The Anchorage School District is moving forward with the next phase of its career academies program but in a smaller, more streamlined form that will be optional for older high school students.
Starting next fall, 10th-12th graders can begin taking career-focused courses through the Academies of Anchorage program at each of the district’s eight comprehensive high schools. Students will be able to choose from elective courses in construction, health services, leadership in law and public service, and many more.
ASD Senior Director of Teaching and Learning Sean Prince provided an update on academies during a school board committee meeting last week. He said the district is adapting to what they learned during the first year of the freshman academy course.
“Academies is just preparing people to be able to be successful in life and pivot and turn and grow,” Prince said. “If we don't win, we learn. That has to be a mantra.”
The district implemented the career academies this year in conjunction with changing start times and moving sixth graders to middle schools. Altogether the changes are meant to boost graduation rates and bolster the local workforce.
A prerequisite career exploration course for freshmen is mandatory, but older students are not required to take the career-focused classes in later grades. Last week, the Anchorage School Board unanimously voted to approve a social studies credit waiver for this year’s freshman, because the class did not fit state requirements as a social studies course, which were updated in December.
The district’s controversial plan to add two class periods to the school day was put on hold in November over concerns about reduced core class time, staffing and funding.
ASD Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said the waiver was necessary without the proposed schedule change.
“The board will only have to do that once,” Bryantt said. “We’re not saying that students will have one fewer .5 social studies credit. What we’re saying is that for this particular group of freshmen, they enrolled in a class that could've been designated as social studies, but it was not designed that way, so we’ve made that change. Moving forward they’ll be enrolled in the class that will give them a social studies credit.”
Now called College, Career Exploration with Personal Finance, the updated curriculum for incoming freshmen does count towards social studies requirements.
Kelly Lessens was the only school board member to vote against the career academies plan last June. She thinks the district could do a better job clarifying its vision for the program.
“I think that an update for the Academies of Anchorage master plan at some point in the near future would be helpful to help everyone and all stakeholders understand what the direction is exactly,” Lessens said.
Lessens assumes the state will not boost funding enough to provide for the additional $3.5 million and 30 teachers needed to expand to an eight-period school day for high schoolers. Prince says the schedule change may be delayed by three-to-five years.
During the work session, Prince also noted the U.S. Department of Education’s Fostering Diverse Schools grant is being redirected. The grant money funded four academy-focused assistant principal positions, and will now go toward six career and technical education teachers.
Individual school principals will make hiring decisions for the additional career and technical education teachers.
