The Echo

In keeping with earlier blog post, I am continuing my research into Small Learning Academies, the projected instructional model for Christina's Glasgow High School as a part of the DOE's RTTT Partnership Zone.

It strikes me as odd that the Small Learninng Academies Model for High School began  in Philadelphia; yet, even with our close proximity to Philly, Delaware is forty years behind in attempting this form of educational intervention.  Here's some history and model highlights:

History (from http://www.academiesinc.org/info_presidents_message.html)

It was 1968. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Our cities were ablaze. Our nation was in crisis. Youth found no relevance or reassurance that what they were doing in school could change their future. The drop out rate in some high schools was 50%. The nation was asking how it could address the educational needs of students; how to steer them away from the negative forces of urban unrest and how to give them hope for a future where they could be contributing productive citizens.

One answer came from a handful of business and community leaders in Philadelphia. Charles Bowser, Executive Director of the Urban Coalition and Deputy Mayor, brought together the CEO’s of the Philadelphia Electric Company and Bell of Pennsylvania to work on ideas that could save their city from the worst of the racial unrest that was so devastating to cities like Chicago and Detroit. In seeking ways to help, they focused on the future—the children. They formulated a plan to bring business into the schools in a model that would engage both the student and the business partner in meaningful ways. What they didn’t realize at the time was that they were creating one of the most successful education reform efforts in the country.

In 1969, the first Academy opened at Edison High School with thirty 10th grade students. Called the Academy of Applied Electrical Science, the program was set up as an independent not-for-profit corporation with its own Board of Directors. Over the years, more Academies opened as independent entities. In 1988 the individual Academy programs relinquished their status as separate, tax-exempt, non-profit organizations and merged into the Philadelphia Academies, Inc.

California came first to study the model, then New York, then Florida. Soon the career academy model was everywhere. Today with some 3,000 academies in operation nationwide, they have evolved into one of the nation’s most widely adopted reform initiatives to address the major problems associated with large comprehensive high schools, particularly those in urban districts where more than half of the students do not graduate on schedule.
The career academy model has been researched, studied and scrutinized and recently named as one of only three evidence-based, in-school models that work. And it all started in Philadelphia –not by a think tank of educators but by a handful of community leaders who loved their city and knew they could make a difference by helping its children.


Academy Model

■Our Model
■The primary assumption in PAI’s model is that we can significantly change life and economic outcomes for young people by motivating them to learn through their own interests and real-world, career-connected experiences and curriculum. Embedded in the model are three core activities – programming that motivates, the active development of networks with caring adults, and local advocacy at a policy level for instructional and structural changes in secondary education.

■Our Role
■PAI serves as an intermediary, bringing the financial and human resources of the business community into Philadelphia public schools, providing work and life readiness skills, making connections to internship experiences, and offering scholarships that provide a path toward a productive life.
■We engage over 400 volunteers from the local business, labor, non-profit, and higher education communities in improving education and building 21st Century skills for Philadelphia public high school students.

■Our Numbers
■PAI serves over 4,500 students in 28 academy programs in 10 career areas. We work with 16 high schools.

■An Environment for Learning
■Each Academy program is housed in a large urban high school as a "school-within-a-school".
■An Academy’s curriculum is centered around a career theme to motivate students, connect the schools to business and community partners, and give students practical applications related to their studies.
■Academy enrollment should not exceed 250 students so that teachers have an opportunity to give adequate attention to the needs of each student.
■A team of teachers is selected from among the school’s faculty and an "Academy Coordinator" is chosen to lead the program and be accountable to the Academies, Inc. for the delivery of education and career services to students.
■Students are scheduled to attend classes together and are taught by a core group of teachers as part of their daily routine.
■There is contiguous space provided to create a sense of a defined community within the school, which includes an Academy office complete with direct telephone access, fax machines and other items necessary to run the program effectively.