Photos by Alison Yin for EdSource

Photos by Alison Yin for EdSource

The California Department of Teaching has selected 63 districts and county offices of education – many of them working together in consortia – to pilot "linked learning" programs in their high schools first adjacent fall. These programs integrate academics with existent-world work experiences in an effort to engage students.

High schools with linked learning programs typically offer several courses in one or more than career paths, such as healthcare, concern or the arts. The career theme permeates the curriculum. For instance, students on the healthcare career path at Dozier-Libbey Medical High School in Antioch Unified School District in Contra Costa County accept Human being Anatomy & Physiology and Microbiology for their science courses. They have Medical Terminology as an elective and a Regional Occupational Plan course in Sports Medicine or Nursing. Invitee speakers from the local infirmary come to grade to talk about what their jobs are like, and students shadow professionals working in the health field. The culmination of the programme is an internship at a local hospital, medico's office or other health facility.

These existent-world experiences help students sympathize the relevance of sometimes abstract high schoolhouse classes to their futurity careers.

The districts and county offices called for the project are divided into 20 groups with some, such every bit Elk Grove Unified, consisting of only 1 district, and others, such every bit the Capital Region Academies for the Next Century, including six counties nearly Sacramento. Together, the pilot projects are expected to accomplish 600,000 high school students, about 30 percent of the state'due south public high schoolhouse population. The districts and county offices agreed to exist office of the pilot despite no extra funding from the state.

"They all believed in reorienting their work around college and career readiness using linked learning," said Hilary McLean, a spokesperson for the Linked Learning Brotherhood, a statewide coalition of education, manufacture and customs organizations. "They are using existing resources to do things in a dissimilar manner."

Districts and county offices in many cases are pooling resources so they tin together involvement local businesses, nonprofits, professionals and public sector employers in partnering with them, McLean said. This way the districts aren't competing with each other or duplicating their efforts. Successful business partners are key to the linked learning approach, providing students with mentors, task shadowing opportunities, and internships.

McLean acknowledged that part of the reason for forming a consortium could also be to attract funding from private sources, such as the James Irvine Foundation, which has committed almost $51 million to linked learning, including more than $37 million for school districts that are implementing the program.

"Nosotros are going to practice what nosotros can to help these pilots succeed," said Irvine Foundation spokesman Daniel Silverman. "We look frontwards to working with the Department of Education and the pilot sites to effigy out how we can best back up the airplane pilot projects as office of our ongoing support for the growth and success of linked learning."

Grants have been used non only to support schools and districts, simply also to "build public support and a positive policy environment for linked learning," he added. Silverman said the foundation is hoping the state will provide funding in the future. The pilot projects, established in 2022 by Associates Bill 790, will go through the 2016-17 schoolhouse year.

The pilot projects have different emphases. For example, the Los Angeles County Office of Education will implement linked learning programs in its community 24-hour interval schools for at-risk students, serving every bit a model for surrounding schoolhouse districts. The curriculum volition be focused on the arts, media and entertainment industry sector.

Santa Rosa City Schools will be implementing a dark-green business and sustainability pathway, connecting the finance sector to the edifice trades and structure sector. Trends in Sonoma County show a need for workers skilled in these areas, and student interest is high, according to the district.

In Santa Cruz County, a community higher is leading a partnership of four districts and the county office of education. The Cabrillo College consortium will concentrate on the marine environment and water bug critical to the canton.

In a January printing release, Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of public instruction, listed the twenty districts, canton offices and consortia.

"These twenty pilot projects combine two of California'due south greatest strengths: our multifariousness and our capacity for innovation," Torlakson said. "They aim to serve hundreds of thousands of students from districts all over the state, and I am confident they will assist students utilise their time in school to learn real-earth skills and graduate prepared to contribute to the future of our country."

The Irvine Foundation is also focused on the quality of the programs. McLean said the pilots will exist evaluated on outcome data that include, merely are non limited to:

  • Pupil dropout and graduation rates;
  • The number and pct of participating pupils who come across the requirements and prerequisites for access to California public universities, commonly referred to as the "A-G" requirements;
  • Workforce data, which may include the number or per centum of pupils who earn a certificate, license or the equivalent in a designated occupation.

Interest in linked learning programs has been growing in California. Equally early on as the 1980s, state lawmakers provided funding for California Partnership Academies, which create pathways from classroom to careers and recruit students who are at risk of dropping out of loftier school. In 2009, ix districts took part in the Linked Learning District Initiative to develop and measure the impact of linked learning programs in their schools. The initiative included Long Beach, which is now acting as a model in a consortium with five school districts in San Diego County.

In addition, half dozen California Land University campuses, the Academy of California Los Angeles and Claremont Graduate University all include the linked learning approach in their teacher training programs.

"Linked learning has reached a tipping point in California," McLean said, and is likely to continue growing partly because of the land's adoption of the Common Core curriculum.

"Linked learning is a very effective manner to implement Common Cadre, which focuses more on project-based learning and higher critical thinking and communication skills," she said. "These are real-world skills that can be developed through the linked learning experience."

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