Panelists
Milton Chen, Senior Fellow, Edutopia
Maria Ferguson, Vice President, Alliance for Excellent Education
Jeannie Oakes, Director, Educational Opportunity and Scholarship Programs, Ford Foundation
Brad Stam, Vice President, ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career
Elliot Washor, Cofounder and Codirector, Big Picture Learning

Long-standing trends in the nation’s dropout rates and achievement gaps demonstrate that the American education system needs to better prepare students to meet postsecondary and career demands. Nearly three out of ten students fail to graduate from high school within four years, and the number of over-age, undercredited students continues to plague American secondary education. Even among those who graduate from high school, only about one in four students is deemed college ready in all four tested subjects on the ACT, and one in three students will need to take at least one remedial course at the postsecondary level. Further, jobs of the twenty-first century require students to demonstrate knowledge and skills that, as conveyed by both employers and postsecondary faculty members, too many students do not have. Ensuring students are prepared to succeed in the twenty-first-century global economy will require greater flexibility in the thinking and practice of when, where, from whom, and how students learn, much of which can be provided through expanded learning opportunities.

On Monday, December 12 the Alliance for Excellent Education held a webinar that highlighted its new issue brief, “Expanded Learning Opportunities: A More Comprehensive Approach to Preparing High School Students for College and a Career.” The webinar explored how expanding the learning opportunities for high school students can create a range of options for schools and districts as they seek to improve outcomes for students and address the unique barriers that many high school students face that prevent them from graduating ready for college and a career. Distinguished panelists discussed the research and policy context of when, where, how, and from whom students learn; shared insights from innovative initiatives that are implementing “anytime, anyplace” learning to meet the needs of high school students; and addressed questions submitted by webinar viewers from across the country.

Please direct questions concerning the webinar to alliance@all4ed.org.

This webinar is made possible with generous support from the James Irvine Foundation