“ For a teacher, it’s been night and day, it’s been an unbelievable experience. I wish I’d had the chance to take this type of curriculum. It’s much easier to make the class work relevant and to engage the students. ”
Social Studies Teacher and Director
Education Academy, Skyline High School, Oakland
Evidence of Effectiveness
There is growing evidence that Linked Learning can play an important role in improving student outcomes. In schools that have adopted a Linked Learning approach, attendance rates are increasing, dropout rates are decreasing, and student test scores are climbing. Compared to students in traditional high schools, Linked Learning students are graduating at higher rates, enrolling in colleges and universities in larger numbers, and even earning more in the four-year period after high school.
While there is still more research to be completed, it is clear that the Linked Learning approach, when well-designed and implemented, can produce substantial learning benefits for many of California’s high school students.
Recent Studies and Reports
The Underserved Third: How Our Educational Structures Populate and Educational Underclass
Regina Deil-Amen and Stefanie DeLuca
2010
This article, written by Regina Deil-Amen at the Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Arizona, and Stefanie DeLuca, a sociologist at Hopkins, was actually published last year in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, but the findings were released to the general public December 12th, 2011. The article asserts the importance of ultimately dismantling dichotomous notions of ‘‘career’’ and ‘‘college’’ preparation to expand opportunities for underserved students and reduce inequities by preparing all students for both college and work options simultaneously.
A Profile of the California Partnership Academies 2009-2010
A report prepared by the Career Academy Support Network at the University of California, Berkeley for the California Department of Education (CDE) and funded by the Department and the James Irvine Foundation.
October 2011
This report highlights positive results being produced at California Partnership Academies (CPAs). Many of these CPA are also part of the growing field of Linked Learning, an approach that provides students with strong academics connected to real world experience.
Click here to view full report
Click here to view executive summary
The Education Trust-West
July 2011
To meet California’s demand for a more educated workforce, high schools must dramatically increase the number of students who earn diplomas and graduate with meaningful preparation. Yet disturbingly, few students graduate with the college-ready coursework needed to access our state’s public university system. This is especially true for low-income students and students of color, who are also disproportionately tracked into less rigorous “career education” courses. In this report, we highlight these troubling trends and call for a more integrated and equitable approach to college and career preparation—so that high school serves to open doors to both college and career options for all students.
View Interview with Arun Ramanathan, executive director, Education Trust-West
America’s Edge
May 2011
According to this report, nearly half (47 percent) of California jobs are in “middle skills” occupations – requiring education beyond a high school diploma but less than a 4-year college degree. The report estimates that only 38 percent of California workers have the skills to fill these positions, creating a nearly 10-percentage-point skills gap. When coupled with a shortage of workers with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills, business leaders are voicing concern about California’s competitive viability in a global marketplace.
Pathways to Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century
Pathways to Prosperity Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education
February 2011
This report contends that the U.S. strategy for education and youth development in previous decades has been too narrowly focused on an academic, classroom-based approach, and that this has produced only incremental gains in achievement and attainment. In response, the report advances a vision for how the United States might regain the leadership in educational attainment it held for over a century, advocating for the development of a comprehensive pathways network to serve youth in high school and beyond.
A Model for Success: CART’s Linked Learning Program Increases College Enrollment
The Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART)
January 2011
When rigorous academics are combined with demanding technical learning and real-world experience, students are better prepared to succeed after high school. Embracing that Linked Learning model, the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART), a high school in Clovis, California, released data that clearly demonstrates hands-on learning can lead to a higher percentage of enrollments in both community college and four-year universities. In particular, the study finds that attendance in Linked Learning more than doubled the rate of college entrance for minority students.
Career Academies: A Proven Strategy to Prepare High School Students for College and Careers
Career Academy Support Network, University of California, Berkeley
February 2010
After more than four decades of development and three decades of evaluation, career academies have been found by a conclusive, random assignment study to be effective in improving outcomes for students during and after high school. This paper describes the growth and evolution of career academies, reviews the evaluation evidence, explains how career academies reflect widely accepted principles of high school reform, and considers prospects for the future.
Evidence from California Partnership Academies: One Model of Pathways
ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career
May 2008
This study describes three key pieces of evidence supporting adoption of the Linked Learning approach. Those attending California Partnership Academies had better California High School Exit Exam pass rates, completed more rigorous courses, and had better high school graduation rates. Operating in more than 300 high schools, California Partnership Academies are one model of Linked Learning pathways.
MDRC
June 2008
An integrated curriculum combined with work-based learning and career guidance can lead to higher wages after high school. Employing rigorous experimental design and random assignment, this study examines the outcomes of 1,700 students enrolled in career academies that offered the Linked Learning approach to predominantly minority students. The study showed that four years after graduation from high school, career academy graduates were earning more than their traditionally educated counterparts. While this was true for both men and women, the result was statistically significant for academy males, who earned 18 percent ($10,000) more over the four-year period after high school.
A Profile of The California Partnership Academies 2004 – 2005
ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career
Career Academy Support Network, University of California, Berkeley
March 2007
This report maintains that schools utilizing a Linked Learning approach have achieved higher graduation rates and exit exam passing rates, with a greater percentage of their students eligible for state colleges. Researchers found that 50 percent of students in California Partnership Academies completed the “a – g” requirements needed to be eligible for admission to California’s public universities – compared with only 39 percent of graduates statewide. More than 70 percent of the academies’ African-American students passed the math portion of the California High School Exit Exam, compared with 55 percent of African-American high school students in the state. Furthermore, 96 percent of academy seniors graduated, compared with 87 percent statewide.
California Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROCP): 2006 Longitudinal Study
School Improvement Research Group, University of California, Riverside
October 2006
Even without an integrated curriculum, students simply taking both academic and technical courses may have lower dropout rates and better achievement gains than comparison groups of students. This study examines data on more than 4,000 students found that those in California’s ROCPs improved their grade point averages more than comparison students enrolled in non–CTE programs. ROCP students were as likely to enroll in postsecondary education and to earn higher wages. Significantly, these students were lower achieving and of lower socioeconomic status than the comparison group.
Building Academic Skills in Context: Testing the Value of Enhanced Math Learning in CTE
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, University of Minnesota
September 2005
This study offers strong evidence that integrated academic and technical curriculum leads to higher test scores if implemented well. In this research, career and technical education (CTE) teachers were paired with mathematics teachers who identified the mathematical content embedded in the CTE teachers’ subjects and developed lesson plans to teach the math within the occupational context. The 57 CTE teachers who helped develop the math–enhanced lessons were randomly assigned to classrooms and delivered the curriculum for about 10 percent of class time over the course of one year; 74 CTE teachers not participating in such development taught other classrooms with traditional instruction. The almost 3,000 enrolled students were given math pre–tests and were tested again a year later. Those taught the integrated curriculum significantly outscored the control group on two tests of math ability.
