NEW! Kinetic Seeds is teaming up again with Lumina Foundation and our newest partner KnowledgeWorks to conceptualize what it means to create a seamless competency-based education (CBE) system. CBE is an emerging academic delivery model demonstrating promising student outcomes across the country. It is also a relatively new funding arena for states and foundations with investments being made in a variety of K-12 and higher ed environments. As with traditional education, today’s CBE models are following a similar trajectory of bifurcation between secondary and post-secondary systems with models, tools, resources and policies being developed in both arenas. With CBE in its relative infancy, might there be a way to bring it all together and align K-16 CBE policies and models from the start? That’s the idea behind our latest project which will bring a group of foundations that fund CBE together to deepen the understanding of what philanthropies are doing to advance CBE; explore the need for an aligned K12/higher-ed CBE system; and (hopefully!) identify areas of potential collaboration.
NEW! Kinetic Seeds has teamed up with new partners USA Funds and best-selling author Jeff Selingo on a four-city tour that that will gather local, state, and regional education leaders, key business executives, and top policymakers to consider and design new pathways for a 21st Century education system and workforce. Why? American higher education is really at a critical juncture – existing in an environment where the conditions on the ground are quite different from even a few years ago. New pathways must be opened up that allow for more students to succeed – pathways that both increase the percentage of students who finish what they start in college or other postsecondary programs, and ensure a smoother transition from education to genuine employment. Insights from all four locations (Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Indianapolis) will be shared in a wrap-up document in the Spring.
Kinetic Seeds is working with the Lumina Foundation and HCM Strategists to use design-thinking methods to facilitate the process of bringing a multi-state cohort of policy makers, system players and institutional leaders together to co-create new, next-generation finance models models. Many states are involved in finance model development intended to improve student outcomes. At the same time, promising advances in teaching, learning, and the use of technology are being tested and implemented. Our goal in this initiative is to consider the characteristics of next-generation funding systems that support development of innovative learning models with potential to help more students from all backgrounds, especially racial and ethnic minorities, earn high-quality degrees and other credentials.
Kinetic Seeds is working to support the ongoing development of the Competency-Based Education Network. The community of practice, comprising higher education innovators from more than 30 colleges and universities and four public higher education systems, is leading a national movement to realize the potential of competency-based education and bring quality, affordable opportunities for postsecondary education to students who may not be well served by traditional academic instruction. We are delighted to guide the development of the network’s business model.
Kinetic Seeds was selected as a winner of the Lumina Foundation/Innocentive Innovation Challenge for scaling and sustaining adult learning. Our solution shifts the center of adult learner gravity away from a set of traditional and grossly disconnected student service offerings and employer workforce development programs toward a concept of integrated “life and learning aid.” An intentional service experience designed exclusively for adult learners. Download the winning idea
At a Frog and LRN sponsored Hackathon, co-created the winning concept to enable companies and the people within them to unlock their human potential. SkillCloud helps companies holistically track employee development to more fully understand their organizational DNA, and free employees to bring more than one dimension of their selves into the workplace, SkillCloud helps organizations build a more authentic, engaged workforce. Read more about the Hackathon here.
This College Board commission sought to understand and document the experiences of young men of color as they get in, get ready and travel through higher education. Findings are being used to inform the ambitious goal of the College Completion Agenda — a national goal to increase the number of 25- to 34-year-olds who hold an associate degree or higher to 55 percent by the year 2025. Download the report
Identifying the need to change the “aging in place” narrative, this exploratory research was awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Pioneer Portfolio Fund. The work resulted in a set of forward-thinking concepts and new models focused on social participation. Download the report
Working with Babson College, engaged entrepreneurs creating new ventures, those working inside organizations and a new breed of entrepreneur we call the Master Class, to discover insights that can help educate future generations of entrepreneurs. Findings informed Babson’s MBA curriculum design as well as programs for the Global Consortium of Entrepreneur Educators. Download the Masterclass report
In this amazing project we put students in the driver’s seat of a new kind of research and development on the campus of Utah State University. Outcomes included the radical re-invention of the student service delivery model and the development and implementation of the new model across the university system. Read this New England Journal of Higher Ed article to learn more about incorporating student voice into the innovation process.
This Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant catalyzed the development of a national online innovation platform that puts design thinking in the hands of teachers with the goal of enabling increased agency and autonomy in the classroom through a “learning by doing” collaborative curriculum. Explore the platform
