Learning Collaboratives
Overview
The BaySCAN Learning Collaboratives are communities developed around industry-specific career areas. The collaboratives promote shared learning and growth for participating individuals and programs. BaySCAN currently facilitates three learning collaboratives, with two more in development, providing unique opportunities for Bay Area educators to keep current on the needs of high-growth industries and for students to explore careers and gain required skills for success. BaySCAN convenes Learning Collaboratives in the following industry pathways:
Through the Learning Collaboratives BaySCAN bridges the gap between schools, local and regional communities, and state agencies and reform initiatives. Working and learning directly with teachers in the field and partnering with universities and employers, Learning Collaboratives quickly and effectively help schools expand successful programs and grow new ones.
The BaySCAN Learning Collaboratives:
- Enhance the visibility of isolated programs and projects
- Provide opportunities to access resources typically not available to individual programs
- Connect to industry sectors as a collective, organized system
- Build a social network of distributed knowledge, expertise and best practices
- Implement teacher-led professional development
- Assist in the integration of other education reform initiatives
- Provide a context for focused and useful technical assistance to schools and employers.
The BaySCAN Learning Collaboratives create a unique opportunity for Bay Area educators to expand and deepen their work by connecting similar initiatives in a support network that shares information, problems and best practices. To this end, the collaboratives provide:
- Collaborative listservs and on-line forums
- Site visits and facilitated curriculum design
- Retreats, workshops, and summer institutes
- Regional advisory boards
- Connections to local, state and national initiatives.
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"Participating in the Academy gave me valuable speaking and presentation skills I would not have otherwise received. I feel I have an edge over other college students because of the project management skills I acquired through the Academy's real-world projects. These skills make me more organized and prepared to handle the challenges of the real-world."
Jessica Jozwik, Academy X, Drake High School -- Speaking at forum with Gary Hart, California Secretary of Education
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