In Porterville, California, Burton pairs neighborhood schools with a charter pathway through high school. Its more revealing experiment is how to give different students different kinds of help - inside one public district.
Two 42-minute periods reveal how this Irvine public school makes room for academic help, emotional support and new interests. The shark mascot has surprisingly gentle house rules.
Verto Education turned the awkward gap between high school and college into a five-city, credit-bearing product. The pitch is seductive; the fine print is where the actual business lives.
Risepoint (formerly Academic Partnerships) is a U.S.-based online program management (OPM) company that partners with regional, mostly public universities to develop, launch, market, and scale affordable, workforce-focused online degree programs. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas and owned by the Vistria Group, the company provides marketing, enrollment, student support, faculty support, and technology services so that universities can reach working-adult learners at scale. It works with 100+ university partners across the U.S., UK, and Australia and says it has supported hundreds of thousands of students.
Mission College is a public community college in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley, part of the West Valley-Mission Community College District. Founded in 1975, it offers associate degrees, university-transfer pathways, career and technical certificates, ESL and noncredit courses to a diverse, largely working-adult student body. Through its Mission Promise program it offers free tuition to district residents and wraps students in support services - food, childcare, mental-health counseling and more - to remove the barriers that keep people from finishing.