Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) has long been recognized as one of the nation’s leading urban school districts (it was awarded the Broad Prize in 2017). It also is one of the leading districts in terms of Linked Learning implementation with “wall-to-wall” pathways, meaning that every high school student in the district is enrolled in a pathway. LBUSD was one of the original districts in the Linked Learning District Initiative and it has since been established as a regional Linked Learning hub, providing mentorship for other nearby districts seeking to implement pathways.

In addition to the support provided to LBUSD through the District Initiative, ConnectED continues to partner with the district through the use of its Online Pathway Tool for Improvement and Certification (OPTIC), which Long Beach uses for each of its pathways to help guide progress, ensure high quality implementation, and build a culture of continuous improvement.