Guiding Principles of Linked Learning
Each Linked Learning pathway is grounded in a set of four guiding principles:
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Linked Learning prepares students for postsecondary education and career.
Linked Learning is always about both objectives; it’s never a choice between one or the other. Here’s why: The probability of making a living wage in today’s economy without some form of postsecondary education is already low and will only diminish. Increasingly, career success depends on some postsecondary education and gaining a formal credential – a certificate, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, or higher level of achievement. -
Linked Learning leads to a full range of postsecondary and career opportunities.
Linked Learning can eliminate current practices that sort and track high school students in ways that limit their options after high school. Students graduate prepared for a full range of opportunities: two- and four-year colleges, apprenticeships, formal employment training, and military service. Each pathway represents a broad theme that can appeal to and engage a student, regardless of his or her prior academic achievement and postsecondary aspirations. -
Linked Learning connects academics to real-world applications.
Linked Learning integrates challenging academics with a demanding career and technical curriculum. Pathways alter how core academic subjects are taught; they do not lower expectations about what is taught. Through the Linked Learning approach, students are expected to achieve at high levels in mathematics, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. Students master these subjects through the power of applying knowledge in real-world context – they learn by being presented with authentic problems and situations that are part of the modern workplace. -
Linked Learning improves student achievement.
Pathways are based on accountability. They are designed to produce higher levels of accomplishment in a number of measurable arenas, including academic and technical scores, high school completion, postsecondary transitions, and attainment of a formal postsecondary credential. They also contribute – in ways that most conventional academic, career, and technical education curricula do not – to increased student proficiency in vital areas such as critical thinking, problem solving, media and information literacy, and collaboration. Finally, pathways make an immediate difference, helping young people gain higher earnings right after high school and giving these students an advantage in the labor market while they pursue postsecondary education.
