APS to roll out new career-readiness initiative at these three high schools
The initiative will launch a concept called "Career Academies" at Manzano, Cibola and Highland high schools. APS plans to eventually expand the initiative to all the district's major high schools to help students decide on a focused career path. It is "working with business and industry in Albuquerque to determine career pathways," according to information on the district's website.
The move comes as part of a broader effort to improve student outcomes and increase college readiness in the largest district in a state which regularly ranks last in the country for education. Some 30.2% of the population above 25 years old has a bachelor's degree or higher, according to U.S. Census data.
The career academies were announced Wednesday morning by APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey to a ballroom full of business leaders and a handful of elected officials at an Economic Forum of Albuquerque event.
"It's very hit-and-miss with our students who are engaged in their learning and our students who are disengaged, and really we need to look at how we can re-engage our students," Blakey said.
The three schools were selected because they have "well-established school climates and cultures of support and collaboration," according to APS spokesperson Phill Casaus.
"We will work with all our comprehensive high schools to look at workforce data trends and needs in Albuquerque and determine next steps for implementing the full academy model at their schools," Casaus wrote in a statement. "You can expect more schools to be incorporated in 2026-27, though at this early juncture it's premature to say which ones."
In 2023, the APS Board of Education adopted four goals to improve student outcomes based on community feedback. One of those goals was post-secondary readiness, and Blakey believes the academies can help make that goal attainable.
"Having a strategy like this on how to make school relevant for students, how they're learning perseverance, how they're learning to change their mindset of what it means to work hard, is really important," Blakey said.
During Wednesday's event, one of the APS board members expressed her support for the initiative.
"We have given a task to Gabriella (Blakey) as far as setting our goals, we've given her the task to now implement," said Courtney Jackson, vice president for the APS board and executive assistant for the Economic Forum of Albuquerque. "I think she recognizes that things weren't going very well, and for her to have made these strategic changes, structural changes within Albuquerque Public Schools so quickly has been a testament to her ability to rally the troops, to rally the community."
United Way will partner with APS and serve as both a convening and fiscal partner in implementing the academies, according to Rodney Prunty, president and CEO of its North Central New Mexico chapter. He told the Journal on Wednesday afternoon that the organization is aiming to raise $500,000 over the next five years to get the initiative started.
"Every single student will have an opportunity to engage in this particular model," Prunty said to the room of business leaders. "So it's not specific to a group of students, but for every single student at every single high school."
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