economic and workforce

economic and workforceDEVELOPMENT - K THROUGH 12 EDUCATION ISSUE

By Richard K. Delano and Katherine C. Hutton

S everal workforce trends are con-verging which could represent a"perfect storm" for the economic

growth of unprepared communities.• 21*" century workplace and technical skills have

become more important than land and buildings.Critical, trained human capital must be developedthrough a complex educational system.

• 21*' century workplace skills are becoming as ormore important than basic technical skills.Educators are starting to recognize this anddetermining how to teach these skills.

• The retirement of baby boomers in key occupa-tions is impacting the job market, resulting inpotentially disruptive labor shortages.

• Many high-tax, high-cost communities will haveto "grow their own" critical skilled workers astheir markets become uncompetitive.

• Workforce and economic development isincreasingly a K - 12 issue and many communi-ties lag behind in understanding how businessand schoots must work together to make the K -12 workforce connection.

This article will focus on workforce developmentand K - 12 education. It describes a leading highschool redesign strategy called "career academies"and illustrates how economic and workforce devel-opment organizations are lining up behind this 21^century education redesign strategy.

THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER'SVO-TECH EDUCATION

Forty years ago, the subject of K - 12 educationwould arise in economic development circles whendiscussing school quality for relocating managers.Then, employment demands were focused on lineworkers with a reasonably good work ethic. The

!inMN(S'.|\iMii(i.' Ilk an inviduable resource for career academies. High MIUHII •.inJcm^ jCathedral City, CA, were paired with aduh mentors from ihe Coachdla Valley EconomicPartnership who arranged special programs like (his lour of VSC.

workforce development system, largely vo-tech andOn-the-Job-Training, accommodated these needs.

In 2007, the global economy has clearly rede-fined the workforce skill set required for the 21"century workplace. Critical thinkers and problemsolvers with attainment in reading and math arerequired for high-wage, high skill careers.Workforce development must be focused on litera-cy requirements needed to manage innovationthrough teams using advanced communication andproblem-solving skills. Todays workforce develop-ment system in most communities has not beenfully mobilized and aligned to produce the employ-ees with 21" century skills that expanding or relo-cating companies need and expect.

In many communities, business leaders and eco-nomic development officials are concerned aboutwhy the educational system can not deliver to theworkplace job-ready employees or college-ready

Richard K. Delano is

president of Social

Marketing Services,

LLC in Btidgehampton,

New York.

Katherine C. Hutton is

economic development

manager for the City of

Scottsdale, Arizona,

and is a Certified

Economic Developer.

SMART DEVELOPMENT GROUPS ARE MAKING THE CONNECTIONThe career academy is or\c oj ihe most successful education-based models for developing the skills required fortoday's workjoree and developing a worhforce that meets the needs oj the local business eommunity. The market'sneed for high skilled, technaJogy savvy workers and the exodus oj boomers from the workplace sparked economicdevelopers lo become the ccKal̂ 'St for ihe creation oj career academies. Econoniic developer driven, educator driv-en, and business partners models oj career academies are examiried with hest practices for building and maintain-ing a career academy. Career academies are in 2,000 high schools nationwide and are viewed as key to educationreform jor both low perjorming schools and students.

Economic Development Journal / Spring 2007 47

students needed for our companies who areengaged in global competition and faced with aretiring workforce. This is particularly challengingbecause it is difficult to define and clarify a solution.Employers often blame education in general; col-leges blame high schools, who blame middleschools, who blame elementary schools, who blameparents. The education establishment often looks atthe business community, wondering why it is noldoing more. Business points to the substantialinvestment it makes in remedial training foremployees.

CAREER ACADEMIES SUPPORT ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT AND WORKFORCE GOALS

Career academies differ from traditional academ-ic and vocational education high schools by prepar-ing students for both college and careers.Academies provide broad information about fieldssuch as biosciences, finance, engineering, media, orhealth care. They weave the career themes intoacademic curricula that qualify students for admis-sion to four-year colleges or universities and preparethem for the associated workplace. Students selfselect for the program and are typically moderate ormarginal students in terms of academic perform-ance. Studies have found that students in careeracademies perform better m high school and aremore likely to continue into post secondar\' educa-tion, compared to similar students in the sameschools.

Career Academy programs have a number of suc-cess stories in meeting the challenges previouslydescribed. Three examples of career academies illus-trate how passionate educators along with businessleaders can build this educational model necessaryfor the demanding 21" century workplace, achieveNo Child Left Behind mandates, and reduce theremediation burden for schools and business alike.These examples illustrate how relevance and rela-tionships can drive student engagement and successand are a clear option to remediation.

