Acting Superintendent Gary Yee recently announced a new partnership between Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and the City of Oakland and Peralta Community College District to better prepare students for college and career. The partnership will involve an expansion of Linked Learning academies – college and career preparatory programs which integrate academics, technical education, and work-based learning – to serve 80 percent of OUSD’s 10th – 12th grade students by 2016 (an increase from 42 percent currently enrolled in Linked Learning academies). The California Community College Linked Learning Initiative of the Career Ladders Project, an Oakland-based non-profit, will facilitate leadership meetings, support data exchange and analysis, and provide technical support to the partnering organizations. Dr. Yee described Linked Learning as “a universal high school transformation” that can “help students apply the academic skills they are learning in school to solve real world issues and, ultimately, show them how their high school education directly relates to their career interests and aspirations.” The movement also dovetails with the district’s community schools movement launched by the former Superintendent and Collaborative member Tony Smith.
Links to OUSD press release and EdSource Today article