March 20, 2020 | 11:00 am
Video Recording , Recording Password: jFWJJ3KH

Nick Mathern –  Vice President of K-12 Partnerships for Achieving the Dream (ATD).

Gateway to College is a network of 35 college-based high school completion programs in 20 states for young people who have dropped out of high school or who are significantly off track. Because alternative high schools don’t typically have clear accountability targets, the Gateway network set shared performance benchmarks. Through a program quality initiative called “Gateway to Program Success” (GPS), we increased the network’s collective graduation rate by 24 percentage points in four years.

This webinar will feature crucial lessons from our network and how they contributed to improved student outcomes. Participants will learn the seven domains of the GPS initiative. The webinar will address how the network’s strategies for sharing effective practices and disciplined focus on data was able to benefit small programs with limited staffing. We will also discuss the challenges that networks face when leading program improvement, including: identifying meaningful performance targets, navigating distinctions between programs in diverse contexts, and leveraging accountability without state-sanctioned authority.

Nick guides the delivery of services to the Gateway to College network and supports colleges to ensure that their enrollment pipeline features equitable opportunities for underrepresented populations. Nick leads an innovative team which supports early college and dual enrollment programs serving out-of-school youth; foster-youth, adjudicated youth, and homeless youth; as well as first-generation and low-income college students.

Nick was previously Vice President of Programs for Gateway to College National Network, which merged with ATD in 2019. Since 2005, Nick brokered agreements between colleges, school districts, and state education agencies to replicate and implement Gateway to College programs in more than 50 communities across the country. Before coming to Gateway, Nick taught in a small alternative high school. Nick’s previous career in social services included: child abuse prevention, serving survivors of domestic violence, and working with adjudicated youth and adults.

He holds a master’s degree in Public Administration with a focus on education policy from the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Drake University.