Giving Compass' Take:

• Bruno V. Manno at Education Next discusses new movements which aim to create opportunity networks and social capital for young people, helping them integrate school and work and education and career, while preparing them to make better decisions about their future. 

• How can schools partner with employers to ensure students are taught the skills they need to succeed? 

• Here's another article on career ready high schools. 

From 1910 to 1940, a grassroots effort commonly described as the high school movement led to a “spectacular educational transformation” in America, according to Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz. The movement raised enrollment of 18-year olds to 71 percent from 19 percent and graduation rates to more than 50 percent from 9 percent, lifting the US to the forefront of educational attainment in the world. It was a response to a “skills gap” problem—soaring demand for a supply of educated workers to staff new white-collar jobs.

Today, demand for a new kind of educated worker has created another “skills gap”, prompting community-fueled innovations in how high schools prepare young people for careers and continuing education. These approaches integrate schools and students with employers and work, creating a new form of social capital for young people by initiating them into relationships that expand their community networks and lifetime access to opportunity.

Here are examples from the district, charter, and private school sectors.

In 2009, Wiseburn School District in Los Angeles County created a partnership with Da Vinci Charter Schools. Today, Da Vinci serves 2,100 students in K-16 from 108 zip codes in four high schools, a K-8 homeschool-hybrid model, and post-secondary college and career programs. Over 100 business and nonprofit partners offer students internships, mentorships, workshops, boot camps, consultancies, and other programs. Student partner services include youth marketing focus groups and website, graphic, and social media design.

Read the full article about the new high school movement by Bruno V. Manno at Education Next.