Each case is unique but all three build on severalcommon themes:

• Urgency of the workforce situation. There is nogreater motivator for prompting change thandemand. These three communities realized theimportance of fundamental change.

• Senior-level business and academic engagement.Certain roles can not be delegated. Leadership isone of them. In each case, leaders made a per-sonal commitment.

• Alignment of business, institutional and philan-thropic investment toward requirements definedby the school systems redesign strategy. Fundingfor effective programs can be redirected withinthe system toward a set of needs that K - 12 andpost secondary leaders define.

• Selection of a successful secondary-schoolredesign strategy. Business and education needto come together around a redesign modelproven to help educators meet the educationalgoals that local, state, and federal authoritiesdefine for them.

Coachella Valley Economic Partnership

The Coachella Valley Economic Partnership,located in the southern California desert, received agrant from the James Irvine Foundation to fund acareer pathways initiative aimed at increasing thenumber of talented work force and college readyhigh school graduates in three fast-growing businessclusters. Working closely with its three area schooldistricts, it embarked upon improving the futureworkforce needed to attract its desired businessbase.

According to the Partnership's chairman. BobMarra, "we found ourselves in a situation where wewere outgrowing the capacity of our workforce here.It is hard to both fill the jobs that are needed tomake this economy continue to tick, and to alsoattract the new companies we need to continue togrow. We need to do both."

With the grant, the Coachella Valley EconomicPartnership is expanding the number of studentslearning in three high wage, high skill pathways thathave been identified as essential to the valley's con-tinued growth. These pathways are: health, energyand environmental technology, and multimedia.

Career academies are playing a central role inforging the link between the region's business com-munity and its three school districts. According toMarra, "career academies are exactly what we needhere in the Coachella Valley because young peoplein the region are looking for something where theycan really dig into these career pathways...to seewhat it is like to be a nurse, to be an engineer."

High school students explore health careers at Eisenhower MedicalCenter, Rancho Mirage, CA.

Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

The goal of Alignment Nashville in Tennessee isto create a system to bring community organizationsand resources into alignment so that their coordi-

48 Economic Development Journal / Spring 2007

nated support to Metropolitan Nashville PublicSchool's and District priorities has a positive impacton student achievement and public school successand the success of the community as a whole.

According to Tom Cigarran, operating boardchair of Alignment Nashville and chairman ofHealthways Inc., "aligning all this good will, peoplepower, behind strategies of the school system willhave a major impact on the success of our publicschools."

This alignment of support behind NashvilleMetro schools preceded a more recent develop-ment, the receipt of a $6.75 million five-year SmallLearning Communities grant from the USDepartment of Education. The grant provided theimpetus for the creation of the Office of Redesignand Innovation.

One of this office's main charges is developingand unplementing plans for the creation of careeracademies and other small learning communities intheir comprehensive high schools. The NashvilleArea Chamber of Commerce is responsible for eco-nomic development within the region and hasdefined target industries that, through AlignmentNashville, will assist Nashville Metro's Office ofRedesign and Innovation in defining the types ofcareer academies it will select.

Mesa School District

In Mesa, Arizona, Xan Simonson, a biologyteacher at Mesa High School, saw the need for train-ing high school students in biotechnology ioilowingthe Translational Genomics Institute (TGen) deci-sion to choose metropolitan Phoenix as its home in2002. Arizona's bioscience efforts were acceleratingat a significant pace with TGen's location decisionand studies warned of a shortage of a qualifiedworkforce in this now accelerated industry.

Simonson started a biosciences academy pro-gram at Mesa High School believing that her stu-dents' education should align with the state's bio-sciences initiatives and the increase in demand forworkforce in the biosciences. In three short years,the program has grown from her grassroots effortsinto a singular biosciences career academy in herclassroom to biotechnology programs at three otherMesa district high schools and $5.2 million in newlabs and wet lab space being built by the district tosupport the biotechnology program.

The construct of the program allows for stu-dents, after two years, to make the transition to atwo-year or four-year program. Mesa graduates maycontinue studies at Mesa Community College orone of the three Arizona universities. Recent studiesconducted in conjunction with the state of Arizonashow an immediate need for qualified biosciencelaboratory technicians with demand outstrippingsupply by four-fold. Studies also reveal that the lackof skilled technicians coincides with the lack ofa true "2+2+2 program" in which high school

Brittany Johnson, a senior ai Mesa High School, works on cloningIls.sui'/rdm a fem in ihe school's biotechnohgii academy lab.

students are introduced to biotechnology and fol-low a seamless transition from high school to com-munity college to universities.

