Accelerating Opportunity: A Breaking through Initiative

Over 26 million adults in the United States do not have a high school degree and many of these individuals are classified as low-skilled. Many Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs, designed to provide foundational skills, are failing to place low-skilled students on a trajectory to enter credit-bearing postsecondary programs and earn postsecondary credentials. Accelerating Opportunity: A Breaking through Initiative, seeks to transform ABE programs in the United States to help low-skilled students move along educational pathways and into jobs that pay a living wage. Modeling their efforts after the Washington State Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program, 11 States throughout the U.S. are attempting to substantially increase the number of basic skills students enrolled in career pathway programs that lead to high-quality employment opportunities.