Linked Learning in Pasadena: Creating a Collaborative Culture for Sustainable District Reform

It’s all about ownership, implementation, and sustainability. Unless you have buy in and commitment from folks in the classroom, at the school sites, and in the community, it’s not going to be sustained.

— Edwin Diaz, former Superintendent, Pasadena Unified School District

This is the story of how Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) is creating sustainable high school reform. PUSD, through a set of district leadership practices, thoughtfully built the capacity of and sense of ownership among essential stakeholders to design, implement, and support a system of Linked Learning pathways. Though firmly anchored by the visionary leadership of a superintendent, the PUSD Linked Learning story extends to school sites, civic and industry partners, and the broader community. This story also highlights the impact that a change in leadership can have on reform efforts, the ways that ownership of an initiatve can be expanded to a wider pool of key stakeholders, and how those stakeholders can increase capacity to sustain the vision and implementation of reform beyond one leader.

This story of district leadership in implementing Linked Learning highlights the following:

• A significant shift, through the implementation of Linked Learning, in what was historically a strained relationship between the school district and community.
• An evolving relationship between the central office and site leadership through the implementation of Linked Learning.
• An implementation strategy that focuses on building capacity for implementing and ownership for the success of a major initiative across the district and the broader community.
• Early evidence that the district’s vision for Linked Learning has contributed to improved student learning.

This work is supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.