This ConnectEd Guide for Developing a System of Linked Learning Pathways will introduce school district leaders and their community partners to Linked Learning and a system of quality pathways that can transform high schools, instructional practice, and the student experience. Not intended to be prescriptive, this document can and should be…

A core part of 16 to 19 study programmes is the provision of work experience for all young people. It is increasingly recognised that young people need to develop their employability skills, alongside qualifications, in preparation for the world of work and securing a job. This top tips guide offers advice to schools and colleges wishing to…

This guide provides an overview of a more robust online guide and toolkit available through ConnectEd Studios. It supplies a glimpse of the sequence of steps involved in creating a new Linked Learning pathway. This publication can help coaches, district leadership, and pathway teams gain an understanding of the overall process of designing and…

A career academy is a small learning community within a high school, which selects a subset of students and teachers for a two-, three-, or four-year period. Students enter through a voluntary process; they must apply and be accepted, with parental knowledge and support. A career academy involves teachers from different subjects working together…

In order to assess how completely a Small Learning Community (SLC) and/or Career Academy is implemented in any given site, and to connect the degree of implementation with the amount of improvement in student performance, two kinds of information are needed. The first is information on the quality of implementation, which can be collected by…

Small Learning Communities (SLCs) and Career Academies, one variety of SLC, have grown rapidly in recent years. They are among the few high school reform approaches that seem promising and popular, bringing students together into cohorts where they support each other, teachers into teams where they do the same, and students and teachers into…

This booklet summarizes research on best practices for implementing successful small learning communities and career academies. When well implemented, improvements in instructional and personalization strategies in combination with structural supports have demonstrated improved student attendance and learning. "From High School to Learning…

This manual is intended as a do it yourself tool for helping organizations develop an approach that will enhance the quality of career counseling services. It is aimed at demystifying evaluation planning and presents a framework so that the evaluation process leads to continuous improvement in meeting client expectations. It also helps validate…

Land claims settlements, constitutional change, and economic and labor force opportunities reflect the emerging reality of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Northern children, youth, and adults need to position themselves to influence and take advantage of the emerging reality. Quality career development education, programs, and services play…

There are many activities and approaches for helping new hires make transitions from classrooms to companies. This article serves as a framework for discussion about first-year attrition. Suggests employers need to create a relationship with employees, making new hires truly belong to the organization and identify with the values and beliefs of…

There is an urgent need not only to attract more people into the teaching profession but also to build a more diverse, highly qualified, and culturally sensitive teaching force that can meet the needs of a rapidly changing school-age population. This Toolkit takes best practices from high school teacher academies around the United States and…

This document is intended to assist all individuals responsible for scheduling activities related to implementation of a career academy. The first section examines the importance of scheduling in forging the close ties among academy teachers and students that are critical to achieving a meaningful school-within-a-school program. The following…

Career academies are high school programs that frame academic learning around a career focus in order to increase student motivation and achievement. They generally have three defining features: a school-within-a-school structure, a college preparation curriculum with a career theme, and partnerships with employers, the community, and higher…

This document profiles a total of 78 resources to assist individuals responsible for development and implementation of career academies. The resources are organized into sections that are each devoted to one of the following types of information resources: information indexes; search engines; World Wide Web portals for education; lesson plan…

This book provides a rationale, model, and procedures for implementing change in high schools. Focus is on adoption of applied, context-based, community-based education that eliminates competition between academic and vocational education and promotes cooperation in creating career-based education. Chapter 1 provides a review of how this type of…