St. Johns County, near Jacksonville, Florida, is consistently rated as one of the “hottest” areas in which to live and work in America, according to the Expansion Management magazine. This is due to its convenient location, mild climate, reasonable cost of living, high quality of life, largest urban park system in the United States, intermodal transportation hub, leading distribution center, and a business-friendly government.

One of the St. Johns most remarkable assets is its school system. St. Johns County School District has 27,514 students; 8,365 are high school students. This system is rated an “A” by the state grading system and is a strategic part of the area chamber’s workforce development strategy. “We are poised and ready for an economic recovery,” says Superintendent Joseph Joyner, whose school district helps prepare for the growing and developing workforce, as demonstrated by significant employment growth in the region over the past few years. The Jacksonville MAS is comprised of seven counties and boasts a regional labor force of more than 700,000 and a median age just of under 37. The Chamber’s Education and Workforce Development department connects organizations and leaders throughout the region to improve the readiness of area workers for today’s jobs. The department recognizes career academies as one of the major strategies to accomplish this. In St. Johns County, the 14 career academies align with the region’s target key industries such as environmental and urban planning, engineering, biotechnology, aerospace and aviation, health, information technology, international business and marketing, design and building construction, and finance. By developing a workforce specifically in these targeted key industries, the region intends to ensure continued economic growth.

Key business partners in each of these sectors help career academy students make the connection with their industries through a variety of experiences outside the classroom such as field trips, internships, service-learning activities, and teacher externships.

Next Generation Learning Community Designation by Ford Motor Company Fund

A Ford Fund Next Generation Learning Community designation program used the 12 best practices with their indicators of success to evaluate this community. St. Johns County community will be designated as a Ford Fund Next Generation Learning Community in 2009 due to its promotion of more than 15 career academies with 1,475 career academy students. It will be designated at Leadership level, which means St. Johns County meets at least eight of the 12 best practices with its indicators of success.

Career academies are one of the most successful high school redesign strategies because they use the power of workplace “relevance” and business “relationships” to excite young people about education as well as prepare them for the workplace and postsecondary. When successfully implemented, career academes also improve attendance, grades, and graduation rates and help to ensure a smooth transition from high school to postsecondary and workplace success. They also are thought to reduce the need for academic remediation at post-secondary institutions, foster more rapid acquisition of proficiency in the English language, and improve test scores.

The career academies in the high schools are:

County	High School	Academy	# of Students
St. Johns	Bartram High School	Academy of Design & Construction	194
		VyStar Academy of Business & Finance	163
	Creekside High School *opened August 2008	Academy of Emerging Technology	82
		Academy of Environmental & Urban Planning	52
	Pedro Menendez HS	Academy of Architectural & Building Sciences	91
		VyStar Academy of Business & Finance	86
		Flagler Hospital Academy of Medical & Health Careers	218
	Allen Nease High School	Communications Academy	144
		Stellar Academy of Engineering	75
	Ponte Vedra High School *opened August 2008	Academy of Biotechnology & Medical Research	53
		Academy of International Business & Marketing	105
	St. Augustine High School	St. Johns County Aerospace Academy	124
		Academy of Criminal Justice	34
		St. Johns County of Future Teachers	54
Total			1,475

Best Practice of the Indicators of Success

The Ford Next Generation Learning Communities (NGL) initiative has identified 12 “best practices” with indicators of success that are associated with helping a community self-assess the quality and thoroughness of its career academy implementation plan by analyzing program elements that distinguished or proficient and by analyzing elements that need improvement.

One of the 12 best practices that is especially important to the success of St. Johns County is the ninth indicator of success, entitled “Community develops a career academy marketing plan to build awareness and support among parents, students, and business and within the education community and gathers data to support this plan.”

St. Johns County’s success has been multi-faceted in that most of the community understands and embraces the career academy concept. These programs are built upon the premise that every student has the capability of attending college. The philosophy is to encourage students to take the highest level program possible and urge them to aspire to greatness. Safety nets, such as special intervention activities, are built into each program to assist students who are struggling basic academic skills.