Additionally, it was announced in late 2006 thatsome Mesa students in the academy will be work-ing on a research project that involves decoding thegenome of a bacteria and publishing the results.This project is a result of a $900,000 grant from theNational Science Foundation that will be conduct-ed in conjunction with Arizona State University'sBiodesign Institute and Polytechnic campus andMesa Communiiy College.

CAREER ACADEMIES

It is not enough for business and education towant to work together. They need a concrete planbuilt around a well-researched redesign strategy tomake their lime and energy pay off through aprocess they can manage. Each of the examples ofbusiness and academic engagement is being builtaround the career academy redesign model. Careeracademies bring together the dual benefits of asmaller learning community where studentsbecome part of a family with contextually-richcareer themes that answer the question all highschool students ask at one time or another:"Why do1 need to know this stuff?"

Statistical evidence indicates that career acade-mies improve high school attendance, grades, grad-uation rates, college going, and economic successafter high school and college. Career academies arealso believed to raise test scores, reduce remedia-tion, and increase English language proficiency.Academies can be scaled up to any portion of or allof the student population.


The balance of this article provides an overviewof career academies, describes the statisticalimprovement that is possible, and introduces a setof best practices for scaling up and sustaining a net-work of career academies. These "indicators of suc-cess" were developed by Social Marketing Servicesin 2006 with support from Ford Motor CompanyFund and are being adopted by economic develop-ment agencies, chambers of commerce, and theireducation partners in communities across the coun-try. In adopting these best practices, communitiescan qualify for a Ford Fund Career AcademyInnovation Community (CAIC) status which bringstechnical support and modest grants. Career acade-my networks provide a new perspective and richpossibilities for communities regardless of location,size, or economic condition.

Career academies differ from traditional academic and

vocational education high schools by preparing students

for both college and careers. Academies provide broad

information about fields such as biosciences, finance,engineering, media, or health care. They weave the

career themes into academic curricula that qualifystudents for admission to four-year colleges or universities

and prepare them for the associated workplace.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE CAREER ACADEMY

The Academy Model was developed inPhiladelphia in 1969 by Charles Bowser, the execu-tive director of the Philadelphia Urban Coalition inalliance with the Philadelphia Electric Companyand Bell of Pennsylvania. The goal was to create aprogram that would provide a new paradigm forstudents relative to the social and racial discontent-ment sweeping the community of Philadelphia andnation at that time. Career academies were imple-mented in order to create employment opportuni-ties for students in Philadelphia's disadvantaged eth-nic groups and income groups while providing localemployers with a qualified entry level workforce.

The original academy model reduced the scale ofa high school student body into smaller learningcommunities - a school within a school. Coursework is coordinated around a career theme anddesigned to prepare students with a full curriculumthat supported the student in their career endeav-ors. This in-school effort was coupled with the cre-ation of a linkage between the schools and areaemployers - proving employers with a skilled, local-ized workforce. Students self selected themselvesfor the program; additionally, the students were typ-ically at-risk or marginal students. The academy

environment proved itself out as enrolled studentsimproved and excelled.

In the past three decades, academies have bothgrown and evolved. There are active career acade-mies in an estimated 25 percent of high schootsaccording to the federal Department of Education.The nature of the curriculum has expanded toinclude everything from auto mechanic training andmachine tooling to the biosciences, engineering,finance, and law. Today, academies exist not only ininner city schools but suburban schools in relative-ly affluent areas as well. In fact, an increasing num-ber of elite high schools are adopting the academymodel to improve the college/career choices theiruniversity-bound students are making.

CAREER ACADEMIES TODAY

Career academies need to be organized aroundtrade and professional themes relative to the needsof and as defined by the community, with studentsself-selecting for application to academies. Mostacademies teach between 100 and 300 students ingrades 9 or 10 to 12. Academy students are sched-uled together with a team of teachers each academ-ic year. In the best career academies, the team ofacademic and career teachers work together toenrich the academic courses through the integrationof contextual projects and ihemes. Studentsenrolled in the academy typically participate incareer-related experiences such as internshipsbeyond the classroom instruction.

In 1995, career academy experts and theirrespective organizations agreed upon a commondefinition for career academies with three criticalcomponents:

• Small, safe, and supportive leaming environ-ments that are personalized and inclusive of allstudents.

