Here are Some Books and Podcasts I Recommend

In summer 2021, CVUSD was interested in identifying exemplary teaching practices among teachers who were identified as skilled in adopting the World of Work, the curriculum supporting the district’s vision. In this report, the district partnered with researchers at the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education who also sought to understand how exemplary teachers were internalizing the World of Work, and develop case studies that could be used for professional development with other teachers. 

As school districts realign their work to meet expectations for career and life readiness, a range of products and initiatives are emerging. How do districts make the right choice? What is the criteria for evaluating effective career readiness programs? What research should inform decisions?

Peter F. Drucker believes that we live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: If you’ve got ambition and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession, regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren’t managing their employees’ careers;  knowledge workers must, effectively, be their own chief executive officers. It’s up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years. To do those things well, you’ll need to cultivate a deep understanding of your-self — not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution.  Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence.

In this article,  Harvard Business School’s Christensen explains how, using management and innovation theories and models usually used to build stronger companies, can also help people lead better lives. He explores questions everyone needs to ask: How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? And how can I live my life with integrity? 

People keep quitting at record levels, yet companies are still trying to attract and retain them the same old ways. New research identifies five types of workers that employers can reach to fill jobs. It’s the quitting trend that just won’t quit. People are switching jobs and industries, moving from traditional to nontraditional roles, retiring early, or starting their own businesses. They are taking a time-out to tend to their personal lives or embarking on sabbaticals. The Great Attrition has become the Great Renegotiation.

The American Dream promises that individual talent will be rewarded, regardless of where one comes from or who one’s parents are. But the reality of what transpires along America’s K-12-to-career pipeline reveals a sorting of America’s most talented youth by affluence—not merit. Among the affluent, a kindergartner with test scores in the bottom half has a 7 in 10 chance of reaching high SES among his or her peers as a young adult, while a disadvantaged kindergartner with top-half test scores only has a 3 in 10 chance.

The blue-collar economy conjures images of shuttered factories and the disappearance of good jobs. Those images reflect the suffering among blue-collar workers left behind by the shift away from an economy based in manufacturing, but they do not tell the whole story. In fact, we find that there are still 30 million good jobs that do not require a Bachelor’s degree. These good jobs pay an average of $55,000 per year, and a minimum of $35,000 annually.

If Not Now, When? The Urgent Need for an All-One-System Approach to Youth Policy makes the case that the United States’ disjointed approach to youth policy has failed young people. In the current fragmented system, pre-K–12, postsecondary education, and the workforce operate in silos that allow many young people to fall through the cracks. In its place, the country needs an all-one-system approach that supports youth on their journey through education and training and into careers.

To help all students and jobseekers better navigate the rapidly changing job market and make informed choices about their educational and career paths, the United States must make systemic reforms and strategic investments in career services and navigational supports. Drawing on the insights of leading practitioners from education and workforce development, this brief lays out a people-centered vision for career navigation and offers key policy recommendations for strengthening national infrastructure while enabling high-quality localized solutions.

Imagine a world in which every child’s life is a succession of positive opportunities for development—opportunities through which a child can come to know who they are and discover the wide range of possibilities for what they can become. Imagine different types of learning settings in which those kinds of opportunities are also intentionally built and optimized, regardless of where a child lives or attends school. Imagine, too, that educators can identify each child’s talents, interests, and aspirations and align them with learning opportunities designed to promote them and build on them to create new competencies

"Work has the potential to add a great deal of meaning and richness to our lives; at the same time, it has the capacity to wither our souls in a way that few other life activities can match."        

- Dr. David Blustein

Designed to help readers apply career development theories to their work in the field.