Edutopia Webinar: Merging Career Tech with College Prep

October 7, 2010: Merging Career Tech with College Prep: Insights from Successful High Schools

Presenters: Gary Hoachlander, president of ConnectEd and Joe Cocozza, teacher at Bravo Medical Magnet High School and assistant professor at USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles

Host: Kathy Baron, features producer and research editor

Audience: Perfect for teachers, administrators, and policy makers ready to explore a proven reform that's shaking up the traditional high school experience, including a ground-floor guide to creating a program in your school.

Description: Students enrolled in programs that fuse core academics with career and technical skills are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to complete the classes required for college admission. This approach to high school reform is also known as Linked Learning, partnership academies, and multiple pathways -- and it's reinventing the traditional high school curriculum. Instead of separate tracks for vocational education and college preparation, high schools are combining them, by merging courses in occupational skills into a rigorous academic curriculum in order to prepare all students for both college and careers.

The most successful programs embrace a set of guiding principles and components that focus on interdisciplinary, project-based learning, strong partnerships with local business, industry and institutes of higher education, and a culture of collaboration in schools. Our webinar panelists will share tips for building successful programs, share examples of high quality academies, and summarize the research findings.

Webinar Resources

• Download the presentation (PowerPoint 26 MB).
• Check out our latest installment of "Schools That Work" on Career Tech and College Prep.
• Join the discussion: Ask a question you'd like to address to the webinar presenters, make a comment, or network with like-minded educators on this subject. Webinar host Kathy Baron and our presenters will check back regularly to answer questions, so please continue the lively discussion at our "Career and Technical Education" group.
• Some additional useful links mentioned in the presentation:
• Schools That Work:Why the New Approach is Working
• Schools That Work: Research Roundup
• Schools That Work: Ten Tips to Get Going
• Schools That Work: Schools That Work: Creating Industry Partnerships
• Schools That Work: Student Success Stories
• Schools That Work: Free Resources and Tools
• ConnectEd - 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—a high school improvement approach.
• Coalition for Multiple Pathways
• Career Academy Support Network (CASN) - California office of the National Career Academy Foundation
• National Academy Foundation (NAF)
• Project Lead the Way (PLTW)
• Alliance for Excellent Education
• California Partnership Academies
• National Career Academy Coalition
• Linked Learning Alliance
• High Schools That Work (HSTW)
• National Career Pathways Network

Key Studies on Career Tech and College Prep

• "Career Academies: Communities of Support for Students and Teachers: Emerging Findings from a 10-Site Evaluation," James J. Kemple, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), November 1997.
• "Combining Academic and Career-Technical Courses To Make College an Option for More Students: Evidence and Challenges," David Stern and Roman Stearns, November 2006
• "Expanding Pathways: Transforming High School Education in California," Gary Hoachlander, Roman J. Stearns, and Carol Studier, ConnectEd, January 2008

From Bravo Medical Magnet High School, Los Angeles, CA

• Engineering for Health Academy
• Engineering for Health Academy: Application Form 2010 - 11
• Engineering for Health Academy Lesson Plan: Physiology: Challenges and Solutions Lab 1
• Partners in Learning Compact (Student, Family, and Faculty Pledges)