Here’s how it works:

• Your community explores proven career-connected learning approaches that align with your goals and context.
• Your team takes stock of your current career-connected learning efforts—what’s working, what’s missing, and what outcomes you’re seeing—to build from a strong foundation.
• Your students’ voices guide which experiences will work best for them.
• Your community members share their expertise, needs, and dreams to help shape the direction.
• Your local employers and partners help customize authentic learning experiences.
• Your educational team leads the design process with deep community input—creating a shared CCL vision with clear goals, a K–12/14 continuum, and student experiences to test and scale over time.
• Your superintendent serves as the chief architect, bringing all voices together.
• Your superintendent participates in a 6-month leadership program to champion the work, build the conditions for success, and align policy and resources for lasting impact.

This opportunity may be right for leaders who:

• Champion economic mobility and strong learning experiences for every young person in your community
• Think boldly and are ready to question what’s possible, dream big, and take concrete action
• Value career-connected learning and are ready to make it a top district priority this year
• Lead rural communities ready to tackle current career-connected learning challenges
• Seek peer connections with other rural communities and their innovative solutions
• Are ready to play an active role as co-leader of this process, aligning efforts systemwide and sustaining the work long-term

• September 4-October 20 by 6pm ET: Communities complete the application. The application should take between 1-3 hours to complete.
• October 20-November 3: Transcend reviews applications and shares updates with communities
• November 10-December 15: Transcend conducts community interviews
• End of December 2025: Cohort announcements made 
• Mid-January 2026: Cohort launches

The Rural Career-Connected Collaborative is a 15-month, fully funded cohort program where rural school communities partner with Transcend to design and implement career-connected learning that reflects their community’s unique strengths, needs, and aspirations.

We refer to career-connected learning (CCL) as any aspect of your program designed to bridge student experiences in school with postsecondary opportunities and careers.

We are looking for rural school communities where the superintendent (or equivalent) is ready to champion this work and where there is a strong desire to engage in community-based design focused on career-connected learning at the district and individual school level. The initial interest form is open to ALL rural school community interest holders, including district leaders, school leaders, teachers, parents, students, Superintendents, etc. We are excited to learn from and with you!

This is a highly collaborative and supportive process. Communities will:

• Attend in-person convenings with a national peer group,
• Deeply engage community in design—creating a shared CCL vision with clear goals, a K–12/14 continuum, and student experiences to test and scale over time.
• Receive dedicated coaching from Transcend,
• Participate in a leadership development program (LCLL) for district leaders, and,
• Build stronger partnerships with industry partners, postsecondary institutions, and other community stakeholders.

Transcend will cover all costs associated with participation—including coaching and convening travel

We’re looking to identify 80–100 rural systems that express interest, from which 10 school communities will ultimately be selected. The process includes: interest form submission, follow-up conversation with Transcend, application, and final selection by Dec 2025. We deeply believe the selection process is a two-way process where communities are also selecting if the program is aligned to their aspirations.

You can either nominate a rural community or submit an interest form on behalf of your rural community.

Absolutely. You do not need to have everything in place to be a strong candidate. We’re looking for districts with a desire to deepen or strengthen partnerships, even if they are in the early stages. In fact, in some contexts, this might be the perfect opportunity for districts to explore how to better connect with postsecondary and workforce partners in ways that reflect your local context.

Each participating system will assemble a core team to lead the work. While the specific team may vary by community, we recommend including the superintendent or equivalent system leader, the principal or school leader of the participating school, educators and staff directly involved in implementation, students and families as key design partners, and community members, employers, or postsecondary partners where possible. Transcend will support you in building and sustaining an inclusive team throughout the experience.

Yes. While the cohort focuses on designing with one school as a starting point, many participating systems go on to adapt and expand those ideas across other schools. We encourage districts to think about this initial site as a launchpad for future systemwide innovation.

This opportunity is open to rural communities located in any of the 50 U.S. states or U.S. territories. We trust local wisdom: if your community sees itself as rural—whether because of geography, culture, or lived experience—that’s the definition that matters to us. If you’re unsure whether your district qualifies, don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re happy to talk.