Hoping to motivate more California students to finish high school and find future success, the James Irvine Foundation last week announced a new center aimed at expanding work-based learning programs that integrate high-level academics. Called ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career, the new project will seek to provide solutions to the problems highlighted in a new poll, also sponsored by the foundation. ConnectEd, based in Berkeley, will serve as a hub for creative practices, policies, and research on how to ensure that more of the state's students complete high school and have the skills they need for a job or for college, organizers say. The center will stress "real world" learning that blends high-quality technical and career education with rigorous academic content.