Supporting Students and Pathways: New COVID-19 Resource Toolkit

As districts, schools, and pathways determine how to spend new and existing public dollars for COVID relief to support students, the Linked Learning Alliance and Partnership for Children & Youth are proud to share A Summer Like No Other: Accelerating Learning for High School Students.

The coronavirus pandemic—with its waves of closures and quarantines, high-speed pivots to distance learning, and devastating societal effects—has disrupted education patterns for all students, especially those in high school, in unimaginable ways over the past school year. We saw this play out in school districts across the country as educators opened their classroom doors, yet too many high schoolers opted out of returning to school.

California school districts have access to this unprecedented state and federal funding starting now—summer 2021—and through at least summer 2023. Now is the time to redefine systems to ensure high school students are seen, engaged, and connected to their purpose, while laying the groundwork for systems-level change this fall.

Through the lens of Linked Learning and expanded learning approaches, the Linked Learning Alliance and Partnership for Children & Youth outline five areas for action:

1. Listen to students and engage them and their insights
2. Foster relevancy and early career exposure through summer work-based learning
3. Connect rich and relevant learning to community
4. Design and activate networks that accelerate learning this summer and beyond
5. Strengthen and enrich student experiences through a continuum of integrated supports
   

The first three action areas include strategies that California school districts can implement right now. We also offer two additional areas for action that districts can begin to implement in summer 2021, and that will provide a strong foundation on which to transform systems and students' lives through the school year.