Linked Learning Approach, (The): Building the Capacity of Teachers to Prepare Students for College and Careers

Following decades of failure, the nation is charging full-steam ahead with efforts to transform American high schools, with the goal of preparing all students for the rigors of both college and careers. Yet in order to transform the classroom experience for high school students to create a college- and career-ready focus, equal attention must be paid to transforming the way teachers are prepared to lead their classrooms. One approach to preparing teachers for twenty-first-century classrooms is to blend academic and career-focused instruction, which requires more than most traditional training provides. This brief highlights efforts in California to redesign the traditional training options available to high school teachers in an effort to align teacher education with high school reform efforts. The brief concludes with implications for federal policy.