Extreme School Makeover: Career Academy Edition

In this article, the author, a health and physical education teacher at the Red Bank High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, describes the process of a school "makeover." Having been informed by the school principal that the plan was to develop a career academy and have it in place for the next school year, the author was assigned a new title: community educational liaison, and tasked with researching career academies to find examples of successful ones. She discusses the best choices of academies for their school, which became clear through a survey given to the student body and an assessment of the community needs and resources. The author states that in every extreme makeover, there is a final reveal, but in their case, it is not final but ongoing. As they continue to analyze data, they have seen attendance rates improve to 95 percent, failure rates decline, serious discipline issues drop, and graduation rates increase. All of this has been accomplished by a staff that was willing to go the extra mile to personalize the education of their students, provide a rigorous and engaging curriculum for all students, and involve the parents and community in their educational process.