New Study on Career Academies

Career academies have been around for more than three decades and are increasingly becoming more popular. They are usually small groupings of students at the high school level, focused on a career pathway, such as health or business. Academics and career-based technical education are combined to bring relevancy to the subjects. Students often make connections with businesses in the area so that they can get real work experience in the field. Students are often able to prepare for college as well as learn technical skills that can get them placed in an entry level position after high school.

Last year I visited a new high school in Sacramento called the Arthur A. Benjamin Health Professions High School. They offered a media-filled exhibition, which included classroom experiences to promote the school's integrated curriculum. It was an exciting environment which appeared to make academics applicable to the real world and hopefully, not only keep the interest of the students, but also make them involved.

The career academy approach was of high interest to me. After all, I've had two kids who recently graduated from high school -- not to mention the business I'm in. Do academies really help?

A study has just been published from MDRC that randomly assigned a group of students (mostly Hispanic or African-American, from a total of nine urban high schools) into either a career academy or a control group. This longitudinal study followed students from the time they entered high school to eight years after their scheduled graduation.

Briefly, some of the highlights of the study include:

- Students from the Career Academies earned more money per year (+11%) than students in the control group.

- 50% of the students from both the Career Academies and those from the control group both received a variety of post secondary credentials. Also, 90% of students from both groups earned their high school diploma or a GED. There wasn't a difference between the groups when it came to academic achievements.

- Women didn't achieve the same benefits of the increased earnings as the men in the group. Investigators are looking into that finding.

To read the complete study, go to the MDRC website. With all the money being poured into academies and the number of high schools being reorganized, it is important to have some good research coming out about the efficacy of these programs.

For more information about career academies in general, go to the Career Academies Support Network website.