Event Spotlight: Linked Learning webinar hosted by the Linked Learning Alliance and Alliance for Excellent Education 

 The Linked Learning Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education 

Invite You to Attend A Webinar on

 Federal Education Policy: 

The Big Picture and Potential Impact on Linked Learning

Thursday, September 15, 2011  

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., PT / 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., ET

Register Now 

To ensure that California's economy has a skilled workforce tomorrow, the state's high schools must prepare more students for success in college and a career today. When nearly one-third of California's students fail to graduate with their class and 60 percent of the state's students entering the California State University system need remediation, the state has much more work to do in this arena.
 
Fortunately, through the work of a broad coalition of education, industry, and community organizations, California is moving forward in advancing Linked Learning as a strategy to prepare students across the state for success in college and a career. However, significant questions remain:   

• How can state and local efforts be supported or hindered by larger developments in federal education policy?
• How are strategies like Linked Learning factoring into discussions around the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and other legislative efforts?
• How are federal funding streams supporting Linked Learning implementation affected by the current federal budget climate?
• What future developments should be considered and how can one play a larger role in affecting this discussion? 

On September 15 from 1:00pm-2:00pm PT, (4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., ET) please join members of the Alliance for Excellent Education's policy and advocacy staff and Christopher Cabaldon, executive director of the Linked Learning Alliance, as they discuss developments in federal policy and their implications on efforts advancing Linked Learning in California and across the nation.

Alliance Member Spotlight: Long Beach Unified School District 

Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), is committed to "Engaging Every Learner, Every Day in a Linked Learning Experience."  The district serves the cities of Long Beach, Signal Hill, Lakewood and Avalon, and is the third largest school district in California, with 88,000 students in 85 schools. LBUSD's student population is highly diverse: Hispanic 51.6%, African American 17.1%, Asian 8.1%, White/Caucasian 6.1%, Filipino 3.7%, Pacific Islander 1.9% and American Indian 0.2%; 25% English Learners; and 9% receiving special education services. Approximately 70% of LBUSD's student population is eligible for free/reduced lunch. As such, it has been a district priority to work systematically and comprehensively to ensure that every student experiences a personalized and rich academic experience that prepares him/her for postsecondary success in education and career. 

The District has spent several years transforming its high schools into higher performing educational institutions where students are known by their teachers, administrators, and counselors; where they are learning and growing in smaller environments more closely focused on their postsecondary and career needs and goals; and where they are becoming more familiar with a higher set of performance expectations anchored in real world competencies.  LBUSD now has more than 40 Linked Learning pathway programs. 

With funding to support the expansion of smaller learning communities in all of its high schools, LBUSD has been able to continue the growth process identified through its intensive and explicit Academic and Career Success Initiative, and the goals of the District's High School Office: 1) Preparing all students for postsecondary and career options through Linked Learning; 2) Providing support services within each pathway; and, 3) Enrolling students in a coherent sequence of rigorous courses aligned to student outcomes, leading to Linked Learning Certification. 

In its third year of Linked Learning implementation, the District has successfully led a scaled roll-out of Student Outcome Charts at all of its high schools, creating a common language around what makes each pathway unique; utilized these Student Outcome Charts as an orientation tool for parents, students, and teachers new to pathway programs; trained over thirty ninth and tenth grade interdisciplinary teacher teams in Performance Mapping; revised all ninth and tenth grade academic course outlines to reflect the integration of the "Five Power CTE Foundation Standards" identified by local business and postsecondary partners as critical to success; and aligned interdepartmental efforts in the central office to prioritize the work of Linked Learning. With support from the LBUSD Board of Education, four LBUSD pathways have already attained certification and the district has set the bold metric that 90% of its forty pathway programs will be Linked Learning certified by 2016. To learn more, please visit the Linked Learning website at http://www.lbschools.net/Main_Offices/High_Schools/Linked_Learning/.