Bergen County Technical Schools' Career Academies
Hackensack, New Jersey
An American Youth Policy Forum Field Trip — January 29, 1999
Our one-day visit to Hackensack, New Jersey showcased career academies administered by the Bergen County Technical Schools system. The Bergen County Academies, once a traditional shared-time vocational high school, were transformed into seven individual academies, each with a clear career focus, faculty, student body, and curriculum. The career academy model has shown success in raising student achievement and is widely supported by the surrounding community.
The Bergen County Technical Schools system is comprised of a number of vocational schools, including the career academies, to meet the needs of a range of educational interests and abilities. The seven career academies are designed for students with strong academic skills who plan to pursue a baccalaureate education.
There are also two Technical Education Centers that offer shared-time Tech Prep 2+2 programs and other shop programs. Students spend half their school day at their local high school where academic instruction and support services are provided, and half day at the Technical Education Center. This program begins with career exploration for students, who enter as 9th or 10th graders. Returning students in grades 11 and 12 are placed in major shops (career clusters).
Another part of the system includes two Vocational High Schools. These schools offer full-time and limited shared-time programs for students with educational disabilities. Academic and vocational courses are designed to allow the students to meet New Jersey high school graduation requirements. The goal of these two programs is to teach students to live independently and work in a competitive employment environment.
Finally, the County offers a full-time and limited shared-time program for secondary students with significant educational disabilities who function higher than their test scores indicate. Academic instruction emphasizes functional life skills, and work adjustment training is the focus of the shops. Graduates from this program will earn a state-endorsed high school diploma and may be issued an Occupational Profile and Shop Competency Certificate. The program is designed to prepare graduates for semi-independent living and for employment options, which range from sheltered workshops, to entry level, non-skilled occupations.
Bergen County Academies
Our visit centered on the seven academies, all housed on one campus. The academies were begun in an attempt to increase the academic content of the more traditional vocational education high schools. Over the years, the academies have become more selective as their performance and reputation have improved.
The mission of the academies is "to provide a challenging, project-driven curriculum in a technology-infused, restructured learning environment. Faculty, students and parents are empowered to be actively involved in a collaborative, interdisciplinary process in which students:
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Develop critical-thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and presentation skills needed for living in the 21st Century.
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Prepare to continue their study in mathematics, science and technology at the college level.
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Acquire a broad background in the humanities and the arts.
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Experience social, ethical and personal growth.
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Learn to use technology to access, organize, compile, analyze, and create new information.
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Become independent learners and original thinkers who will work to improve the human condition.
The external mission of the academies is to:
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Serve as a working model for educational innovation and reform.
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Act as a resource for other school districts.
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Become a center for teacher training and adult education.
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Foster partnerships with the business community.
The Superintendent of the Bergen County Technical Schools, Dr. John Grieco, provided an overview of how the change from a traditional vocational high school to the career academy model occurred. He said that, in all, it was an 18-year journey to create the academies as they are now. Grieco said that it took a cultural shift in the way teachers and administrators think about high school and that changing people's attitudes takes a very long time. He said he had to work with his team to create an environment that embraced change, teamwork, and risk-taking.
Grieco listed three principles that govern the academies:
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The people who run the campus are the teachers, students, and parents.
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The academies use the Coalition of Essential Schools model, which calls for teaching to be done through project work with the ideas for project-based work originating from the business and industry community associated with each academy.
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The academies support school-to-work activities, but they also support and promote work-to-school linkages and connections, to ensure the steady involvement of business and industry so the school can continue to learn from the private sector and strengthen and update its curriculum.
Grieco finished his comments by asking that any legislative changes made by the Congress this year to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act protect current innovations and provide incentives or encourage traditional high schools to experiment with school-to-work models and to promote change.
The Principal of the Bergen County Academies, Carol Lisa, provided more details on how the academies operate: There are 780 students at the seven academies, each is designed to offer educational choice to students in preparation for a career. The seven academies are:
- The Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology, begun in 1992
- The Academy for Business and Computer Technology, begun in 1997
- The Academy of Engineering and Design Technology, begun in 1997
- The Academy for Medical Science Technology, begun in 1997
- The Culinary Arts Academy, begun in 1998
- The Power and Transportation Academy, begun in 1998
- The Visual Arts and Graphic Communications Academy, begun in 1998
The Academies are modeled as small schools or houses within a university. Each has identifiable faculty, and a curriculum targeted to that career that meets very high academic standards. The school year is 192 days, and school days are 8 ½ hours long. The majority of the work is designed to be project-based and linked to the career field, and schedules are individualized for each student. Parents must agree not to remove their children from the program from August to May.
Faculty determine their own program, 25% of them hold Ph.D.s but consider themselves as generalists, and they also are assigned to non-traditional duties. A leader of a work-based project will be whoever is the most qualified to oversee it: a parent, a teacher, a student, or a business partner.
Ms. Lisa said that the culture that has been created for the academies is to try new things and not to worry about getting things wrong. She said this culture is supportive of trial and error and replaces the more traditional education culture of fear of trying new things and fear of failure.
There is a broad spectrum of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds at the academies. While admission to the academies is competitive, the student population mirrors the demographics of the region. Students are selected based on grades, references, an admissions test, and an interview on campus. Students must also endorse the philosophy of the school, which demands a commitment to a very rigorous program with longer days and a longer school year. Most of the students selected to attend the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology (the oldest of the academies) are from the 85th to the 99th percentile of their sending classes. The newer academies draw from students from approximately the 75th percentile and higher.
