Guided Pathways is a comprehensive reform model focused on student success by designing clear pathways for students, helping them to make informed decisions, and stay on their chosen path while striving to increase attainment in credentials with labor market value. The population of students that will provide colleges the best evidence of the…

High-quality career and technical education (CTE) programs represent an effective way to provide young adults with an educational experience that prepares them for both college and career success. But not all CTE programs provide accessible pathways to a bounty of educational options without dead ends. To address the false dichotomy--college…

Beginning in 2011, Lake Washington Institute of Technology initiated an I-BEST (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training) program designed to allow upper-level basic education students to directly enter academic courses required by college transfer degrees. This program, the Academic I-BEST, represents one of the earliest examples of the…

Many career and technical education (CTE) courses not only provide students with vocational and technical skills and knowledge, but engage them in academic content as well. Designed thoughtfully, these courses can address rigorous academic content standards and be as intellectually demanding as traditional academic courses (Southern Regional…

With very few exceptions colleges and universities of all types--2-year and 4-year, public and private-- are feeling the fiscal pinch. They are caught in the vise of rising expectations and constrained revenues. Public institutions are operating in an environment in which state-level policy-makers press for increasing numbers of graduates,…

Academic Service Learning (ASL) is a non-traditional experiential learning model where students gain experience through community involvement and reflection, and ultimately are able to link community service to academic study. Students understand related course content and civic responsibility via a period of highly structured reflection. This…

The historic 2008 presidential election provided unprecedented opportunities to engage young people in civic education--including heated classroom debates on contentious issues, social studies lessons on the electoral process, and opportunities to volunteer for national and local campaigns. Civic engagement can take many forms, including…

Throughout the United States, administrators and teachers in American high schools face mounting pressure to increase the academic rigor of their curriculum in an effort to prepare students for postsecondary education and workforce success. Career and technical education (CTE) courses have often been overlooked in the public debate about making…

This study identifies essential program elements for Whatcom Discovery Center, a Northwest Educational Service District cooperative program providing academic and social/emotional development services to students who are challenged with severe social/emotional and/or chronic mental health disorders. The seven (7) Superintendents and seven (7)…

This paper examines how the academic study of hate can be understood through Catholic social justice teachings with an emphasis on the Jesuit commitment to faith and justice to allow for a critical reflection on the relationship between theory and practice. To make the connections between social justice and the study of hate, the paper begins with…