Career-Connected Learning

What to Hold Onto When Everything Changes: Durable Skills for the AI Era

Michael Crawford & a panel of Michigan school leaders, America Succeeds

As AI reshapes the value of knowledge and technical skills shift in unpredictable ways, one question grows more urgent for school leaders: what do we teach students to hold onto? This session makes the case for durable skills as the human foundation that makes every other kind of learning more valuable. Drawing on America Succeeds' national research on where the workforce is headed, we open by framing why durable skills development has become the real differentiator for schools preparing students for an AI-shaped economy.

The room then hears directly from a slate of Michigan charter schools already doing this work well, spanning different grade levels, communities, and models: CTE programs and middle schools, schools with deep industry partnerships and schools building their own path. Each shares what works, followed by a facilitated conversation that surfaces what travels across contexts and what leaders can act on Monday morning. You'll leave with a clearer picture of durable skills as organizational strategy, concrete Michigan examples, and practical tools to assess and strengthen this work in your own buildings.

Session outcomes:

• Why durable skills are the through-line when technical skills and job fields keep changing, and why that matters more as AI shifts the value of knowledge alone
• A view of durable skills development as organizational strategy, not a classroom add-on
• Michigan-specific examples of durable skills in practice across diverse school models and communities
• Practical resources to gauge and grow this work in your own context

Anchoring the Classroom in Interdisciplinary Career-Connected Pathways Through Place-Based Learning

Julie Johnson, Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) · Lisa Sitkins, LSS Connections and Consulting LLC

Real-world learning shouldn't be a siloed extra. Using Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) as a case study, this session demonstrates how to use a single local environmental issue as an "anchor" for a school-wide, multi-content career pathway. We'll move beyond traditional STEM to show how ELA, Math, Social Studies, and other subjects can integrate into place-based projects that meet Michigan standards. Attendees will shift from theory to practice by identifying a unique challenge in their own community and collaborating to map out a multi-disciplinary unit. You'll leave with a concrete blueprint and the strategies to navigate policy constraints, allowing you to turn your local neighborhood into a living laboratory that prepares students for the future of work without sacrificing academic rigor.

Session outcomes: identify local community "anchors" for learning, map Michigan academic standards across multiple content areas to a single place-based project, and design a collaborative framework that creatively navigates policy and graduation requirements.

Beyond the Associate: How a 300-Student Charter Built Michigan's First Bachelor's Degree Partnerships (and How Yours Can Too)

Jonathon Marowelli, Jackson Preparatory & Early College

For two decades, the associate degree has been the ceiling of the early college promise. Jackson Preparatory & Early College decided the ceiling should move. Today, JPEC students can progress from middle school college-readiness coursework through dual enrollment and into four first-in-Michigan bachelor's degree pathways with partner institutions, without leaving the support structure of their school.

This session shares the complete playbook: how to identify and approach bachelor's-granting partners, what belongs in the agreement (credit mapping, cost protection for families, transfer articulation, exit ramps), how to fund the pathway using dual enrollment reimbursement and existing per-pupil mechanisms, and how to keep pupil accounting compliant when students blur the line between high school and college. You'll leave with a partnership development framework, a due-diligence checklist for evaluating potential four-year partners, and a candid accounting of what went wrong along the way — including the negotiations that stalled and the internal systems that had to change. The session includes a working exercise mapping your own regional higher education assets against your students' highest-demand career pathways, plus a structured "bring your barrier" discussion drawing on the collective experience in the room.

Session outcomes: build a business case a four-year institution will actually respond to, structure agreements that protect students and the school, and finance extended pathways within current Michigan policy.