A Quick Look at the Wall to Wall Career Academy Initiative

The Titusville High School Career Academy Initiative is a two-phase project. The first part of the project is the Freshman Foundation program, which provides 9th grade students with a strong academic curriculum and a smaller, more personal learning environment. There are two key components to the Freshman Foundation. First, all freshman are enrolled in a 2 credit language arts course. This replaces our traditional English I course, which is only one credit (which under the 4x4 block schedule was completed in one semester). This doubles the amount of language arts instruction provided to these students in this critical year. A team of language arts teachers developed the curriculum for this course during the summer of 2002. The second key component is a Career Pathways course. This course is a freshman seminar in which students are provided with orientation activities; technology training and a career research component that helps them identify their strengths, weaknesses and occupational interests.

The second phase of the project is the implementation of the "whole academy concept" at THS. The plan calls for four broad-based career academies that have specializations, or majors within them. This brings the benefits of career academies to each and every student at Titusville High School. The four academies are:

Students choose a "career academy" based on their interests and this helps provide them with a "roadmap" of courses to choose from during their sophomore, junior, and senior years. Within each academy, students identify a pathway, or set of courses in which to concentrate. This is very similar to choosing a major in college. The pathways are not so restrictive that a student cannot change their mind later on and choose a new pathway, or even switch to a new academy entirely. Once again, very similar to changing your major in college. There are also different levels of completion within each pathway, which enables students to complete requirements in more than one pathway. This is similar to completing a double major in college.

The Freshman Foundation was installed in 2002. By all accounts it was a resounding success. We received extremely positive feedback from students, parents and teachers. In addition, 9th grade standardized test scores improved from the previous year, most notably FCAT Reading scores. The whole academy concept was implemented in 2003.

An Illustration

Freshman Year
John Smith is currently a freshman at THS. He is in the Freshman Foundation program, receiving the 2 credits of language arts instruction and the career pathways course. During the career pathways course he takes a personality inventory and engages in other activities that indicate a possible career in computer science or a related field. John enrolls in the Business & Industry Academy and decides to concentrate in the Information Systems pathway.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year
In the Information Systems pathway, John will select courses ranging from business software applications, web design, desktop publishing, CISCO systems and many others. As mentioned earlier, there are different levels of completion within each academy and pathway. If John completes 4 credits in this content area, he will have achieved an "emphasis" in Information Systems. He can achieve a "minor" or "major" in Information Systems by completing a total of 7 to 15 credits (respectively). This will provide John with knowledge and skills in a career field that he may or may not pursue in the future.

Here is a scheduling and graduation requirement guide.

Notes
Because THS is on the block schedule, John has plenty of opportunities to pursue courses within his chosen academy and pathway and achieve completion requirements in another pathway (a double major in college). For example, if John also has an interest in music and completes 4 credits in music courses, he will have achieved an emphasis in the pathway of "Performing Arts" in the Visual & Performing Arts Academy

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