Ron Huberman

Chief Executive Officer

David G. Gilligan
Chief High School Officer

Office of High Schools and High School Programs, 125 South Clark Street, 12th Floor · Chicago, Illinois 60603
Telephone 773/553-3540 · Fax 773/553-2148

Lydia C. Nantwi
Administrator

Memorandum
Date: April 23, 2009

To: High School Principals

Cc: Ron Huberman

Dr. Barbara Eason-Watkins
High School Area Instruction Officers
Military Area Officer
Melissa Megliola-Zaikos
Alan Anderson
Bernard McCune
Aarti Dhupelia
Office of High Schools and High School Programs Staff

From: David G. Gilligan

Subject: Career and Technical Education Retooling

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The Office of High Schools and High School Programs’ Department of College and Career Preparation (DCCP) is
excited to announce a retooled strategy for Career and Technical Education (CTE) that will enhance our ability to
provide CPS students with viable pathways to college and careers.

Strategy Overview
• Building Career Academies: Starting with the 2009-2010 school year, we will begin a 5-7 year effort toward
developing a system of ~ 80 high-quality, ‘destination point’ Career Academies across the district, with the
expectation of housing these academies across 30-40 schools over the long-term. These academies will:
o Provide CTE training in high-priority industry areas based on local labor market needs (e.g., Health
Science, Information Technology, etc.)
o In most cases, offer multiple programs within a career cluster (e.g., a Construction Academy might
contain Architectural Drafting, Carpentry, Plumbing, and Electricity)
o Be well-distributed geographically across CPS high schools
o In many cases, be expansions of strong, existing CTE programs within our schools.
We anticipate development of ~15 academies across ~5 schools each year over the next 4 years, eventually
reaching ~80 academies within 5-7 years.
• Closing / Phasing Out CTE Programs: Concurrently, in an effort to focus our limited resources on building
bigger and higher-quality career academies in fewer sites than where we currently offer CTE programs, we
will also begin closing or phasing out existing CTE programs that are not prioritized to expand into
academies. We anticipate 30-40 program closures or phase-outs per year over the next 5-7 years. Over the
long-term, we do not expect to maintain standalone CTE programs – eventually, with few exceptions, all CTE
programs should be transformed into academies or phased out.

Educate. Inspire. Transform.

• Number of Students Participating: We plan to maintain or increase the number of students participating in CTE
over the next 5-7 years by coordinating the pace of openings and closings – i.e., while CTE program
opportunities will eventually be concentrated in fewer school sites citywide, student enrollment in CTE should
remain relatively constant or increase over time.

Defining Characteristics of Career Academies

Several key characteristics will differentiate career academies from CTE programs opened in the past:
• Significant Size: Career academies will enroll enough students to sustain at least two teachers, to ensure program
sustainability and increased ability to attract the support of industry partners.
• Academies of Choice: Students interested in career academies must apply for entry and cannot be enrolled in
academies without having expressed written interest beforehand. Please note that the career academy student
application process is under development and will likely be rolled out with the fall 2010 high school application
process.
• Citywide Enrollment Boundaries: Where feasible, DCCP will work to establish citywide enrollment boundaries
for career academies, to ensure students have access to as many career academy options citywide as possible.
• Academy Enhancement Funding: Research suggests that integrated curriculum planning and professional
development between core curricula and CTE teachers plays a significant role in building successful career
academies. Thus, additional funds will be made available to each career academy that presents a robust plan for
integrating planning and/or PD. Additional supports may also be provided on an as-needed basis.
• Shared Commitment: Schools and DCCP will jointly commit to developing and continuously improving every
career academy that is approved. Schools and DCCP will sign a CTE Program Agreement which will detail a
variety of commitments to ensure the ongoing sustainability of the academy – e.g., to keep academies open once
significant facilities investments are made, to share select operating costs, to ensure CTE teachers attend PD
organized by DCCP, to maintain equipment, to work toward identified performance targets, etc.

Additional defining characteristics of career academies may be identified as planning efforts continue, (for example,
if feasible, we may consider developing a career exploration course within career academies) – and we welcome
your input on additional ways to enhance the success of career academies going forward.

Finally, there are enhancements we plan to apply both to new career academies and existing CTE programs. These
will include but not be limited to:
• Aligned Assessments and Curriculum: DCCP plans to collaborate with external partners to incorporate third-
party validated assessments and curriculum into career academies and existing CTE programs in order to drive
ongoing student skill-attainment in alignment with industry standards.
• More Work-Based Experiences: Concentrating students at fewer sites will support efforts to build stronger
industry partnerships, and DCCP will set clearer expectations for partners to focus their efforts on providing
work-based experiences.
• More Pathways to College and Careers: CPS will focus greater efforts on building articulation agreements and
apprenticeship opportunities as well as creating awareness of industry credential opportunities. Financial
support for credentialing may also be provided to students in need.