• Challenging, rigorous, and relevant curriculumthat prepares students for college, careers, andproductive citizenship.

• Collaborative partnerships among educators,parents, businesses, and other communityresources that broaden learning opportunities.

Several institutions support schools, districts, andbusinesses in developing career academies in theircommunities. The Career Academy Suppon Networkat the Cal Berkeley's Graduate School of Education(http://casn.berkeleyedu/), the National CareerAcademy Coalition (www.ncacinc.org), the NationalAcademy Foundation (www.naf.org), and CareerAcademies (http://www.careeracademies.net) provideresources, infonnation, advice, and support forcareer academies to utilize, access and contribute. Anintegral value to academies is the absence of hardrules for their creation, development, and manage-ment. Academies are designed to comply with localstandards and policies defined by state educationdepartments and local school districts. While this


design model is Ilexible, its success rests on funda-mentals that must exist:

• Common planning time for academy teachers todiscuss their students and how to integrate aca-demic courses.

• Academy leaders should be provided releasetime to plan the activities of the academy stu-dents and build external relationships.

• Academy students should be scheduled togetherto the extent possible and consistently taught bythe academic team in at least two academic

courses.The next horizon in career academy evolution is

the creation of high-quality, integrated curriculumunits. These units should be designed to teachappropriate academic standards for academic teach-ers through contextually based projects builtaround the career pathway.

STATISTICAL EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

The academic challenges and need for change intoday's high schools is pan of today's social andpolitical fabric. Low graduation rates and college-going rates are only two of the fault lines in publiceducation. The promise of career academies can bemeasured by accounts from several career acade-mies. Active since 1969, roughly 10 percent ofPhiladelphia's students attend 34 career academies.These students regularly achieve a 90 percent grad-uation rate with 60 percent moving on to college,year after year.

A study of Bay Area, CA, career academies byMaxwell and Rubin found that students enrolled inacademies had the following success compared withnon-academy students in the same schools;

• GPA nearly .5 of a grade higher

• Test scores 30 - 40 percent higher

• Drop out rate 50 percent lower

• 8.2 percent more continue to two- and four-yearcolleges

• 15.9 percent more go to four-year colleges

In the Sacramento City district, a Gates/Carnegiegrant supported a district-wide system whereinnearly all students learn in small leaming commu-nities and career academies. What makes the fol-lowing results particularly impressive is that all stu-dents, not just those who self select, learn in acade-mies. We have the opportunity to observe the careeracademy "effect".

Dropouts

Graduation Rate

Suspensions

Expulsions

Students sittingfor the SAT

2000/0124%

79%

1,852

44

718

2004/0514%

84%

1,292

5

1.489

MDRC, a non-profit, research organization basedin New York, determined that career academies sub-stantially improved the labor market prospects ofyoung men, a group that has experienced a severedecline in real eamings in recent years. Through acombination of increased wages, hours worked, andemployment stability, the young men in the Academygroup earned over $10,000 (18 percent) more thanthose in the non-Academy control group over thefour-year follow-up period. The sample of 1,400 stu-dents are 85 percent black and Hispanic. Full resultscan be obtained at: http://www,mdrc.org/pub!ica-tions/366/overview. html

STRATEGIES AND BEST PRACTICES

The best practices in career academies wereobserved in how education and external partnersare working together in active career academy com-munities. The more successful career academiesprograms exist, the more defined the best practicesare - providing a stronger foundation for developinga more effective design for and more effective careeracademies.

The strategies and best practices identified incareer academies serve as the underpinning for theFord Career Academy Innovation Community (FordCAIC) recognition program designed to supportacademy communities. This Ford Motor CompanyFund hopes, through its actions, to increase the num-ber ol students engaged in career academies and tosustain the students' career academies.

By focusing on communities and not on individ-ual schools or districts. Ford Fund believes busi-ness, civic, and educational leaders can be engagedin the shared objectives of workforce and economicdevelopment. In 2005, Ford Fund pro\ided theresources to determine strategies for building andsustaining career academies and best practices forcareer academies to provide guidance and informa-tion to existing and emerging career academyprograms.

12 Best Practices for Scaling Up and SustainingCareer Academy Networks

1. Ensure the Establishment of a CareerAcademy Master Plan.

Career academy success requires the creation ofa master plan that sets forth career academyannual and five-year growth goals. The masterplan should be advised by economic develop-ment and community infrastructure needs anddeveloped with the participation of the externaland education partners.

