HomeWorks × Taller Hoy

Building the next generation of college success through systems design.

A research and implementation partnership between HomeWorks and Taller Hoy.

Research. Patterns. Frameworks. Implementation. Measurement. Continuous Improvement.

Research. Patterns. Frameworks. Implementation. Measurement. Continuous Improvement.

From

Research

to Practice

The development of Bridge to College (now Truth Bridge) began with a fundamental question:

What predicts long-term student success?

Rather than relying on intuition alone, our team synthesized research from higher education, psychology, student development, and organizational learning to identify the characteristics most consistently associated with students who thrive in college and beyond. Those findings became the foundation for Bridge to College, Truth Bridge, and the organizational frameworks we continue to develop at Taller Hoy.

Although individual studies emphasized different outcomes, several developmental indicators appeared consistently across the literature. Together, these indicators form our research framework for understanding how students develop, persist, and flourish across educational settings and beyond.

  • An individual’s confidence in their ability to achieve academically and succeed in college.

  • An individual’s dedication to college and the value placed upon a college degree

  • An individual’s comfort in social situations and ability to communicate with others

  • The value an individual places on academics and attentiveness to school work

  • Individual has unusual and/or culturally-related ways of obtaining information and demonstrating knowledge

These indicators were selected because they appeared repeatedly across the literature and, more importantly, because they could be translated into observable behaviors, educational interventions, and measurable developmental outcomes.

From

Research tells us what predicts success. Implementation tells us how to cultivate it.

Understanding what predicts student success is only the first step. Equally important is understanding why students have unequal opportunities to develop these capacities. Our implementation work integrates research on systemic barriers with practical organizational strategies for supporting student growth.

  • Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (created by Margaret Beale Spencer) looks at how individuals make meaning of their environment and social factors such as race and gender

  • Individual is committed to fighting to improve existing system, not submissive to existing wrongs, nor hostile to society, nor a "cop-out,” able to handle racist system, asserts school or organization role to fight racism

  • Prefers long-term goals to short-term or immediate needs

  • Availability of someone to turn to in crises

  • Successful leadership experience in any area pertinent to their background

  • An individual’s desire to be involved in campus activities and their attachment to the college/university

  • An individual’s approach to challenging situations and stressful events

  • Strong self-feeling, strength of character, determination, independence

  • Individual recognizes and accepts any deficiencies and works hard at self-development, recognizes need to broaden their individuality

  • Individual is involved in their cultural community

*This developmental framework was created through collaborative work by Abbie Bates, PhD; Sandie Stringfellow, EdD; Taryn Glynn, MEd; and founder Vielka Hoy (EdD, in progress).

Research

to Implementation

  • Coined by Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson, stereotype threat is a pressure where people feel that their actions will affirm stereotypes of their group.

  • Critical race theory examines how race impacts outcomes in societal structures, law, and policy. 

Framework Notice
The developmental framework presented here represents original work by Taller Hoy. Individual concepts are grounded in established scholarship; however, the organization, synthesis, implementation model, and associated educational applications constitute proprietary intellectual property.

Frameworks

How organizations intentionally build the conditions to replicate research and mission.

The CONNECT Framework

This concept is borrowed from the work of David C. Tate, Marianne S. Pantalon, and Daryn H. David.

Teams can achieve high performance before they develop deep trust. However without trust, accountability eventually becomes compliance, burnout, or conflict.

Therefore, performance and trust have to grow together.

Create Clarity

Open Up Engagement

Exchange Feedback

Nail It

Claim It

Notice

Try Again

Implementation

Complex educational challenges rarely have a single expert with the answer. Instead, they require combining the lived expertise of students and staff with structured methods for observing systems, generating ideas, testing solutions, and learning from evidence.

Observe.

|

Listen.

|

Prototype.

|

Measure.

|

Refine.

|

Observe. | Listen. | Prototype. | Measure. | Refine. |

Let’s use design thinking to solve a known problem: on a local bus, the place where riders get on the bus and pay their fare is the same place that some riders can exit. The problem is that it takes too long for the riders to get on and off so the bus is idling for significant periods of time.

The experts in the case can be

  • the bus driver

  • the bus riders

But it can also be people who have never been on the bus but are acutely aware of the bus idling due to how it impacts their lives:

  • commuters who drive the same path as the bus

  • pedestrians on the sidewalk

  • residents near stops that deal with pollution and traffic near their homes

  • businesses that rely on traffic moving smoothly

While there are obvious “experts,” a lot of people have intimate knowledge of the bus and can solve the problem. The key is to come to some consensus about the problem, hold empathy for the varied experiences that each stakeholder is bringing, and iterate knowing you’re going to iterate more.

Research. Relationships. Results.

Every organization already contains extraordinary expertise. Our role is not to replace it, but to help uncover patterns, test ideas, and design systems that allow more people to thrive.

Our partnership with HomeWorks represents the first implementation of these frameworks at the organizational level. Together, we are exploring how research, design thinking, conscious accountability, and human connection can create environments where students, and the adults who serve them, flourish.

© 2026 Taller Hoy. All rights reserved. The organization, developmental model, implementation framework, and associated materials constitute proprietary intellectual property of Taller Hoy.