Cross-Sector Collaboration from Cradle to Career: Creating Thriving Places for Children and Families
EDU A364AY
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This is the required core seminar course for the HGSE Master’s Concentration, Cross-Sector Collaboration: Creating Thriving Places for Children in Families. Grounded in the evidence that schooling alone is not a sufficient intervention to address inequality in educational outcomes and economic opportunity, this seminar immerses students in the social determinants of success in education and economic mobility by examining the complex and intergenerational disparities young people and families face in education, health, housing, nutrition, well-being, income, and wealth.
Addressing the long-term effects of racism, poverty, and chronic disinvestment requires more than isolated interventions. It demands sustained collaboration among residents, institutions, and organizations across sectors, working toward shared goals and shared accountability.This course equips students with a foundational understanding of the vibrant national movement now advancing outcomes for children, youth and families through cradle-to-career place-based strategies.
Hundreds of urban, suburban, and rural communities across the US are coming together to design coordinated systems of opportunity and support that complement high-quality schooling and address the broader conditions shaping young people’s lives. Cradle-to-career place-based partnerships bring together stakeholders across school systems, government, business, philanthropy, nonprofits, higher education, and community-, youth-, and faith-based organizations to solve complex problems and improve population-level outcomes in geographically defined places. By elevating the voices and lived experiences of residents and aligning resources and strategies, these partnerships work to meet local needs, build on community assets, and create coherent pathways that enable more young people to reach their full potential. The underlying assumption behind this work is that flourishing neighborhoods produce flourishing families which then can rear flourishing children who can come to school “ready to learn.”
The class is offered in a seminar format to immerse students in the theory and practice of this emergent field. Classes will include reading discussions, lectures, cases, simulations, guest lectures and roundtable discussions with visiting practitioners. Students will each pursue independent projects in this field. Particular attention will focus on the strategies employed by HGSE’s EdRedesign Lab, its mission, fieldwork, research, and challenges. While the majority of course sessions will center place-based innovation in the United States context, we will dedicate several course sessions to advancing cross-sector collaboration in an international context.
Class Notes
*Note: The course will typically meet on Wednesdays every two weeks across the Fall and Spring semester with several exceptions outlined in our syllabus.
Professional Development Opportunities and Career Pathways
As a part of our course, students will have access to the EdRedesign Lab’s vast network of partner communities (100+ in urban, suburban, and rural contexts across the US), senior fellows, staff and affiliates, Cradle-to-Career Partnership Leader Fellows, and national partners to bring real-world insights and inspiration to the classroom and unpack the dilemmas and opportunities that place-based practitioners are grappling with on the ground. Students will hear directly from some of the leading voices in the nation working within our field and their professional pathways into cradle-to-career work (including HGSE/Harvard graduates that have pursued careers in our sector). They will also learn about opportunities for additional co-curricular, mentoring, and career exploration programming that they can pursue through EdRedesign’s growing student engagement portfolio that includes term-time and summer employment opportunities, research assistantships, and postgraduate opportunities with national, regional, and local partners.
Each semester, students will be required to attend one professional development event sponsored by the EdRedesign Lab and complete a relevant written assignment outlined below in the assignments section.
