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.
Recommendations for Instructional Models 1. Interdisciplinary, Project-Based Learning 2. Embedded Instructional Partnerships with Creative Industries Personnel 3. Pathways to Higher Education and Employment through Internships and Certifications 4. High Quality Mentorship and Coaching Focus areas for these models include: 1) Curriculum and Instruction 2) Community Partners 3) Career Technical Education 4) Training and Professional Development for Mentors and Instructors Curriculum and Instruction • Assemble and schedule curriculum writing teams to: o Develop comprehensive unit plans that embed the media arts and CTE objectives into course content for each of the recommended areas; o Identify mentors and instructors that authentically align with core content; o Examine and pair CTE and AME Standards within core content. • Develop authentic project-based learning opportunities that serve as assessments of core content as well as media arts content; create and use standards-based assessment tools. • As applicable, identify adequate spaces for training, mentorship and job coaching; • Expand students' access to media and digital arts learning opportunities, both in school and afterschool, to drive the school vision, extend curriculum and develop students' technical skills in digital media; • Identify and make explicit links between in-school curriculum and afterschool programming in the context of job shadowing and employment readiness. • Secure appropriate hardware and software for multimedia digital arts learning. Implementation • Integrate Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors into the ongoing interdisciplinary planning process through common planning time. • Give students ongoing feedback on the progress of their projects. • Organize school-wide exhibitions, including performances and displays of digital art, as culminating events for film showings, media projects and online displays. Expectations
• All staff, mentors and instructors are included and meaningful, ongoing contributors. • Mentors and instructors use core CTE/AME content alongside media arts content, as appropriate, to engage the process of inquiry, investigation and creation of digital media. • Mentors and instructors use multimedia resources to deepen students’ understanding of both core content and media arts content; teachers ask students to create multimedia projects as part of final assessments. • Students are provided opportunities to connect artistic expression with social-emotional development in which students focus on articulating and achieving their personal, academic and career goals • Examples of high quality student work, including but not limited to live/recorded performance and displays of digital and media art, are present and visible throughout the learning community. Community Partners • Create an outreach strategy to recruit and select the right partners from a wide range of disciplines and job functions, including the arts and digital media community; • Develop a procedure to formalize and streamline the induction process for instructional partners; • Identify and recruit community-based experts, including artists representing multiple disciplines and entertainment industry professionals, to collaboratively plan with teachers and work with students, particularly those who are able to empower students with the skills and knowledge that contribute to college and career readiness; • Cultivate a network of community-based experts, including those in the arts and entertainment industries, who have worked effectively with youth and are willing to collaborate with a variety of partners; • Utilize the expertise of all instructional partners in the creation of unit plans and assessment tools; • Cultivate relationships with community partners who can support effective student career readiness opportunities; • Explore opportunities for partnership with technical colleges that include courses related to the arts and entertainment industries amongst their program offerings; • Identify community resources that can support ongoing efforts. Implementation • Incorporate virtual field trips, film series, and virtual performances; • Build and maintain relationships between industry representatives and school staff;
Career Technical Education • Identify and select Career and Technical Education modules, including those related to arts and entertainment industries; • Ensure all CTE coursework aligns with industry certifications; • Identify and articulate college and career pathways, including those in the arts and entertainment industries; offer coursework that supports these pathways; • Explore opportunities for partnership with technical schools, community colleges and universities offering programs that lead to job placement in the arts and entertainment industries, as well as other economic sectors; • Coordinate with probation to provide graduated students with access to arts learning opportunities; • Cultivate relationships with community partners to build effective internship, mentorship and job training pipelines for students following release. Implementation • Provide targeted college counseling for students • Coordinate out-of-school programming, including arts learning opportunities, which align with college and career pathways. Expectations • Standards for Career Ready Practice (CRP) are continuously reinforced. • Real world, relevant civic learning projects are well-designed and utilized to build college and career skills. Training and Professional Development for Mentors and Instructors Provide opportunities for all staff to develop CTE/AME and media arts competence: o Develop a professional development calendar o Plan and deliver professional development that cultivates and promotes systemic, sustainable arts integration practice o Explore opportunities for staff to deepen arts integration knowledge, skills and practices in team cross trainings o Utilize the expertise of community partners, including those from the arts and entertainment industries, in both the design and delivery of professional development o Include opportunities for practitioners to be supported through direct observation and one-on-one coaching.
