Career Academies offer high schools--particularly those in urban communities that struggle to keep students in school and to prepare them for post-secondary education and employment opportunities--a systematic approach to addressing a range of challenges. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career…

Research has shown that there are essential scheduling practices for high-performing schools that have been able to implement innovative "nontraditional" schedules. What these have in common is the focus on personalized learning environments for students. Personalized learning can mean career academies/smaller learning communities (SLCs), in which…

This journal of the California Association for Counseling and Development attempts to identify the current issues of concern in the counseling field and share research to help improve the professional learning community. The articles in this issue include: "The Editor's Message" (Pat Nellor Wickwire); "The CACD President's…

The way students progress from high school to college is in need of change. This paper examines five programs for student pathways and determines which have enough promise to merit consideration by policymakers. "High Schools That Work" prepares students for college by requiring them to take a minimum core of courses. "Tech…

Describes the development and implementation of the Career Academy program at a high school in Los Angeles, California, and describes the community and business partnerships that support the program. Also describes the effects of the program, a school-within-a-school, on students, including the positive effects of the program's mentoring…

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…

Winters Mill High School is a typical comprehensive high school in most respects. Situated within the city of Westminster, Maryland, the school opened its doors to students in grades 9 and 10 in the fall of 2002. Historically, the Westminster area has had an agrarian culture that has coexisted comfortably with merchants and the McDaniel College…

State legislation launched the California Partnership Academies (CPAs) in 1984. Now operating in more than 200 comprehensive high schools, CPAs have been used as a model for high school reform in California and elsewhere. Academies typically feature multi-age learning groups, team teaching and career-based instruction. Teachers help students…

There are many activities and approaches for helping new hires make transitions from classrooms to companies. This article serves as a framework for discussion about first-year attrition. Suggests employers need to create a relationship with employees, making new hires truly belong to the organization and identify with the values and beliefs of…

Approximately 70% of American high schools enroll 1000 or more students each, while almost one half of high schools enroll more than 1500 students each. A growing booty of evidence, however, is showing that small schools, especially small secondary schools, result in positive benefits for students, families, and communities that go beyond letter…

Arizona has begun an organized effort at career planning designed to create graduates who know who they are, know where they are going and know how they are going to get there. The Navajos are well on their way to achieving these kinds of student outcomes. This article focuses on two Navajo schools: Ganado High School, a comprehensive high school…

There is an urgent need not only to attract more people into the teaching profession but also to build a more diverse, highly qualified, and culturally sensitive teaching force that can meet the needs of a rapidly changing school-age population. This Toolkit takes best practices from high school teacher academies around the United States and…

Discusses the need for comprehensive reforms in school organization, curriculum and instruction, and professional development to address the problems of large urban high schools. Describes the Talent Development High School with Career Academies model being developed to meet the needs of such schools. (SLD)

As Ohio's first career center, Auburn Career Center in Concord Township, Ohio, has been at the forefront of new and exciting educational initiatives. Auburn embraces emerging technologies and unique teaching tools to better educate its high school and adult education students. The school prides itself on its quality instructors, who come from a…

Cooperative education is a method of instruction that enables students to combine academic classroom instruction (school-based learning component) with occupational instruction through learning on the job (work-based learning component) in a career area of choice. Emphasis is placed on the students' education and employability skills. Co-op is a…