It is part of CSBA’s core beliefs that all students must have equal access to a high-quality education program that challenges them to succeed and prepares them for work and/or higher education immediately after graduation.
There are many approaches in California around the idea of multiple pathways, also known as Linked Learning, as an avenue for helping high school students be more engaged in their curriculum and possessing what they need to be successful in any options they wish to pursue after high school.
One approach is through ConnectEd and the Linked Learning Alliance. Founded by the James Irvine Foundation in 2006, ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, is dedicated to advancing practice, policy and research aimed at helping young people prepare for both college and career through Linked Learning. The California School Boards Association became a member of the Connect Ed Alliance in 2006. CSBA staff has been a part of ConnectEd’s Policy Development Workgroup and attends all Alliance meetings.
The work of ConnectEd had been referred to as multiple pathways, until earlier this year when a change was made to call the multiple pathways approach “Linked Learning.” It is then that the ConnectEd Alliance was also changed to the Linked Learning Alliance and formally become its own entity. The Alliance is a coalition of education, industry and community organizations, including CSBA.
CSBA has been working with ConnectEd to help support governing boards with their work in implementation and sustainability of this reform measure. We are a technical assistance provider to the districts which have been funded by the Irvine Foundation to implement Linked Learning. CSBA is also working with ConnectEd to provide support to these districts around the use of policies to guide reform. CSBA's Policy Services and Policy Analysis departments have been working with ConnectEd to determine how CSBA might best provide this support and how it can be used by all of our members who wish to pursue a Linked Learning initiative in their high schools.
Multiple Pathways to Success: Envisioning the New California High School
In 2010, the California Department of Education released the report, Multiple Pathways to Student Success: Envisioning the New California High School. The report provides a comprehensive view of the multiple pathways approach with two types of policy recommendations emerging from the report.
First, recommendations were developed that were specific to the effective implementation of the multiple pathways approach. Second, recommendations were identified for creating changes within the secondary education system deemed essential for the multiple pathways approach to flourish. The CDE believes both types of recommendations are necessary for creating the systemic change that can make pathways a common feature throughout the state’s high schools and school districts. The recommendations are aimed at improving outcomes for all students, closing the achievement gap, and reducing the high school dropout rate. It should also be noted that the recommendations support local decision-making and flexibility to the fullest extent possible.
CSBA also wrote a report, Governance Matters: The School Board Guide to Reinvigorating High Schools, that might serve as a resource, and convened a Linked Learning Task Force in late 2011.