Linked Learning: Pathways to College & Career Success - Home

Click to Enlarge | Print ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career reports that California high schools are not working for large numbers of young people, with students feeling disengaged, unchallenged, or unclear about the relevance of school.

Linked Learning, one answer to this problem, is flourishing in high schools throughout California, with promising results. However, its reach is limited in most school districts to one or two programs at a particular high school. In order to make Linked Learning available to a broad range of students, successful district-level models are needed.

In response to this reality, a wide group of stakeholders (parents, community partners, businesses, school site personnel, and district personnel) collaborated over the course of one year to better define what the Academic and Career Success For All Initiative would look like at our Long Beach high schools. From this rich work emerged the High School Reform Initiative (2009-2014) , which clearly defines how our high schools will transform the diploma from a certificate of completion to a "Passport to Opportunity," by 2014.

All of these efforts highlight the Goals and Objectives of the Long Beach Unified School District Strategic Plan 2011-2016

Each SLC/ Pathway is grounded in a set of four guiding principles.

1. Preparing students for postsecondary education and career
   
   An SLC / Pathway is always about both objectives; it's never a choice between one or the other. Here's why: The probability of making a living wage in today's economy without some form of postsecondary education is already low and will only diminish. Increasingly, career success depends on postsecondary education and gaining a formal credential, a certificate, associate's degree, bachelor's degree, or higher level of achievement. If there ever was a day when high schools could be content to prepare some students just for college and others just for work, that day is past.
2. Leading students to the full range of postsecondary opportunities
   
   SLC's / Pathways prepare students for all the avenues they might pursue following high school graduation: two– and four–year college, certification programs, apprenticeships, formal job training, and military service. Each pathway represents a broad industry theme that can appeal to and engage a student regardless of his or her prior academic achievement and postsecondary aspirations. Pathways can eliminate current practices that sort and track high school students in ways that limit their options after high school.
3. Connecting academics to real–world applications
   
   Each SLC / Pathway integrates challenging academics with a demanding career and technical curriculum. By linking student interests with academics and real world professions, Linked Learning motivates students and families; helps them create strong working relationships with teachers, fellow students and professional experts; and provides students with the confidence, knowledge and skills to be prepared for college, career and the path in life they choose. Pathways alter how core academic subjects are taught; they do not lower expectations about what is taught. Through the pathways approach, students are expected to achieve at high levels in mathematics, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. Students master these subjects through the power of real-world application—they learn by being presented with authentic problems and situations that are part of the modern workplace.
4. Improving student achievement
   
   SLC's / Pathways are based on accountability. They are designed to produce higher levels of accomplishment in a number of measurable arenas, including academic and technical scores, high school completion, postsecondary transitions to career and education, and attainment of a formal postsecondary credential. They also contribute, in ways that most conventional academic and career and technical education curricula do not, to increased student proficiency in vital areas such as critical thinking, problem solving, media and information literacy, and collaboration. Finally, pathways make an immediate difference— helping young people gain higher earnings right after high school and giving these students a leg up in the labor market while they pursue postsecondary education.

Source: ConnectEd Website

Each SLC / Pathway is organized around a major industry sector such as finance and business; health science and medical technology; or engineering. In turn, each pathway contains four essential ingredients.

1. A challenging academic component prepares students for success— without remediation— in California’s community colleges and universities, as well as in apprenticeships and other postsecondary programs. Academics relate to the industry theme when possible and include:
   • English—four years
   • Mathematics—including algebra, geometry, and advanced algebra or statistics
   • Science—two years including biology, chemistry, or physics
   • Social Studies—three years including American and world history, U.S. government and economics
   • Foreign language—two years emphasizing oral communication and cross–cultural understanding
   • Visual and performing arts—one year
2. A demanding technical component delivers concrete knowledge and skills through a cluster of three or more technical courses. The focus is on preparing youth for high–skill, high–wage employment through an emphasis on real–world applications that bring academic and technical learning to life.
3. 
   Click to Enlarge A work–based learning component offers opportunities to learn through real–world experiences. Students gain access to intensive internships, virtual apprenticeships, and school–based enterprises. These experiences complement classroom instruction, helping sharpen students’ desire to increase knowledge and skills relevant to their career interests.
4. Support services include counseling as well as additional instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics. In the best application, each pathway spans grades nine to 12 and connects directly to a set of postsecondary options.

Source: ConnectEd Website

Success. Linked Learning does what a high school education is supposed to do: prepare young adults for success in college, career and the real world. Students graduate with the skills for advancement: the academics for college; the professional preparation to start a career immediately, during or after college; and the competitive advantage of having hands-on experience. They graduate knowing more and knowing how to work with others to get things done and earn a good living.

With Linked Learning, students in a building and engineering pathway might learn about geometry and algebra while designing and building a structure. Students in an arts, media, and entertainment pathway might learn persuasive writing skills while developing business plans, or creative writing skills while drafting scripts. The success of Linked Learning is grounded in its relevancy and rigor. Pathways connect learning with students' interests and career aspirations. They also connect to actual needs in our state's economy, and they help motivate young people to learn by answering the question: "Why do I need to learn this?"

While any school can be theme based, a key difference with pathways is that academic course content is coordinated with and reinforces technical course content and vice versa. The science teacher learns from the technical teacher what students did not understand in class and then can review those theories. Likewise, the technical instructor learns what theories to bring to life in the next hands-on technical class. This coordination helps students gain a greater depth of knowledge by seeing the connection between academic theories and real-world applications.

Source: ConnectEd Website

Though our SLC's / Pathways are in various stages of development, our schools are making great progress in implementing Linked Learning, with a focus on the following industry sectors:

Avalon High School

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School

California Academy of Math and Science

David Starr Jordan High School

Lakewood High School

Robert A. Millikan High School

Polytechnic High School

Renaissance High School for the Arts

In April 2010, the LBUSD High School Office convened a groundbreaking meeting between key personnel from our school sites, business and industry partners from the community, and postsecondary representatives from LBCC and CSULB. At this meeting, participants identified the five most critical college and career readiness skills (above and beyond academic proficiency) that a student graduating high school should have:

1. Know important strategies for self-promotion in the hiring process, such as job applications, resume writing, interviewing skills, and preparation of a portfolio.
2. Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
3. Understand the importance of accountability and responsibility in fulfilling personal, community, and workplace roles.
4. Understand the role of personal integrity and ethical behavior in the workplace.
5. Understand how to organize and structure work individually and in teams for effective performance and the attainment of goals.

These "Power Standards" have been integrated into all of our 9th and 10th grade academic course outlines in order to ensure that students are intentionally supported to achieve these standards. They have also been used to guide our work in developing career readiness metrics that will assist us in measuring student progress.