Northwest Florida, consisting of both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, is made up of diverse communities, independent spirits, and unique perspectives. People create their own lifestyle, working, living, playing their way, and in doing so, they shape this community of communities.
The area of Pensacola is the place where Southern hospitality is mixed with a beachfront lifestyle. After all, what else would you expect from a city named the seventh most polite city in the nation? This area has a population of 439,877 and includes the Pensacola Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. The city of Pensacola is nicknamed “The city of Five flags,” due to the five governments that have flown flags over it during its history. Other nicknames include “World’s Whitest Beaches,” and “Cradle of Naval Aviation,” “Western Gate to the sunshine State,” “America’s First Settlement,” “Emerald Coast,” and “Red Snapper Capital of the World.”
This area has had a colorful and rich history with both wars and hurricanes. Going back nearly 450 years, the first European settlement was established in the continental U.S. in 1559 with 1,400 people from Vera Cruz, only to be destroyed a week later by a hurricane. This was six years before the settlement of St. Augustine. The National Museum of Naval Aviation is located here and this area also hosts the Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show each November. Swimming, fishing, windsurfing, snorkeling, scuba diving are favorite activities of this area that also boasts of some the most pristine white beaches in the world and in nearby Milton, canoeing, kayaking and tubing are popular in the crystal-clear spring-fed waters. In fact, Milton is dubbed the “Canoe Capital of Florida.”
Next Generation Learning Community Designation by Ford Motor Company Fund
A Ford PAS Next Generation Learning Community designation program used the 12 best practices indicators of success to evaluate this community and in August, 2007, this community was designated as a Ford Motor Company Fund Next Generation Learning Community due to its alignment between business, industry, and education, and its efforts to create a “dual county” career academy system based on economic development targets.
Career academies, which puts the power of workplace “relevance” and business “relationships” to work to excite young people about education as well as prepare them for the workplace and postsecondary education. When successfully implemented, career academies also improve attendance, grades, and graduation rates and help to ensure a smooth transition from high school to postsecondary and workplace success. They also are thought to reduce the need for academic remediation at postsecondary institutions, foster more rapid acquisition of proficiency in the English language, and improve test scores.
The School District of Escambia County ranks in the top 200 of over 15,000 school districts nationwide in terms of student population. It has approximately 40,000 students and 10,850 high school students.
The district has a long, proud history of providing exceptional parental choice with state and nationally recognized schools and programs, including an International Baccalaureate program and the state-of-the-art West Florida High School of Advanced Technology, with wall to wall career academy education. The district also offers numerous magnet programs at all levels and is leading the way in Florida in rising to the challenge of providing an array of career academies in both middle and high school to address workforce education in alignment with statewide and local economic development targets.
The Santa Rosa County School district is a school system that enjoys a strong reputation across the state. It is recognized for its outstanding success in student achievement. At present, the Santa Rosa County School District enrolls more than 26,000 students from a county population of over 150,500. Of these, 7,543 are high school students. Our public education system includes 17 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, 6 high schools, a pre-kindergarten center, a technical center, an adult school, a community school, and a variety of alternative educational programs. Career academies are in six of the high schools with the newest academy, the Construction Academy, being offered as an articulated effort between the technical center and 3 of the high schools.
The career academies in the high schools are:
| County | High School | Academy | # of Students |
| Escambia | Booker T. Washington | 24.47% | |
| Early Childhood Education Academy | 121 | ||
| E-Commerce Academy | 78 | ||
| E-Commerce Marketing Academy | 75 | ||
| Teacher Educators Academy | 28 | ||
| Health Science Academy | 116 | ||
| Escambia High School | 4.98% | ||
| Engineering Academy | 97 | ||
| J. M. Tate High School | 17.76% | ||
| Early Childhood Academy | 99 | ||
| Game, Simulation & Animation Academy | 111 | ||
| Multi Media Academy | 132 | ||
| Northview High School | .73% | ||
| Building Trades & Construction Design | 4 | ||
| Pensacola High School | 14.84% | ||
| Academy of Health Professions Academy | 170 | ||
| Law and Public Service Academy | 61 | ||
| Pine Forest High School | 27.99% | ||
| Culinary Arts Academy | 342 | ||
| Design Services Academy | 92 | ||
| Early Childhood Education Academy | 85 | ||
| West Florida High School | Wall-to-wall Academies | 100% 1,310 | |
| Total for Escambia County: | 3,007 | ||
| Santa Rosa | Central High School | 12.5% | |
| Digital Design | 19 | ||
| Gulf Breeze High School | 14.26% | ||
| Web Design | 108 | ||
| Jay High School | 24.09% | ||
| Commercial Arts | 52 | ||
| Digital Design | 21 | ||
| Milton High School | 6.14% | ||
| Building Construction Technology | 31 | ||
| Web Design | 81 | ||
| Navarre High School | 12.78% | ||
| Building Construction Technology | 77 | ||
| Digital Design | 78 | ||
| Web Design | 78 | ||
| Pace High School | 29% | ||
| Building Construction Technology | 40 | ||
| Culinary Operations | 307 | ||
| Digital Design | 125 | ||
| Web Design | 84 | ||
| Locklin Tech | 43.53% | ||
| Applied Welding Technology | 15 | ||
| Automotive Service Technology | 21 | ||
| Carpentry | 20 | ||
| Cisco Networking | 16 | ||
| Computer Systems Technology | 7 | ||
| Culinary Operations | 19 | ||
| Electricity | 17 | ||
| Health Careers/CAN | 26 | ||
| Heating AC & Refrigeration Tech | 20 | ||
| Web Design | 14 | ||
| Total for Santa Rosa County: | 1,256 |
Best Practice of the Indicators of Success
The development of the Master Plan was the Success Indicator representing Pensacola region’s strongest “Best Practice.” The development of the Master Plan initiative was literally “voted upon” as a priority about two months after the Prospective Level Designation. Going through the Prospective Level designation was very exciting for the Pensacola participants as the activity itself required everyone to participate and be recognized. The designation was uplifting as each member began envisioning how the group’s efforts would have an impact on and affect the region in a positive way.
