Welcome

You are entering the website of the new and emerging Career Academy Division (CAD) of the Florida Association for Career and Technical Education (FACTE). Our parent association, FACTE, formed in 1926, is a non-profit organization committed to the development of education that will prepare both young and adult Floridians for successful careers.

What is a Career Academy? A Career Academy is a research-based instructional delivery and national reform model that has produced positive academic and labor market results for over 40 years. Career Academies have demonstrated increases in high school attendance, graduation rates, post-secondary education, and earning potential.

Features of a Career Academy:

 1. A small learning community, comprised of a group of students within the largerhigh school, who take classes together for at least two years and are taught by ateam of  teachers from different disciplines.

 2. A college preparatory curriculum with a career theme, enabling students toidentify relationships among academic subjects and their application to a broadfield of work.

 3. Partnerships with employers, the community and local colleges that bringresources from outside the high school to improve student motivation andachievement.

 4. Use of the National Standards of Practice (NSOP) for career academies that were developed by an informal consortium of national career academy organizationsand are  framed around 10 key elements for successful, sustained implementation.

Our Mission: The mission of our Career Academy Division is to maintain active state leadership in career and technical education and high school reform.  It is our goal to promote the benefits of the Career Academy model, including the use of the “National Standards of Practice (NSOP),” in the state of Florida.

Our Slogan: The slogan of the Career Academy Division is “College Prep+…Adding Career Academies=Future Success.” By advocating for the addition of the Career Academy Model in comprehensive or theme specific high schools, we are addressing three major economic realities:

 1. More than half of the jobs across the nation that pay livable wages in today’ seconomy do not require a standard four-year degree, but rather some form of industry certification and/or post-secondary education.

 2. To be successful, a person needs at least two pieces of paper…a “ high schooldiploma,” based on a core academic curriculum that keeps postsecondary options open and “ something else.”

 3. The “ something else” needs to be a meaningful industry certification earnedthrough multiple high school and post-secondary career pathways.

Return on Investment (ROI): Career Academies provide a strong return on investment (ROI) yielding increased student achievement, a value added high school diploma, increased success in postsecondary endeavors, increased wages, increased tax revenues and reductions in government spending on public assistance.

Join FACTE/CAD: Please consider joining our organization comprised of secondary and post-secondary educators, business and industry professionals, and all members of the community interested in fostering a high skill, high wage, high demand workforce.

Please view the Presidents Letter by clicking here.