About Career Academies

First established in Philiadelphia, in the late 1960s, career academies aimed initially to prevent students from dropping out of high school and to increase participation for work among the so-called "forgotten half"- teens who were unlikely to go to post-secondary education. Today with some 2,500 academies operating nationwide, they have evolved into one of the nation's most widely adopted reform initiatives to address the major problems associated with large comprehensive high schools, particularly those in urban districts where more than half the students do not graduate on schedule. Designed to prepare a broad cross section of students for both college and work, career academies are distinguished by three core elements: ||| They are organized as schools-within-schools that permit between 100 and 150 students to stay with a core group of teachers from grade 9 or 10 through 12. By promoting a more personalized and supportive learning environment, the programs aim aims to help students build strong relationships with peers and teachers. ||| They integrate academic courses with technical and applied courses organized around a career theme. Traditional courses, usually including math, English, and social studies or science, are combined with occupation-related classes that focus on the academy's career theme, such as business and finance, computers and electronics, or health care. Students take other elective classes outside the career academy structure. ||| They establish partnerships with local employers in an effort to strengthen connections between school and work and to provide students with a range of career development and work-based learning opportunities. BACK >>>