Every family has
a path forward.
ASCEND builds the tools, frameworks, and navigation systems that help learners of every age discover where they are, where they're going, and how to get there.
From a penny on a sheet to a map of your growth
One physical action — placing a penny — begins a chain that captures your skills, generates your iCAN statement, and plots your journey on a living map.
Built on a framework that lasts
Every path in the ecosystem is grounded in the same research-based skill architecture — from birth through career. Explore each layer.
Five durable qualities — Identity, Agency, Courage/Belonging, Commitment, and Trust — with Curiosity as the connective tissue. Each finger of the hand points outward into the world and inward toward self-knowledge.
Expressed across three domains: the personal woodshed, the bandstand, and the audience. Practiced in 5 minutes a day, 5 times a week.
Explore the Hand →Six Hand qualities × eight 21st Century Learning skills = 48 Durable Life Skills, each expressed as an iCAN statement in English and Spanish. Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Technology, Civic Engagement, Cross-Cultural Fluency, and Self-Direction.
See the full matrix →Every learner owns their iCAN statement: "I can [verb] [skill] [in context]." The verb you choose determines your Depth of Knowledge level — from recalling to designing. As you gather evidence, your statement grows. That growth is your Measurable Skill Gain.
Aligned to the U.S. DOL Building Blocks Model — MSG Type 4 eligibility is intrinsic, not retroactive.
Follow the journey →Three levels of mastery — Define, Connect, Demonstrate — mapped to DOK progression 1 through 3. Badge statuses track your evidence: Exploring, Developing Evidence, In-Progress, Earned.
The quality cycle drives every level: Redo → Revise → Strong Example → Best Ever. Resilience isn't built by never failing — it's built by starting again.
See how mastery works →Responsibility, Reciprocity, Relationships, Redistribution — drawn from Indigenous scholarship and approved by Dr. Greg Cajete and Wilhelmina Yazzie. The relational philosophy underlying every room in the learning building.
Learn the foundation →864 occupations from the DOL Building Blocks Model mapped to iCAN statements. Family/Friends/Neighbors interviews connect learners to real people doing real work. ArcGIS StoryMaps show where skills and careers live in your community.
Explore careers →The heart of the mastery journey
The learner's growing ability to self-assess and receive feedback is not a side effect of the system — it is the system. Resilience is built one revision at a time.
AI as opportunity, not threat
The Five by Five model — five minutes a day, five times a week — builds the durable human foundation that makes AI a partner in learning, not a replacement for it. Digital sovereignty starts with knowing who you are.
Together We Learn
The most powerful learning happens when children and adults learn together. ASCEND partners with Family Learning Company to deliver Together We Learn — the software layer that connects family motivation to skill growth.
Family Learning Company
Peter Dublin's Together We Learn platform provides the joint logins, shared goal-setting, and context-sensitive coaching that turns ASCEND's skill framework into daily family practice. Bilingual by design. Built for the 53 million adults who need foundation skills before career training can take hold.
See the partnership →