What Do Educators Like About Academies?
“I have observed how valuable the teaming and collaborative responsibility pieces are. But I would like to add that for many teachers the “sizzle” of teaching had gone out the window with endless tests, often irrational accountability and other things we all know are going on. What career academies have brought with them---when done right—is helping educators reconnect with students and helping them remember why they went into education. Watching students get excited, seeing the connection between business/industry and the students, seeing academics go up and listening more for the student voice has re-energized many of our excellent teachers.”
Susan Katzman, St. Louis, MO
“Efficiency of work and planning emerges when teamwork is well done. Administrators and teachers find their work focused on teaching, learning, use of data, planning, continuous improvement rather than some of the “grunt work” of writing referrals, spending time trying to get students to do their work, and doing all of this in isolation.
They no longer shoulder the full responsibility of an issue or a problem with a student. This is shared by the team. It actually becomes empowering and less burdening over time.
Of course, students becoming more engaged and partners available to help with projects and experiences broadens their perspective and their ability to provide a richer, broader type of education to their students.”
Starr Herrman, Nashville, TN
The teamwork inherent in the model unleashes the creative power of teachers and students and business partners. When those voices help design scheduling - of events, projects, etc -, the practicality and relevance are over the top. Simultaneously as one student said last week: "A great thing about academies is they let students be different." Respecting learning/teaching styles, academies can help diminish old stereotypes and allow us time to see one another's strengths.
Susan Bergman, Mountain Home, AR
What do I like about academies? Let me count the ways…..
1. I like the cohesiveness of teaming. Our team is like an extended family, where we’ve gotten to know each other better and can work through challenges such as student interventions both academic and behavioral, putting together IDUs, and giving students a way to see how their learning/knowledge works together instead of being just English or just Auto body.
2. I like the way the students are bonding in the academy. I know from the statistics from the Sheriff’s office that the median age of gang members WAS 16 but is now 22, which shows us that students are less in gangs and more in their cohorts within the academy. For kids looking to belong, the pathways in the academy give them friends with common interests, problems, and solutions.
3. I like the competitiveness between the academies on occasion, such as canned food drives. There are a lot of fun things we can do with one another at these times.
4. I like awarding students for doing well, as we do each semester. It’s good to recognize the top students—always!—but it’s also good to recognize those who show improvements, motivating them to continue in that vein.
5. I like the way our members are “Moticated” (motivated and dedicated) to promoting the learning in our classrooms. We can share lesson plans, get critiqued (“Good Friends Critiques”), help students we have in common, and so much more!
6. I like the way our academy principal is such a fire-cracker, not only with vision but with the follow-through to see the vision become reality.
7. I like the way the community works with us, having business partners that give our students opportunities from listening to guest speakers to job shadowing at their places of business to donating time, talents, and money to our programs.
8. I like the way our CTE programs have been built up, no longer a “vocational dumping ground” but real-life learning facilities.
9. I like the way our team can look at data and make decisions based on the data from our Data Warehouse, our data walls, and our attendance rolls. Over time this should mean an increase in graduation rate, but more importantly, in the student’s development of the skills to meet the challenges he faces on a daily basis.
10. I like the sharing of ideas from one discipline to another, that I can use ideas from the theater teacher, the history teacher, the English classes, and engineering in my own discipline; that even as a global teacher, I can share what my students are doing, learning, achieving.
11. I like the fact that from our executive principal down the focus never wavers. We are a high school that achieves, a high school that functions in a positive manner, a high school that the community is taking a second look at, overcoming the disparagement of former years. I would put our academies, my own academy, against anything in the nation. This is the first REAL, positive reform I have seen in 33 years of teaching and I love it.
That, in a nutshell, is what this teacher loves about academies.
Janey Haynes, McGavock HS, Nashville, TN
Community, Relationships, Relevance, and a smaller group focus are all true and valid points. With our staff and our new building, one of the greatest things is having avision for what we wantthat is concrete. The NSOP (National Standards of Practice) providesomething they can see and interact with on aconsistent basis.
In the post-AYP world, many of our teachers feel like we are just coming out of hiding like the citizens of Dresden in WWII after a bombing. As we analyze the new structureand get acquainted with the Common Core, they are starting to see the instructionalpossibilities that are out there and once again realize/remember the power of collaboration, integration, and connection with the community. Also, the students are starting to benefit from the effects of the learning communities. As one student stated to anotherin passing the other day, "My teachers are all up in my grill, dog."
Our teachers are starting to learn the strength of a PLC and how it can be utilized to empower teachers and focus on student problem areas. From last year to this year, we have cut our Tardy/Unexcused absences by about 60%. Our academy boasts a 97.8% graduation rate this yearina city of 73% Low S/E/S, and a HS of 35% ESL.
What else do we like about academies? The support we get from NCAC is top notch. Our Insight-Onsite training was EXTREMELY beneficial to our staff, community, and school. It launched us into major discussions in our PLCs about the future and what more we can do. We have teachers that are discussing VOLUNTEERING SUMMER HOURS to come in and work on collaborative lessons for next year! We have so many ideas flowing for community connections that it’s hard to keep up and manage them. In fact, we have started discussing the possibility of a yearly rotation schedule.There are incredible days ahead folks,
Mark Calvin, Garden City High School, Garden City, KS
One of the consistent staff “discoveries” after a year or two into the process,was the smaller learning community feel. We certainly marketed that aspect during the planning process, but it took a bit of time for that to come to reality. We know that multi-year contacts with kids help with establishing and maintaining healthy relationships, and we also know that when we carve out a smaller group of students and teachers with some common interests that we get to know each other better. I realize this is a simple point- but, there were days when I would just smile when a teacher would approach me and say something like, “I think I understand this smaller is better stuff now.”
It boils down to relationships. We certainly had the relevance piece figured out a long time ago in CTE, so that one was obvious. When folks were able to see the benefits of knowing their kids better because they could focus on 300 instead of 1900, it was definitely one of those “aha” moments that was very cool to be part of.
Mike Gross, Junction City, KS
Educators like the collaboration of this model. It requires people working together as a team. Teamwork is the essence of the 21st century skills.
Judith Stein, Nova Southeastern University, FL
We are so new in the Career Academy business that I can only say that I agree with all that has been said, but wish that was the common philosophy of many of our teachers and administrators who have yet to embrace the academy concept. We ARE planning to initiate another academy next year so we are on the right road, but it is slow and inconsistent. Guess I could sum it up with a statement from a student that I met one morning in the airport, she said, "if I hadn't had the chance to be in the academy, I would have been totally lost and would probably have dropped out of school by now.
Lyn Velle, Gillette, WY
…and because Susan Tidyman from Career Academy Support Network (CASN) has reminded me---everyone loves academies. She directed me to a website,
You will find two articles written by Sandy Mittelsteadt, “Why Republicans Like Academies” and “Why Democrats Like Academies”.