All academies have a core curriculum that is supplemented by coursework in the selected career field. For example, all students, regardless of the choice of academy, take four years of college preparatory English and four years of a foreign language. All students take college preparatory math, and most take Calculus by 12th grade, and all take Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, at a minimum. In addition to social studies, arts and music, computer science, technology, and physical education, students fill in with electives and high level math and science courses targeted to their chosen career field. The core curriculum allows students to move across career paths, and the curriculum across all academies is generally applicable to any career.
According to Steve, a freshman student in the Power and Transportation Academy, the school was just what he needed. He likes working on cars and has problems sitting too long. According to Steve, "There are no more grease monkeys. Cars have electronic modules and to work on them you must be able to use computers and diagnostic tools." He likes the project-based learning in his all classes, even English and mathematics. He recently completed a project in English focusing on 18th century toys and games that required him to use the Internet and work in a team. In math, he worked on a project about the Lewis and Clark expedition that required knowledge of math, biology and history, and he learned how to calculate the circumference of the Earth using the stars.
The Power and Transportation Academy offers the General Motors YES curriculum through a partnership of GM dealers, the secondary school and postsecondary institutions/community colleges. If he masters all the competencies required, upon graduation Steve can receive an ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) national certificate and work at a GM dealership. The core academic curriculum also ensures that he can enter college.
A wide range of electives and co-curricular activities are available to students. One elective observed was a course focusing on product research and development. The instructor, a Ph.D. in Engineering, is available to students during the day who come to work on their inventions, several of which have pending applications for patents. The instructor facilitates their progress one-on-one as they proceed in their problem-solving efforts. Among the devices on display were: a Wetness Detecting Diaper; a navigation and proximity motion device; a flexible computer keyboard that could be rolled up; and a device that allows physically challenged people to manipulate a computer keyboard.
One co-curricular activity is Teenvoice, an electronic publication whose web site address is Teenvoice.com. The publication--probably the only one of its kind in the country-- is written and produced solely by teens for teens. Among its sections of interest are: Realtime (current events); The Zone (Sports); Diversionz (Entertainment); Magnifique (Fashions); Xpressions (art, poetry, humor); Road Ready (Cars); Fanatix (comics, sci-fi, etc.); and Guidance (college, career, volunteer opportunities).
Eighty students staff the publication that receives 18,000 hits per day. Teens nationwide can respond to the articles by e-mail and post stories on the site. The publication has relationships with the Bergen Record, a local newspaper that serves as an alternative campus and makes its facilities available to students for research and other learning opportunities, and with 12 schools in Northern New Jersey. Through the publication, students develop skills in writing and editing stories, webbing them, designing web pages, marketing the publication, and polling readers (the interactive nature of the publication allows for collecting teen ideas and positions on various issues and reporting on them). All staff have press passes and are able to "live the life of journalists," reviewing theatre shows and movies, photographing and documenting events.
As part of the requirement for graduation, seniors are required to participate in a senior experience, an internship that is an interactive learning partnership through which students increase, in depth and scope, their knowledge and abilities in a selected area of study. Student interns report directly to their internship every Wednesday during the academic year for a full business day. One or more individuals mentor them, and the program concludes in May with a Senior Exhibition, a highly personalized presentation made by the student to the Academy community.
Students have served in a wide variety of internships during their senior experience and are widely perceived by the employer community to be serious, competent, caring, and skilled. Seniors have interned with employers such as ABC-TV, Barclays Bank, TIME Magazine, Bellevue Hospital, The Smithsonian Institution, Superior Court of NJ, Telemetrics, and Sony Music Studios. According to one work site mentor, Lorrie Sherwood of the Center for Social and Legal Research (a non-profit organization dealing with privacy and confidentiality issues), a student intern designed a web site as part of his senior internship. The students she has dealt with become very sophisticated on the job are able to interact with the public and get a good grounding in the use of technology and its applications in the workplace.
All members of the graduating class of 1998 from the Academy for the Advancement of Science and Technology were accepted at very prestigious four-year colleges and universities. While the students indicated they enjoyed learning about careers in their chosen career field, a number of seniors expressed an interest in changing career fields or pursuing other interests in college. Because the curriculum is broad and academically challenging, they are well prepared for many careers and have many options.
The academic rigor of the academies has had an influence on the public schools in the community. Many of the middle school students and their parents who are interested in attending one of the academies have pressured their middle schools to increase the level of academics so that the students are prepared to enter the academies. While the leaders of the academies did not anticipate this change, they are pleased that the career academies are forcing change down to earlier grades. The increased focus on academic preparation in earlier grades may be working; there are increasing numbers of students interested and qualified to enroll in the academies.
During the field trip, the participants met with students, teachers, administrators, employers, parents, and local community supporters, including local elected officials. The amount of community support for the academies was impressive and very genuine. Several employers who had interns during the school year were present and had very positive comments about the students and the programs. A number of employers said they often learned as much from the students as the students learned from them.
In closing, when asked how to replicate this type of high school with an average student body, Superintendent John Grieco said that it was dependent on the culture and attitude of the administrators and teachers, but if they agreed to make the changes, they could do it. Grieco said he and his team plan to take the concepts and philosophy of the academies and infuse them into the other schools in the vocational education system.
Contact Information
Dr. John Grieco
Superintendent
Bergen County Technical Schools/Special Services
E 64 Midland Avenue
Paramus, NJ 07652-2915
Phone: 201-967-2472
Fax: 201-265-6849
Carol A. Lisa
Principal
Bergen County Academies
200 Hackensack Avenue
Hackensack, New Jersey 07601
Phone: 201-343-0165
academy@bergen.org