This playbook provides ways in which business and industry can blur the lines between high school, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Business and industry play a significant role to Raise the Bar for student success by developing an "education-to-workforce system" focusing on Unlocking Career Success.

This publication was created to help eighth-grade students make a successful transition to high school and begin looking at college and career options. Topics covered in the booklet include exploring career options; choosing the right college for you; the North Dakota University System; making plans to graduate from high school; and attending a…

In this article, Summer Creek High School (Harris County, Texas) librarian, Louise Lankau shares a formula for successfully integrating technology via the school library and reaching every department and teacher in a school of 2,500 students and 170 teachers. The challenge is that the teaching staff at Summer Creek increases each year to…

This ConnectEd Guide for Developing a System of Linked Learning Pathways will introduce school district leaders and their community partners to Linked Learning and a system of quality pathways that can transform high schools, instructional practice, and the student experience. Not intended to be prescriptive, this document can and should be…

Those closest to students have the greatest impact on their success. Given this belief, Louisiana has focused its efforts to support and empower principals in their role as school leaders. Successful principals reflect and plan, using data throughout the year to set goals and improve instruction. The Department helps principals develop their…

While academic interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in high school is critical because it is often a student's last chance to become ready for the academic demands of postsecondary education and careers. States across the country are implementing large-scale initiatives focused on delivering academic…

This guide provides an overview of a more robust online guide and toolkit available through ConnectEd Studios. It supplies a glimpse of the sequence of steps involved in creating a new Linked Learning pathway. This publication can help coaches, district leadership, and pathway teams gain an understanding of the overall process of designing and…

A career academy is a small learning community within a high school, which selects a subset of students and teachers for a two-, three-, or four-year period. Students enter through a voluntary process; they must apply and be accepted, with parental knowledge and support. A career academy involves teachers from different subjects working together…

Today, states and the federal government recognize the potential of early college designs to improve the economic prospects of future generations. But individuals are just beginning to put in place public policies that promote and support early college designs on a significant scale. Jobs for the Future (JFF) prepared this guide to help…

One-fourth of all ninth graders in the United States will not graduate from high school within four years, despite the fact that the 21st Century workplace requires more advanced knowledge and skills than ever before. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive strategy to keep teens in school and ensure that they graduate prepared for the future,…

This is a must-have resource for busy educators involved in creating, improving, or reevaluating their school mission statements. The authors provide numerous examples of mission statements from a diverse range of preK-12 schools, offering readers an extremely valuable resource for developing an understanding of various themes and ideas in…

Individual ACT reports contain students' results and basic explanations of what the results mean. This booklet provides more information keyed to the three parts of the report: (1) ACT scores (including how scores are computed on each of the tests, how to understand and use ACT scores, how high schools and colleges use them, and whether or not it…

As communities across California commit to developing systems of high school pathways that will engage students in school and prepare them to succeed in postsecondary opportunities and contribute to a vital regional economy, many are realizing the importance of providing "broad-based support" for this work. Students need a choice of…

This guide is designed to help high school students in Indiana make post-graduation plans. It begins with a discussion of things students should accomplish while still in high school, including mapping out post-school plans. Special attention is given to career choices, and detailes are provided on how career direction, discovering skills, finding…

Switching from multiple lunch periods to one lunch period for the nearly 2,000 students at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, has contributed more to a positive school climate than any other single factor in the eight years since the school opened. This article presents how Blake has come up with the single 50-minute lunch…