Each academy has a specific vocational focus, such as automotive, computers, agriculture, health occupations, electronics, or business. Typically, a team of teachers from math, English, science, and the particular vocational area combine their instruction and stay with a group of students for several years. Class size is usually small to allow for sustained contact between students and instructors as well as coordination between teachers.
Instruction is aligned both horizontally and vertically.
Students also take some classes, such as history, foreign language, and other electives, outside the academy structure. Academies often are recommended for students who are at risk of dropping out of high school or who appear to be performing below their potential. To be effective, the academy model depends upon relationships with businesses in the same occupational area. The contact with firms makes the academies real in a sense that conventional high schools are not, providing a context for instruction that even a well-equipped vocational program cannot offer. All rights reserved.