2. Look to the Career Cluster Framework toPrioritize and Standardize Career andTechnical Education

The State Directors for Career and TechnicalEducation have organized all job specialties into81 career pathways and 16 career clusters that


provide a useful framework for prioritizingcareer academy theme selection and helpingstudents decide on career pathways. The frame-work provides the opportunity to clearly andvisually explain the workplace to parents, stu-dents, educators, and business people.

3. Aim High - Seek out Growing Array ofAcademically Challenging Career and TechCurricula

Take advantage of new developments in aca-demically rigorous curricula. Ford Partnershipfor Advanced Studies and Project Lead the Wayare excellent examples. Dubbed "new CTE",these challenging new curricula provide a realopportunity to both integrate contextual con-tent in academic courses and teach 21" century'workplace skills.

4. Make Sure Career Academy EntrepreneursAre Part of Master Plan

Career Academy Entrepreneurs are hired by thedistrict or the local business community tofundraise for the career academies and ensurebusiness participation. As career academy net-works evolve, these entrepreneurs also balancesupport among academies and offer business asingle point of contact.

5. Use Career Academy Evaluations forContinuous ImprovementA career academy evaluation rubric will ensureacademies are successful. Academy leaders usethe rubric to guide improvement. On-goingevaluations also serve as a professional develop-ment tool for academy leaders, their administra-tors, and the business advisory community

6. Centralize Magnet, Choice, Small LearningCommunities, Career Academy and CareerTechnical Education Operations underOne LeaderA career academy system should align all CareerTechnical Education and choice programs undera single district leader to focus reform energiestoward a unified set of goals. Networks havefailed because multiple points of contact within

a district provide conflicting communicationchannels and unneeded competition within adistrict lor business attention.

7. Prioritize Eunding Sources to Expand theNumber of Career Academies and Increasethe Quality of Existing Career Academies

Direct Perkins monies, small learning commu-nity grants, and foundation funding to launch ofnew career academies. Invest available newfunding toward the expansion of your careeracademy system.

8. Look to Growing List of National CareerAcademy Supporters - Look for Resourcesfrom National Employer Associations

A growing set of National Employer Associationsand leading businesses are supporting the careeracademy high school redesign strategy, providinga community with a set of prospective partners.

9. Develop Career Academy Marketing Plan

Everyone in the community needs to knowabout the academies...parents, students, busi-ness leaders and educators, particularly early inthe academy's evolution. Great marketing plansreach down to elementary and middle schools,are presented in a variety of languages, and sup-port academy visits by younger students.

10. Maintain Business Leaders Engagement

Keep business leaders at the table alter the mas-ter plan is constructed. They have a vital role toplay in creating a sustainable "culture" for acade-mies. Great career academy networks need on-going, steady leadership from companies whounderstand the value of staying involved witheducational leaders who value their commitment.

11. Understand, Defend, and Fund What MakesCareer Academies SpecialDevelop a funding plan to ensure key academyingredients remain a part of the career academysuch as common planning time, release time foracademy leaders, professional development, andpriority scheduling. The improvement in gradu-ation rates and all other measures is ultimatelyworth the minor "diseconomies of scale" which

Career academy success requires the creation of a master plan that sets

forth career academy annual and five-year growth goals. The master plan should be advised

by economic development and community infrastructure needs and developed with the

participation of the external and education partners.


are likely when large, efficient, but often failingschools evoive into career academies,

12. Ensure Career Academy Provides Studentswith College CreditA carefully designed plan provides studentswith a clear path lo their future by ensuring thateach high school career academy is affiliaiedwith a post-secondary institution that willreward students with college credit.Encouraging close bonds between high schoolsand posl secondary is a primary strategy inaddressing our cycle of remediation.

CONCLUSION

Workforce and economic development are likelyto face some of their most serious challenges in thenext 10 years as the baby boom retires and globalcompetition grows. A 21'' century US workforceready to meet this challenge is unlikely io evolveIrom a 20"' century school system in which so manystudents are failing and even successful students are

A carefully designed plan provides students with

a clear path to their future by ensuring that each

high school career academy is affiliated with a

post-secondary institution that will reward students

with college credit. Encouraging close bonds between

high schools and post secondary is a primary strategy

in addressing our cycle of remediation.

not making smart choices about the career choiceswhen they go to college. The examples noted hereprovide solid evidence that business and educationcan unite around a high school redesign model thatboth prepares students for smart college and careerchoices and prepares a workforce locally that busi-nesses can count on. ^

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