Examining Implementation Strategies for Career Academies

The purpose of this Special Notice is to publicize the U.S. Department of Education's action to modify ED-PEP-11-O-0090 Task Order 0013, Examining Implementation Strategies for Career Academies", to increase the scope of the existing Performance Work Statement (PWS) tasks to examine additional career based high school reform strategies through a nationally-representative survey of high schools. The Limited Source Justification is provided as an attachment to this Special Notice This Task Order 0013 was awarded to SRI International and has a 29 month performance period from September 27, 2012 through February 26, 2015. The goal of a career academy is to not only help students graduate from high school but also to prepare them academically for postsecondary education and training and to enter the workforce with a foundation of career-related skills. Career academies typically have the following features: (1) they are small learning communities, most often within an existing high school and comprised of a subset of students within the high school; (2) they seek to integrate academic and technical coursework by delivering a college-preparatory curriculum with career themes ranging from health care, to business, automotive and aeronautics, and construction; and (3) they offer work-based learning opportunities through partnerships with employers. This unique focus on both academics and the workforce in a more personalized environment separates the career academy approach from other high school reform models. One recent study, by MDRC, estimates that there are over 2,500 career academies across the country. These career academies usually serve between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12. Additionally, career academies are often located in or near low-income, urban settings. This same MDRC study found evidence of positive and sustained impacts of career academy completion on average monthly earnings as well as positive impacts on later family formation. However, no significant impacts were found on either educational attainment (both high school completion and postsecondary enrollment) or on academic achievement as measured by standardized tests. While this study by MDRC does represent high-quality, empirical research on career academies, in general, there is a paucity of this type of research on both the impact of career academies and available models for implementing career academies. This task order is intended to address that gap by conducting three key activities related to the goal of promoting high-quality implementation strategies for career academies: (1) a literature review summarizing the research on career academies; (2) case studies exploring 10 career academy programs that are focused on both postsecondary academic preparation and preparation for entering the workforce; and (3) a final report on - lessons learned from the field that is designed to assist school districts, schools, and others with career academy implementation. A fourth activity is related to the dissemination of the study's findings so that practitioners can learn about those key implementation strategies.