Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) was an early adopter of College and Career Pathways via the California Partnership Academy model. District leaders and pathway teams began using the Essential Elements for Pathway Quality as their framework for developing a culture of continuous improvement of pathway development. Supported by a team of pathway coordinators and district leaders, pathways can now participate in a robust program quality review and receive pathway certification and formal recognition from the school board, through an internal validation process.

EGUSD partnered with ConnectED to build the capacity of the coordinators and leadership team to lead and support pathways through continuous improvement cycles.  At the center of their work is OPTIC, an online workspace within ConnectED studios, where teams and coordinators are engaging consistently around pathway quality.  EGUSD also invested in customizing OPTIC to align to their internal pathway certification process, which provided for a transparent, collaborative online workspace