The paper Reforming High Schools: The Role for Career Academies explores how career academies can be used as a strategy for transforming the traditional, comprehensive high school in ways that support all students’ learning to high standards.

Students in schools in which learning is relevant don’t ask the question, “Why do I have to learn this?” Curricula is set in context so students can see how knowledge builds on what they already know, and it is applied so they can see how it is used in the real world.

By design, the three central elements of a career academy lead to a school that is rigorous, relevant, and relational. As such, career academies are an example of a reform model for policymakers and practitioners to consider as they reform high schools.

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