Following the designation, the participants convened and elected to start with the Master Plan because “foundation” needed to be outlined and formalized as a guide to the scope and magnitude of the career academy aspirations. Pensacola believed reducing a project this size to something in writing would be the major first step. The participants also felt the creation of a Master Plan would define the roadmap to future Leadership Level and the implementation of the other success indicators.
Key Milestones
• Convened the initial group in April 2007 to discuss the Ford Motor Company Fund Program and the initial designation.
• Completed an initial “self-assessment” of the 12 best practices in May, 2007. This task would be a challenge, as some were in favor of proceeding and some were not quite sold. This was a lot of work, especially when people are already tied up every minute of the day. However, the group elected to send four representatives to the Ford Motor Company Fund Leadership Institute in June, 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky. Following the institute, it was obvious the Ford Fund program would be both a worthwhile project and a win-win for each individual involved.
• Could envision “real change” when key team members added this initiative to their company’s organizational work plans. This action indicated Master Plan task designation as a “priority” and tied success and completion to professional performance factors. (August 2007)
• Followed through with each individual’s “assignments’” on a specific success indicator with deliverance of their best work to the group. (February 2008)
• Review of the Master Plan in late June 2008 by Rick Delano produced approval with some minor modifications. The Master Plan ultimately became the “community plan” for career academy success. The community was ready for implementation of our first dual county District Councils, which match the economic development targets.
• The “next step” scheduled for the November meeting was to support and implement a Ford PAS workshop for area teachers which took place in mid-November. Also, the Northwest Florida NGL also committed to working with its local university, the University of West Florida, to suggest and recommend UWF as a possible hub for Ford PAS training in the future. UWF trains 56 percent of the teachers in its two-county area.
• In November 2008, the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (“ACCE”) organization (Washington, DC) highlighted the work Pensacola and Chattanooga as a successful model in implementing the ford Next Generation Learning community.
Key Success Factors
• The makeup of the Pensacola team has been a key success factor. Team members represent workforce education in two school districts, a university, a community college, economic development, workforce development and business. Each member brought talent, expertise and passion (focus, discipline and perseverance) to the task. The task force was named “The Northwest Florida Next Generation Learning Community.”
• The mission and vision were created as a first step in the development of the Master Plan. This was followed by several workshops at which the different success indicators were each assigned to team participates by strategy, action plan and completion date. Over time, relationships have grown, but more importantly, a commitment of excellence and individual ownership prevails. The Pensacola team believes that this program (and the Master Plan) belongs to the community.
Lessons Learned
• There was a time (initially), especially during the first self-assessment, when the project seemed overwhelming. There were also some in the group who were a little skeptical. It is important to assemble the best team possible (education, economic development, and business leadership) and to take it one day at a time (and not try to put an artificial timeline around something this huge).
• On a practical level, timelines are needed for every task and duties assigned. Eventually, the Pensacola got there, but it took a little longer was anticipated. There has to be an individual “buy in” for each and every person, who are all unique and different.
There has to be “passion” around the project as well. The passion for the project needs to be sustained by: celebrating the successes, adding new components—for example, the Ford PAS training for teachers, which has created a lot of interest by individuals outside the Pensacola team.A visit by the Smithsonian Scholars was a big hit! And, it was reported that the visits by Cheryl Carrier and Rick Delano were very inspirational and meaningful and really help the Pensacola team remain focused on the outcomes to be achieved, as well as the monthly conference calls that keeps the Pensacola area in touch with other communities in the Ford program.
Challenges
• According to the Pensacola team, it is important to keep the energy level “high” throughout the process. People are motivated in different ways and by different things. The individuals on the Pensacola team all had something to contribute. The core group is involved 1,000 percent.
• As in all teams, not all are involved intimately as others. These individuals are informed when something is really important and when their presence is absolutely essential to a meeting or event. Support is unquestioned. It is important to have a core group of high achievers at the helm of the educational ship.
Related Resources
Studer Salute_NGL.pdf
Greater pensacola Career Academy Matrix
Pensacola_Master_Plan_December_2008.pdf
• Tab 1 — "Success Indicator Planning Instrument"
• Tab 2 — "Embracing a New Economy" Development Study from Pensacola Chamber"
• Tab 3 — "Santa Rosa County Economic Development Marketing and Brand Plan"
• Tab 4 — "Ford NGL Academy Inventory"
• Tab 5 — "Academy Assessment-Evaluation Plan"
• Tab 6 — "Network Support"
