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Colorado's Big Three initiative asks every school to help students graduate with college credit, an industry-recognized credential, or a real work experience. Work-based learning is the piece most schools have never built, and the ask arrives with funding but very little support for the people who have to design it.

Most programs do not fall short for lack of commitment. Sometimes the whole system rests on one person instead of a design, sometimes it is built without access to the research on what actually works, and often it grows so complicated that it stops delivering. A student placement gets counted as success, when the real success is what the student learns, how it deepens their engagement and academic outcomes, and where it points them after graduation.

RYAN PLANTZ has spent the last four years building a work-based learning system from the ground up inside a Denver high school, growing a handful of partners into a network of 250+ organizations built to sustain and outlast any one person.

We help you design a work-based learning system around your students, your community, and your goals, coach the people who run it, and leave a playbook your school owns.

  • “Ryan was crucial for creating a learning community where we were able to collaborate on resources, share communication strategies and grow best practices within the real world learning and internship community. Ryan was able to support me with understanding what structures and supports were helpful in effective and successful internship programs.”

    Wendy Rose, Compass Community Collaborative School - Fort Collins, CO

  • "Ryan is an exceptional leader who consistently turns ideas into action and delivers meaningful results. His ability to connect people, programs, and opportunities is unmatched. Ryan has a unique talent for identifying resources and partnerships that others may not even know exist, and he uses those connections to create impactful opportunities for students, educators, and communities."

    Lisa Hollingsworth, Internship Coordinator and Work-Based Learning Coordinator, Mapleton Early Career Prep - Thorton, CO

  • “Ryan is an intentional collaborator and leader with the experience and heart to make real change happen. From working group collabs with alternative educators to school-based exhibition panels, Ryan leads with purpose, clarity and student-centered optimism. It’s always a gift to have Ryan in the room.”

    Jennie Preece, Work-Based Learning Architect,Venture Academy of Leadership and Entrepreneurship - Parker, CO

  • “Ryan shows up with unwavering enthusiasm in his work. He is able to quickly identify opportunity and fosters an environment of encouragement and possibility with youth and colleagues. He has a gift for gathering folks and working together toward a common purpose. It has been inspirational to see his passion for building sustainable real-world learning programs in action.”

    Erin Fernandez, Director of Post-Secondary Success at Colorado LiftED Foundation - Denver, CO

Where do we start?

For schools with no existing work-based learning program, or a pilot ready to be redesigned.

What we do together:

  • Define your aim, success metrics, and theory of change

  • Co-design your student and mentor experience around your assets and community

  • Stand up partner recruitment, mentor training, and data systems

  • Coach your team to run, evolve, and sustain the work

You end with: A running program, a school-specific playbook, and the internal capacity to sustain it. When possible, the same program can produce industry-recognized credentials (IRCs), satisfying two Big Three requirements at once.

Timeline: Full school year

Let’s grow it.

For schools with a program in place, serving a subset of students and ready to scale toward school-wide.

What we do together:

  • Strengthen and diversify your partner network

  • Expand student access and placement capacity

  • Build the evidence and outcomes story for funders and community

  • Coach your team through the scale-up

You end with: A program ready to serve every student, with the evidence and infrastructure to sustain growth.

Timeline: One semester to one school year

Let's sharpen it

For schools with a working program that needs more depth, consistency, or outcomes

What we do together:

  • Diagnose what's working and what isn't through interviews and a systems audit

  • Identify the highest-leverage improvements

  • Co-design upgrades to student experience, mentor support, reflection, or data

  • Measure the lift

You end with: A measurably stronger program, with clarity on what to keep, what to change, and how to keep improving.

Timeline: One semester to one school year

Something specific

For schools that know what they need: a partner audit, mentor training, data system build, strategic planning session, or another defined scope.

What we do together:

  • Scope the work

  • Deliver the specific support you need

  • Hand it off with clear documentation

You end with: The deliverable, done well, without committing to a longer engagement.

