What Are Career Academies?

Career Academies in Georgia are schools that serve high school students and have the following basic components:

Students are prepared for college and career

Small learning community environments provide supportive atmospheres

Curriculum is sequenced and integrates academics and career-based learning

Dual credit courses give students the opportunity to earn high school and college credits

Each academy links high school to business, civic community, and higher education

Each academy measures and shows impact on student performance and achievement

Career themes reflect local economy

The Career Academies goals include raising student aspirations and commitment and increasing their academic and career achievement. While Career Academies can have a variety of different features or structures, for ease of comparison, they can be categorized into three models:

1. The comprehensive (9th -12th grade or 10th-12th grade) Career Academy where students attend all day and take both academic and career/technical courses;
2. The Career Academy (11th -12th grade or 10th – 12th grade) Center offering primarily career/technical courses where students return to their “home” high school for academics.
3. The “School within a School” Career Academy. (9th-12th grade, 10th -12th grade or 11th – 12th grade) is a well defined structure within a larger comprehensive high school reflecting its status as a small learning community.

Each of these models can be Charter Schools, but none of them must be a Charter School. Charter School status allows for flexibility of operations that may not otherwise be available. (see the Georgia Department of Education web site for information about charter schools: www.gadoe.org

In each of the three Career Academy models, dual enrollment courses offered to students by the local Technical College provide a wide variety of choices to the students. These courses give the students the advantage of earning high school and college credits in the career area of their choice.

Each of these models of career/technical focused schools or learning communities can help students complete their high school diplomas, earn college credits and learn skills needed to successfully compete in today’s workforce. There are many successful schools based on each of these models.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation indicates that there is a new version of the Three R’s: “rigorous academic coursework, meaningful relationships with instructors who can help students meet high standards and relevant learning opportunities through internships and community partnerships”. Successful models all seem to have these three components.

The Career Academy National Standards of Practice outlines more detailed characteristics of successful Career Academies.