THE PROJECT
The Navigate Project
Accelerating Evidence-Based Practices in Postsecondary Advising
THE CHALLENGE
As students navigate the critical transition from high school to postsecondary life, the messages they receive shape whether they believe they belong and can succeed. These perceptions profoundly impact their achievement, persistence, and postsecondary decisions.
Leading postsecondary advising programs have begun fostering adaptive learning mindsets among students—but these innovative strategies remain undocumented, unshared, and disconnected from research evidence.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Postsecondary advising programs are uniquely positioned to foster the learning mindsets students need to thrive in new learning environments. By bridging the gap between innovative practice and rigorous research, we can accelerate adoption of what works—especially for students from historically marginalized and underserved groups.
THE APPROACH
A collective of educators, advocates, funders, and researchers.
The Navigate Project is a collective of educators, advocates, funders, and researchers dedicated to developing and adapting evidence-demonstrated practices in the postsecondary access and success space, seeking to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based learning mindset-supportive practices among postsecondary advising programs by:
- Codifying existing practices from innovative programs
- Building capacity to integrate new practices into the advising space
- Laying infrastructure for infusing practices into programs more broadly
Together, these activities synthesize key practices across research and practice to inform the field of advising and related programming.
OUR FOCUS
Through support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Navigate Project is working to:
- UNDERSTAND how advising programs support—or unintentionally undermine—learning mindsets
- TEST high-leverage practices for supporting learning mindsets
- CO-CREATE and disseminate tools advisors can use to support students through new challenges
- INCREASE AWARENESS of practices that amplify student identity, cultural background, interests, and voice
FUNDED BY
The Vision
A future where every postsecondary advising program has the tools, knowledge, and capacity to foster adaptive learning mindsets—ensuring that all students, especially those from historically marginalized communities, receive the support they need to navigate their postsecondary journey with confidence and purpose.
The Navigator Toolkit
The Navigator Toolkit houses evidence-based resources and activities that highlight learning mindset supportive practices.
Values Connection Activity
Values Connection is a FREE activity based on Motivate Lab’s relevance affirmation intervention research, in which students explore their personal values and connect these values to their education and future goals.
Motivating Futures Course
The Motivating Futures Course is an asynchronous online course grounded in learning mindset research to equip practitioners with mindset-supportive practices as they guide students through the postsecondary transition and planning process. Request a free demo today!
The Learning Mindset Assessment Rubric
The Learning Mindset Assessment Rubric (LMAR) is a program improvement tool for schools and postsecondary advising programs to gather input on how effectively they support students’ learning mindsets during the transition to postsecondary contexts. This tool provides a snapshot of learning mindset-supportive practices in action.
Ready to Transform Advising?
Bridging research and practice. Accelerating what works.