Opportunity Advising is the foundation of coherence.
Let's co-design a movement.
TNTP, Willow Education, and the Gates Foundation are co-designing the model that makes advisory the cornerstone of mobility. Belonging. Career-connected coherence. AI fluency. Real outcomes for students furthest from opportunity.
While many districts have developed a portrait of a graduate, not enough have changed how they teach and measure those durable skills. Transforming advisory, or a similar classroom, is the coherent spine that belonging, durable skills, and career readiness build upon.
What Opportunity Advising is.
A purpose and curriculum-led approach to advisory. Treated with the same intentionality as a core academic class: sequenced, high-quality content, consistent routines, protected time, measured outcomes. A coherent connection to the rest of the student's school experience.
Grounded in TNTP's Paths of Opportunity and Opportunity Makers research. Delivered through an AI-enabled platform that unlocks the human relationship rather than replacing it.
Belonging and agency are prerequisites for learning and mobility.
Without them, nothing else compounds. Advisory is where these get built by design, not by luck.
Quality career-connected learning requires coherence.
Advisory becomes the spine of your CCL strategy. It aligns with high-quality curriculum, instructional routines, and your portrait of a graduate.
AI fluency is career readiness.
Students build with AI. Advisors use AI to prepare, prioritize, and personalize. Treating AI fluency as optional is treating career readiness as optional.
Outcomes matter. Especially for students furthest from opportunity.
Every student explores postsecondary options informed by completion rates, labor-market data, and ROI. Not slogans. Not glossy brochures.
Advisory is the cornerstone of a school that builds mobility.
Done well, it builds social capital and durable skills, and shifts the experience of every student and every educator. That's the bet.
I'm seeing students engage in a different way than they ever have before.— VINNY CARICATO · DIRECTOR, KIPP FORWARD CO
Co-Build the Opportunity Advising model with us.
We have a framework, readiness assessment, curriculum, platform, and research. Help us finish building and testing it under real conditions in school systems at scale. Selected districts get a seat at the design table, subgrant funding, and 18 months of deep support.
Two 2-day in-person convenings.
One in fall (mid to late September 2026) to launch the co-design. One in spring 2027 to design, synthesize, and plan scale. Bring a team of two or three district leaders to each.
Monthly virtual workshops.
Between convenings, cohort districts meet monthly to solve real problems, refine routines, and share artifacts. Workshops are working sessions, not webinars.
Quarterly 1:1 coaching.
Work with the TNTP and Willow teams to support high-quality instructional and implementation moves and regular learning cycles.
Pilot with students.
Districts run Opportunity Advising in pilot schools and grade levels during the 2026–27 school year. Live classrooms, real data, honest reflection.
Four research questions.
- Q1Does a structured, relationship-focused advisory curriculum produce a greater sense of belonging and clearer career identity?
- Q2How can AI-enabled tools increase the ROI of human advising by automating administrative work and surfacing real-time student need?
- Q3How can districts align advisory with their Portrait of a Graduate and career-connected learning to create one coherent student experience?
- Q4Does early purpose-setting and AI-supported navigation lead to higher enrollment and persistence in positive-ROI postsecondary pathways?
A $50K subgrant and a full stack of support across 18 months.
- →$50,000 subgrant. Backfill teacher time, fund planning days, cover travel to convenings.
- →Curriculum & platform. The AI-enabled Willow Education platform and curriculum at no cost during the cohort.
- →Implementation strategy and guidance. Readiness assessments, data-driven improvement cycles, and professional learning from TNTP.
- →Quarterly 1:1 coaching. Dedicated time with TNTP and Willow coaches to plan, test, and refine your Opportunity Advising implementation.
- →Peer cohort. Ten to twelve other leading districts and charter networks working on the same problem together.
- →Research contribution and spotlight. Your district's data and learnings feed TNTP's Mobility Research Lab. Join us on webinars, panels, and conferences to spread Opportunity Advising.
- →Scale plan. A strong change-management and implementation plan to reach all middle and high school students in year two.
"This approach has truly transformed the way my team and students thrive."— Wauneta · Public High School Principal, Colorado
Eighteen months, four phases.
Applications open.
Districts apply. Selection panel reviews. Target mix: urban, suburban, rural, large, small, charter, traditional.
Deadline · July 31, 2026Selection and onboarding.
Selected districts announced in August. Readiness assessment. District design teams form.
Cohort named · Aug 2026Co-design and pilot.
First in-person convening (mid to late September 2026). Monthly virtual workshops. Active pilots launched by second semester. Second convening in spring 2027.
First convening · Sept 2026Scale and insights.
Districts execute plans to bring Opportunity Advising to all middle and high school students by year two. TNTP publishes an insights brief and implementation roadmap. The partnership opens a regional and state cohort model so the next wave of districts can access what cohort one built.
All students · Year 2What we ask of cohort districts.
Every cohort district commits to these five commitments. They come from research, learning science, and our experience about what leads to quality implementation. If any are missing, it isn't Opportunity Advising. It's a rebranded homeroom.
Leading the field.
Three leading organizations are partnering to co-lead the Opportunity Advising Co-Design Cohort. Together, we have the research, expertise, talent, and capital to do this at a national scale.
Thirty years rebuilding teaching and learning systems. Published Paths of Opportunity and Opportunity Makers. The Mobility Research Lab anchors the evidence agenda. TNTP is the leading organization supporting more than 6,000 school districts to improve coherence, student outcomes, and career readiness.
Built the AI-enabled platform and curriculum for Opportunity Advising. Human-first hybrid advising, with AI in support of the advisor. Founded by James Cryan, Senior Advisor to Harvard's Next Level Lab and former founder and CEO of one of the country's strongest charter school networks.
Funding partner for the co-design. Building the human-in-the-loop AI-advising framework. Focused on quality data and outcomes.
Incorporating the Postsecondary Value Commission's research and data into Opportunity Advising.
Our entire Pathsmith durable skills framework is embedded into the curriculum and platform.— TIM TAYLOR · PRESIDENT, AMERICA SUCCEEDS
Start with the research.
Download the Opportunity Transformation Model and the research that shaped it. You'll get the framework, the learning-science foundation, and a diagnostic your leadership team can use before you decide.
- PDFThe Opportunity Advising Transformation Model — full diagnostic framework.
- RPTPaths of Opportunity — TNTP's five-factor research on economic and social mobility.
- RPTOpportunity Makers — TNTP's research on trajectory-changing schools.
Tell us about your district.
The application is short by design. We want to understand your district's readiness, your starting point, and why this work matters where you sit.
Before you apply.
Transform advisory.
Transform opportunity.
Ten to twelve districts. Eighteen months. If your district is hungry for a coherent approach to purpose-led career readiness, we want to hear from you.