The National Career Academy Coalition provides the only national certification for career academies across the country. Practitioners and evaluators have found that academies that adhere to all the major components defining academies are far more likely to show positive results for student success. “Model” academies are able to use their status to garner additional funds and resources. As academies significantly multiply across the country and school districts and business partners want to learn how to design and implement academies, looking to “Model” academies becomes an answer.

The NCAC career academy review process is based on the ten National Standards of Practice (NSOP), introduced in 2004 in Washington, DC by a consortium of career academy organizations and endorsed by the US Departments of Education and Labor. An academy requesting a review goes through a written self-assessment process and a site visit and is ranked as “Model,” “Certified” or “In Progress.”

Those ranked as “Model” as of August 2009 are listed here and are academies that adhere to the National Standards. The NCAC review process has been heavily piloted the past two years and will be advertised nationally in the near future. We appreciate the states of Florida, Arkansas, Texas and New Jersey for participating with us and look forward to an expanded listing of “Model” academies as the years move on. Academies wishing to inquire about the review process may contact Sharon Tritschler at sharon1437@aol.com, Jan Struebing at jstruebi@sbcglobal.net or Susan Katzman at susan314@charter.net.