Current News 

August 2011

Minnesota has launched a new web site for their Shifting Gears initiative, FastTRAC. The new site provides information for current FastTRAC grantees and can help future students find a FastTRAC program that meets their educational needs. Check out the new website!

June 2011

Shifting Gears states and management partners convened in Minneapolis, MN for the bi-annual cross-site meeting in June 2011. The theme of the spring meeting was "Driving It Home: From State Policy to Institutional Practice". View meeting materials.

May 2011

Jennifer Foster, State Director of Adult Education in Illinois, presented on Shifting Gears Illinois during a Hill briefing hosted by the National Coalition for Literacy. View photos and listen to audio from the event.

Read testimonials from students and program administrators about the success of Shifting Gears programs in all five states.

March 2011

CLASP recently released two new resources for states seeking to develop better connections between basic skills and postsecondary education systems. Beyond Basic Skills: State Strategies to Connect Low-Skilled Adults to an Employer-Valued Postsecondary Education describes how states can develop a coordinated strategy to increase the number of low-skilled students who transition to postsecondary education. A second brief on the new Ability-to-Benefit rule describes how basic skills bridge programs can help students without a GED or high school diploma access much-needed federal financial aid.

Check out our newly released Spring 2011 E-Newsletter!

February 2011

Senior policy analyst for workforce development at CLASP, Vickie Choitz , recently sat down with Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity to talk about how career pathways can lead low-income people out of poverty. See the webcast.

December 2010

Shifting Gears states and management partners convened in Chicago, IL for the bi-annual cross-site meeting. View meeting materials.

Hear from Shifting Gears students! Students from Inver Hills Community College and The Hubbs Center for Lifelong Learning tell their personal story and share how the Minnesota FastTRAC program has helped prepare them for jobs in the health care industry.

November 2010

Listen to the recorded Shifting Gears Lunch and Learn Webinar, Cost Benefit Models: Tools to Help Community Colleges Sell Innovation recorded on November 9.

Check out our newly released Fall 2010 E-Newsletter!

September 2010

The Community College Research Center recently released two new studies on the effectiveness of Washington State's innovative I-BEST model. Learn more.

On September 13, CLASP launched a new Center on Postsecondary and Economic Success (C-PES) dedicated to increasing the number of low-income adults and disadvantaged youth with postsecondary credentials that are essential to opening doors to good jobs and economic mobility. View the recorded launch webinar.

July 2010

Shifting Gears partners, Davis Jenkins and Tim Harmon, have developed a primer for states submitting applications to the Department of Labor Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) grant program. This brief guide describes how states can use the opportunity of this new federal funding to ensure their usage of data promotes continuous improvement of workforce education and employment programs.  The paper includes specific recommendations on what type of information states should include in their WDQI technical proposals.

Learn more about the policies that the Shifting Gears states are pursuing to achieve the goal of increasing the number of low-skilled adults with a postsecondary credential. A new CLASP report, Shifting Gears: State Innovations to Advance Workers and the Economy in the Midwest, provides an overview of the policy goals of Shifting Gears and highlights promising pilot programs sponsored by the initiative.

June 2010

Developed with support from Shifting Gears, Instituto del Progreso Latino recently released How to Build Bridge Programs that Fit Into a Career Pathway, a step-by-step guide that provides information on how to develop successful bridge programs to tap the talents of low-skilled adults. The guide is based on the achievements of Carreras en Salud, a health care bridge program created by Chicago’s Instituto del Progreso Latino and other partners.  

May 2010

Shifting Gears state teams and technical assistance providers held their bi-annual convening in May 2010 in Detroit, MI to share best practices and develop strategies around engaging various stakeholder groups to support their Shifting Gears policy agenda. View the meeting materials and presentations. 

CLASP's forthcoming Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success has released Funding Career Pathways and Career Pathway Bridges: A Federal Policy Toolkit for States to help interagency state teams identify and use federal resources to support career pathway models. Using the Funding Options Worksheet and the ten Federal Program Summaries, state teams can identify and facilitate "braiding" of federal resources to design and develop career pathways and bridges into them for adults and out-of-school youth. The toolkit also will help state teams identify state policy barriers to using federal resources for career pathways and bridges and, ideally, address them.

April 2010

A unique program in Kentucky that supports dual enrollment in basic skills education and community college coursework for adult learners is featured in the Washington Post. This innovative program accelerates the pace at which students can move towards a credential, saving them time and tuition expenses. 

Wisconsin's Shifting Gears-sponsored programs are receiving praise for innovative approaches and successful outcomes. Read more about local Wisconsin RISE projects at Northcentral Technical College and Moraine Park Technical College. 

January 2010

Shifting Gears partners, Brandon Roberts and Derek Price, have recently published Educating Adult Workers: The Shifting Gears Approach to Systems Change.  This initiative-sponsored report describes how Shifting Gears is supporting and guiding state policy systems change through the use of proactive coaching, evaluative feedback, and tools such as a structured policy agenda and action plan and logic model.

December 2009

Shifting Gears State teams conducted a cross-site meeting on December 15-16 to discuss their plans to improve their state data alignment across system. View the presentations and meeting materials for all sessions. 

The Shifting Gears initiative is featured in a new report from the Center for American Progress, Strong Students, Strong Workers: Models for Student Success through Workforce Development and Community College Partnerships. 

November 2009

The National College Transition Network recently hosted a webinar on Shifting Gears. A recorded version of the webinar, Shifting State Adult Education Policies to Support Postsecondary Success, is available on the NCTN web site. 

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