How to successfully support students in Linked Learning high schools

"Linked Learning" — first piloted in nine California districts in 2009 — is a high school educational framework that combines college-prep academics, a career or profession-themed curriculum, opportunities for work-based experiences, and integrated student supports.

As more and more school districts embraced this approach, the James Irvine Foundation provided funding to the Gardner Center to study and document how schools and districts have been building Linked Learning pathways and the integrated support systems critical to help students succeed.

The challenge

Linked Learning was designed to reduce educational disparities across California, engage students more effectively, and provide clearer college and career pathways, particularly for marginalized youth. Studies have shown it to be successful in improving graduation rates and other key student outcomes but — as adoption grew across the state — there were no clear "playbooks" to guide high schools about the student support systems necessary to make Linked Learning work.

The solution

With funding from the James Irvine Foundation, Gardner Center researchers pursued a two-phase approach. First, they investigated the challenges of integrating student supports with the academic, technical, and workplace learning goals of Linked Learning. This effort led to the publication of a report titled "Equitable Access by Design: A Conceptual Framework for Integrated Student Supports within Linked Learning Pathways."

Second, the team documented how schools and districts have implemented the elements of this conceptual framework in a "Guide to Integrated Student Supports for College and Career Pathways: Lessons from Linked Learning High Schools," published in 2019.

Key takeaways

Taken together, the two Gardner Center publications provide a roadmap and a set of case studies for schools seeking to successfully implement Linked Learning. Key themes that emerged from the work include:

The need to build supports in five key domains: academic learning; technical learning; workplace learning; college and career knowledge; and social and emotional learning

The need for school staff and all pathway partners to work in concert to address each student's developmental needs, skills, strengths, interests, and aspirations

Supports that reach beyond the academic domain — extending to school culture and climate; access to behavioral health interventions; and the mindsets of all the adults who work with students