High-Quality Advising Enablement Stack: Providing meaningful guidance for every student
Overview
The Pathway Impact Fund’s work is guided by the Commission on Purposeful Pathways’ central report, A Launchpad for Life, a research-backed vision for purposeful pathways that move beyond a patchwork of programs and change outcomes for young people at scale.
These pathways weave together three core elements: high-quality advising, accelerated coursework and career-connected learning. This resource is designed to help communities move from understanding to action on high-quality advising.
High-quality advising is the connective tissue of a purposeful pathway. When done well, it helps students develop college-going and occupational identities, navigate financial and logistical barriers and connect their learning to a meaningful sense of purpose. Research shows that strong advising boosts GPA, attendance and college enrollment, while also building student motivation, self-efficacy and ambition. Effective advising weaves together programmatic experiences, supports students and their families in preparing for postsecondary costs and next steps, and provides ongoing guidance for students to reflect on their skills, interests and goals.
Advising is not a single conversation or a one-time planning session but a sustained relationship — with counselors, near-peer mentors, advisors embedded in dual enrollment programs, and other trusted adults — that begins early in high school and extends through key transition points. It helps students ask better questions, not just get answers, and it ensures that the other components of their pathway add up to something coherent and within reach.
Unfortunately, today’s systems routinely fall short of delivering this for all students. High schools nationwide employ an average of one counselor for every 385 students, well above the recommended ratio of 1 to 250. As a result, most advising is reactive — more than half of navigators report providing support only after a student asks for help. Advising gaps compound existing inequities, putting students whose families have college experience or higher-wage careers at a steep advantage. Without intentional investment in advising capacity — through dedicated staff, near-peer models, technology-assisted supports, and advisory curricula — access to meaningful guidance remains uneven, and too many students are left to navigate complex decisions on their own.
The content below addresses advising from two angles:
- At the enabling conditions level, asking: Do we have the systems, capacity, and conditions in place to deliver high-quality advising for every student?
- At the student experience level, asking: What do students actually experience, and does advising help them build clarity, agency, and momentum toward their chosen pathway?
Why “enablement stacks”? Helping you move from understanding to action
In tech, a “stack” is the set of components that need to work together for something to function. We use the term to emphasize that the content here is most effective when used together, not as standalone tools.
The stack includes a cornerstone, diagnostic(s), metrics and inquiry guides to put it all together — plus supporting content to help you go deeper. Stacks are designed in this way to help coaches and facilitators drive learning and practice change in the field. The Pathways Impact Fund will organize its learning supports for partners around this structure.
Cornerstone: Define Quality
What does quality integration look like? We look beyond traditional approaches to new, improved practices that result in transformational results for young people.
Student Experience
High Quality College and Career Advising Framework
College Access: Research & Action
Last updated: 2025
This developmental framework outlines the advising experiences and milestones students should have from ninth grade through the summer after graduation. It defines high-quality advising from the student’s point of view, across time and decision points.
Enabling Conditions
District Framework for Enabling Postsecondary Advising
National College Attainment Network
Last updated: 2024
A district-facing framework outlining the core enabling conditions required to deliver effective postsecondary advising at scale — covering staffing models, role clarity, leadership ownership, data access and cross-system coordination.
DiagnosticDiagnostic: Understand the Current State
To move forward, we have to understand where we’re starting from. These tools will help you gather and assess qualitative data to understand your community’s current state.
Student Experience
Collection of Instruments: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
EdInstruments
Last updated: 2026
This library of educational measurement tools is a resource for educators, schools, districts and the general public. This collection includes 21 instruments of various styles, with varied focus areas within pathways, and can be reviewed to begin brainstorming how to best gather information on student experience and readiness.
Enabling Conditions
Enabling Conditions Assessment Tool
Sankofa Consulting
Last updated: 2026
A structured self-assessment aligned to the Washington enabling conditions framework, using four readiness levels to help teams identify current state and concrete next steps. It enables districts to benchmark progress and prioritize improvements over time.
Validated MetricsValidated Metrics: Measure Progress
Data helps with focusing efforts, spotting problems and tracking improvements.
Enabling Conditions and Student Experience
Measuring Purposeful Pathways: Measurement Action Guide
Commission on Purposeful Pathways
Last updated: 2026
This guide provides a robust set of student-centered metrics to inform decision-making, track progress and drive continuous improvement. Use this guide to explore and discuss what’s already being measured and where there are gaps. See page 9 for the metrics related to high-quality advising.
Indicator – Access to college and career advising
The Education-to-Workforce Framework
Last updated: 2024
These indicators can be used in conversations about what to measure. Local leaders can start the conversation by discussing which indicators their region is and isn’t already tracking.
Inquiry Protocol: Decide & Act
The “so what, now what”: where insights come together from the diagnostic and the data to inform choices about what to do next. This approach results in a plan for action plus an understanding of how to measure progress against that plan.
Enabling Conditions and Student Experience
Essential Question – Are Students Graduating From High School On Time and Successfully Transitioning Into Further Education, Training, or Employment?
The Education to Workforce Framework
Last updated: 2024
This resource includes probing questions to examine both high school complete rates and the quality of transitions to college or the workforce after high school. It can help leaders move from assessment to decision-making and resourcing.
Additional SupportsAdditional Supports
A collection of additional resources to fuel your work.
Policy Levers for College & Career Readiness
National College Attainment Network
Last updated: 2022
Through the Postsecondary Pathways Project, NCAN identified eight college and career advising policy levers and explored how states adopt and advance them. This resource can be used to ground enabling-conditions conversations in policy context and identify leverage points beyond staffing.
Making the Connection: Aligned Advising to Improve Postsecondary Access and Success
Education Strategy Group
Last updated: 2022
This interactive website includes data on increased postsecondary access and a vision for better, more accessible advising. It can be used to guide conversation and alignment of visions of advising across systems.