Providing All Students with Early Career Exposure & Experiences

Defined transforms K-12 education by connecting classrooms to careers through deeper learning experiences. Our comprehensive ecosystem empowers educators to engage students in authentic, career-connected projects that bridge academic learning with future success, enabling every student to discover their potential while developing essential future-ready skills.

At Defined, our ecosystem of offerings provides educators with hands-on and minds-on, career-connected learning experiences designed for students from K-12. Our solutions offer engaging, practical activities that build future-ready skills and content applications to inspire and engage students to pursue diverse career paths. These experiences help provide equity by giving all children the opportunity to explore exciting career possibilities. Watch Now >

Defined Deeper Learning Graphic

How Defined Connects Classroom to Careers through Deeper Learning

Our hands-on career-connected deeper learning solutions enable students to draw meaningful connections across contexts while building the higher-order thinking skills vital for future work and civic life.

Deeper Learning fosters important skills and attributes such as knowledge transfer, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, teamwork, communication, self-directed learning, an academic growth mindset, and more.

Our deeper learning philosophy is supported by 4 pillars: career-connected learning, future-ready skills, performance tasks, and project-based learning. Dive deeper into the 4 pillars below!

CAREER-CONNECTED LEARNING

Connects classroom content and skills to real-world careers and industries
Provides authentic career exploration and application through performance tasks
Develops professional skills through minds-on and hands-on activities and experiences
Enables students to "test drive" careers
Builds career awareness, preparation, and readiness
Provides pathways for internships and work-based learning

FUTURE-READY SKILLS

Essential competencies for workplace and life success
Includes collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking
Develops leadership and problem-solving abilities
Builds adaptability for changing environments
Promotes metacognition and self-management
Cultivates growth mindset and professionalism

PERFORMANCE TASKS

Present authentic, real-world challenges
Connect academic content and practices to careers
Students must transfer their knowledge and skills to new and varied contexts
Open-ended and typically do not yield a single, correct answer
Performance tasks can integrate two or more subjects, as well as future-ready skills
Authentic contexts for performance and product development

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Engages students in complex, real-world problems and projects
Promotes inquiry-driven, hands-on learning
Results in meaningful public products
Requires collaboration and project management
Builds student ownership of learning
Contributes to intellectual challenge and accomplishment with authentic, real-world contexts

Inquiry-Based Learning

Project-Based Learning: Students actively learn by completing a sustained, real-world project, applying their knowledge and skills to solve a problem, often culminating in a tangible product or presentation
Problem-Based Learning: Driven by solving complex, open-ended problems, prompting students to actively research, analyze, and present solutions
Place-Based Learning: Centers around learning through the lens of the local community, allowing students to connect classroom concepts to their immediate surroundings and engage with real-world issues relevant to place

Defined's Ecosystem of Career-Connected Deeper Learning Solutions

Defined partners with schools, districts, and states to scale career-connected deeper learning through our award-winning online ecosystem comprised of 4 unique solutions and one fundamental promise.

DEFINED LEARNING

Empower & Engage Students with Deeper Learning

An online K-12 platform that empowers deeper learning through career-connected, project-based experiences. Our standards-aligned performance tasks bridge classroom content with authentic career applications, enabling students to develop and transfer knowledge while building essential future-ready skills.

Defined Learning's robust online library spans across grade levels and subject areas including Math, Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Arts, Computer Science, and more, leading to meaningful engagement and enhanced outcomes while saving teachers time.

DEFINED CAREERS

Support Authentic Career Exploration & Future Readiness

A comprehensive K-12 college and career readiness platform that empowers students to explore, experience, and navigate careers through deeper learning experiences that bridge education with future success.

Defined Careers includes hands-on and minds-on projects across all career clusters, allowing students to explore and experience real-world industry scenarios. Students develop higher-order thinking skills and gain valuable career experiences to help them make informed decisions about their future whether they are entering the workforce or continuing their education.

DEFINED ACADEMY

Develop Teachers' Knowledge & Expertise

Offers a variety of professional learning opportunities to meet educators where they are while supporting their instructional, assessment, and curriculum needs to create an engaging and active learning environment supporting all students.

Our expert team will work with you to develop a customized professional learning program tailored to your goals and needs. Whether you are new to career-connected deeper learning, PBL, or looking to advance your practice, we have a path just for you.

DEFINED GOALS

Beyond Test Scores: Assess Future-Ready Skills for Success

Helps schools and districts set and measure students' Portrait or Profile of a Graduate (PoG) goals by combining high-quality content with an assessment system aligned to your key goals.

Defined Goals provides enhanced data and analytics on student, school, and district performance toward your POG goals and helps you leverage our solutions to drive learning forward.

Over 1,000 districts have partnered with Defined for strategic impact

Defined fosters collaboration among school districts and community and industry partners through enhanced support and customization. While this may look different for every partner, Defined can customize career-connected learning opportunities that support their strategic initiatives.

The following school systems represent a spectrum of the diverse partnerships supported by Defined’s Team, each demonstrating unique goals and strategic priorities with customized content created.