Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE
Alignment, working with Junior Achievement, provided all junior STEM Academy students with assistance in developing resumes and cover letters in preparation for summer internship opportunities. Over 60 students completed resumes and cover letters along with making decisions about possible internship placements with the following companies and municipalities: Advocate Sherman Hospital, Elgin Sweeper, Harting, HLR, Nicor, and Village of Bartlett.
Alignment in partnership with School District U-46 is launching U-46’s system wide work based learning plan. Working with each high school principal, Alignment is providing career panels in each of the five high schools and the Dream Academy partnering with industry professionals representing various industry clusters. Alignment will also provide industry and professional tours for specific student audiences to include such programs as automotive, early education, engineering, health care and manufacturing. Career panels to date have served over 1,100 students.
Thank you to our panelists representing the following companies and organizations: Advocate Sherman Hospital, AVID CNA, City of Elgin Police Department, Elgin Community College, Elgin Sweeper, HLR, ITW Shakeproof, Junior Achievement, Nokia, PNC Bank, SGS, School District U-46, Streamwood Behavioral Healthcare System, Taylor Family YMCA, The Overture Group, and Village of Streamwood.
The Alignment Collaborative for Education was awarded the Elgin Area Chamber’s Nonprofit Award in recognition of Alignment’s work to measurably improve the Elgin community by creating partnerships between businesses and U-46 schools. Much of the community-wide work has focused on helping businesses offer educational experiences for students to demonstrate the link between their classes and possible career pathways.
Nancy Coleman told the community “The Alignment Collaborative’s purpose is to broaden educational opportunities that encourage our youth to experience academic, career, and personal success. In working together to raise student achievement, we build stronger schools that result in a stronger community.”
School District U-46 high school principals gathered on January 9th to collaborate with Alignment on a district-wide plan to implement work based learning opportunities for all students. The plan will follow guidelines established in the Illinois Postsecondary and Career Expectations (PaCE) framework, ensuring students meet career-related benchmarks at each grade level.
A pilot will launch in February 2020 with career panels in all five high schools and the Dream Academy. Throughout the remainder of the semester, the pilot will include industry tours and job shadowing experiences for sophomore students, an expansion of the 40-hour internship pilot for junior students, and a job fair for senior students intending to enter the workforce immediately following graduation.
The district-wide work based learning plan will be a key component to the U-46 Educational Pathways implementation to support U-46 College and Career Academies.
“We are hoping to empower students to explore a field of interest and learn more about themselves in the process,” says Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Lela Majstorovic. “The end goal is not simply graduating from high school; the end goal is for our students to graduate with a plan and multiple options for the next step in their journey.”
When asked by the Daily Herald to identify the most important thing he hopes the community can accomplish in 2020, Mayor Kaptain responded “Our greatest successes happen when we plan for the long-term needs of our community. A prepared and educated workforce is fundamental to that. The city will continue to be a leader in the Alignment Collaborative for Education, a partnership with Elgin Area School District U-46, with commitments from more than 130 organizations to work together on new ways to improve educational outcomes and better connect our students to local jobs. From our youngest students to those ready for a career, we are all working hard to set up our future generations for success.”
Read the full Daily Herald article here.
Thank you to the many people who donated to Alignment on Giving Tuesday. Because of your generosity, we were able to raise over $16,000, our best Giving Tuesday campaign to date. Your investment will support our community-wide collaborations to improve kindergarten readiness, build schools with trauma informed care cultures, and implement educational pathways that link education and workforce.
ACE is a member of the Alignment USA communities of collaboration and collective impact.
