Career Academies:

1
Career Academies

• An American Innovation and Why They Matter
• Edward A. Shafer, Ed.D, Director, Career and
  Technical Education Assistance Center of New York

2
Career Academies (over 7000)

• Originally for high risk students and to keep
  them in school-An alternative education model
• Grown to an option for all students - Career and
  College Ready

3
Big Trends in the World Economy

• Hyper-connecting of the world
• Intensification of globalization and outsourcing
• Challenges of energy and climate
• Automation of the work space that is rapidly
  increasing productivity with fewer workers

4
Career Academy Standards

• Defined Mission Goals. The career academy has a
  written definition of its mission and goals
• Academy Structure. An academy has a well defined
  structure and status
• Host District and High School. Provide support
  and a context important to an academys success
• Faculty Staff. Appropriate teacher selection,
  leadership, credentialing, and cooperation

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Career Academy Standards

• Professional Development. Addresses new roles
  for teachers and adults
• Governance Leadership. A governing structure
  that incorporates the views of all stakeholders.
• Curriculum Instruction. The curriculum and
  instruction meets or exceeds standards and
  college entrance requirements, while focusing
  learning around a theme.

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Career Academy Standards

• Employer, Higher Education Community
  Involvement. Links high school to its host
  community, employers and higher education
• Student Assessment. Gather data to determine
  student growth improvement and report these
  accurately and fairly
• Cycle of Improvement. Ensuring and improving the
  quality of a career academy requires engaging in
  a regular cycle of improvement.

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Academy Models

• National Academy Foundation
• International Center for Leadership in Education
• High Schools that Work, SREB

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Instruction and Assessment Elements of the Models

• High quality sequenced and standards based
  curriculum resources
• Lesson and Unit assessments and performance tasks
• End of course assessments
• Project Assessments
• Shadowing, work place or internship assessment

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First, A Small Learning Community

• Classes and disciplines offered solely to academy
  students
• A team of teachers (with a lead
  teacher/coordinator)
• Voluntary enrollment by students in a discipline
  of their choice.
• Opportunities for students to engage in a full
  range of school activities.

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Why Relationships Matter

• That is the number one competitive advantage
  the human resource, the instructors and coaches.
  They get it. They bond with the kids. They care
  about them. They put themselves last. Its the
  exact same things with teachers when it comes to
  education.
• Theo Epstein General Manager of the Boston Red
  Sox

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Second, College Preparatory Curriculum with a
Career Theme

• Academic courses meet graduation and college
  entrance requirements.
• Common planning time for the teaching team.
• Projects bring together skills acquired from
  academic and career content.
• Ensure the student has a postsecondary plan.

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Common Core State Standards

• Fewer
• Clearer
• Higher
• State Led- coordinated by National Governors
  Association Center and Council of Chief State
  School Officers
• 48 states participated in development and 44 have
  or will adopt

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Criteria for Common Core Standards

• Rigorous content and application
• Clear and specific
• Teachable and learnable
• Measurable
• Coherent
• Grade by grade standards
• Internationally benchmarked

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Next Generation Assessments

• Measure mastery of Standards
• Provide a measure of college and career readiness
• Assessment of higher-order skills
• Use new technologies get real time actionable
  student data
• Mitigate challenges associated with student
  mobility

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Typical Academy Lesson

• Lesson Plan with student and teacher resources
  from a sequenced, meaningful curriculum
• Extensions and cross-curricular activities
• A literacy activity
• An assessment or performance task

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Rigor/Relevance Framework
Thinking /Knowledge
Rigor
6
5
4
3
2
Action/Application
Relevance
1
1
2
3
4
5
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Knowledge Taxonomy

• Evaluation
• Synthesis
• Analysis
• Application
• Comprehension
• Recall Knowledge

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Action Continuum
Acquisition of knowledge
Application of knowledge
Relevance of learningto life and work
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Rigor/Relevance Framework
D
C
Student Think Work
Student Think
RIGOR
High
B
A
Teacher Work
Student Work
Low
High
Low
RELEVANCE
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Rigor/Relevance Framework
Problems
D
C
KNOWLEDGE
Projects
Activities
B
A
A P P L I C A T I O N
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Examples of Quadrant Verbs

