Blending Rigor and Relevance.

Abstract

Some studies of integrated curriculum and context-based learning offer early evidence that the linked learningapproach can yield outcomes such as higher test scores, graduation rates, completion rates for challenging courses required for college, and future earning power. The Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES) was launched in 2005 as an initiative of the California Academic Partnership Program - a collaborative program involving all the state's educational sectors, and the California Education Round Table - a voluntary association of the chief executive officers of all the educational sectors and its programmatic arm, the Intersegmental Coordinating Committee.