‘Phase 1’ of Strategy Implementation

• ‘Phase 1’ Focus Schools: For the first four years of implementation (i.e., fall 2009 through fall 2012), the
primary focus will be on building career academies in turnaround schools (e.g., Fenger), existing ‘CTE-focused’
high schools (currently known as ‘career academies’ in name, e.g., CVCA), and several schools where academy
developments were already underway prior to development of this retooling strategy. The 22 selected ‘Phase 1’
focus schools for these 4 years have already been notified.
• Opportunities for Additional Schools: While eventually we will offer all interested high schools the opportunity
to apply to house a career academy, plans for academy development school sites are already in place for fall
2009 and 2010. Opportunity for additional high schools to apply for career academies will be for fall 2011
openings or later. We will be distributing a formal career academy application process in the coming months.
• Continued Freeze on New CTE Program Openings: Outside of any career academy developments approved by
DCCP as part of this new career academy application process, the existing freeze on new CTE program openings
will continue – i.e., going forward, no new CTE program requests will be approved outside of the new career
academy application process.
• Collaborative Career Academy Decisions: Industry focus areas for career academies will be determined in
partnership between DCCP and principals – again, with the goal of developing academies that are focused on
high-priority industry areas, that are well-distributed geographically, and ideally, that build from strong existing
CTE programs.
• Ongoing Program Closure / Phase-Out Decisions: CTE program closure and phase-out decisions this year,
across ‘Phase 1’ and non-Phase 1 schools, were made in partnership with principals – programs closed were
those that either already began phase-out in previous years, or that principals volunteered for closure or phase-
out this year. In many cases, schools opted to close some programs in order to focus on and prioritize expanding
other existing programs into academies. In future years, in order to maintain the pace of 30-40 program
closures/phase-outs per year, if a sufficient number of program closures or phase-outs is not volunteered by
schools, there may be some closures or phase-outs mandated by DCCP. In the coming months, DCCP will
develop and share with you a transparent, outcomes-based program evaluation rubric to inform these annual
decisions going forward.
• Maintaining Existing CTE Programs: Finally, for any school with existing CTE program(s) that is not selected
for ‘Phase 1’ academy openings and that is not asked by DCCP to close any of its existing programs in a given
year, the school will be able to maintain its existing CTE program(s) ‘business as usual’ for that year. Note:
Any school looking to voluntarily close or phase out a program at any point in time should contact Aarti
Dhupelia, Acting CTE Director, at 773/553-3903 before proceeding with such action.

Shared Costs
DCCP will continue to provide significant funding support for both existing CTE programs and new career
academies. However, some expenses previously covered entirely by DCCP will be shared by schools and DCCP
going forward – in particular, key changes are as follows:
• Career Development Facilitator (CDF) salaries and benefits will be funded 50% by schools and 50% by
DCCP beginning in the 2009-2010 school year.
• CTE Textbooks will be funded 50% by schools and 50% by DCCP in the 2009-2010 school year, and 100%
by schools in subsequent years.

These funding changes will ensure ongoing shared DCCP/school commitment to CTE programs and career
academies, and they will enable DCCP to provide a more robust set of supports across all CTE programs. Please see
attached Exhibit 1 for additional details regarding future CTE funding expectations for DCCP and schools.
Note: Because 2009-2010 SIPAAAs have already been submitted, if a school is concerned about being able to fund
textbook costs in 2009-2010, the Principal should contact Aarti Dhupelia for further discussion. Please also note
that in the coming weeks, DCCP will be reaching out to principals and CTE teachers to inventory their existing CTE
equipment and to assess CTE supply needs for the upcoming year – these processes will enable DCCP to better
support each school’s CTE needs.

Path Forward
Implementation efforts are already underway for fall 2009 and fall 2010 career academy openings, and planning for
fall 2011 and fall 2012 academies will also continue over the coming months. We will continue to provide you with
further information as it becomes available (e.g., career academy application form, future years’ program evaluation
rubric, etc.) In addition, we truly welcome your input regarding how to enhance this CTE strategy in any way – in
particular, in terms of how DCCP can best support your work (e.g., by providing more support in recruiting teachers,
coaching teachers, building industry partnerships, etc.) Going forward, we plan to organize focus groups and
administer surveys in order to hear your ideas, but in the meantime your feedback is welcome at any point.

We are excited to begin implementation of this new CTE strategy and look forward to working with all of you in the
coming months and years to build high-quality career academies for our students. Please direct any questions,
comments, or feedback to Bernard McCune (Acting DCCP Officer) at 773/553-4364 or Aarti Dhupelia (Acting CTE
Director) at 773/553-3903.

DGG / ad

Attachment
 Exhibit 1: CTE Operating Costs – FY10 Funding Expectations for DCCP and Schools

DCCP School Expected $

Programs Expected % Expected % Cost to
Account/Item Affected of Cost of Cost School Additional Comments
Career All 50% 50% Approx. Exact expected cost to school depends on
Development $30,000 per individual's salary.
Facilitator (CDF) year
Core Textbooks All 50% 50% Approx. Exact textbook cost will vary by program.
$2,500 per Additionally, beginning in FY11, core textbook
program every costs will be 100% funded by schools.
3 years Supplemental material and workbooks will be
funded by DCCP.

DCCP is committed to providing a variety of additional funding supports to help schools develop and maintain
high-quality CTE opportunities for students. Examples of CTE program-specific items funded 100% by DCCP
include:

• Instructional software
• Supplies
• Food supplies for Culinary Arts programs
• Equipment
• Computers and printers
• Field trips
• Postage
• Printing
• Repair – computer-related
• Repair – non-computer