About
One focused room in a larger house.
CareerConnectedSchools.org is the career-connected satellite of Systems for Innovative Schools: the implementation home for schools and communities connecting students to real work in real career fields.
What this site is
A resource, not a funnel
This site exists to help educators, educational leaders, teachers, and community members understand the ideas and challenges of career-connected learning — vocational and career-technical education, youth apprenticeship, and authentic partnerships where students engage directly in a field's work. Everything is organized around the questions leaders actually ask, the models that answer them, a four-stage implementation path, and tools that return honest readings.
The evidence discipline throughout: claims are graded as what they are — randomized trials, quasi-experimental studies, descriptive data, or not-yet-studied — because district leaders deserve research honesty, not advocacy dressed as research.
Who's behind it
Stephen Best
Stephen is an implementation scientist: classroom teacher, University of Michigan researcher on project-based and applied learning, and statewide improvement and innovation leader at the Michigan Department of Education. His classroom once built the first solar-powered car to cross North America. He works with districts throughSystems for Innovative Schools — professional learning, technical assistance, and leadership coaching for schools that wish to innovate.
“We don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.” The systems lens runs through this site: programs survive when they're built as systems — governance, staffing, funding, measurement — not as heroic exceptions.
The family
The S4IS site family
- SystemsForInnovativeSchools.com — the hub: how Stephen works with schools and districts.
- AIinSchools.org — AI policy, practical use, and rethinking school for an AI world.
- HowSchoolsWork.com — the eight-systems framework (launching soon).
- SchoolOfThought.net — reimagining school-level structures (launching soon).
- CareerConnectedSchools.org — you are here.
A partnership note: for the documentary Multiple Choice, screening logistics and speaker requests run throughWhat School Could Be; implementation infrastructure and tools are Systems for Innovative Schools. After the Film is the bridge.