Since the publication of our Working to Learn report, we at ASA have been digging deeper into best practices and policies employed by states to expand and improve high school work-based learning programs. We recently spoke with representatives in Delaware about their success with the Pathways program; you can read Parts 1 and 2 here. In this next installment, we chat with Dr. Kerry Akashian, Career Development Education Lead at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

As research has shown, ensuring that students can carve out a path to postsecondary success requires some shifts in the way we view and approach the education environment beginning in middle school. One such shift centers on students’ relationships — that is, who is available to guide them and help them hone their skills and interests in a constructive way?

In Part 1 of our spotlight series on state implementation of high school work-based learning, we took a look at the origins of Delaware’s Pathways initiative and how state legislation helped lay the groundwork. In Part 2, Luke Rhine, Director, Career & Technical Education and STEM Initiatives for the Delaware Department of Education, and Paul Herdman, President and CEO of Rodel, discuss the integration of work-based learning opportunities into career and technical education paths, what a statewide intermediary can (and can’t) do to support stakeholders, and why state agency leadership is so vital.