Marketing to students includes a "Middle School Blitz" that informs every eighth grade student about their choices for high school. A few weeks after the Blitz, every eighth grade student is bussed to the High School Showcase, a career academy trade-show held at the World Golf Village Conference Center. Later that evening, parents and students can return to explore various academies and talk with postsecondary and business partners about the education requirements and job opportunities for various careers in the region. Early in February, each school then hosts an “Academy Night” to showcase their high school campus and its Academies.

Marketing to business involves a structured sequence of events beginning with one-on-one meetings to describe the programs and their benefits to business partners. Interested partners are then involved in hands-on student activities, planning field trips or speaking events. Business partners are often so enthralled with the academy concept that, in fact, that they have bought “naming rights” to four academies.

Key Milestones, Successes, and Process

In the 2002–03 school year, Superintendent Joyner of St. Johns County requested a five-year plan to implement career academies in every St. Johns County public high school. State and local targeted industries were identified in collaboration with the workforce development board and St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. Over 150 business partners determine key growth industries and high-skill, high-wage jobs promise to grow our local economy.

The Superintendent provided a progressive vision for St. Johns and reinforced it with a full-time Career Specialist at each school to ensure its complete and successful implementation. Additionally, a district Program Specialist position was created to support the growth of all career academies.

With these key people in place, business partnerships were nurtured and grew into true working relationships. Partners gave input into curriculum, recruited students, worked with teachers in externships, owned the goals of the academy and created action plans to achieve them. “Naming rights” were offered to select partners who donated $50,000 in goods, services, or cash, and comply with the region’s targeted industry list.

In 2008, the second five-year plan established enrollment projections with the district goal being 40 percent enrollment in career academies by 2013 (baseline 17 percent in 2008).

Throughout this journey, a regional collaboration was initiated—led by the regional workforce board and chambers of commerce. Six regional Career and Technical Education directors, business, workforce, postsecondary partners and professional development institutions met to determine rigorous standards, evaluation processes and means to more effectively use time and resources. The group decided to pursue the National Standards of Practice for Career Academies—as endorsed by the National Career Academy Coalition. Shared resources such as Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies training, the Career Academy Support Network’s expertise, and even grant writing, took on a regional flavor that encourages support rather than competition from neighboring districts.

Career academy leaders in the region have asked, “How do we know when we’ve “arrived?” The answer, “We have to listen to our customers.” They have built on-line surveys to measure their success with business, parents, and of course, students. Last year, the number one reason students said they joined career academies was “I thought it would help me get into college.”

The career academies are tracking many data factors such as cohort scheduling, business partners retained, number of students getting college credits, value of business partner investment. They indicate that, while still being fairly new to this with two years of data, the outcomes appear to be trending in the right direction.

In 2008, the regional identified more than $2.9 million in funding that was “value added” from partner investments, grants, resources donated and time spent with students. Students in the Aerospace Academy alone “earned” $678,800 in college credits from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Lessons Learned
•   The biggest mistake St. Johns made was to look for too much too soon. It is easy to forget to stop and celebrate the “little” successes—but they are truly the baby steps that keep you moving forward.
•   Write down what was done correctly. There cannot be enough be said about the power of the pen. The district office has an action plan, and each Academy program has an action plan monitored by Career Specialist and the Business Advisory Board. It keeps a focus on what is important (then, of course, it gets measured.)

Challenges
•   Maintaining Funding is critical. Not that money can buy success—but it certainly helps to cover the basics.
•   Expertise. As the region creates high caliber career academies, the level of business expertise needed for teaching is of paramount importance. Most seasoned professionals (such as engineering, aerospace, technology, and nursing) can make a lot more money in industry and the current salary schedule for teaching cannot compete.
•   Keeping high level of business support. In this initiative, business partners have “loaned” executives to teach one or two classes in county high schools. The career academy initiative must provide a return on their investment—as businesses tighten their purse strings—it needs to stand out as the one investment they are committed to keeping.