At America Succeeds, we are on a mission. Over the past few years, we have zeroed in on a specific problem on the horizon: we send our children to school to prepare them for the real world, which is changing very fast, but our schools have not evolved at the same pace. To solve it, we aim to find the best thinkers and doers to develop real solutions and activate them.
Extreme innovations in technology are forcing radical shifts in the workforce and, consequently, drastic changes are needed in how we educate students. Technologists, futurists, and business leaders alike are referring to this fundamental shift as the next Industrial Revolution. We call it the Age of Agility, and we call for changes in education that match the forces of change in the workforce and economy.
Our Journey
The Age of Agility Report
In fall 2017, America Succeeds released The Age of Agility: Education Pathways for the Future of Work to call attention to the misalignment between what is being taught in schools—both K-12 and higher education—and the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by the modern workplace.
As a society, we are in the early stages of a rapidly accelerating revolution that is bringing automation, artificial intelligence, and technology into parts of the workforce that have, until now, escaped this latest wave of disruptive change.
The report presents compelling data about this seismic shift. It shows how some companies are adapting. It explores how each one of us will have to take ownership of a lifetime of learning, a constant process of retraining and reeducating ourselves as the world around us lurches into the uncertain future.
The National Tour
In the report, America Succeeds committed to partnering with local stakeholder groups in states across the country to facilitate community conversations, and ultimately actions, on what the Age of Agility means for restructuring the way we deliver education.
With the support of our tour co-host, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and our national sponsors we launched the Age of Agility national tour in April 2018. The inaugural event was held in Arizona, before continuing on to Kansas and Missouri, New Mexico, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas, and New Jersey. The national tour wrapped up with a final event in Washington, D.C. in January 2019.
Over 1,200 attendees participated in the Age of Agility tour events across the country. Collectively, these stakeholders represent a national movement of changemakers ready to make a systems-level impact on education.
The Resource Bank
At each event along the Age of Agility National Tour, participants engaged in a candid dialogue about confronting the challenges and championing the solutions necessary for modernizing the education system to support the future of work. From these conversations, three big ideas for learners, systems, and educators emerged.
Together, these ideas lay the foundation for an agile approach to education in the future. However, we know that simply having a vision isn’t enough. That’s why we’ve created the Agility Resource Bank.
The Agility Resource Bank features the most promising policies to transform education-to-employment pathways around the big ideas. Leveraging collective learning and insight, our goal is to encourage states to embed agility as a core tenant of their education system using these model policies as a guide.
The Agility Alliance
The Agility Alliance is designed to signal to companies, policymakers, and education organizations a clear direction and mandate to better prepare students for the rapidly changing future.
It showcases the broad support for, and urgency of, modernizing public education systems and building agile workforce training pathways. More than 40 organizations are partnering in this effort, with support growing from across the country every day.
Through our collective efforts and influence, we can improve education systems to better prepare all learners to succeed in the competitive global economy and contribute to their local communities.
About America Succeeds
America Succeeds is a national network of non-partisan, business-led, policy and advocacy organizations that offer an informed and credible business voice for education in each state. Together, our network of affiliates are the nation’s leading force for mobilizing the business community to improve schools.
As employers and job-creators, we know what works for successful, socially-responsible businesses: customer-focus, accountability, transparency, competition, and return on investment. The same principles drive our work in building a brighter future for America’s children.
Learn more about America Succeeds and our network of affiliates at www.AmericaSucceeds.org.