September 5, 2010
September 5, 2010
In 2007, the Ford Motor Company Fund named Volusia County, Florida, as a Next Generation Learning Community at the Leadership Level. This honor recognizes that Volusia County has achieved a high level of integrated reform and redesign of its secondary education system.
In this case study, we review the process by which leaders in Volusia County came together for more than a decade to build a high school reform strategy that is ongoing and “sustainable,” difficult to dislodge, and firmly embedded in the culture of the school system and the beliefs of administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community partners.
The case study also includes a background section, a summary on the milestones carried out by the district’s reform agenda , a description of key strategies that undergird the reform effort, lessons learned, and general principles and insight identified by leaders of the district that can be adapted and applied by others seeking to similarly establish sustainable learning communities.
As of June 2007, Volusia offers 30 career academies at its nine high schools, serving 3,500 of the district’s high school students. Career Academies cover a diverse set of themes such as, Agriscience Communications and Technology, Aviation and Aerospace Technology, Communications and Multi-Media Technology, Design and Manufacturing Technology, Drafting and Trade Related Occupations, Health Service, and Horticultural, Environmental and Marine Science, International Business and World Languages, Public Service, Sport Science and Emergency Services, and Scientific Inquiry and Engineering.
Your browser may not support display of this image. Sixteen municipalities make up Volusia County, with Daytona Beach, DeLand, Deltona, Ormond Beach and Port Orange as the largest metropolitan areas. The county is easily accessible to major cities such as Orlando and Jacksonville. Volusia's 503,844 residents are engaged in a variety of occupations, including tourism, farming, light industry, education, government, and other professions.
The Volusia County School District encompasses the entire geographic boundaries of the county. With nearly 64,000 students and roughly 9,300 employees, the system is the state's tenth largest school district and the largest employer in the county. More than half of the district’s staff members are teachers, and approximately 45 percent of instructional staff hold master's degrees, educational specialist degrees or doctorate degrees.
The school district consists of:
The district operates under “controlled open enrollment school choice.” This allows any family to request a zoning variance to their school of choice. The key factor in granting or denying a request is the capacity of the school in terms of physical plant, staffing, and program availability.
Approximately 10% of all students attend schools other than those in their zone. More than 85% of all variance applications are approved. Students on a variance must maintain acceptable behavior, attendance and academic progress. Once a variance has been granted, it shall remain in effect as long as the student is in compliance with the terms of the variance. Variances may be reviewed annually to determine if a continuance is in order. Variance requests are granted for compelling conditions such as employment, transportation and childcare related issues; curriculum or programs available only at another school; the intent to lease/purchase housing during the course of a school year; and when siblings attend out-of-zone schools.
The policy on the “Student Progression Plan” states that “reading, writing, and mathematics skills will be integrated and reinforced across all subjects, including career awareness, career exploration, and career and technical education.” It also defines “Career and Professional Academies” as:
“A career and professional academy is a research-based program that integrates a rigorous academic curriculum with an industry-driven career curriculum. Students completing career and professional academy programs receive a standard high school diploma. They may also receive industry certification and postsecondary credit if the academy partners with a postsecondary institution."
Other key information found in this policy includes:
The specific requirements for each program vary and may change from year to year.
Back to TopIn 1992, Volusia educators and business representatives came to the table to discuss program offerings and industry needs. The participants used a DACUM process (Developing a Curriculum), which involves analyzing tasks performed by workers on the job, and then engineering educational standards, curriculum and assessments that are linked to those job tasks. The DACUM process was initiated by Daytona Beach Community Colleges (DBCC’s) and the results of the survey and focus groups were used to determine CTE offerings at secondary and postsecondary levels.
Around that same time period, the new superintendent for the Volusia School District and the new community college President began discussing how to establish a closer working relationship between secondary and postsecondary programs. This conversation grew and soon began career and technical education dual enrollment at DBCC, with eight students.
In 1992-93, following the reauthorization of the Perkins Act, VCS, along with the adjoining district of Flagler County Schools (FCS), and DBCC formed the Volusia Flagler Tech Prep Consortium. Volusia County Schools was named the fiscal agent for the Tech Prep grant, using federal funds distributed through the Florida Department of Education.
