both sites about the participants’ enrollment, persistence,credential attainment, continued education, and ACT®WorkKeys®National Career ReadinessCertificate™ (NCRC®) scores. Here are our main findings: •6,060 students from underserved and other high-prioritypopulations enrolled asparticipants of the Pathwaysto Success program pilot at the two sites.•95% of these participants persisted in the program (i.e., continued the program for thesubsequent one or more quarters or completed it within one quarter), a 126% increasefrom their persistence rates before the pilot.•34% of the participants who retested improved their WorkKeys NCRC level, exceedingthe 25% target.•56% of the participants who were working on basic skills advanced their NationalReporting System (NRS) educational functioning level (EFL), thereby achieving ameasurable improvement in their skills.•87% of the intermediate- and advanced-level participants earned at least one short-term,stackable credential.•98% of the credential earners continued their education at the participating sites afterearning their credentials. These findings demonstrate that the WRC initiative provides a scalable community-basedworkforce developmentframework that advances both academic progress and careerreadiness. The Pathways to Success pilot further illustrates how programs can meet federalreporting requirements while using the results of the ACT®WorkKeys®assessments to generateworkforce-aligned performance indicators that employers find meaningful. Introduction To help close the skills gap and equip people for success in the evolving world of work, ACTWork Ready Communities bring together disparate individuals and organizations. The WRCinitiative incorporates data-driven strategies that connect a community’s education andeconomic growth to provide a proven framework for workforce development. This framework links workforce development to education; aligns with the economic development needs ofcommunities, regions, and states; and matches individuals to jobs based on their skill levels.Since the launch of the WRC framework in 2012, over 590 communities across the UnitedStates have adopted it to align their local workforce, education, and economic developmentefforts and to close skill gaps through shared goals, data-driven strategies, and ACT WorkKeystools, including the NCRC credential. The established Pathways to Success program offers aready-made framework for providing innovative, community-driven workforce solutions to localcommunities. Recognizing the strengths of this program, ECMC Foundation awarded ACT a grant onDecember 1, 2023, to pilot the Pathways to Success program through WRC. Using its existinginfrastructure, the 2-year WRC initiative partnered with CSN and MCC to implement strategiesthat each community devised to expand talent development for its historically underserved andother high-priority populations. The program also served as a learning laboratory to exploreways to improve recruitment, enrollment, persistence, and credential attainment amongindividuals without formal postsecondary degrees. For additional information on the program,explore our website (https://www.workreadycommunities.org) and the toolkit developed duringthe pilot (https://www.workreadycommunities.org/pathwaystosuccess). During the research design phase, we established the following five indicators to measure thesuccess of the pilot program: •Enroll over 2,000 students from underserved and other high-prioritypopulations acrossthe participating communities as participants of the Pathway to Success program.•Improve WorkKeys NCRC levels of at least 25% of the participants by one level or morebetween the first and the second WorkKeys assessment administration.•Increase semester-to-semester persistence of the participants in the program by 25%.•Ensure that 70% of the participants attain a locally relevant short-term stackablecredential.•Ensure that 70% of the participants persist in continuing their education within 1 year ofearning a short-term credential. We selected these measures to evaluate the participants’ access to the program, skilldevelopment, persistence, and momentum after earning their credentials at key points on theirpath from education to employment. To measure these indicators, we collected longitudinal data from CSN and MCC for fiveconsecutive quarters, starting July 1, 2024, and concluding at the end of September 2025. CSNand MCC provided the data that included the participants’ demographic information, enrollmentstatus, persistence, cr