Our Impact

State of Knowledge: Innovation Career Pathways (January 2024)

This brief presents the most current analyses from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on Innovation Career Pathways. The Commonwealth launched Innovation Career Pathways (ICP) as part of its suite of High-Quality College and Career pathways in autumn of 2018. ICP aims to provide students with a supportive and rigorous academic experience and career development that is relevant to their interests, so that they may graduate high school with a well-designed postsecondary plan.

Under the supervision of the DESE Office of Planning and Research, the efficacy of the ICP program has been investigated over the last few years. Overall, analyses show statistically significant and positive impacts of the ICP program in immediate college enrollment (i.e., within 6 months of participation) and second year persistence in college – particularly for Black, Latinx, and low-income students. This edition of the OPR newsletter offers a synthesis of the findings to date.

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Moving Career Pathways Forward: Learning from the New Skills for Youth Initiative

This report from Advance CTE shares the successes and challenges of sustaining the work of the New Skills for Youth Initiative (NSFY) to transform career readiness education and bridge skills gaps for youth through innovative strategies including Massachusetts Innovation Career Pathways. The report credits MAICP and MyCAP for expanding the access of Massachusetts students to high quality college and career readiness programming, and gives recommendations for action steps to sustain career pathways over the long term.

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Innovation Career Pathways: Evaluation of Technical Assistance 2019-2022

This report, prepared by the Innovation Career Pathways team at the Center for Collaborative Education, reviews the technical assistance provided by CCE to the community of practice in the first three years of partnership with DESE, 2019-2022. The report describes how we have worked to forge relationships with school staff and external partners in order to design and facilitate productive learning opportunities to meet the needs of the community of practice. It addresses assets and challenges encountered in pathway design and implementation, and is a helpful resource to those of you beginning the process of applying for designation, as well as longer-term designees. CCE is proud of the productive and collaborative network developed in service of Innovation Career Pathways, and we look forward to continuing to support its growth as more schools join the community of practice.

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What Are Innovation Pathways? Ask the Students! (2021)

This short video features student participants in Innovation Career Pathways in several different broad industry sectors speaking about what they experienced and how it has influenced their post-high school plans for education and career.

Student Projects

 

A student at Carver Middle High School created this prosthetics design as a project for the Advanced Manufacturing Pathway (known in Carver as the Manufacturing Engineering and Technology Pathway). The projects that students work on as part of pathway programs are based on industry-aligned, real-world challenges. For this project, students are assigned a random animal that has been left crippled or amputated and they go through a prosthetic design process. The projects that students work on as part of pathway programs are based on industry-aligned, real-world challenges.

Students in the Advanced Manufacturing Pathway (known in Carver as the Manufacturing Engineering and Technology Pathway) participate in showcases where they model their projects for parents and other visitors. Their instructional model is project, real-world, and place-based, with a balance of individual student effort and accountability to a team or collaborative pursuit.

Carver Middle High School’s Advanced Manufacturing Pathway (known in Carver as the Manufacturing Engineering and Technology Pathway) includes robotics and coding courses as shown in this video of an “early” robotics project. Students learn to work with all different types of machines such as 3-D printers and laser cutters, and learn different techniques for designing and building these projects.

For their Environmental & Life Science Pathway, Bourne High School has created an Aquaponics Lab to provide hands-on learning in sustainability. Participation in pathway programs such as this helps students gain awareness of future employment opportunities, and develop technical and academic readiness for success in the industry of their interest.

Carver Middle High School’s Advanced Manufacturing Pathway (known in Carver as the Manufacturing Engineering and Technology Pathway) includes robotics and coding courses as shown in this video of an “early” robotics project. Students learn to work with all different types of machines such as 3-D printers and laser cutters, and learn different techniques for designing and building these projects.

Celebration of Program Success

Scituate High School prepared a overview presentation of the success of their Innovation Career Pathways program in Business and Finance (Business Education).

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Play Turner Falls High School Video

ICP Program Experiences

Video about the growth of the Turners Falls High School ICP program that captures all the great experiences of their 2024 graduating class!

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