Timeline: Four to eight weeks

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Eighteen years in education across three countries and two U.S. states, with the last decade in Denver building real-world learning systems, community partnerships, and postsecondary pathways. M.S. in Teaching & Learning; Colorado Professional Principal License; instructional background in Social Studies.

Designed and scaled high school internship program. Grew a grassroots postsecondary readiness program into a school-wide real-world learning system, with a partner network spanning Denver and the Front Range. The model is grounded in Big Picture Learning principles and serves every student in the school.

Built a student-led pursuit process. Rather than matching students to placements, designed a sequence that guides students through interest exploration, Leave to Learn site visits, outreach, informational interviews, and job shadows — students own their search, developing agency and self-advocacy as transferable life skills.

Built a Postsecondary Readiness department from scratch. Authored a three-course curriculum sequence anchored to three essential questions — Who am I? Where am I headed? How do I get there? — and scaled to serve every student in grades 9–12 within four years.

Expanded concurrent enrollment through partnerships with Community College of Denver, Emily Griffith Technical College, CEC Early College, MSU Denver, and Arapahoe Community College, building one of the broadest college-credit pipelines among small Denver schools and delivering year-over-year participation gains with a 90%+ course completion rate.

Facilitates the Real-World Learning Community of Practice since 2024, convening practitioners across Colorado and New Mexico to advance work-based learning systems design.

A student-centered career across classrooms, fields, communities, and three countries. Highlights include kindergarten and elementary teaching in Austin, AP History at Manor High School (Rookie Teacher of the Year, 2014), high school coaching in track, cross country, and soccer, after-school programming, residential school work, international teaching in Ecuador, Chile, and Mexico, AmeriCorps service, and a Public Allies fellowship at Eagle Rock School. Curriculum design, project-based learning, and EdTech integration run throughout it.

Most work-based learning programs don't fail from lack of effort. They fail because someone's overburdened, siloed, and often not integrated into the school. Throughline works alongside your team to design and implement your system, so it's equitable and impactful for every student.

Why now?

Colorado’s Big Three mandate is coming fast.

Colorado's Big Three (SB25-315) requires every district to help students graduate with at least one of three things: 12 college credits, an industry-recognized credential, or a work-based learning experience.

Schools have until 2029, and CDE is making available Startup and Sustain Funding to support the work. The eligible expenses include program planning and design, professional development, staffing or contracted support, work-based learning expenses, and outreach to families and business partners — exactly the work Throughline Education Partners does.

Schools that build high-quality programs now don't just satisfy the mandate. They move the needle on SDF outcomes, position themselves for funding, and create something that transforms how their students see themselves and their futures.

  • Every Colorado school must give students access to at least one of three things before graduation: 12 college credits, an industry-recognized credential, or a work-based learning experience. Funding begins for the 2026-27 school year and this will added to accountability the following school year. The goal is full implementation by 2029. CDE's Office of Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness is providing both Startup and Sustain Funding to help schools build the systems to deliver on this.

  • Two funding streams tied to the Big Three. Startup funding supports schools building new programs. Sustain funding supports schools growing or maintaining existing ones. Eligible expenses include program planning and design, staffing or contracted support, work-based learning expenses, professional development, and outreach to families and business partners. Throughline’s work qualifies as an eligible expense in most engagements.

  • Yes, in most cases. Our services align directly with CDE's eligible expenses list, including program planning and design, professional development, and contracted implementation support. We work with schools to confirm fit and to scope engagements that fit within available funding.

  • A well-designed work-based learning experience can also generate an industry-recognized credential, letting one program satisfy two Big Three requirements. Strong WBL systems also reinforce college-credit pathways by giving students real exposure to careers that motivate the credit-earning work. Throughline specializes in WBL design with an eye toward all three pillars.

  • Every engagement begins with a discovery call to understand where your school is, what you've already built, and what the Big Three timeline looks like for your district. From there we map the right engagement path, and when relevant, the right funding strategy.

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