Linked Learning prepares students to graduate from high school ready for college and with skills to thrive in the workplace.
This visual summary shows Linked Learning in motion.
View snapshotAbout Linked Learning
Increasing equity and empowering young people
The Linked Learning approach to education is based on the idea that students work harder and dream bigger if education is relevant to them. It prepares young people to graduate from high school ready for college and with the skills needed to thrive in the workplace. As evidence grows that this approach works for all students — particularly young people who must overcome significant barriers to graduate — Linked Learning is attracting increased funding and adoption.
Irvine’s Linked Learning grantmaking culminated in 2019. We concluded our grantmaking with an investment in field leadership and governance through the Linked Learning Alliance. Our support for the Alliance advances the growth and sustainability of Linked Learning as a means for improved equity in education and workforce development.
A decade of Irvine investment in Linked Learning practice, policy, and public will-building helped demonstrate the approach and nurture development of a strong field. Today this field is steadily enhancing the quality and expanding the scale of Linked Learning across and beyond California.
The final years of our investment emphasized expanding Linked Learning at the regional level as well as improving student transitions from high school to postsecondary institutions. Read a summary of what we learned during our work with the Linked Learning Regional Hubs of Excellence, released in tandem with our partners at Jobs for the Future.
Linked Learning Alliance
The Linked Learning Alliance is a coalition of educators, employers, community organizations, and others dedicated to transforming the educational experience and preparing students for success in college, career, and life. Established in 2008 by Irvine – and now an independent nonprofit with respected national leadership – the Alliance is playing vital roles in strengthening the Linked Learning field and activating new partnerships between high schools, postsecondary institutions, and employers. Alliance members are working to make the Linked Learning approach available to a majority of California students, especially those in low-income households. Learn more by clicking the below button.
Linked Learning Core Components
Linked Learning ignites students’ passions by creating meaningful learning experiences in career-oriented pathways in fields such as engineering, health care, performing arts, law, and more.
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Rigorous Academics
Rigorous academics prepare students for admission and success in California’s community colleges and universities — as well as in apprenticeships and other postsecondary programs.
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Career-Technical Education
Career technical education in the classroom delivers concrete knowledge and skills through a sequence of courses, emphasizing real-world applications and academic learning.
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Work-Based Learning
Work-based learning provides students exposure to real-world workplaces via job shadowing, apprenticeships, internships, and more — and teaches the professional skills needed to thrive in a career.
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Comprehensive Support Services
Comprehensive support services include counseling and supplemental instruction in reading, writing, and math to address the individual needs of all students, ensuring equity of access, opportunity, and success.
How the Field is Growing
Since 2006, our grantees and partners have expanded Linked Learning from a small demonstration in a few high schools to pilot Linked Learning in nine districts across the state, and then to a rapidly growing movement to fundamentally transform high school in scores of districts serving hundreds of thousands of California youth. The approach is now attracting national interest – and adoption in multiple states.
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Demonstrate in High Schools
Beginning in 2006, Irvine supported a network of 16 high schools, occupational programs, and nonprofits providing key components of Linked Learning. This demonstration was led by ConnectEd. Early evaluations showed that, compared to statewide averages, students in these programs had higher graduation rates and better pass rates on the California High School Exit Exam.
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Extend in Districts and Beyond
Starting in 2009, a growing field of educators, community groups, and other partners have been working together to make Linked Learning available to youth across the state, whether they are in high school, moving on to postsecondary education, or no longer participating in formal education. These efforts have taken several approaches:
Strengthening school districts — Launched in 2009, the Irvine-funded California Linked Learning District Initiative was implemented over seven years within nine California school districts that, together, served 14 percent of the state’s public high school students (including a high percentage of low-income youth of color, within rural and urban geographies). Findings demonstrated the value of a systemic approach to Linked Learning, and generated key outcomes and lessons that continue to shape Linked Learning policy and practice.
Connecting through colleges — Community colleges and the California State University system are exploring how Linked Learning can increase relevance and achievement in the classroom.
Re-engaging out-of-school-youth — The Opportunity Links for Youth Initiative applied Linked Learning to re-engage those who are no longer in school, who are underemployed or unemployed, and who are actively seeking a way into college.
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Pilot and Expand Statewide
With mounting evidence that Linked Learning helps students graduate and prepare for success in college and career, the California Department of Education offered assistance to local education agencies that launch Linked Learning programs.
Sixty-three districts and county offices of education were selected to participate in the Linked Learning Pilot Program, together serving more than 600,000 public high school students — 30 percent of California’s total. The state legislature also established a $500 million California Career Pathways Trust. This major investment encouraged regional partnerships between schools and industry, and boosted and affirmed the value of work-based learning (a core Linked Learning element).
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Focus on Regions, Follow the Student
With the help of anchor organizations in four focus regions, new connections began forming between districts, postsecondary institutions, businesses, and other partners in these shared geographies. Regional partners are demonstrating the advantages of being active and united in delivering the benefits of Linked Learning to more students.
Linked Learning leaders are also emphasizing the student journey to postsecondary, and want to help all students transition smoothly from high school graduation to college entry. They recognize the challenges involved with this transition, and Irvine has published a set of factors and a framework that institutions can use to help students bridge the gap successfully.
This work is complemented by funder investments to help ensure that the field has a solid infrastructure that supports expansion of Linked Learning quality and scale in coming years.
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Engage Field Voices, Amplify Impact
The Linked Learning Alliance conducted an intensive review and planning process, infused with hundreds of stakeholder voices. This process surfaced powerful aspirations: The field seeks to extend Linked Learning to a majority of students in California, especially those in low-income households. And it seeks a marked increase in the number of college and career approaches nationally that are anchored in equity and quality.
The next era emphasizes equity and quality, features new connections between high school and postsecondary institutions, activates deeper levels of employer engagement, and results in sustained adoption of the Linked Learning approach at scale.
The Alliance is central to these aspirations and is a standard setter, advocate, communicator, and field builder for Linked Learning.
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