• Create professional development/training for all incoming staff that includes, but is not limited to, high quality media arts integration practices. • Develop efficient strategies for data collection and analysis to monitor program effectiveness and inform ongoing program modifications. Provide all staff with professional development for implementing these strategies. Implementation • Integrate community partners, including those from the arts and entertainment industries, into the interdisciplinary planning process through common planning time. • Provide ongoing feedback to staff to cull innovation and generate high quality curriculum and instructional practices, including arts integration. • Continue to cultivate partnerships with professional artists and community stakeholders, both formally and informally, to support ongoing implementation and promote long term sustainability. • Ensure ongoing professional development for all staff to strengthen personal comfort levels and build expertise in implementing the standards-based models for quality media arts • Initiate and maintain ongoing Professional Learning Communities that include all mentors, teachers and industry partners.
ABSTRACT PURPOSE Our purpose is to provide all K-12 students in Los Angeles County with access to high quality, ongoing, and long-term mentoring, course work, career pathways through business, government agencies and community partners that promote inspired learning and positive connections to employment opportunities. MISSION To develop, sustain and promote a community of practice dedicated to creating world-class workforce services to grow individual, business and community support for engaging youth in the creative economy. VALUES Equity Access Transparency Accountability Excellence Partnership METHODOLOGY: The initiative will identify and engage community stakeholders who are dedicated to creating a sustainable set of resources for empowering school district staff, classroom teachers and guidance counselors. GOALS LONG TERM • Build to scale with services provided across Los Angeles County • Partner with higher education to provide clearly articulated course offerings. • Partner with business partners to construct and update clearly articulated course offerings. • Support guidance counselors with resources to help students discover arts career pathways • Connect creative workforce industries with primary and secondary education plans SHORT TERM • Make jobs visible and motivate students • Develop standards-based, high quality instruction with rigorous mentorship components • Provide tools for students to identify an interest in the media arts • Develop pathways and resources for career readiness in media arts • Build a community of practice among counselors, administrators and teachers
STRATEGIES • Provide training on opportunities in the media arts to middle and high school students • Identify and cultivate industry partners through DAKAR’s corporate partners • Build parental awareness of creative industries and the value of media arts learning • Catalog existing CTE coursework that is arts centered and document success stories
ACADEMIC STANDARDS California Department of Education Career Technical Education Standards Guiding Principle 9: Collaboration CTE partners with business, industry, labor, postsecondary education, and the community to provide classroom and work-based learning opportunities that prepare all students for success. Chapter 5: Applications of CTE Foundation Standards 4.0 Technology Students know how to use contemporary and emerging technological resources in diverse and changing personal, community, and workplace environments. 4.2 Understand the use of technological resources to gain access to, manipulate, and produce information, products, and services. California Department of Education California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards Arts, Media and Entertainment C. Production and Managerial Arts Pathway Sample occupations associated with this pathway: Producers/Directors for … Television … and Motion Pictures C2.0 Understand the technical support functions and artistic competencies in film, video, and live production. C2.1 Analyze the production sequence involved in creating a media based or live performance production. C2.2 Produce a production flow chart for a live theatrical or media based production. C4.3 Identify the responsibilities and activities associated with the preproduction, production, and post-production of a creative project. 1.0 Academics Analyze and apply appropriate academic standards required for successful industry sector pathway completion leading to postsecondary education and employment. 3.0 Career Planning and Management Integrate multiple sources of career information from diverse formats to make informed career decisions …and manage personal career plans.
3.3 Explore how information and communication technologies are used in career planning and decision making. 4.0 Technology Use existing and emerging technology to … produce products and services… as required in the Arts, Media, and Entertainment sector workplace environment. 4.2 Employ Web-based communications … effectively to explore complex systems and issues. 4.6 Assess the value of … communication technologies to interact with constituent populations … in relation to the information task Writing Standards 11-12.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.