Education Pipeline

Cradle to Career

“If we want America to lead in the 21st century, nothing is more important than giving everyone the best education possible - from the day they start preschool to the day they start their career.” 

— President Barack Obama

New York's Community-Based Cradle to Career Partnerships

SUNY views education as a continuum that begins at birth and is carried on through school, college, career, and even into retirement. SUNY's Office of the Education Pipeline is establishing a series of systemic and sustainable regional education networks across the state and bringing together partners who have signed on to strengthen this educational continuum. SUNY's partners include leaders in Pre-K-12 schools, higher education, business and industry, community organizations, government leaders, parents and other stakeholders who are committed to helping children succeed from birth through careers.

In partnership with Strive, SUNY is helping communities all around the state to adapt a framework for civic infrastructure to serve as the foundation of their cradle to career efforts. Partnerships have officially launched in Albany, Astoria/Queens, Clinton County, Geneva, Harlem, and Rochester; many more are starting to take shape, including Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, Farmingdale, Mohawk Valley, and Yonkers. Together these local partnerships form the SUNY New York State Cradle to Career Alliance - the first statewide network in the nation! 

Click the links and logos below for more information about each partnership.

• Albany - The Albany Promise
• Astoria/Queens - Zone 126
• Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn)
• Clinton County - Thrive Partnership 
• Farmingdale 
• Geneva
• Harlem 
• Mohawk Valley
• Rochester
• Yonkers

Our Work is Research-Based and Part of a National Approach

SUNY's cradle to career work is rooted in President Obama's vision for education and based on the foundation built by Strive. The founders of Strive included SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, then president of the University of Cincinnati, Michael Graham, SJ, president of Xavier University, and James Votruba, president of Northern Kentucky University, along with the superintendents of the Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington and Newport, Kentucky, school districts. The founders thus represented the three public school districts at the region’s heart, as well as the region’s three largest teacher training centers. Top executives from several of the area’s major employers and charitable foundations were brought on board, along with directors of civic groups such as the United Way and Urban League. This was a broad and potent mix of influence and leadership, but it could not have succeeded without a willingness of the partners to set aside individual agendas in favor of a collaborative approach to raising student achievement.  

The Strive partnership in Greater Cincinnati learned several important lessons in achieving its success: 

• Strong leadership must be balanced with authentic partner engagement.
• Shared accountability and shared responsibility must be established early in the process.
• It is important to engage in strategic planning with education stakeholders from throughout the community.
• Credibility is built through clear and open communications of the organization’s successes – and its failures.

Building upon these lessons learned, Strive has developed a framework for building what is called the Cradle to Career Civic Infrastructure. The Cradle to Career Civic Infrastructure is not a program, but a way in which a community comes together around a Cradle to Career vision and organizes itself to identify what gets results for children; improves and builds upon those efforts over time; and invests the community’s resources differently to increase impact. For more information about this Framework, click here.

These lessons are passed on to other organizations as they join the growing Strive Cradle to Career Network

The national Cradle to Career Network launched in 2011 as a way to connect communities who are building cradle to career civic infrastructure using the Strive Framework. The Network enables members to share expertise, identify and adapt programs that work and develop effective tools and resources that can be brought to bear on specific challenges.

Since its start in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky in 2006, Strive’s innovative Cradle to Career sustained-improvement approach has been initiated or fostered in communities in 27 states and the District of Columbia.  Interest has also been explored in Puerto Rico and Canada. The overwhelming interest in this work from exploratory sites helps drive the Network’s ambitious goal to achieve 25 Cradle to Career Communities by 2015.

SUNY WORKS

SUNY will partner with business and industry leaders and economic development organizations to launch SUNY WORKS, a unique new cooperative education initiative. Students in SUNY WORKS will engage in salaried, credit-worthy 21st century career experiences while they complete their degrees, expanding job opportunities upon graduation. Learn more about the $800,000 grant SUNY received from the Lumina Foundation to launch SUNY WORKS.