Resource Library

Use this document to determine key steps and considerations for designing a Linked Learning pathway. We have included links to the Linked Learning standards for each of the steps and relevant resources/examples related to that step. As you begin designing a Linked Learning pathway, please note that these are not necessarily sequential steps and will vary based on the context.

Pathway Improvement, Career-Technical Education, Certification, College & Career Readiness, Equity, General, Outcomes, Rigorous Academics, Student Supports, Work-Based Learning, Getting Started, Steps to Silver

Linked Learning pathways should provide students with multiple interdisciplinary learning opportunities throughout the pathway experience,
which also includes a continuum of work-based learning opportunities. Use this template to plan, design, and improve your pathway within your context.

Pathway Improvement, Career-Technical Education, Certification, College & Career Readiness, Equity, Rigorous Academics, Getting Started, Steps to Silver, Going for Gold, Continuous Improvement

The Pathway Improvement Toolkit is designed for pathway teams at all levels looking to improve the opportunities to engage youth, transform systems, and advance equity. The toolkit includes the following resources:

1. This User Guide, which offers detailed support for using the toolkit.
2. A Self-Study Tool, with step-by-step guidance and questions to help you capture a meaningful picture of your pathway’s successes and areas for improvement.
3. An Action Planning Template, designed to support your team’s analysis of the Self-Study Tool results and to plan for improvement.

Pathway Improvement, Career-Technical Education, Certification, Equity, Outcomes, Rigorous Academics, Student Supports, Work-Based Learning, Getting Started, Steps to Silver, Going for Gold, Continuous Improvement

Check in on your pathway development progress using our Linked Learning Pathway Self-Study Tool. Your answers will help you visualize what you've accomplished, note areas you're making strides, and create an action plan to continue strengthening your program. This tool is intended to help you understand how you’re doing in relation to several important Linked Learning concepts. It is not a formal evaluation of your program’s certification progress.

Curriculum & Instruction, Pathway Improvement, Career-Technical Education, Certification, College & Career Readiness, Equity, Outcomes, Rigorous Academics, Student Supports, Work-Based Learning, Getting Started, Steps to Silver, Going for Gold, Continuous Improvement

Full realization of the Linked Learning approach requires the support of a coherent set of school district human resource and student enrollment policies as well as infrastructure for work-based learning placements. Leaders in the nine demonstration districts identified the key district-specific implementation strategies below as crucial to establishing and sustaining Linked Learning.

Research, Lessons Learned

Linked Learning pathways deliver high-quality academics in concert with career-technical education and work-based learning opportunities, access to early college credit, and integrated student supports. First piloted in nine California districts in 2009, LinkedLearning is now embraced as the high school strategy for a growing number of districts across the state and beyond. Today Linked Learning is at work in more than 50 California school districts, with 400 educational pathways operating in 195 high schools.

Communications, General

Establish or strengthen a pathway at your school that is guided by the standards that define Linked Learning at its most effective.

In this Getting Started with Linked Learning guide for pathways, you’ll find information and resources to build alignment and leadership, then develop and integrate a rigorous program of study, work-based learning, and student supports—for a powerful student experience that connects learning to purpose.

Pathway Improvement, Getting Started

Perkins V includes several provisions that support the implementation of Linked Learning and other high-quality college and career pathways initiatives. Linked Learning is an approach to high school redesign that combines (1) rigorous academics, (2) high-quality CTE, (3) work-based learning, and (4) integrated student supports. Increasingly, Linked Learning also provides students with opportunities to earn postsecondary credit while they still are in high school. These components are woven together in industry-themed pathways that provide for a relevant, hands-on learning experience for high school students.

Research, Policy, Getting Started, Continuous Improvement

Linked Learning Middle School Standards represent an extension of the evidence-based Linked Learning standards for high-quality college and career preparation. Designed to engage students in real-world learning experiences connecting core academics to career awareness and exploration, the Linked Learning Middle School Standards will prepare students to succeed in high school and beyond.

The standards provide educators with a framework for middle school college and career preparation aligned to high school Linked Learning pathways and the rigorous academic expectations of a college prep curriculum, setting the stage for high school and postsecondary success.

Pathway Improvement, Certification

Equitable access to high quality career-themed high school pathways requires that school staff and all pathway partners work in concert to address each student’s developmental needs, skills, strengths, interests, and aspirations. To this end, effective student supports are designed to reach beyond the academic domain, to meet all students where they are, scaffold their engagement with a standards-based curriculum, and address their learning and personal youth development needs. This guidebook continues an exploration of integrated student supports for universal college and career readiness that we began in Equitable Access by Design (2016). That report introduced a conceptual framework for implementing a system of comprehensive and integrated student supports that provides equitable access to a coherent, student-centered program of learning via Linked Learning pathways in high schools. This work is intended as a companion to Marisa Saunders’ Linked Learning: A Guide for Making High School Work, published by the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013. The chapters in this guidebook offer seven illustrative profiles of educators and their partners in California high schools who are working collaboratively to develop comprehensive student supports that “link together” a rigorous academic curriculum, technical education, and workplace opportunities into a coherent learning experience for every youth in their school.

Research, Equity, Lessons Learned, Student Supports, Getting Started, Steps to Silver, Going for Gold, Continuous Improvement