This case study examined 80 urban minority high school students enrolled in two career academies, highlighting the cultural and institutional processes that affected their achievement. Career academies fostered optimism among low-income minority students. Career academy students demonstrated higher graduation rates and higher college entrance…

Rex Putnam High School (Milwaukie, Oregon) received a New American High School (NAHS) award for reform efforts that included small learning environments; career pathways programs; career-related learning experiences in the community; and involvement of parents, staff, and community members in decision making. An interview with an assistant…

This paper describes a random sample of serving agricultural science teachers in Delta State, Nigeria, as a background to understanding their views on four selected approaches for effective vocationalisation of secondary school agriculture. These approaches were used to develop a 23-item questionnaire based on current literature. A five-point…

Current trends towards greater collaboration between schools to support training and staff development at a local level together with the linking of the needs of trainees, the wider workforce and experienced staff to this agenda has created a need for "neighbourhood" support. This support can be effectively developed by Training Schools,…

This article presents a longitudinal case study of an urban high school as it transitioned from one comprehensive reform model to another over a 10-year period. The study is based on qualitative interview data and quantitative data on student outcomes. Despite evidence of improved student outcomes during this reform period, the school could not…

State leaders in business, labor, public policy, education and community development are invited to come together around multiple pathways and build a new agenda for high school improvement in California. This group can become a powerful force for transforming high school education by examining and forming consensus around the multiple pathways…

The fact that an achievement gap between White and African-American students exists is undisputed. The reasons for this gap are many and complex. Evidence does exist, though, that this gap can be narrowed and potentially eliminated. Evidence also exists that demonstrates that when the gap in academic achievement becomes equal African-Americans are…

A study examined whether career academy programs, with their tailored curricula, dilute content of required curricula, and whether academy students who follow this alternative course of study are less prepared to score well on standardized tests. Data were gathered through site visits to seven schools, review of reports and documents, and…

One of the most enduring challenges facing the public school system is decreasing the dropout rate. The highest rate of growth population in the future will be among the groups who are at greatest risk of dropping out of school. This paper outlines what school officials can do to decrease the dropout rate. The suggestions for dropout prevention…

This book examines the capacity of the career academy--one of the initiatives spawned by the school-to-work movement--to address academic reform in terms of increased education and workplace skills. Qualitative data collected as part of a 7-year local evaluation of career academies and a data set that contains transcript data on a population of…

Investigates the influence of formal academic training, informal on-the-job training, and related professional and personal experiences of hospice social workers on preparation for their work. Findings suggest that social workers view both the generalist or core courses as well as specialist and elective courses as important preparation.…

This first report from a national evaluation of Career Academies describes the program's scale (1,953 students and their teachers, at 10 sites), scope (educational, developmental, and employment-related results), and random assignment design. Chapter 1 describes the Career Academy approach, explores why it has attracted the attention of education…

The Personal Problems Checklist for Adolescents (PPC-A) was administered to students in 14 Adventist academies for the purpose of determining the extent of their personal problems. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the top 10 problems were: (1) poor study habits; (2) worrying about future…

The career academy approach is one of the oldest and most widely established high school reforms in the U.S., stretching back for more than 30 years. A large-scale, multi-site, random assignment research design was conducted to determine the impact of career academies on student outcomes. Some of the findings of the study include the following:…

The relationship between high school restructuring and vocational reform was examined in case studies of two moderately large comprehensive California high schools that have undertaken schoolwide efforts to establish new forms of social organization for teachers' and students' work. Over the 2-year study period, several visits were made to each…