In order to receive input from business and industry representatives, a Tech Prep Steering Committee was formed to advise the Consortium. Many original steering committee members are still part of the Career Connection Cadre today.
VCS then hired three “Tech Prep Teachers on Assignment” to serve as site-based liaisons to assist in the implementation of the Tech Prep programs. These personnel are now known as Career Connection Facilitators, and are now assigned to every school.
Also during this time, an Applied Academics curriculum was adopted for traditional math, English and science courses. Secondary and postsecondary academic teachers began to align curricula and introduce “applied” strategies. Applied academic resources were created at the district level, under the supervision of Liz Taylor, the applied academics coordinator. The resources were then “marketed” to the local schools. That is also when the conversations regarding dual enrollment with the community colleges began.
In 1993, the Academy of Design and Manufacturing Technology at Mainland High Schools was developed by VCS, DBCC, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and the Volusia Manufacturers Association (VMA). The academy is now recognized as an innovative center of learning.
In 1994-95, the Tech Prep Consortium was re-branded as the Career Connection Consortium. The Consortium continued to work with the Tech Prep middle majority as well as widen its scope to include all students in building a School-to-Work system.
In 1996, Volusia developed and required the use of the Career Connection 9th grade Career Planning Curriculum for all 9th grade students.
In 1998, the Volusia-Flagler School-to-Work Consortium hosted a Career Connection Mentoring Symposium with attendees from throughout Florida and the United States.
Also in 1998, the Volusia School District, the neighboring Flagler School District, the Daytona Beach Community College and the Partnership for Workforce Development submitted a charter to design and build a charter technical career center. This charter school, which opened in 2001, is today known as the Advanced Technology College (ATC) for high school students and adults.
In 2002, Volusia CTE administrators began a renewed attempt to align its CTE offerings more directly to the Sunshine State academic standards and the skills identified by employers as those most critical to workplace success.
This effort identified some academic skills as “Essential skills,” meaning those academic skills that were the most often tested on state assessments. Additionally, the cross-walks also reflected priority workplace skills, based on a national survey administered to 10,000 employers.
That same year, after conducting workshops with Volusia CTE teachers, the Career Connection Consortium supported the development of the CTE/FCAT Connections Projects, utilizing Tech Prep funds. Reading, Math and Science coaches are hired to work with CTE teachers.
As more academies were developed and offered, students became interested in crossing school zones. At this time, the district was providing transportation to the ATC. At first these additional buses would pick up and move students to other school zones.
In 2003, Dr. Margaret Smith was named Superintendent of Volusia County Schools. She adopted High School Reform as a comprehensive school improvement initiative and required all schools to participate. Career Academies were seen as a key component in this initiative.
As this initiative unfolded, the number of academy offerings grew from three to nearly 14 academies.
In 2004, the Career Connection Cadre recommended the development of common criteria, an evaluation process for career academies, and to include business advisory committees for each academy.
The Instructional Council (key administrative leaders) recommended and the Board of Education (elected governance) approved a decision that if the district was going to expend funds on transportation to the district’s career academies, there needed to be more specific quality standards for the academies.
At the time, career academies were distributed throughout the district in various forms and with no common way of assessing quality. District leaders reviewed the self-assessment developed by a neighboring district (Manatee County) which was tied to the national model career academy standards. VCS made further revisions and developed its own proposed quality standards based on the Manatee model and the model national standards.
Volusia’s Instructional Council mandated that all career academies be assessed annually. The Council required academies to meet standards in order to be designated an academy and to receive district transportation and variance approval for academy students. All career academies had to begin by completing a self- assessment.
First, the academies all did a self-assessment against the proposed standards, and gave themselves relatively high scores on the self-assessments. VCS provided training to the sites on the use of the quality standards and self-assessments took on a more realistic tone.
In fall 2005, the 14 Volusia Academies were evaluated by a team consisting of Career Connection Cadre members, district administrators, and school curriculum assistant principals, using the Assessment criteria. This assessment identified integrated curriculum as a key component.
During this time, Volusia received “Succeed Florida” funding to plan and implement Career Academies. The district also developed a career academy application.
In 2006, Volusia presented its first High School Showcase for middle school students and parents in an effort to market career academies to all students.
