FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

Teacher Melissa Chavez leads a class in the biomedical pathway at STEM Academy of Hollywood.

FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

Instructor Melissa Chavez leads a grade in the biomedical pathway at STEM Academy of Hollywood.

Carolyn Jones
January 24, 2017

California's hundreds of high schoolhouse career academies can now heave their prestige — and create more uniformity in quality— through a new voluntary certification program, announced by the Linked Learning Alliance at its annual conference in Oakland on Jan. 24.

"It'southward like taking the Wild Westward and bringing it into a lane of coherence," said Alex Taghavian, vice president of the Linked Learning Alliance, which promotes programs linking the loftier schoolhouse curriculum with career pathways.  "Having clear, set standards is something we need equally Linked Learning expands and more and more districts and schools join in."

Up to now, in that location have been at least three different sets of standards for programs that link the loftier schoolhouse curriculum to career pathways.

The earliest were the standards specified in the California didactics code for programs known as the California Partnership Academies programs funded by the state since the 1980s. The National Academy Foundation also has set standards for NAF academies in California schools and elsewhere. Over the concluding five years or then, ConnectEd, a Berkeley-based organisation has developed Linked Learning quality certification standards, and close to l academies accept been certified co-ordinate to those standards.

The new standards in event encompass all of these standards, and offer a tiered set of certifications so programs in the burgeoning career pathway field tin can assess their progress from one level to another. "Nosotros needed a streamlined certification process, which would permit career pathways to immediately recognize identify themselves equally based on Linked Learning principles, and work to higher and higher levels of quality" said Gary Hoachlander, president of Connected.

"The intent was not to move abroad from the old organisation just to adapt more than people and programs and to streamline it," he said.

Career academies refer to programs within high schools that link the bookish curriculum to career-related topics such as engineering or biotech. The academies offer college-prep courses in add-on to internships, with the goal of giving students real-world feel based on what they're learning in the classroom and preparing them for jobs or higher majors. The topics are often related to science, engineering, applied science and math, or Stem fields, and are intended reflect the needs of the local task market.

Such career academies have been in existence for decades, often as vocational educational activity, merely have evolved to include tougher bookish and broader vocational or career themes, such as the Law and Government Academy at Highland Loftier in Palmdale and the Agriculture Academy at Galt High in rural Sacramento County. In the Health Academy at Oakland Technical Loftier, for case, students take AP biology and other courses. They also participate in summer internships at Kaiser Permanente, Children's Infirmary Oakland, the Oakland Fire Department and other local organizations. Guest speakers, field trips, beginning-assistance certification and public health service projects are included in the program as well.

The new certification standards, which build on those developed by ConnectEd, includes well-nigh ii dozen measurements, ranging from the number of college credits offered to how interdisciplinary projects are woven into the curriculum. Measurements include student examination scores, the number of internships and the extent of career and college counseling provided by the plan.

Studies accept found that programs like these  accept had a positive event on graduation rates and higher and career readiness. A 2022 report past SRI International found that students enrolled in the Linked Learning District Initiative, a multi-district effort funded by The James Irvine Foundation, were v.3 percent more likely to graduate from loftier school than their peers who had not participated in the programs, were two pct less likely to driblet out, and had earned an average of viii.9 more than credits by the end of high school.

The new certification plan announced Tuesday is expected to further heave career pathways academies. Inspired by the LEED certification program of the U.S. Green Concern Council, the program will showtime past offering a tiered set of certifications starting with "candidate" and "silvery" certifications, and next yr will include "gold" and maybe "platinum," said Hilary McLean, executive vice president of the Linked Learning Brotherhood.  All current programs that have been certified will automatically be giving "aureate" status, Hoachlander said.

Certifications volition be issued by the Linked Learning Alliance. To achieve certification, staff at career pathway academies would answer a series of questions at certification.linkedlearning.org such equally whether the program includes college guidance, task application workshops, student orientation or a sequence of at least 3 career-themed courses. Staff are too required to provided data to back up their claims. The certification level – "candidate," "argent" or somewhen "aureate" –depends on how many of the benchmarks an academy achieves. Academies can better their ranking at any time.

The primary goals are to assistance schools and districts meet what needs comeback, recognize academies whose students are achieving high levels of success, and requite students an extra boost in job and college applications, McLean of the Linked Learning Alliance said.

For students, the reward is existence able to list on resumes and college and job applications that they graduated from a silver- or gold-certified programme. For schools, certification can bring bragging rights also equally help meet cess goals, McLean said. Students who graduate from the highest-level certified programs may become accelerated opportunities in college or help finding jobs through the National Academy Foundation, a national network of education, business and customs leaders that supports linked learning programs.

The data compiled for certification could too potentially help the California Department of Education every bit information technology develops an indicator of higher and career readiness. Certification includes data on the number of students who do job shadows, workplace tours and internships, and who larn job application and other work-related skills.

Seven districts have already embarked on the certification procedure. Bijou Beltran, managing director of career education at the Oxnard Wedlock High School District, said trying to achieve certification has been a useful way to evaluate the commune'south 22 linked learning academies.

"I've always been shamelessly proud of our academies, but this helped us run across areas where we could improve. Are nosotros providing plenty internships? Administrative support? How are we doing on A-Chiliad curriculum?" she said. "How do we really know we're doing a keen job? This rubric is helping united states figure that out."

Staff from the Linked Learning Alliance will randomly inspect the certification applications and in some cases may visit a schoolhouse site. Each district volition pay $1,000 annually for an unlimited number of applications.

For Joan Bissell,  the manager for teacher educational activity and public schoolhouse programs at California State University, the new  certification standards will bring a level of legitimacy and uniformity in quality that will benefit students, schools, employers and colleges.

"It volition requite students a sense of agency and self-esteem, and for educators, recognizing excellence is in itself an incentive," she said. "Until now, when nosotros've looked at the numbers what have we been focusing on? Outcomes. Now we'll know how well we're providing students with opportunities to learn."

Louis Freedberg contributed reporting to this report. It was was updated on Feb. 2 to include information on previous standards and certification programs in identify before the Linked Learning certification program was appear last week.

EdSource receives support from The James Irvine Foundation.EdSource maintains sole editorial command over the content of its coverage .

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