Welcome
Career academies are small, personalized learning communities within a high school that select a subset of students and teachers. Students enter the academy through a voluntary process; they must apply and be accepted with parental knowledge and support.
A career academy involves teachers from different subjects working together as a team.
Staff teams, who often share common planning time, work together to implement the key features of the academy and provide students with training in the career field. Students may be grouped together for several periods every day with a core group of teachers. This promotes a family-like atmosphere and results in close student-teacher ties.
A career academy includes the following essential elements:
- A small learning community supported by a local advisory committee
- A career theme that may include a college-prep curriculum and lead to industry certification
- Partnerships with employers, the community, and higher education
By design, these three central elements of a career academy lead to a school that is rigorous and relevant.
Goals
- Increase student achievement and graduation rates through integrated academic and career curricula.
- Focus on career preparation through rigorous curriculum and industry certification.
- Raise student aspiration and commitment to academic achievement and work ethics.
- Promote leadership development through participation in Career Student Organizations.
- Support the revised graduation requirements by providing creative, applied majors.
- Promote dual enrollment, articulated credit, or occupational completion points so that students may earn postsecondary credit while in high school.
- Support the state’s economy by meeting industry needs for skilled employees in high-demand occupations.
Admision Requirements for All Academy Students
- A student should have a genuine interest in the career area for which the student is applying.
- There is no minimum GPA required to apply to a career academy, however, all academies require a minimum unweighted 2.5 GPA semester average to remain in an academy.
- The applicant may not have a past history of consistent, serious discipline problems (as defined by the Code of Student Conduct) as determined by the principal with staff input.
- Applications will be submitted to the district office for random selection.
- Eligible students are accepted on a space-available basis.
- If the number of applicants exceeds the number of openings, twenty percent more students will be placed on a waiting list in priority order according to the random drawing.
- Qualified applicants are invited into the academy or placed on waiting lists based solely upon their random selection number. No student is guaranteed admission into an academy program based on his/her waiting list number. Students who choose to remain on a waiting list are not guaranteed an invitation. While students normally apply to academy programs from middle school (grade 8), ninth or tenth grade students may be admitted to certain high school academy programs under specified conditions.
- If a student is accepted into a high school career academy program but prior to entering that program is reassigned to a district discipline program or expelled due to a violation of the Code of Student Conduct, he/she will be considered ineligible for admission.
Current Academies
The following is a list of career and professional academies currently planned for Polk high schools.
| School: |
Career Academy: |
| Auburndale High |
Medical Academy (medical services field) |
| Bartow High |
Medical Academy (medical services field) |
| Frostproof High |
Bulldog Construction Academy (building construction) |
| George Jenkins High |
Academy of Legal Studies (pre-law, legal assistant, paralegal, real estate) and Medical Academy (medical services) |
| Haines City High |
ACES, Academy of Children’s and Educational Studies (childcare and early childhood education) |
| Kathleen High |
Criminal Justice, Law and Career Academy (criminal justice, law enforcement and pre-law studies) and Construction Academy (building construction) |
| Lake Gibson High |
Polk Academy of Business and Technology (accounting, business administration, Web and digital design), Finance Academy (financial planning) and a Medical Academy medical services) |
| Lake Region High |
Imagination, Inc. (marketing, advertising and graphic design) |
| Lakeland High |
Academy of Arts, Design and Technology (graphic art and multi-media design) |
| Mulberry High |
Automotive Technology (automotive repair and maintenance) |
| Ridge Community High |
Engineering Technology Academy (engineering, drafting) and a Medical Academy (medical services) |