Also, an integrated online application process was developed to simplify the application and enrollment process.
In 2006, the Volusia Career Academies Best Practices were established.
From 2006 to the present, the district has hosted a Curriculum Integration four-day Workshop in June to Career Academy teams of CTE and academic teachers to develop integrated curriculum. The CTE/FCAT Project crosswalks are used to assist in the development of integrated curriculum.
In 2006-07, the number of Career Academies increased to 30.
Beginning in 2005 and continuing through 2008, Volusia has presented its Career Academies and CTE/FCAT Projects at the Model Schools Conferences hosted by the International Center for Leadership in Education.
In 2006, Volusia’s Career Academies mentored 18 Florida districts through Innovation Fair grants.
Between 2006 and 2008, Volusia received funding from several external sources to assist with development of career academies. In 2006-07, Volusia received $324,000 in “Succeed Florida” funds for planning new academies, and $112,000 to implement additional academies that were planned the previous year. In addition, Volusia received $210,000 from the state as part of the “Innovation Fair Funding” to mentor other districts around the state in the development of academies. In 2007-08, Volusia received eight continuation grants from Succeed Florida, which totaled $450,000.
In 2008, Career Academies were added as a goal in the Volusia County District Strategic Plan.
Beginning in 2007 and ongoing, curriculum maps were developed for all CTE courses, including end-of-year common assessments.
In 2007, enrollment in Volusia’s career academies topped 3,500 students. Also, in 2007, Volusia presented at the Ford Motor Company Fund Career Academy Innovation Community conference.
Back to TopDesign Element on Display. See 2.d. “Teacher collaboration on curriculum”
The Sunshine State Standards are currently under revision by the State Board of Education to review and adopt World Class Education Standards that prepare Florida’s students to effectively engage, communicate, and compete globally with students around the world. Florida’s standards incorporate important skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, collaboration and communication. New standards in areas of Reading/Language Arts, Math, and Science have been approved, with others pending. Volusia County has a Web site called “STAR-D” or “Sunshine State Standards Targeted with Activities and Assessments Resources Database” to provide resources to educators to help them implement the standards.
The county’s Career Connection website, www.careerconnection.orggives examples of numerous projects that have been developed in CTE courses to move beyond simply acquiring knowledge to applying knowledge, assimilating knowledge, and then adapting that knowledge to new situations. Specific outcomes and performance tasks are built into the projects, and essential work skills crosswalks are covered. For example, one CTE course covers the Sunshine State math standard of being able to associate verbal names written on the board in standard numbers with integers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, real numbers, and complex numbers.
Volusia County has drawn upon analysis completed by the International Center for Leadership in Education. The Center has looked at all 50 states’ academic standards and has cross-walked those standards and compared them to the academic standards that are most often tested. This is an important tactic because written standards usually include everything that should be taught, but assessments do not. Because of time constraints on assessments, the writers of the standards come to a consensus about which standards should be prioritized and included in the assessment. Therefore, teachers must prioritize teaching the standards that educators as a group have decided are most important and must be tested. CTE courses must similarly place a focus on the standards that are tested, so Volusia County ensured that those academic standards were built into their academic/CTE integration plans. Volusia County also used an analysis of employability skills to find out what skills were the most important to workers. This allowed Volusia County to prioritize building those skills into the Career Connection program.
A related approach to academic/CTE integration connects activities across disciplines. In this case, academic content is not brought into a CTE class, but rather through career academies. An example is a bacteria and disease lesson unit that has been developed at Mainland High School in Florida. This unit is for ninth and tenth graders and lasts for a two-week period. The activities are integrated across an English course, a math course, a biology course, and a health science course. In biology, students learn about prokaryotic cells; in math, students use conversion methods from the metric system to standard measurements of the bacterial cell that is viewed through the microscope; in English, students do research on prokaryotic cells while learning to document research; and in health science, students research bacterial diseases common to the human body. This cross-curriculum integration is what many see as the “holy grail” of career academics.
Design Element on Display. See 5.a. “Robust accountability measures”
Design Element on Display. See 2.a. “Strategic alignment to economic sectors"
The Career Connection is a partnership among Volusia County Schools, Flagler County Schools, Daytona State College, DSC, (formerly Daytona Beach Community College), the Workforce Development Board of Volusia/Flagler Counties, Inc., and business and community partners. The Career Connection provides career awareness, exploration and training to students throughout the high school experience and beyond through these strong partnerships.
