Pandemic Partnerships: Advancing Educational Justice for Students and Systems by Streamlining College and Career Pathways

• In Event: Persistence and Transitions: Rethinking Student Trajectories

Abstract

This multi-voice paper examines how, as the pandemic intensified inequities in students' college and career pathways, six P-20 partnerships faced challenges and developed innovative strategies to advance educational justice. Partnership leaders described student-level challenges of postponing or dropping college and career dreams to support families; strategies aligned students' career exploration, exposure, engagement, experiences, and placement. System-level challenges included disjointed pathways from middle and high school through college to careers; lacking "stackable" credentials; and losing Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes, work-based learning, and certification. Leaders identified promising strategies: streamlining CTE, college preparation, dual enrollment, transfer pathways, and career internships; improving longitudinal databases of students' academic and career pathways; and collaborating with students, families, staff, and faculty in multi-site alliances.

Authors

• Catherine R. Cooper, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Robert G. Cooper, San José State University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Domínguez, Cabrillo College
  Presenting Author

• Charis Herzon, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author

• Cristine H. Chopra, Santa Cruz County Office of Education
  Presenting Author

• Maria Rocha-Ruiz, University of California - Santa Cruz
  Presenting Author