# 
* About
  + 
* Who We Are
* What We Do
* What We’re Learning
* Where We Are
!
520 WALNUT ST, SUITE 1450
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106
215-732-2200
EMAIL US
06.13.23 | Equal Measure | Vignette
# Mending the Path: The Central Role of Intermediaries in Building Equitable Pathways from Education to Work
by  and , Directors, Equal Measure
**How might the education-to-work system be reimagined so that all young people have access to equitable opportunities and experiences?**
Virtually every step along the journey from school to career showcases the barriers raised by our country’s history of systemic and structural racism. These gaps in access contribute to inequitable outcomes in both college completion and employment. A few examples:
* Learners of color and learners experiencing poverty tend to have less access than white and higher-income learners to **early college opportunities**, like Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses, . Later on, underserved students are less likely to **enroll in postsecondary programs** and **earn degrees**.
* The opportunity gaps persist after college. White college graduates are more likely than Black and Latine graduates to be **employed** after program completion, and they .
In the issue brief *Mending the Path: The Central Role of Intermediaries in Building Equitable Pathways from Education to Work*,Equal Measure synthesizes findings from its learning and evaluation engagement focused on the Building Equitable Pathways initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2019–2023. The investment promoted the development, validation, and codification of exemplary models of intermediary organizations that are connecting K–12 and postsecondary education with the private sector by coordinating and aligning education and career pathways. Equal Measure’s engagement sought to elevate the work of 15 intermediaries in the Building Equitable Pathways Community of Practice and their influence on local, regional, and state pathways ecosystems. For more about the Community of Practice facilitated by JFF, visit the .
In this blog post, we share key takeaways from the learning engagement.
### What did we learn about pathways intermediaries?
**Pathways intermediaries play a central role in forging a new system in which K**–**12, postsecondary, and workforce partners collaborate to create conditions that lead to more learners of color and learners experiencing poverty completing education and securing good jobs.**
An intermediary may be a standalone nonprofit organization, workforce development board, a higher education institution, or another organization type. A pathways intermediary provides leadership and management capacity to enable sector partners to execute their individual and collective roles in pathways programming. These intermediaries sit at the center of an education and employment ecosystem, brokering partnerships and coordinating activities between K–12, postsecondary, and employers as they work with partners to integrate structures and supports that enable learners to successfully navigate from high school to a career with upward mobility.
Intermediaries consider their assets and strengths, other organizations operating in the ecosystem, and their areas of focus as they prioritize their resources and activities. Despite commonalities across them, no one-size-fits-all model exists for intermediaries. While the intermediary’s unique role is to convene partners and forge shared vision and accountability to learners, all other roles and functions can be shared across organizations that participate in the pathways partnership. For example, one organization may be well-positioned to take on the role of data lead based on its track record for collecting, analyzing, reporting on, and helping others to use labor market information. Another organization might have a strong policy arm and can assume leadership in helping the partners to strategize around a policy agenda for creating equitable pathways.
#### DOWNLOAD THE RESOURCES
**Issue Brief**
**Framework**
> Communities need leadership to bring systems together to mend broken education and career pathways. Pathways intermediaries are playing that role.
Building Equitable Pathways Community of Practice Organizations
### What did we learn about equitable pathways?
**To build more equitable pathways systems, equity must be the driving force guiding the individual and collective efforts of intermediaries, their sector partners, and other influential actors at the local, regional, and state levels.**
“Equitable pathways” refer to the quality of pathway activities and system changes in working to disrupt organizational and institutional status quo and achieve fairness and justice for members of historically marginalized communities, including communities of color and low-income communities. Without a joint, coordinated effort to increase equity, systems will continue to fail learners of color and learners experiencing poverty. We expect that more intensive equity-minded practice within communities, led by intermediaries, will prompt organizational and ecosystem changes that benefit learners.
Using qualitative research methods, Equal Measure codified learning about how intermediaries lead equitable pathways through the development of the **Equitable Pathways Intermediary Framework**. The framework articulates **31** **intermediary** **activities** in **four key categories** (*Data Collection and* Use; *Partnership Building*; *Pathways Design and Delivery Support*; and *Policy and Funding Advocacy;* with *Equity* cutting across these), connects the activities to **five areas of** **systems change** among **sector partners** (*Culture, Practice, and Policy*; *Cross-organizational Collaboration*; and *Resource Allocation and Funding*) and in the **broader pathways ecosystem** (*Public Policy* and *Public Narrative*) that lead to **20** **improved and equitable learner outcomes** across **three categories** (*Education*; *Transition from Education to Work*; *and Employment*).
Equitable Pathways Intermediary Framework
“All of this [we do] through an equity lens. The system is working for high-income students; it’s working for white students. All of this is to support the students in [our state] for whom the system is not working, for students not getting postsecondary credentials. … We’ve got a lot of work to do in closing those discrepancies.”
—Intermediary staff member
### What do we see as the next steps in this work?
**Funders, technical assistance providers, and researchers can help intermediaries overcome challenges in their pursuit of leading equitable pathways.**
Intermediaries face common, persistent challenges in collecting and using learner data, engaging learners and sector partners in meaningful ways, and diversifying revenue. Funders, technical assistance providers, and researchers can help intermediaries break through these roadblocks, expanding opportunities for intermediaries to deepen their impact. Our brief provides examples of how they can do this.
