Describes the challenging, award-winning programs at high schools: Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Delaware; William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami; and Michael E. DeBakey High School for the Health Professions in Houston. Explains how they combine rigorous academic coursework with career and technical education. (JOW)

Career academies are specialized high schools that blend challenging academic courses with realistic work experiences. An academy's curriculum organizes academic instruction around an industry or occupational theme and enables students to complete college preparatory courses and acquire work-related knowledge and skill. (Author/JOW)

Integrating academic and career tech curriculum is one of the primary objectives of the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act (1998 reauthorization) and a guiding principle of the School to Work Opportunities Act. It has proven to be an invaluable approach to teaching, and educators across the nation have experienced firsthand how the application…

The best examples of career and technical education demonstrate education that is challenging both technically and academically, integrating core academic skills directly into the curricula to prepare students for the workplace or further education. More collaborative teaching is needed. (JOW)

Describes a program in Virginia in which academics and career and technical education work together and the state's Standards of Learning are being integrated. (JOW)

Learning language arts skills in connection with all other subjects helps to prepare students for the real world of work and higher education. Collaborative efforts of academic and technical instructors can result in meaningful improvements in students' communication skills. (JOW)

Historically, career-technical teachers have focused primarily on the development of technical knowledge and skills, leaving the core academics to the teachers of math, science, language arts and other disciplines. Teachers as a whole have tended to teach their subject matter in a vacuum, as separate areas to be addressed with a narrow focus. This…

Career and technical education has always been able to change with the times. New technologies and new educational challenges have made such change necessary. Sometimes a school must reinvent itself and undergo a rebirth as part of that adaptation. That is what has happened at the former St. Louis Career Academy. In the 2004-05 school year, the…

As more career and technical educators are faced with integrating academics into their curricula, workshops for teachers may help them to get started. In this brief article, Crystal B. Taylor, Ph.D., director of career, technical and adult education for the Roanoke City Public Schools in Virginia, describes four workshops on integrating academics…