Career Relevant Learning

Injecting relevancy in every part of the student experience

The latest teacher shortage exacerbated by the stresses of the pandemic seems to be one of our deepest in recent memory. It is hard enough to find any qualified teacher to fill open teaching positions, let alone the right mentors to guide a diverse group of students into a rapidly changing world. It is going to take more than a call to action or even a 4-day workweek to solve this persistent problem.

Combine the need for more teachers with dropping college enrollment and it becomes clear that students need better learning supports now more than ever. While we can’t agree on one specific purpose of education, we can hopefully agree that we need to do everything we can to prepare our students for the future.

We believe the path forward is to not only support teachers with professional partners, but also to connect every aspect of the student experience to future careers. Some schools have always made Career Technical Education (CTE) and Real-World Learning (RWL) as a priority. We are now recognizing the special sauce of successful schools with CTE and RWL goes even deeper than the traditional definition of Career Connected Learning (CCL). Implementation of the latest in learning science best practices (direct instruction (DI) combined with project-based learning (PBL), mastery-based grading (MBG), and finding a purpose to learn) while having every student choose a CTE pathway.

There are many terms and initiatives that try to prepare students for an unknown future. Instead of trying to manage the alphabet soup that is so common in education, great schools have integrated career preparation into every part of the small school, relationship centered learning experience. From building design to curriculum development, project implementation to the master schedule, every last detail of the student experience has career relevancy in mind. We are calling this special sauce Career Relevant Learning.

Mapping my journey through the school system is helping us a build a system of Career Relevant Learning that benefits every student in the US and beyond.

Making the leap from work as a Senior Technical Consultant for a software company to being a high school engineering teacher was serendipitously easy for me. I was coaching football after work and had deep relationships with my alma mater when Chevron gave the district $1 million to launch an engineering program. I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right financial stability, and at the right district with administrators who knew how to get me in the classroom on an emergency credential.

Unfortunately, the circumstances that allowed for it to happen remain extremely rare. Add on the low status society gives to teachers and most people will even choose a lesser paying job than deal with the headaches of the classroom. I almost left the classroom when the challenges of public and private schools seemed to be insurmountable. Thankfully homeschooling my kids and working in a few education startups helped me combine my passion for technology, innovation, and working with students in a way that led me to Project Leo.

Throughout my journey I was blessed with amazing mentors, connections, and strong relationships that pushed me and my students forward. Whenever I wasn’t able to draw directly upon my own professional experience in the classroom, I knew someone who could help me create a relevant project or build a meaningful learning experience for my students. As soon as I feel I am lacking in a skill or knowledge base, Iam able to find an expert push my thinking forward. These mentors make jumping to a new S-curve much easier and is exactly what we need to provide our students at scale.

To do this we are integrating professional connections into our core gameplay loop of learning. We can’t assume that one teacher will be able to guide every student on their own. We are building a network of professionals centered on education hubs. Our goal is to make the network so robust and the connection process so easy that teachers and students are able to get support in real time as they are developing new skills and building new projects. Professionals no longer have to dedicate huge chunks of time to volunteer. They can build a portfolio of quality coaching that will quickly surpass the impact of a LinkedIn page.

We can’t solve the problem of a teacher shortage, but by giving a new impact incentive to professionals we won’t have to. Project Leo will multiple the impact of the teachers we have by making Career Relevant Learning even easier to implement. Next time you meet someone who is passionate about sharing their expertise with the next generation, send them our way.