High School Improvement
Our schools can’t do it alone. They need active partners and proven strategies in the classroom, community and workplace to better prepare students for college, careers and life. Career pathway approaches, employer partnerships and integration with post-secondary education and training options support high schools as they equip youth with specific skills needed for meaningful careers.
Examples of Our Work
More Of Our Related Work
Below you’ll find a detailed list of our work with high schools to prepare youth for careers.
New Ways was also selected to coordinate the expansion of the Diploma Plus initiative into California. Diploma Plus was designed not only to help those young people who are being left behind by our educational system graduate, but to be ready to successfully transition to college and careers. New Ways assisted in codifying the model, developing frameworks to support implementation, and supporting the development of performance-based high schools in five California Communities.
New Ways supported the Sonoma County Office of Education in the definition and application of Work-Based Learning standards, the development of a regional employer engagement infra-structure, the creation of employer-defined skills standards and certification processes, and the application of a defined career development continuum strategies in the county’s schools.
In 1999, New Ways was selected by the California Department of Education to serve as the statewide capacity-building organization for Communities and Schools for Career Success in California. The project was conducted in partnership with the Commonwealth Corporation of Massachusetts, the California Department of Education, and the California Workforce Investment Board. New Ways supported the project with on-site coaching, technical assistance and training to four California communities. Commonly referred to as CS2 , the project focused on bringing together community resources to assist youth in the transition from middle school to high school, and from high school to further education and training or career-laddered, entry-level employment.
In the early 1990s, with the advent of School-to-Work New Ways became a founding partner of the Bay Area School-to-Career Action Network and facilitated the Northern California School-to-Career Practitioners Network, an informal association of schools, community organizations, School-to-Work partnerships, technical assistance providers, and employer associations. These efforts served to launch CalSCAN (the California School-to-Career Action Network), a statewide association of partnerships facilitated by New Ways.