What is a Future Ready Family?
Future Ready Families have the confidence, tools, resources, and strategies to navigate the ever-changing and increasingly complex education landscape to support their children’s learning, development, and well-being.
In an uncertain world, it can be difficult to plan for tomorrow, let alone for your child’s future. However, with the right information and resources specifically tailored for parents, all caregivers can be empowered to help their children achieve their highest potential. Each child is unique, and a future ready family is prepared to make decisions and support the specific needs of their children.
Meet the mom behind Future Ready Families.
As a mom, executive, and educator, Rebecca Holmes has unique expertise in the intersections of education and parenting.
Rebecca and her husband are proud parents to two energetic (and wildly different) kids – a six-year-old boy and four-year-old girl. But even before she was a parent, Rebecca was fascinated by the complex relationship between schooling, child development, and parenting.
These passions motivated her 20+ year career in education, which she started as a classroom teacher. Rebecca has served as Associate Commissioner for Innovation, Choice, and Engagement at the Colorado Department of Education and also spent many years leading a public school system. Currently, she is President and CEO of Colorado Education Initiative, a nonprofit organization helping teachers, school leaders, and district stakeholders to catalyze bold, comprehensive change in public education.
Outside of work, Rebecca and her family enjoy outdoor adventures, travel, and music.
Rebecca grew up in Denver, Colorado and is a proud alumna of Colorado’s public schools. She is also a graduate of Yale University and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Rebecca’s Awards and Contributions
· Governor’s Back-to-School Working Group
· Education and Training Steering Committee
· Building a Better Colorado (BBCO) Education Committee
· Colorado Youth Council Board Member
· El Pomar Foundation Metro Regional Council Member
· HB 21-1330 Higher Education Student Success Task Force
· 2020 Denver Kids Community Impact Award Winner
· TEACH Colorado Advisory Committee
· Ed Systems Resilience & Innovation Initiative (ESRII) Coalition
“So often, our approaches to raising children are either a repeat of or a reaction to what we experienced ourselves, and we do so alongside a school system that has changed very little in nearly two centuries. If we look for advice outside of that, it’s too often about what NOT to do. It’s far more empowering to understand what we know about the world they will inherit and make positive choices – one at a time – from a more informed and grounded place.”
— Rebecca Holmes
Testimonials
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Rebecca has the wonderful ability to meet you where you are. Without judgment, she helps guide you through a decision-making process that honors your own values and principles.
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— Maureen L.
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Rebecca is one of my most trusted sources for information and innovative thinking. As a policy leader, I look to her for models we can replicate, and as a mom, I look to her for thoughtful guidance. Her unique mix of experience is remarkable.
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— Shana P.
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Rebecca is one of my first phone calls when I need to navigate a challenge or decision related to my children’s education. She always points me in the right direction or makes a helpful introduction if needed.
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— Christina O.
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As a parent, I always appreciate Rebecca’s empathetic yet direct, simple and memorable, confidence building and research-based advice. It gives me the information I need and enables me to build on what she has taught me to handle future situations and decisions for the best of my (and all of our) kids.
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— Kim H.
The Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) cultivates systems improvement and equity in K-12 education.
The Colorado Education Initiative is at the forefront of education innovation with communities and districts. We are thrilled to launch Future Ready Families as an exciting initiative to directly support families across Colorado with materials, resources, ideas, and insights to enable them to lead as their students’ first expert.
For many families, the disruptions to learning caused by COVID surfaced awareness that state assessments – while important for checks on the system as a whole – do not provide meaningful, timely, and actionable data about their students’ learning. Meanwhile, the disruptions to testing forced a multi-year pause in the state’s ability to administer its accountability frameworks with validity. This opens a window for communities to consider what measures they will use during the pause.
CEI is supporting Future Ready Families to enable these conversations across schools in Colorado.