JROTC Career Academies' Guidebook

JROTC Career Academies' Guidebook

Abby E. Robyn, Lawrence M. Hanser

RAND Copyright © 1995

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Preface

The JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) Career Academy Program is a unique and innovative enterprise joining together the experience and resources of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Department of Education (DoED). JROTC Career Academies represent a partnership among the DoD, the DoED, individual school districts, and the business community. The program personalizes instruction through schools-within-schools and provides the leadership and vocational and academic training that youth at risk of dropping out of school need to compete in a changing global economy. As a new partner in career academies, JROTC brings a long history of developing skills in leadership, self-discipline, and citizenship in high school students.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that conducts policy research in the public interest. Through its National Defense Research Institute (NDRI), a federally funded research and development center supported by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the defense agencies, RAND has contracted with the Department of Defense to assist in developing the JROTC Career Academy Program and to evaluate it. The work for this guidebook was done in NDRI's Forces and Resources Policy Center.

This guidebook is designed as a planning aid for districts participating in the JROTC Career Academy Program.

Introduction

The JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps) Career Academy Program is a unique and innovative enterprise joining together the experience and resources of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Department of Education (DoED). JROTC Career Academies represent a partnership among the DoD, the DoED, individual school districts, and the business community. The program personalizes instruction through schools-within-schools and provides the leadership and vocational and academic training that youth at risk of dropping out of school need to compete in a changing global economy.

As a new partner in career academies, JROTC brings a long history of developing skills in leadership, self-discipline, and citizenship in high school students. The JROTC Career Academy Program emphasizes high school graduation through academic instruction; critical skills development through a career field focus; and citizenship, leadership, responsibility, values, and discipline through the JROTC course of instruction.

This guidebook is designed as a planning aid for districts participating in the JROTC Career Academy Program. It describes the academy model (in Chapter Two) and the roles of various participants (in Chapter Three), and provides an implementation timeline (in the Appendix) and a bibliography. The National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE) publishes and makes available at minimal cost several reports that may be useful to academies as they work to implement key components of the model, such as integrating academic and vocational curricula. A brief list is included at the end of this report.

Much of the material included in this guidebook has been drawn from the reported experiences of school districts that have implemented career academies, including the California Peninsula Academies, Philadelphia High School Academies, Inc., and the New York high school academies.

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Contents

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Theoretical Basis and Overview of the Academy Model

Broad Occupational Focus
Designated Staff
Block Scheduling
Common Planning Period
Reduced Class Size
Integrated Academic and Vocational Instruction
Business Partnerships
JROTC Partnership

Chapter Three: Participant Responsibilities

U.S. Department of Defense
U.S. Department of Education
RAND
Districts and Schools
Business and Industry

Chapter Four: Conclusion

Appendix: JROTC Career Academy Implementation Timeline

Bibliography

To order this document . . .

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