Schools That Can

Our #fridayread: What if schools could track how high school students were gaining mastery of academic and life skills? An interesting look from The 74 Media: "The partnership comes as some businesses edge toward skills-based hiring, rather than hiring for having a college degree. The partners also want to increase mastery or competency learning, where students progress at their own speed, rather than in lockstep with a class." https://lnkd.in/gXEQwmGr

As we prepare to head back into classrooms, we're always analyzing how we can best support students: How do we help young people achieve their goals? What are the skills they need to thrive in work and beyond? In our work, we get to know not just a student's career plans, but rather, their ideas for their future, challenges, hopes, and who they are as people. It's one of the most important aspects of our approach to #careerreadiness. This is an important read from K-12 Dive about critical areas of focus for building student relationships: "By making a personal connection with a student about what is happening in their life outside of school, we make the process of what goes on inside the school walls that much easier." https://lnkd.in/gFGPJdk7

An interesting issue brief from Center for American Progress on why educators and policymakers must focus on closing the digital divide to ensure students are college and career-ready. 💻 Supporting students in building these skills is a top priority for our #careerreadiness approach. "In the United States, one-third of new jobs created in the past 25 years did not exist or barely existed before. The advancement of artificial intelligence alone is predicted to create 20 million to 50 million new jobs globally by 2030 in fields such as health care, finance, and technology. Many of today’s high-demand jobs were created in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue. [...] As technology continues to advance and affect the workforce, it is vital for schools to adapt to these changes and provide equitable learning opportunities that integrate technology in meaningful ways to prepare students for both college and careers." https://lnkd.in/gbyAmXTy

Last week, we had the honor of welcoming our 2024-2025 Schools That Can facilitators onboard! 👏 Many familiar faces who are favorites in classrooms across our cities are bringing their talent and vision to the role again this year, and as STC grows, we're excited to welcome new facilitators too. Facilitators, who lead STC's curriculum in classrooms, working collaboratively with teachers, are the soul of our programming: every day, they bring their passion for supporting young people, brilliant ideas, and skills to STC's career readiness curriculum. They make STC #careerreadiness happen. We spent time learning about best practices in supporting students, moving through curriculum updates to ensure our programming is meeting student and school needs, and reconnecting as a team. Stay tuned to learn more about our STC facilitators. Huge thanks to our guest presenters who shared their time and insight with our team: 💡 Kate Parsons 💡 Santiago Taveras 💡 Beth Rosenberg, Tech Kids Unlimited 💡 Marian Mogulescu 💡 Jeanie Tung And more! (cc: Migna Taveras) We're ready for a great year!  

A cool look into what 4 students think makes a difference in creating high schools that young people are excited to attend! Students suggested seeking student feedback on how to make a class better, prioritizing personal connections, and getting out of the school building and into work-based learning experiences and partnerships. We love to see it! “School is about ‘with’ not ‘for,’” Roberts said. “Everything is with the students. It’s not for the students. You have to do everything with the students in mind.” https://lnkd.in/gY8r_sNY

Kicking off Monday with a little #throwback to this amazing moment last year, working with awesome South Bronx Community Charter High School students on our Tell Me About Yourself unit! Students tackled key communication skills, including learning about different communication styles and sharing their elevator pitches. 💬 🗣

"But college is not the only option that students can get a jump on exploring at this high school. The associate degree program is part of one of four career pathways that students can choose, pointing to careers in specialties like culinary arts, manufacturing and automotive technology." https://lnkd.in/g8wHN-Rj

Our #mondayread is this fascinating piece about a new climate-centered, open-source curriculum in California aimed at 7th graders. Part of what makes it so cool? It was designed by students themselves, ages 12-23. 💡 🌿 🌎 Youth curriculum developers focused on ensuring the curriculum was accessible, including for English learners, and using inquiry-based approaches that presented lessons as a mystery game students work to solve, complete with characters. "We’ve always believed in the capacity and capabilities of young people and have leaned really heavily into that." https://lnkd.in/gX8FbTyf

Schools That Can is thrilled to announce that it has been selected as a Phase 1 winner in Siegel Family Endowment and the Walton Family Foundation's $2.2 million #LearningLandscapes Challenge. With our proposed solution, we hope to develop an integrated infrastructure to establish ecosystems that will pave the way for 21st-century pathways to family-sustaining careers. We're honored by this opportunity! Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/egWDRMU9

6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth: Via The Conversation US