Pros and cons of career academies

General description:

To address the high school dropout rate and improve the number of students graduating from high school, educators, policymakers, and community business leaders are supporting the strategy of high school career academies. Career academies are not the latest fad; They have been around for at least forty years. Professional academy experts know what works and what doesn’t. The Career Academy Toolkit is a book that describes in great detail the process of creating and establishing a career academy.

So what are the pros and cons of these career academies? The advantages of career academies are that students have improved high school attendance, have earned additional credits, have higher grade point averages and graduation rates, and are more prepared for career and college. Disadvantages include that career academies are more expensive to set up and implement, difficult to program, and require education-community partnerships. Let’s discuss each of these pros and cons in more detail.

Advantages of professional academies:

1. Improved High School Attendance – Because students choose to be in an academy, they are more apt to attend school. The more students stay in class, the more motivated they will be to learn. The more motivated students are, the more involved they are in learning. The more engaged students are, the more they learn. This, they, becomes a circle: the more they learn, the more they are motivated to learn more.

Motivation is one of the main keys to the success of the academies. The academies carry out various motivation strategies, such as the integration of the curriculum between academic and technical courses. Now students not only learn the knowledge, but have the opportunity to apply it. We at Bright Futures Press call it “Persistent Learning.” Because academies have academy-community partnerships, students can then go out into the “real world” to see how their learning really fits there. This is exciting for students and reinforces learning in the classroom.

2. Additional Credits Earned: Based on pro number one, students who stay in school tend to earn more high school credits and more high school credits students earn; more fit to graduate.

3. Higher GPAs – This brings us to pro number three. Students need credits to graduate and students who stay in school earn credits to graduate. Students on track to graduate have higher self-esteem and are more motivated to learn more, which increases their grade point averages. Students graduating from high school are generally encouraged to attend college or post-secondary learning.

4. More college and career readiness: Students who feel they are ready for college make an effort to attend college or receive post-secondary education. Students who go immediately to work are more willing to receive company policy and any additional training the company provides.

Now let’s talk about the disadvantages of professional academies. There are three main disadvantages to professional academies. One is that they are more expensive to set up and implement. The second is that they are difficult to program and, lastly, they require partnerships between education and the community.

Cons of career academies:

1. More expensive to set up and implement: Because the academies include a “real world” theme with community partners, this application of the learning process requires more money for student field trips and internships, plus money for pay for teacher internships. The additional resources don’t end there, funding is needed to pay for teachers’ time to collaborate on curriculum development and time to collaborate with business partners and post-secondary learning institutions. And all of this requires further professional development for educators. True, career academies are more expensive to operate, but the ROI (Return on Investment) is worth it (ie additional revenue from improved student attendance).

2. Difficulty programming: Due to curriculum integration, student field trips and internships, team teaching activities, career academies are a nightmare to program. However, many career academies have overcome this hurdle and are willing to assist high schools that have decided to establish academies. Additional resources include career academy consultants who are experts in this field and will assist schools for a fee. Because these experts save time and money, they should be considered a viable option.

3. Education-Community Partnerships: This is the most difficult of the three disadvantages of career academies. Business and education speak different languages ​​and there needs to be someone who can translate what each says. These partnerships require a process of both activation and promotion. Establishing the association is more difficult than it seems. Most schools prefer “adventure” to “marriage.” They tend to ask for money (short term goal) rather than the value that the business can bring to the relationship, such as mentoring, real world on-site learning, etc., which is “marriage”. Once the partnership has started, teachers need time for the relationship to progress, and time is something most schools are not willing to pay for. The school that thinks the teacher will stop and visit the business on the way home from school (at the teacher’s own expense) is dooming the education/business relationship.

Conclusion:

Career academies work! They require more time and resources to succeed, but they are well worth the effort. They are a proven strategy that results in more students graduating on time ready for a career or college.