Introduction and Context This planning document is being developed as part of the educational strategic planning process for the DAKAR STEAM project and aligns with the overarching goals of the Career Technical Education and Creative Workforce program roll out as an ongoing component of the Arts for All 2.1 million-K-12 students in Los Angeles County. Needs Statement There is currently an unprecedented opportunity for Los Angeles County to rethink its approach to providing career pathways and access to the creative economy. Many of our students are at risk for dropping out of the system because they perceive their education to be a dead end journey marked by chronic academic failure and truancy. Other students, although possessed of skills and motivation, are unprepared to engage in the workforce or perceive no avenues for their constructive future vision and remain unequipped to take their place as positive, employed contributors to our communities’ well-being. Educational Plan The model being proposed in this document is grounded in evidence-based research that indicates the efficacy of robust career technical education as a powerful strategy for engaging youth. Components of this standards-based, high-quality, long term programming for inner-city youth will include coursework, mentoring, and participation in employment work place practices. Within this formal educational environment, the model employs media arts integration as an important instructional strategy. Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both. It allows students to access and experience deep learning both in a particular art form, and in a parallel content area such as math or science. Arts integration provides multiple mechanisms for deepening student engagement in the opportunities that are offered to them to demonstrate academic and socio-emotional growth. Strategic partnerships with digital media companies, community arts providers and the broader entertainment industry will expose students to an array of engineering, language, and media arts practices. Participating youth will be provided with ongoing mentoring and coursework pathways that are custom designed to deeply engage each student in the career path of his or her choosing through formal and informal learning environments, nurturing personal interest and making concrete connections to the abundant arts and entertainment career pathways of Los Angeles County.
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