The Ford PAS NGLC Thought Leader Series

This month's topic:
Grow and Sustain Career Academies Through Annual Evaluations

By Tom Besaw, CTE Director, Volusia County

Schools in Volusia County, on Central Florida's east coast, experienced a boom in the growth of career academies from 2003 to 2005. By 2005, Volusia had grown to 12 academies in eight high schools that had no common set of standards. Standards from the Manatee County Florida schools and the Career Academy National Standards of Practice were used to assist us in developing Volusia County's standards. Although we were using standards based on the National Career Academy Standards of practice, there was no evaluation process in place to determine if schools were actually meeting the standards. As our Career Connection Cadre, Volusia's business advisors commented, "What is evaluated gets done; what is not gets ignored."

The Cadre directed us to start evaluating our academies. Now it was decision time. Did we concentrate on national teams coming in to evaluate the academies once every 5 years, or did we institute an annual district evaluation process? This decision was critical because the district had made a huge commitment to the academies, permitting students to select high schools based upon their career academy choice and bus transportation and giving them out-of-zone variances to the selected academies. Once again, the business cadre provided direction—evaluate the academies annually.

The evaluation process consists of an academy self-assessment, an annual review of the standards by a district evaluation team consisting of representatives from the Career Connection's Business Cadre, Academy Advisory Committees, school administrative staff, and district CTE staff. The evaluation process is based on a rubric of 12 criteria tied to the National Career Academy Standards of Practice and Ford Motor Company Fund’s Next Generation Learning Communities. Three of the 12 criteria are required: integrated curriculum, pure schedule, and common planning. The criteria for the standards and verification documentation may be viewed at www.career-connection.org.

Each academy can earn a Bronze, Silver, or Gold (the highest) level of implementation. Academies not achieving one of these levels are placed on probation and must develop Corrective Action Plans submitted to the district that list steps to resolve the deficiencies. The Career Connection Cadre, district staff, and individual school principals review results of the evaluation. Suggestions are made to each academy about how to overcome any barriers to the academy's success and implement strategies to meet standards. Examples are scheduling conflicts, inadequate teacher buy-in, no common teacher planning time, or incompatible academic courses selected to be integrated with career and technical education (CTE) courses. The district and the Cadre provide assistance in meeting standards hardest to achieve by providing an integrated curriculum workshop each summer, holding a district marketing event (High School Showcase) for all 8th grade students and parents, building a powerbase for each academy through an active advisory committees, and suggesting strategies for building an alumni association for each academy.

The process is designed to identify best practices and to intervene, when needed, to improve the performance of the academies. What we have come to realize is, in the period of one year, is that academies can go from Gold to not meeting standards because of a change in school administration, teachers, schedules, or who knows what else? Then all of the work the academy has done can be lost. Volusia supports the evaluations of academies from outside organizations, such as the National Career Academy Coalition (NCAC); however, we would caution school districts that a five-year designation that an academy meets standards could mean little or nothing 12 months after the initial evaluation.

There are risks and rewards to this process:

As part of the evaluation process, Volusia collects student data (test results, attendance, discipline referrals, grade point averages, drop-out rate) for state and district reports to determine if the district’s commitment to investment in career academies is justified. A process to collect student data on academy graduates is being developed to find out if time spent in an academy "school within a school" has a positive impact on students' career choices and success in the workplace. Volusia is interested in learning about strategies other districts are using to collect such data.

The success of the academies and the evaluation process has grown Volusia's academies from 12 in 2005 to 30 in 2010. Volusia is proud of its academies and our evaluation process. The evaluation time has grown into an opportunity for an open forum in which the academy team, business, administration, and district representatives come together to tout their successes, plan next steps, and discuss frustrations. The career academy model has placed CTE at the table to discuss the rigor and relevance of secondary career programs, high-school redesign, and the impact of these programs on the economic development in our community.

Previous Thought Leader Essays:

High School Education: Multiple Pathways and Student Choice
By Charles "Charlie" Mojkowski, Independent Consultant and a Senior Associate, Big Picture Learning (www.bigpicturelearning.org) and the Alternative High School Initiative (www.ahsi.org)

Curriculum: What Is It, and Why Do We Need It?
By Ilene Kantrov, Director, Center for Educational Resources and Outreach, Education Development Center, Inc.

Earning Respect for Career Academies — and Keeping it
By Hans Meeder, President, Meeder Consulting Group

Supporting Career Academies is Smart Business, not Charity
By Richard K. Delano, Ford Motor Company Fund Advisory Council

Outlining the Financial Benefits and Positive Outcomes of Career Academies and Demonstrating how They More Than Justify the Investments in Building a Career Academy Network
By Richard K. Delano, Ford Motor Company Fund Advisory Council

Reinventing the Workforce and Bolstering the Economy through Career Academies and More Relevant High Schools
By Cheryl Carrier, Program Director, 21st Century Education Programs, Ford Motor Company Fund