What Is the Homegrown Talent Initiative?
School Administrator, January 2022

The eight rural districts in Colorado’s Hometown Talent Initiative: Holyoke, West Grand, East Grand, Clear Creek, Denver, Elizabeth, Fremont, Cortez, Durango. SOURCE: Colorado Succeeds

The Homegrown Talent Initiative is a three-year, grant-funded program. The eight participating school districts in Colorado (see left) vary in size, rurality and community characteristics. Enrollment ranges from 400 to 6,600. Some are only about an hour’s drive from Denver while others sit far outside Colorado’s urban corridor. Three enroll a larger share of Hispanic or Native American students than the state average.

In the first year of the initiative (2019-20), rural district leaders worked with local industry, higher education and the broader community to craft a new, shared vision of student success, codified in a graduate profile. The skills in community graduate profiles, such as critical thinking, communication and collaboration, are generally aligned with the soft skills that business and industry say are key to success in the workplace.

The participating school districts then put in place a robust set of learning experiences, including internships, dual enrollment, industry certificates and career pathways, despite un-precedented, pandemic-related challenges.

Two Colorado nonprofits, the Colorado Education Initiative and Colorado Succeeds, designed the initiative and offered ongoing technical assistance in the form of coaching, conferences and site visits to exemplar districts. More details about the initiative are available from the Center on Reinventing Public Education.