Thank you for attending our 10 Year Anniversary Event! You are invited to participate in our partnership survey - your feedback is invaluable to us. Let’s continue shaping our community’s future and transforming systems - together.

In 2008, the Racine County Workforce Development Board began crafting a strategy to achieve full employment by 2020. Collaborating with educational, private, public, non-profit, and faith-based organizations, they focused on tackling chronic underemployment, especially in Racine's inner city. After years of groundwork, the Higher Expectations initiative officially launched in 2014, expanding on the initial plan and forming a robust, multi-year career-to-cradle partnership in Racine County.

Click the dropdowns below to view key examples of our journey:

  • Higher Expectations created opportunities for community members to engage in decision making processes throughout our work. Assisted in the data collection for partner projects. Since 2020, we’ve increased from 8% of our work having community-led decisions to 43% in 2023.

  • Funded a local study of the City of Racine’s labor market showing the need to focus efforts on female heads of households. Designed and launched RiseUp, which supports entry-level employees at our local hospital to increase their educational attainment while working so that they can move up within the system into family-sustaining careers. This program graduated 16 participants from the program, with 6 participants earning certificates for continued education. We worked to adjust HR Policies through the program that increased the amount of interviews for participants.

  • Created and signed a first-of-its-kind data-sharing agreement between the University of Wisconsin - Parkside, Racine Unified School District, and Higher Expectations in 2015 to look at their six-year graduation data.

    In 2017, Higher Expectations was one of the first 17 communities in the nation to be designated a Lumina Talent Hub.

    With Higher Expectations support, our partnership transformed systems by:

    • Incorporating remedial work in classes that earned college credits for degrees.

    • Collaborating across RUSD and UWP to align math pathways from K-12 to college.

    • Creating stronger pathways from an associate degree at Gateway Technical College into a Bachelor's Degree at UW-Parkside.

    • Increasing dual-credit opportunities for High School students at RUSD to earn college credits

    In 2019, UWP achieved a 44% graduation rate after averaging 25% for its first 35 years in existence. Post pandemic the rate is 41%, with a goal of 50% by 2025.

  • Higher Expectations supported What Works Cities application for the City of Racine, which gave funds from the Gates Foundation and technical assistance from Behavioral Insights to the City of Racine to scale the 5.09 program and increase the City of Racine’s population with a High School Credential.

    We connected Racine Unified and YWCA to create Competency Based Credit Recovery Program (CBCRP) that utilizes the 5.09 HSED Program curriculum to support students who are credit deficient, but testing at high aptitude rates, to give them the support they need to graduate with their peers.

    We also engaged with GROW Racine to create scholarships to help support 5.09 HSED program participants with their financial needs while they earn their high school credential.

    2010 to 2023 high school graduation rates have increased from . In 2022, 140 students were able to graduate from Racine Unified as a direct result of the HSED program at the comprehensive high schools. This represents approximately 10% of the 2022 senior class who wouldn’t have otherwise earned their high school diploma.

  • Higher Expectations has connect d Racine Unified with StriveTogether consultants to train district leaders and teachers on Continuous Improvement cycles to allow teachers to create adaptive lesson plans that reduce the amount of students pulled from instructional time for reading or math intervention.

    We facilitated the creation of and recruited for the Early Literacy Steering Committee with Racine County to engage early literacy stakeholders and parents of young children to co-create early literacy pilots.

    In 2023, 16 schools made progress in Forward scores in ELA. 6 of those schools saw numbers higher than pre-Covid. We also saw a reduced number of students with urgent needs in early literacy by 60% in 2023.

  • In 2023, we received the Systems Transformation designation from our national network StriveTogether’s Theory of Action. This recognition represents the highest status that a StriveTogether organization can achieve, acknowledging our commitment to systemic change and dedication to continuous improvement and collaborative efforts.

 

Strategic Priorities for The Next 5 Years

Over the past 10 years we’ve worked with local and national partners to secure funding to sustain our systems transforming activities. In those 10 years, we raised $6.3 million, $1.1 million of which has been re-invested into our institutional partners to pilot and scale systems transforming, initiatives and $90K has gone directly to the community through incentives for participation, consulting contracts with community members, and community focused activities. In order to continue to see these transformational changes by 2030, we will need to prioritize funding the following strategies:

Our Partnership Goals

Early Literacy

Increasing Parent Engagement

Racine Unified School District Parents engaging in high quality engagement experiences at schools will match the demographics of students served at schools.

Scale Continuous Improvement

All Racine Unified student will have high quality, adaptive instruction.

Goal: By 2030, 75% of RUSD third graders reading at proficient or better.

Post-Secondary Access & Completion

Equitable Enrollment Collaborative

All Racine Unified students will have access to post-secondary pathways the first fall after high school graduation that lead to family-sustaining careers.

Education Pathways & Dual Credit Opportunities

All Racine Unified students will have access to dual-credit opportunities.

Collaboration Across All Institutions for Equitable Completion

All students who enter a Racine-area post-secondary institution will attain some kind of post-secondary certification or degree.

Goal: By 2030, 62% if RUSD graduates are enrolling into some kind of post-secondary education the first fall after graduation.

Equitable Employment

Success Coach Training Model

All Racine County residents will have access to employment opportunities that lead them on pathways to family-sustaining careers.

Equitable Employers

All Racine County residents will have access to employment with family/life centered practices.

Goal: By 2030, five hundred unemployed residents will move from the nine high-poverty census tracts into family sustaining careers.

Higher Expectations’ Goals

Transforming Leadership

Community Leadership Board & Training

All Racine County residents have access to opportunities to participate in leadership opportunities in our community.

Goal: By 2030, at least 25% of our work will be shifting power to our community.

Data Training for Community Partners

All Higher Expectations partners will have access to data training to create sustainable data tracking across our partnership.

Goal: By 2030, 75% of our organizational, institutional, and community partners will self report that they have a greater understanding of the data in our community because of our work.

Higher Expectations Sustainability

Professional Development for Our Team

All Higher Expectations Staff has access to high quality professional development opportunities.

Retain and Recruit Diverse Staff

Higher Expectations continues to have highly skilled, diverse staff.

Interested in Committing to Our Next 5 Years?

or email info@career2cradle.org

  • Achieve Brown County

    Advocate Health/Aurora

    Annie E Casey Foundation

    Ascension All-Saints

    Badger Meter

    Building Our Future

    Carthage College

    Racine Police Department

    CAEL

    City of Racine

    College Possible

    Racine County

    Educators Credit Union

    Enterprise Community Partners

    Gateway Technical College

    GoodWill Industries SE Wisconsin

    HARIBO

    InSinkErator

    Johnson Financial

    Johnson Foundation at Wingspread

    Main Project

    Milwaukee Succeeds

    Modine Manufacturing

    Racine Community Foundation

    Racine Public Library

    Racine Video Production

    RAMAC

    Reservoir Video

    Racine Unified School District

    Academies of Racine

    Results for America

    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

    Ruud Foundation

    Safe and Sound

    StriveTogether

    Talent Hub

    Twin Disc

    United Way of Racine County

    University of Wisconsin - Parkside

    YWCA of SE Wisconsin