High School Reform

Transforming the High School Experience

The Challenge 

In 2008, the Alliance for Excellent Education was awarded a grant from the James Irvine Foundation to examine high school reform efforts in California to help inform the national dialogue on how to better prepare students for the rigors of college and career, while simultaneously increasing the high school graduation rate. 

The project specifically looks at the Linked Learning approach, which is grounded in a set of four guiding principles that focus on preparing students for postsecondary education and career; connecting academics to real-world applications; leading students to the full range of postsecondary opportunities; and improving student achievement. 

The Linked Learning movement in California grew out of an effort to address the poor and inequitable student outcomes that have persisted throughout the state for decades—a trend that plagues every state in the union. 

Collaborative is supporting the Alliance in the organization’s efforts to draw out the applicable lessons from California’s efforts to transform the high school experience and determine how best to share those implications with national stakeholders to help inform federal policy.

Our Approach 

Collaborative worked in partnership with the Alliance, the James Irvine Foundation and ConnectEd—a group charged with advancing practice, policy, and research for Linked Learning—to develop a comprehensive and effective communications plan to help inform national education stakeholders of the impact of California’s Linked Learning Approach. 

The efforts focused on a two-day rollout to Congressional staff, officials from the Obama administration and the larger policy community both to inform them of the specifics of the Linked Learning approach, but also to connect the approach to the larger implications for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Action. 

Collaborative helped to develop a Hill briefing that included a broad range of stakeholders from California, including representation from the state department of education, the state teachers’ union, a local chamber of commerce, a community-based advocacy group, and a district implementing Linked Learning.

Our Impact 

Collaborative moderated a well-attended Hill briefing that included representatives from the James Irvine Foundation, ConnectEd and other supporters who shared their on-the-ground experience in building support for and implementing the Linked Learning approach in California. The briefing was held before a range of audience members, including Congressional staff, officials from the Obama administration, state education officials, local education agency staff, national education groups and the press. The briefing resulted in a lively discussion in which panelists shared their viewpoints, experience and knowledge on what is happening in high school reform in California and how it applies to federal policy. 

Date Added: Mar 24, 2010
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Exploring California Expansion Opportunities for the National Academy Foundation

The Challenge 

The National Academy Foundation (NAF), a national network of career academies whose mission is to support the development of America's youth toward personal and professional success in high school, in higher education and throughout their careers, reached out to Collaborative to take a comprehensive look at the state of career academies and multiple pathways in 29 communities in California, and to make recommendations for potential expansion opportunities.

NAF shared with Collaborative some previous challenges they had experienced with collecting information to inform their expansion decisions. One of the biggest challenges they encountered was that school data and information became quickly outdated because of the constantly changing landscape of multiple pathways and career academies in California. Limited funding also put a cap on the number of communities they could reasonably examine.

Our Approach 

Collaborative looked at multiple indicators to identify potential expansion opportunities for NAF academies in California. We examined public education data, interviewed potential partners and identified existing support structures, to gain a clear picture of interest, need and support. We looked at how these indicators intersected and overlapped, to identify potential areas for academy expansion. We synthesized our findings in a written report that "maps" our recommendations.

In response to the need be able to update information and continue to explore new locations, Collaborative created the Community Readiness Assessment Tool, which helps to guide strategic thinking about a community's level of readiness to engage in the career academy approach. By capturing and documenting the process by which data can be used to inform decisions, Collaborative empowered NAF to continue its work in an effective and strategic way.

Our Impact 

NAF responded enthusiastically to the value that Collaborative added to this project, and plans to continue to explore how these and other tools might be put into an interactive online format.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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Creating Gold Standards for High School Internships with the National Academy Foundation

The Challenge 

The National Academy Foundation (NAF) is an acclaimed national network of high school career academies predominately based in urban districts. These schools-within- schools have rigorous, career-themed curricula created in partnership with current industry and educational expertise. NAF's work has shown that work-based learning opportunities are essential to helping youth succeed as adults in the world of work.

NAF sees high school internships as one component of a continuum of work-based learning experiences, and believes that it should be the pinnacle of years of carefully planned work-based learning opportunities. However, no standards for high school internships existed to clarify the kinds of high quality experiences that youth, school personnel and partners, and employers should aspire to when creating, implementing and evaluating internship experiences. NAF needed a clear document stating the gold standards for high school internships.

Our Approach 

Collaborative Communications Group worked with NAF and its partners to create a standards document that would be useful to youth, schools and employers. NAF began the process by convening a Career Academy and Internship Task Force of national experts in work-based learning. Collaborative provided direction on the meeting agenda, materials and purpose; attended and documented the meeting in Oakland, CA; and identified the most relevant themes from the daylong discussion. We also attended a convening of employers in the Los Angeles area and gatherings of educators and intermediaries who deliver work-based learning activities to further test the identified themes.

Our process of creating the standards document included receiving continuous feedback from NAF staff, the Task Force and the field. When a change in scope resulted in the need for a slightly different product, we adeptly changed our approach to deliver a document that would be most useful to the organization in continuing to solicit feedback and funding to obtain support nationwide.

Our Impact 

Collaborative produced Preparing Youth for Life: The Gold Standards for High School Internships, a document that lays out the vision for high school internships, and pushes the discussion about how to achieve this vision in practice.  NAF is using it as a tool to lead internal and external discussions about expectations for high school internships at all stages of implementation.

This project also helped Collaborative continue to grow our partnership with and knowledge of NAF. We have compiled educational resource maps in New Orleans and Los Angeles, and for the state of California.

Date Added: Mar 13, 2010
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