• Quadrant A Calculate, Define, Describe, List,
  Locate
• Quadrant B Adjust, Build, Construct,
  Demonstrate, Model
• Quadrant C Categorize, Defend, Discriminate,
  Judge, Prove
• Quadrant D Adapt, Conclude, Propose, Teach

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Third, Partnerships with employers, community,
and higher education

• Employers provide mentoring and job shadowing in
  career fields.
• Community partners form a steering committee
• Parents support a students decision to enroll in
  an academy.
• Higher education provides college credit for
  completion of course work

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Research Findings, MDRC-(Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation), 2010

• Provide a well-defined approach to creating
• supportive high school environments
• exposure to career awareness and work-based
  learning
• Are an effective means
• of preventing dropouts,
• increasing school engagement
• helping students to graduate and find post
  secondary success
• Heterogeneous groupings provide highly engaged
  peers for students at risk

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Research Findings, MDRC-(Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation), 2010

• Academies complement their career-related
  curriculum and work-based learning with strong
  interpersonal and academic supports.
• Academies need to build on their effective
  organizational enhancements to improve academic
  achievement.
• Aligning curricula with high standards
• Providing teachers the incentives and capacity to
  meet standards

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A J Moore HS, Waco, Texas

• Identified Model School International Center for
  Leadership in Education
• 6 Career Themed Academies
• 700 students
• 84 minority
• 84 economically disadvantaged
• 22 students with disabilities
• 95 attendance rate
• 95.3 completion rate

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A J Moore HS, Waco, Texas

• Academy of Information Technology (AOIT)
• Academy of Finance (AOF),
• Academy of Engineering (AOE)
• Academy of Hospitality Tourism (AOHT)
• Academy of Environmental Technologies (AOET)
• Academy of Health Services (AOHS).

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A J Moore HS, Waco, Texas

• First Impressions Matter
• Modeling Behavior Is Powerful
• Academy Models Work.
• People Make a Difference.
• Physical Artifacts Define the Culture.
• Student Internships Bring Relevance to Learning.
• Revisiting Mission and Goals Is Necessary.
• A Strong Advisory Committee Is Essential.
• Technology Enhances Learning.

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A J Moore HS, Waco, Texas

• Principals list of the schools strengths
• Rigorous and relevant curriculum
• Aligned with state standards
• Validated through the Business Advisory Board and
  post-secondary partnerships
• Technology availability and integration
• Curriculum
• Student work
• Staff communication
• Community outreach
• The school climate is safe, secure, and inviting
  learning environment

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What Matters

• Relationships
• Models implemented with fidelity
• Teacher collaboration
• Rigor and Relevance
• Technology

• Balance between foundation learning and their use
  in thinking and working
• Students try out work skills in meaningful ways
• Quadrant D Leadership

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The Students Voice

• It's more than just you go to class, you stay
  there and then you leave. Since we go out into
  the community a lot with teachers they help us
  on a more personal level and with education. They
  help us with college, they help us with jobs that
  we might want to shadow. So it's more than just
  going to class.
• Student in the Education and Child Development
  Academy at Peter Johansen High School in Modesto,
  California, December, 2009

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Career Academy Models and Resources

• International Center for Leadership in Education
• www.leadered.com
• Career Academy Support Network
• www.casn.berkeley.edu
• National Academy Foundation
• www.naf.org
• National Career Academy Coalition
• www.ncacinc.com
• CTE Technical Assistance Center of NY
• www.nyctecenter.org
• Southern Regional Education Board-High Schools
  that Work
• www.sreb.org

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Questions and Points of Interest
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For more information

• CONTACT
• Jose A. Ortiz, Ph.D.
• Executive Director of Education Partnerships
• International Center for Leadership in Education
• 518-534-0390 (cell)
• jose_at_leadered.com
• www.leadered.com