March 11, 2004

Contact:
Barbra Gonzalez, Associate Director
954-262-5354
Mara L. Kiffin, Assistant Director
954-262-5354
Elizabeth Ninomiya, Coordinator
954-262-5309

NSU Chosen As Site For New Office Of National Career Academy Coalition

FORT LAUDERDALE , FL - Nova Southeastern University (NSU) has been chosen as the site for the new business office of The National Career Academy Coalition, Inc., (NCAC) a grassroots organization dedicated to transforming large impersonal high schools into smaller career-oriented learning communities. NCAC's office is located at the National Institute for Educational Options (NIEO) at NSU's Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services (FGSEHS).

H. Wells Singleton, Ph.D., Education Provost and University Dean, welcomed the board executives of the National Career Academy Coalition, Inc. (NCAC) to NIEO at the FGSEHS campus in North Miami Beach , and said that a strategic alliance with NCAC is a win-win-win situation for students, schools, and NSU. “NCAC fits right in with NSU's goals of serving the educational community and assisting K-12 schools,” he said.

Career academy schools are intended to assist in the improvement of student achievement, educational goals, increasing graduation rates and self-esteem, and improving student behavior by relocating them from large comprehensive high schools to small educational college preparatory academies with career concentrations in subjects such as business and finance, medical care, and graphic arts.

The office is currently planning its first major event for the organization, and is recruiting members. The first event will be the 2004 Technical Assistance Conference on “Writing the Next Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Grant Application for Career Academies,” to be held at NSU's North Miami Beach campus March 21-23, 2004.

Technical assistance conferences assist district personnel and schools in writing federal grants to support school programs, and introduce school personnel from around the country to nationally-known grant writers and members of the U.S. Dept. of Education that oversee grants. The Smaller Learning Communities grant distributed over $473,000,000 for the 2000-2003 budget years.

For more information on the National Career Academy Coalition and its upcoming conference, please call (954) 262-8717, or toll free at (800) 986-3223 x 28717, or at nieo@nsu.nova.edu.

The Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services has been a world leader for more than 30 years in distance graduate education for educators, organizational leaders, and human service providers. FGSEHS has more than 11,000 students in graduate education programs across the country, including both online programs and live classes in more than 50 cities, 22 states, and nine foreign countries.