Replication of a high school career academy model in Georgia

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With the increasing importance of integrating academic, career, and technical instruction, career academies have sprung up to meet the academic and career preparation needs of students across the United States. Currently, more than 2,500 career academies of different types are in operation in communities throughout the United States.

This REL Southeast report, Replication of a Career Academy Model: The Georgia Central Educational Center and Four Replication Sites, describes the replication of a popular model in Georgia, the Georgia Central Educational Center (CEC). It finds that key features of CEC have been adopted by several career academies in other communities in Georgia. The report describes the similarities and differences among the original CEC and four replication sites in Georgia.

The study finds that the replicated career academies have involved community partnerships with local businesses and other groups from the beginning of program development. The replicated career academies emphasized the importance of the CEC model’s flexibility for enabling career academies to tailor their programs to community needs.

Key features of the CEC model include:

• Initial needs assessment, of community and business needs, used as a basis for curriculum development.

• Establishment of joint ventures, through key partnerships with the business community, local technical colleges, and other community stakeholders.

• Seamless integration of academics with career and technical education and of secondary with postsecondary education, emphasizing opportunities for students to earn course credits at technical colleges through dual enrollment courses