OPINION: Anchorage school academy would require big trade-offs

The ADN editorial board recently praised ASD’s Academy of Anchorage (AoA) as a “worthwhile experiment” and “a win for Alaska business,” adding that the new model “gives students more choice without compromising their educational experience.” While AoA is based on real need and good intentions, ASD has limited resources available to it. In the current climate, this initiative may require ASD to make trade-offs that, if enacted, would compromise the educational experience of thousands of students. Moreover, decades of research into the model ASD has chosen to adopt suggests that there may be significant limitations to the effectiveness of the effort we are embarking on.

ASD administrators have envisioned transforming the career and technical education (CTE) offerings at each comprehensive high school since at least 2017 as a means to improve high school graduation rates. But leaders paused the effort amid ASD’s growing financial constraints, the 2018 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The idea recently took shape around the implementation of a “career academy,” and has resurfaced for the 2021-22 school year: With ASD graduation rates declining from their 2019 peak, an influx of COVID-19 relief funds, and the school board’s goal of helping students become more “life and college and/or career ready” (CCL), administrators reassessed ASD’s readiness for change, signed a contract to receive guidance, and sent at least 150 educators and community members to tour the model school system.

Career academies have been around since the late 20th century to reduce dropout rates. (An updated intervention report in 2015 highlighted the potential of career academies in this area.) Essentially, career academies are small learning communities of around 150-200 students that combine academic, career and technical curriculum around a career theme, with local employers providing career awareness and work-based learning opportunities.

However, their effectiveness may be less convincing when considering gendered outcomes and their impact on academic achievement. In 2004, researchers found that career academies “improved the labor market prospects of young men,” but the same was not true for young women. A 2019 study further showed that while career academies in well-resourced school districts can increase high school graduation rates and improve industry credential outcomes for boys, the academies “have little effect on academic achievement (e.g., math, reading, and writing),” “AP course taking rates during high school,” or graduation and college enrollment rates for girls.

Despite these shortcomings, numerous career academies exist, and the academies in Nashville, Tennessee, and Akron, Ohio, continue to serve as prime examples of well-resourced academies in practice for ASD. The former was founded in the mid-2000s in response to a Johns Hopkins University study that called Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) schools “dropout factories.” After securing seed funding and focusing on and “running well” the Freshman Academy for three years, MNPS launched what would become the Nashville Academy, a career academy model that was inclusive of all students and saw its graduation rate rise from approximately 58% to approximately 82% in 2023, now on par with ASD’s overall graduation rate in 2023.

Currently, Nashville relies on more than 300 business and community partners and a budgeted ratio of 11-14 students per certified staff member, depending on the school, to mentor its students. (By comparison, this is more than twice as staffing-intensive as ASD’s FY 2024 budget ratio of 27-28 students per certified staff member.) Nashville’s programs also benefit from millions of dollars worth of donated time, funding and supplies, modern learning spaces and job shadowing opportunities.

Similarly, students at the Academy of Akron, which modeled its system on Nashville in 2011, enjoy $800 million in new facilities, significant financial and volunteer investment from major corporations like Goodyear, and class sizes comparable to those in Nashville. They, too, have seen their graduation rates rise since the academy launched with one pilot school.

While ASD made a remarkable recovery in graduation rates between 2011 and 2019, the data shows that boys graduate at a lower rate than girls, economically disadvantaged students and students receiving special education (SPED) services graduate at a lower rate than those who do not, and there is a large gap between graduation rates for white students and students of color. These very real disparities are at the heart of ASD’s intent. The challenge is how to make it happen amid these challenges.

ASD’s financial constraints for the 2025-26 budget cycle are enormous, with a best-case scenario deficit of $71 million. But even if the district were to close a large number of schools (beginning in 2025-26), use fund balances well below best practices, and increase retirement estimates, it would be difficult to cut the $71 million deficit even in half. I believe the Board of Education will be forced to eliminate a set of successful programs, as yet undefined, and increase class sizes in 2025-26, before considering the needs of the AoA.

But now, the administration’s proposed additional investment of $3.5 million to establish the AoA in 2025-26 would come from the district’s general fund, an investment that will be combined with another $3 million ASD is set to receive from a Growing Diverse Schools grant.

However, allocating funds across the district does not allow resources to be focused on the largest clusters of at-risk students (or schools) that would benefit most from available funding and a career academy approach. Given the 40-point difference between the graduation rates of students enrolled in credit recovery programs and comprehensive high schools on the one hand, and the 16-point difference between the graduation rates of the highest and lowest performing comprehensive high schools on the other, my personal view is that allocating scarce resources to all eight of ASD’s comprehensive high schools would be inefficient at best and likely ineffective, and would force the board to make significant tradeoffs elsewhere in the system.

What’s the trade-off? Under the AoA plan, ASD will hire 12 new administrators and 30 high school teachers in 2025-26. (Eight of those administrators were pulled from the classroom last year to become Freshman Academy coaches and help with AoA’s plan; four new assistant principals will be added in 2025-26.) But if ASD diverted $3.5 million from its general fund to support these 30 new teachers, could the district maintain reading and math growth for younger students? (For reference, over the past year, ASD students showed faster-than-average catch-up growth in both early reading and math.) Additional resources for elementary and middle school students are still desperately needed.

Meanwhile, both graduation requirements and students’ course loads would need to change: Pending administrative proposals and board approval this fall, ASD will require students to take seven or eight courses per semester instead of six, starting in the 2025-26 school year, which would open up opportunities for both electives and remedial classes but would drastically reduce the amount of class time in certain courses.

Switching from six to seven courses would eliminate 32 of the 258 minutes currently allotted per class per week, a reduction of 12.4 percent. Over the course of a year, this is the equivalent of ending classes about four and a half weeks early. In contrast, switching to an eight-course schedule would eliminate 60 minutes per week for each course. A reduction of 23.3 percent in instructional time is the equivalent of ending the school year more than eight weeks early.

But while the 2025-26 changes feel like a long way off, the 2024-25 school year is just around the corner. ASD plans for all freshmen enrolled in comprehensive high schools to participate in the Freshman Academy and a semester-long Career Academy (FACE) exploration course starting this August. The primary goals are to improve attendance, reduce Ds and Fs in ninth grade, reduce suspensions and lower dropout rates. The FACE course is designed to help students decide which academies and pathways to attend if they choose to participate in the AoA beginning in 10th grade.

While these goals remain important, and data shows the transition to high school will be real and disruptive for some students, implementing FACE this fall will require ASD to take both teachers and students out of key social studies classes and have students beta test an exploratory course that is not yet fully designed, is still exploring community partnerships, is not a board-approved graduation requirement, does not meet college entry requirements, and would require additional district investment.

Although well-intentioned, AoA changes will have system-wide ramifications. But given that the Board supports AoA as an institution and the administration believes in it, I hope the community and district administration will find a way to make it plausible to implement and support the progress of all students. And I sincerely hope that everyone leaves with the impression that AoA is a “worthwhile experiment” and a “win” for local businesses that will increase student choice without compromising educational opportunity, press the Governor to approve all of the funds appropriated by the Legislature for education by the June 28 veto deadline, publicly solicit the millions of dollars in corporate funding and volunteer time that ASD desperately needs from its partners to execute on this vision, and elect pro-education candidates in the upcoming November elections.

Kelly Lessens She is a member of the Anchorage School District Board of Trustees and a parent of two ASD students, and the opinions shared here are her own and do not reflect those of the board or the district as a whole.

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