Education Week – Catherine Gewertz
“A California initiative that blends rigorous academics with career preparation helps students earn more credits in high school and have greater confidence in their career and life skills than their peers in regular programs, according to a new study of the initiative… in addition to earning more credits and being more confident in their skills, students in the program are also more likely to stay enrolled in their districts through high school, and more likely to experience their instruction as rigorous and connected to the world outside school…What I saw when I visited Linked Learning schools is their refusal to track students into either career coursework or college preparation; the program insists on blending the two. What also sets them apart from typical approaches to career and technical education is their emphasis on real-world work experience, through job-shadowing, internships, and other out-of-school placements.”(more)