The Future is Collective Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 2025

E3 Alliance is a place-based partnership hosting a multistakeholder collaboration of more than 200 business, community and government leaders in Central Texas. The alliance serves more than 600,000 students in 15 school districts and eight institutions of higher education, E3 was founded in 2006 and joined the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network in 2011. Since joining the network, E3 has employed StriveTogether’s expertise to improve outcomes and advocate for impactful policies. Kindergarten readiness In 2015, Central Texas experienced a sudden and dramatic decline in kindergarten readiness due to state and federal budget cuts that removed critical services for families with young children. E3 Alliance staff members performed in-depth research to understand the root causes of the readiness decline and identified the need for a much broader integration of medical professionals into their work with families. Since this was a brand-new stakeholder group for E3, they worked closely with StriveTogether to develop workshops to bring these new perspectives fully into their programmes. Using the learnings from these workshops, E3 Alliance deployed an action team to implement a variety of initiatives across Central Texas, including “pre-K prescriptions” to families of preschool- age children and district-wide dedicated phone lines for pre- kindergarten enrolment. The results were clearly impactful: districts participating in the effort saw a 7% increase in enrolment for two consecutive years after the initial pilot year. Moreover, the best practices from the programme are now included in a state toolkit for pre-kindergarten enrolment. Today, the work with health professionals has been taken over by a healthcare foundation, ensuring the programme’s sustainability for the future.13Middle grade mathematic proficiency National mathematic proficiency has suffered dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, mathematic proficiency dropped 5% for fourth grade students and 7% for eighth grade students compared to 2019 levels. These declines have also increased opportunity gaps across racial and ethnic groups. Importantly, middle grade mathematic success is a strong predictor of later life outcomes, such as high school graduation, income, educational attainment, teenage pregnancy and incarceration. E3 Alliance has been working to address these steep declines through an evidence-based policy approach which has shown significant success in increasing the completion of advanced math courses, particularly for Black students. The new policy uses an “opt-out” approach, automatically enrolling qualifying middle grade students in advanced mathematics instead of letting students choose to “opt-in”. This approach shifts cultural perceptions around mathematics and ultimately enrols more students in classes that put them on a path to complete higher mathematics courses in high school. This policy shift significantly increased completion of advanced mathematics courses and contributed to a 91% reduction in the gap between Black and white students completing eighth-grade Algebra I. It also led to a six-fold increase in emergent bilingual students completing Algebra I. Furthermore, in 2023, E3’s advocacy at the state level contributed to the adoption of Senate Bill 2124, which implements this policy statewide. This policy change is now benefiting communities across Texas, providing an example of systems change informed by evidence- based interventions.14CASE STORY E3 Alliance in Central Texas 13. Adapted from StriveTogether. (n.d.). E3 Alliance: Setting Up Kids for Success in Central Texas. https://www.strivetogether.org/our-impact/case-studies/e3-alliance/. 14. Adapted from Martínez, N. C. (2024). Middle Grade Math: Spotlight on Texas Cradle to Career Network Members. StriveTogether. https://www.strivetogether.org/middle-grade-math-spotlight-on-texas-cradle-to-career-network-members/.55 50 051015202530354045 2016 2017 2018All students Low income students Kindergarten readiness Percentage Year The Future is Collective: Case Studies of Collective Social Innovation 61