Educational partnerships for postsecondary readiness – your resource guide is here! High school graduates want to be prepared to succeed in life after high school; for most that includes completing some form of postsecondary education. This thoroughly researched guide to building and sustaining effective, cross-system partnerships between high schools, colleges, and regional and local communities will help educators support students’ college and career readiness. College and career readiness experts, McGaughy and Venezia lead education stakeholders through a step-by-step process that improves postsecondary outcomes for all students. This book stresses the need to build effective working relationships and offers practical, actionable, information and straightforward strategies to help you: Identify needs - Leverage existing relationships, programs and resources - Build and sustain regional and local partnerships - Implement a plan to measure key outcomes and provide comprehensive supports to ensure postsecondary readiness - Connect policies and practices across partnerships to benefit student learning - Communicate and work across partnerships to support successful student transitions Includes key research findings, real-world examples and reflections, and templates to guide your work to support improved student learning. "As high schools strive to partner with post-secondary institutions to improve their students’ college readiness, they will find the how-to answers here." Dave Daniels, Principal Susquehanna Valley Senior High School "I found the material interesting, engaging, and important. This book provides a solid rationale for partnership, provides a blueprint that is detailed enough to be helpful and loose enough to make clear that there is no one way approach but rather than their partnership must reflect their context." Natalie B. Schonfeld, Director Student Transition Services, University of California, Irvine " Supporting the Dream clearly articulates the need for partnerships and provides a great framework for educators and community. For anyone looking to establish a college and career partnership, this should be a guiding resource." -- Todd M. Hurst, Director of Education and Workforce Innovation "As high schools strive to partner with post-secondary institutions to improve their students’ college readiness, they will find the how-to answers here." -- Dave Daniels, Principal "All too often partnerships are started in isolation and are program driven. A process driven partnership, grounded in theory and focused on practical implementation, is an excellent addition to the literature. I believe it will be used by practitioners and researchers alike." -- Brian Durham, Senior Director "I found the material interesting, engaging, and important. This book provides a solid rationale for partnership. It includes a blueprint that is detailed enough to be helpful and loose enough to make clear that there is no one way approach; rather, partnerships must reflect their context." -- Natalie B. Schonfeld, Director Dr. Charis McGaughy has worked within the educational arena for over two decades. She recently began serving as the chief of staff for the Eugene School District 4J. Prior to that, she was a director at the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) for almost 8 years. During her tenure, she worked all over the country on national, state, and district-level initiatives related to improving college and career readiness, and increasing secondary and postsecondary alignment. She has also worked at the state level for the Texas Education Agency and the Tennessee Department of Children Services. She began her career as a teacher, and has taught in Houston Independent School District and Boston Public Schools. Dr. McGaughy has considerable experience directing large-scale, multi-faceted educational policy initiatives, is an experienced public speaker, and is the author of several reports, chapters, and articles on education. Her background as an educator, an educational policy worker, and her extensive research experience enables her to serve as a bridge among various educational stakeholder groups. Dr. McGaughy holds a PhD in Educational Leadership, Policy and Organizations from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA in Government from Pomona College. Andrea Venezia is Executive Director of EdInsights and Associate Professor in the Public Policy and Administration Department at California State University, Sacramento. EdInsights′ mission is to help improve students′ readiness for, and success in, some form of postsecondary education. Before she joined Sacramento State, Venezia worked at WestEd and oversaw a line of work focused on such issues as high school reform, state and federal policy with regard to college and career readiness, and community college read