#### Related
##### Blog | 6.20.23
##### Blog | 6.27.23
©2025 Equal Measure. All Rights Reserved.
Site by 
Join our email list to receive our newsletter, briefs, reports, and other thought leadership publications.
05.31.23 | Equal Measure | Report
# Robin Hood Mobility LABs: Year 1 Learning and Evaluation Report
Equal Measure’s report for Robin Hood’s Mobility Learning and Action Bets (Mobility LABs) documents the initiative’s first year of implementing community-driven solutions to sustainability lift families out of poverty.
Mobility LABs is a national investment led by Robin Hood and supported by multiple funding partners. The initiative defines and measures mobility from poverty across three dimensions: economic stability, power and autonomy, and belonging and inclusion.
Equal Measure’s learning and evaluation report summarizes progress across the dimensions for the nine Mobility LABs projects’ activities in Implementation Year 1 (early 2021 and into 2022). Insights come from a Learning Tool survey of anchor partners—organizations that received funds directly from Robin Hood—and in-depth interviews with anchor partners and organizations that collaborate with them.
In Year 1, anchor partners focused on establishing the foundation for long-term, sustainable economic mobility in their communities. Building from the planning phase, their work prioritized engaging and building relationships with:
* Local, trusted, and experienced cross-sector community-based organizations, and, in many cases, formalizing those relationships into partnerships
* Local community residents, through various forms of outreach and engagement and by providing programs and services to develop skills and meet immediate needs
The report highlights examples of how anchor partners made positive changes as a result of partnership building, community engagement, and direct services. It also offers considerations in areas such as systems transformation and narrative change as Mobility LABs enters its last two years of implementation.
#### DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
#### DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC
03.28.23 | Equal Measure | Issue Brief
# The Opportunity Youth Forum: Using Data to Facilitate Systems Change
> “[B]eing in a data collaborative and seeing not only youth-serving organizations, but even our public school system being very transparent about the data that they’re experiencing, the challenges and successes that they’re having engaging young people throughout the school year, has really, I think, shifted the culture around collaborative building, and specifically into data.” —OYF collaborative member
Equal Measure’s evaluation brief for the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions’ Opportunity Youth Forum explores trends and practices in using data to improve systems and outcomes for opportunity youth. The findings come from the full 2021 evaluation report, .
Since the start of OYF a decade ago, the Forum’s investments in data capacity help the network understand where systems fail opportunity youth and how to drive strategies for change.
Our brief outlines several key findings, including:
* Consistent growth in data use, spurred by the development of common data definitions and indicators, within and across systems
* An emphasis on data analysis and sharing learning to improve programs and services
* The critical role of dedicated staff who can help collaboratives collect and use data more effectively
* Examples of how collaboratives integrate youth in data collection and analysis
#### DOWNLOAD THE BRIEF
##### Report | 03.09.23
##### Vignette | 1.30.23
##### Issue Brief | 10.13.22
01.30.23 | Equal Measure | Vignette
# 2021 Opportunity Youth Forum: Boosting Capacity to Drive Equitable Systems Change
The Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions’ Opportunity Youth Forum (OYF) brings together local collaboratives to reconnect opportunity youth to education and employment. Equal Measure’s evaluation focuses on the network’s capacities and efforts to change systems for opportunity youth.
Communities served by the OYF network span the United States across urban, rural, and tribal regions. This nationwide network of collaboratives—each grounded deeply in their community’s place and context—creates a strong, diverse cohort of learning opportunities and a national perspective on improving education and employment outcomes for opportunity youth.
AREAS OF FOCUS. Collaboratives prioritized youth involved in or experiencing: Justice system (63%); Foster system (59%); Homelessness (56%); Boys & men of color (50%). Collaboratives focused “a lot” on connecting youth to: Workforce (61%); Postsecondary education (42%); High school or equivalency (39%). SIZE. Collaboratives included partners from various sectors: Higher education (97%); Community-based organizations (94%); Government (82%); K-12 education (76%). Network Median: 14 partners. Range: 6-120 partners.
Based on 2021 data from the collaboratives, these systems changes emerged as areas exhibiting growth or as key priorities as OYF moves into its next decade of work:
* **Data Use:** Data and learning was the highest rated collaborative capacity, and collaboratives have seen substantial growth in data capacity and data use for systems change. In particular, the network has demonstrated growth in using common data definitions and in sharing data within and across systems.
* **Public Policy:** The OYF shows promising signs of growth to influence policy, including raising public awareness to youth-related issues, engaging young people in advocacy, and hiring staff with policy and advocacy training.
* **Funding Changes:** The network continues to pursue systems changes through funding, with collaboratives shifting funding practices and distributing resources to create more opportunities for opportunity youth.
* **Equity:** More than three-quarters of collaboratives reported that planning for opportunity youth work included explicit acknowledgment of racial equity and/or community-specific disparities, including evidence of healing from trauma.
Equal Measure conducts an annual assessment to understand the Opportunity Youth Forum’s collaborative capacity, systems change efforts, and core values. Each year offers an opportunity to uplift new learning that informs the direction of initiatives for the network. , and see our  that highlights positive trends and promising practices from our deep dive of the OYF network’s data use.
#### DOWNLOAD OUR RESOURCES
##### Issue Brief | 3.28.23
##### Vignette | 12.17.21