Career Connection includes career academies, career planning, work-based learning resources, Career Pathways, (formerly known as Tech Prep), and the CTE/FCAT Connection program.
For several years, each career academy was individually responsible for marketing its program to students. As the number of career academies grew, this approach became more and more burdensome to the individual career academies and more difficult for students to sort through. So, in 2006, VCS began to offer two Career Academy Showcase events, one in the east side and one on the west side of the County. This event is open to all middle school students and their parents. In 2007, over 5,000 parents and students were in attendance. There is a master guide that profiles all high schools in the County and briefly explains the career academies offered at each campus. At the two Showcase events, each career academy sets up a table to provide more detailed information about the purpose and activities in the academy. Academy staff and students are also available to further explain to guests more about the career academy. Following the County-wide Showcases, students and their parents can sign up to participate in open-house events offered by each of the high schools (all on different evenings to avoid scheduling conflicts). After the open house events, students are invited to participate in a career academy “shadow” daytime visit, so they can see the academy in action and get to know some of the current students.
During the registration process, each student can sign up for three academies, and must indicate their order of priority for participation. The district does not guarantee placement into one of the academies, but says that most students get placed in one of three choices. This coordinated registration approach replaces a previous method where students would apply and be accepted at multiple academies, and then leave their spot unfilled at the beginning of the school year when they chose which academy to attend.
The district career academy application is posted on line and allows the prospective student to apply for enrollment to up to three academies. If a student is admitted to one of the academies for which he applied, the school will send information to the student so the student can apply for a transportation variance. The transportation variance makes the student eligible to receive public transportation to the school which is out of his normal zone of attendance. The transportation variance only applies for the student’s participation in that specific academy. If a student drops out of a particular academy, then he has to re-enroll in his home zone high school.
Since the beginning of the Career Connection, Volusia has collaborated closely with Daytona State College (DSC, previously known as Daytona Beach Community College.) Volusia and DSC have matched (or articulated) the content of 55 high school courses with 183 college credits in equivalent courses at Daytona State College, covering programs in business, criminal justice, culinary operations, early childhood, education, health, marketing, finance, industrial trades and technology. High school students completing these matched courses with a “B” or higher are eligible for Credit in Escrow for the course to be collected upon enrollment at DSC within five years after graduation from high school. In addition to the articulated courses, Volusia students are also eligible to “dual enroll” in academic and CTE courses offered by DSC.
Each career academy forms an advisory committee to provide advice on the content offered in the academy, and to provide a direct connection to work-based learning opportunities, externships for teachers, and expert presenters to come into the classroom. These career academy advisory committees ensure the quality and relevance of each career academy.
In addition to the individual academy advisory committees, the Career Connections Cadre is a leadership level organization that provides broad support and guidance to all career academy activities within the Volusia and Flagler school districts. A designated member from each academy advisory committee serves on the Cadre.
The Career Connections Cadre involves about 60 organizations representing the perspective of employers throughout Volusia County and the adjoining Flagler County. Firms and organizations that serve on the Cadre represent a wide range of career sectors such as accounting, automotive retailing and repair, the regional circuit court, engineering, electrical contracting, electronics, financial planning services, fire and rescue services, information technologies, landscaping, machining and manufacturing, medical offices and hospitals, news and media, commercial printing, and public utilities. Employers are also represented through local chambers of commerce, hotel and hospitality associations, and regional departments of economic development. Local colleges and universities also participate in the Cadre, representing their dual roles as providers of education and training as well as being employers. One of the largest employers in the region, the Daytona International Speedway, is a prominent member of the Cadre and employs about 1,000 people who are involved in various aspects of NASCAR, which is headquartered at the Speedway.
Back to TopUnder the leadership of Superintendent Margaret A. Smith, the District acts upon its vision statement:
“Through the individual commitment of all, our students will graduate with the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to be successful contributors to our democratic society.”
This statement was adopted by the School Board on April 14, 1992, and reaffirmed January 14, 1997.
