By engaging students so they stay in school and remain excited about learning, and by ensuring that all students are exposed to a rigorous curriculum leading to both college and career, Linked Learning: Pathways to College and Career Success has begun to transform California’s high schools. Linked Learning connects college-preparatory academics with real-world experience in an array of fields, such as engineering, arts and media, biomedicine and health, information technology, and law and justice. These pathways connect learning with students’ interests and career aspirations, leading to improved outcomes on a wide range of indicators, and particularly for students with high needs.
This proposal seeks to validate further the effectiveness of Linked Learning in transforming high schools to support college access and success through a Partnership of nine school districts, four nonprofits providing technical assistance and support, and one evaluator. The districts include Antioch, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Montebello, Oakland, Pasadena, Porterville, Sacramento, and West Contra Costa (Richmond). Collectively, they serve almost 990,000 students or about 16 percent of California’s total K-12 enrollment.
The lead applicant, ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, will have primary responsibility for managing the Initiative. The three other partners are the School Redesign Network (SRN) at Stanford University, Career Academy Support Network (CASN) at the University of California at Berkeley, and National Academy Foundation (NAF). SRI International will conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of the Partnership team’s impact on a range of student outcomes.
To learn more, contact Carol Studier.
