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From 2022 to 2025, the High School to Postsecondary (H2P) Collaborative united regional partners, school leaders, educators, and students around a shared question:
How can we reimagine and design a postsecondary preparation system that is inclusive of student aspirations, lights up pathways, and fosters a sense of belonging?
What began in 2022 with five schools across four regions grew to 40 schools in seven regions by 2025—reaching nearly 30,000 students.
Participating schools examined their postsecondary preparation systems, supported by regional leads and grounded in data, surveys, and student listening sessions. Together, they identified barriers and implemented meaningful changes at both the school and district levels.
The work focused on four key areas:
1. Financial aid access and completion
2. Dual credit participation
3. Student advising systems
4. Adult mindset and bias
The resources below capture key lessons, tools, and best practices from the Collaborative. They’re designed to support school and district teams ready to start—or strengthen—their own postsecondary preparation efforts.
There’s no single path to this work. What matters most is centering student experience—from course-taking decisions to personal reflections—and building systems that expand opportunity and increase postsecondary enrollment.
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Getting started: Resources in this section serve as a starting point for establishing a team and setting up a stable foundation to build upon.
- Participants and Meeting Cadence (Slides 3 – 8)
- Planning Documents
- Scope of Year at a Glance
- Created by the Foundation for Tacoma Students
- District Engagement & Readiness Playbook
- Created by the Foundation for Tacoma Students
- Sample kick-off agenda
- Created by ESD 105
- Scope of Year at a Glance
- What to capture at the end of the year to prepare for next year
- Template: Year-End Summary
- Created by ESD 113
- Template: Year-End Summary
Data: What data do we need to understand patterns in postsecondary enrollment? Which data is publicly available, and how do we use it to drive changes in practice?
- Facilitating Conversations on Publicly Available Data (Slides 10 – 21)
- Root Cause Analysis Facilitation (Slides 23 – 31)
- Toolkit: Facilitating Data Conversations at a Local Level
- Local Data Coalition Guide
- Padlet: High School through Postsecondary Convenings Toolkit
- Created by ESD 105
Financial Aid Resources: These resources provide guidance on how to increase financial aid awareness and applications.
- Financial Aid Basics for Teachers (Slides 33 – 53)
- Financial Aid Goals and Completion Tracking (Slides 55 – 71)
- Financial Aid Guidance (Slides 73 – 79)
- Guidance and best practices around financial aid for undocumented and mixed status families
- Sample Financial Aid Tracking Sheet
- (reminder: local tracking should never indicate FAFSA vs. WASFA–just “financial aid” generally)
- Goal-setting tool
- Financial Aid Completion Markers - Google Docs
- Financial Aid Planning Sheet (2024-2025) - Google Docs
- Quick Wins Facilitator Guide - Google Docs
- Quick Wins for Financial Aid Completion - Google Docs
- 12th Year Campaign - Financial Aid resources
Student & Staff Voice: How to engage students, staff and community in continuous improvement cycles to increase postsecondary enrollment efforts at your school
- Surveys
- Student survey questions in English and Spanish
- Staff survey questions in English
- Facilitating Survey Analysis (Slides 81 – 127)
- Facilitating Student Listening Sessions (Slides 129 – 142)
- Example of how to use community data for impact
- Case Study: Using data from staff and student surveys, educator and student focus groups, and feedback from district leaders, community members, and local industry partners for continuous improvement efforts
- Created by Manson School District and the Apple STEM Network
- Case Study: Using data from staff and student surveys, educator and student focus groups, and feedback from district leaders, community members, and local industry partners for continuous improvement efforts
- Examples of how to engage students and staff
- Toolkit: Summary - H2P Toolkit ESD 113
- Preparing Students for the Journey Ahead
- H2P Newsletter Articles - Google Docs
- Card Decks
- Bookmark
- Created by Chehalis School District and ESD 113
- Lesson Plan - Careers, Salaries, and the Job Market
- Careers, Salaries and the Job Market_Hockinson
- Created by ESD 112
- Toolkit: Summary - H2P Toolkit ESD 113
Other Resources
- Facilitating Problem of Practice Discussions (Slides 144 – 147)
- College knowledge: WCAN College Knowledge
- Connection Between College and Career (Slides 149 – 158)
External News
- How Quincy School District is Taking a Data-Driven Approach to Support Postsecondary Pathways for Students - NCESD
- Yakima schools pilot college credit program as WA leaders push to expand access | The Seattle Times
- Partnership seeks to improve access to postsecondary credentials for Yakima students
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