Over the course of the years since 1992, there has been a consistent push to raise the quality of Career and Technical Education programs, both by integrating academic content into CTE courses, and by ensuring that CTE programs are closely aligned to the needs of the workplace. This sustained emphasis on CTE program quality, particularly with the academic/CTE integration emphasis, brought CTE teachers and academic teachers into close contact to develop the applied academic curricula. This sustained emphasis built relationships among CTE teachers and academic teachers, and also built growing respect of CTE instructors as masters of challenging and rigorous content. These relationships and sense of respect were the foundation needed to allow cross-collaboration so that CTE contextual applications were accepted by teachers of the core academic courses.
Design Element on Display. See 3.b. “Rigorous academic preparation”
VCS adopted an education reform strategy that centered on raising expectations of academic achievement for all students, including students who participate in a concentration of CTE courses. By raising these expectations to a consistent level, career academies have largely lost the stigma of being a second class program. That stigma can only be erased if programs really do offer an alternate, but equally rigorous, pathway through college preparatory courses.
Design Element on Display. See 2.cd “Teacher collaboration on curriculum”
The structured workshops of CTE and academic teachers, beginning in 1994 and continuing through the present day, provide the ideal environment for teachers. Instead of preaching a message of collaboration, VCS actually facilitated the ongoing collaboration among teachers from the CTE and academic programs. This practical collaboration around curriculum has been fully realized in the development and implementation of VCS’ career academies.
A management method discussed referred to a “loose/tight” approach. This type of management allows the district to be loose when it comes to exactly how programs are implemented and what tactics and curriculum are used to carry out programs. On the other hand, the district tries to balance the looseness of implementation approaches with a “tight” focus on program quality and program results. As an example, the district’s quality attributes have specific, measurable components that are required to be demonstrated in each of the career academies. These outcomes are defined in measurable terms. Over time, each career academy must demonstrate an increase in reaching these goals. However, there is a good deal of flexibility in how each career academy designs activities and strategies that meet these measurable targets.
Members of the Career Connection Cadre, the business and community partners of Volusia County, were emphatic about the openness to external input that was demonstrated by all of the Volusia County career academies. That sentiment was echoed by members of individual academy advisory committees that were interviewed. This openness to input about the curriculum and emphasis with career academies is essential to building buy-in and support from external partners.
It has been a slow process to have the district’s Management Information System updated so that it can track the progress of students by their career academy status. In 2008, the District’s system was modified to add new fields in each student’s individual record, recording the career academy of which they are part.
To expand data that can reflect the relative effectiveness of career academies, in 2007-08, new data are being collected to address four quality factors:
The following questions will be asked, and data elements collected and reported, related to these quality factors:
Focus Questions:
Data Indicators:
Focus Questions:
Data Indicators
Focus Questions:
Data Indicators
Focus Questions
Data Indicator
In 2008, the state budget for education was reduced by $3.4 billion, due to a major shortfall in state revenue. Some schools have been closed, transportation offerings have been curtailed, and class sizes have been increased to deal with the challenges of the budget crisis. As of summer 2008, funding for academy operations has been protected, but the role of Career Connections Facilitators (CCF) is being modified so that some CCF’s will provide services to more than one high school.
The Volusia County School District, beginning with its earliest efforts to connect rigorous academic content with career relevance, has created a strong model of high quality career academies distributed throughout the district’s high schools and serving over 3,500 students. The model provides options to students to pursue preparation for college and explore career options simultaneously. The district has made important progress in integrating academic and career content, supported its teachers for improved teaching and learning strategies, and implemented important quality control processes. Now, the district is rolling out the use of new data elements that can provide a stronger assessment of the student outcomes most closely associated with program quality.
As the district and the state weather the current budget crisis, the immediate challenge is to protect the significant program improvements for student success that have already been accomplished through the district’s career academy initiative. In future years, when the budget shortfall has averted and new resources again become available, Volusia’s career academy initiative will be well poised for a rapid deployment to full scale implementation of career academies to benefit all students in the district.
Prepared December 2008
This case study was prepared by the Meeder Consulting Group, LLC, a consulting firm providing research, analysis and strategic advisement on promising education practices. Hans Meeder, President of the firm, was formerly Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. For more information, visit the website: www.meederconsulting.com.