What Works Career Choices
Go with What Works: Career Choices & the 10-yearPlan - Classroom Ideas

Proven Programs Demonstrating Decades of Success



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McKay High School (Salem, Oregon) has seen major changes since the introduction of a Career Choices summer program for at-risk incoming freshmen in 2011. The summer program fosters relationships among students while providing the academic and study skills necessary to be successful in high school. McKay High School once had one of the highest dropout rates in Oregon, with 186 students dropping out (2002-03). High dropout rates, poor attendance, and low test scores prompted Silverado High School (Victorville, California) to implement small learning communities using the Career Choices curriculum. Tennessee implemented a statewide Freshman Transition Initiative entitled Career Management Success from 2002-04. The vast majority of school districts adopted Career Choices to meet this new requirement for career education. Duval County Public School District (Jacksonville, Florida) mandated a Freshman Transition course be implemented with over 9,000 freshmen in 19 high schools as part of a district-wide freshman initiative during the 2006-07 school year. In a presentation to the American Youth Policy Forum, Director of High Schools for the district Beverly Strickland reported: The Delaware School-To-Work Program used the Career Choices curriculum in a 24-day summer program. The Denver Summer Youth Employment and Training program used the Career Choices curriculum to provide academic enrichment services for 149 at-risk students. An independent evaluation of the 1996 program reported: The Havre Summer Youth Program (Havre, Montana) targeted students with academic deficiencies for a culturally relevant remedial course. Students were tested before and after program participation. In an effort to address a very high dropout rate, Career Choices became the backbone of a required course for all freshmen at Coachella Valley High School (Thermal, California) in 1992. The Boston Summer Youth Program (Boston, Massachusetts) sought to link learning to real life in an immediate, tangible way. It clearly succeeded. Then-Coordinator of Delaware's Tech Prep Consortium Dr. Jim Campbell was looking to add a guidance component to the program when he discovered the Career Choices curriculum in 1991. Career Choices was subsequently introduced in six districts in Delaware. A few years later, he reported the following:
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I commend these materials for use in high school...I particularly like that the curriculum is grounded in a specific academic discipline and that it is competency-based.


~Dale Parnell , Author
The Neglected Majority
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