St. Vrain, with a decade of momentum, is on a “high-tech high” that's gaining national attention for its students and teachers

Now in 10 states and 17 countries, the P-TECH program combines high school with internships and free community college classes. In low-income neighborhoods in Newburgh, New York, P-TECH has helped increase earning and career potential and started to close the skills gap.

Over the next two years, the state of Washington will use $25 million provided by the state legislature to increase the number and range of high school apprenticeship programs. Career Connect Washington, which expands on previous apprenticeship initiatives, offers the opportunity for students to gain work experience, pay, and college credit while still in high school.

Founded in 2011, the Brooklyn-based P-Tech school allows high school students to earn a secondary and associate's degree upon graduation. Born out of a partnership with the New York City Department of Education, New York City College of Technology and IBM, the dual enrollment-program pairs students with mentors and matches students with paid IBM internships. The cross-sector model is being scaled up internationally.

Young people are graduating from high schools and not ready for college level work. Liz Willen describes different initiatives around the United States that have provided solutions for improving secondary education. She addresses the importance of STEM, role models for students, and project-based learning.

In Texas' Irving Independent School District, roughly one in five students earn industry credentials and gain real-world experience through more than a dozen "career clusters" designed to help them enter the workforce after graduation. Administrators work with industry partners in the community to target in-demand jobs and continually update the courses to keep them relevant in an evolving professional landscape.

In a former mining county in Kentucky, a high school principal is leveraging partnerships and raising expectations to both encourage students to complete high school and pursue college classes and to stay to work in the county. The school now boasts a 99 percent graduation rate and new programs to attract high-quality teachers.

Amazon has developed a cloud computing certificate. It is one of a growing number of technology companies partnering with community colleges and increasingly four year colleges to offer vendor-specific curriculum. But critics don't believe colleges will be able to change coursework as fast as the quickly evolving industry requires and argue that such as an approach is an imposition on academic freedom.

Two schools in New York and Washington state are breaking the traditional high school mold by combining college preparation with career and technical education. Amadou Diallo writes, "Debating whether kids need hands-on training or academic rigor misses the point."

High schools across the country are promoting project-based learning as "the future of education." Suburban and urban, high-income and low-income classrooms in Massachusetts, Kentucky, California, and Ohio are connecting students with career paths and advanced technologies through innovative partnerships with local and national companies.

A career high school in Fresno offers 16 tracks ranging from game design to environmental science taught by a team of teachers with work background in the respective fields. Studies have found that students enrolled in the Center for Advanced Research and Technology attended community colleges at higher rates than "demographically-matched" students taking standard high school curriculum.