Career Focused Education: Evaluating Career Academies in a Large Midwestern District

Abstract

It is generally agreed upon that in order to be an effective, contributing member of society one must work. The current axiom in education today revolves around preparing students to be college and career ready, with the ultimate goal of preparing students for the workforce but very little research has gone in to identifying the most effective way to do this. The purpose of this study was to analyze data collected from students in one Midwest Suburban School District to determine if Career-Focused Embedded Academies improve student success as noted by the likelihood to take the ACT and a students’ GPA compared to students of the same gender and similar racial, socioeconomic, and academic history using propensity scoring. Looking at this data, it was determined if there is a statistically significant difference between a student who attended an academy versus a student who did not. This research identified an effective way to prepare a student for both college and career, ultimately preparing them for the future workforce as an effective, contributing member of society.