Community College On-Track Indicators for Linked Learning Students

Abstract

The rapidly expanding Linked Learning approach blends career technical and college preparatory course sequence in a single high school pathway, representing the convergence of two strands of high school reform from the past thirty years. Using data from nine California districts, we examine the effect of high school Linked Learning participation on students’ early community college outcomes. This research brief uses administrative data from key California community college districts to build on previous analysis of end-of-high-school and early postsecondary enrollment outcomes for Linked Learning students which found that Linked Learning students who started high school with low levels of academic achievement were more likely than their similar peers to enroll in college. We find that Linked Learning students perform similarly to their peers during the first two years of college.