InCareer Academy High School South Bend is built around our STEM programs. We strive to prepare students for the high wage, high demand careers in our region. Instead of offering everything to everyone, we have focused our program offerings on national and regional job outlook data.
Another notable difference with our school is the length of our school day which is from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm. Not only does this help to prepare students for the long hours of college or work after high school but it allows them to take more classes compared to most middle school students. This electives, job shadowing, and exposure to different career pathways or post secondary options.
The lengthened school day not only benefits our students but our teachers as well. All teachers have two and a half hours without students. They have a 30 minutes lunch, one hour for personal preparation (scheduled with like discipline teachers), and one hour for team time. This means that all of our STEM teachers and regular education teachers have scheduled time together every day. This has a significant impact because teachers can plan together to help students, parents, or develop/revise curriculum, or any other school wide concern. The amount of time teachers have to collaborate is substantial and helps to keep the culture of our school strong.
Students, staff, and parents are very positive about Social Support - Adults, Safety Rules and Norms, Respect for Diversity, and Support for Learning. There is a general consensus that a pattern of supportive and caring relationships exists between adults and students at CAHS. Adults in the building set high expectations for success and show concern for students’ well-being. Additionally, all three population groups agree there are clearly communicated rules about physical violence as well as consistent enforcement and norms for adult intervention. There is also mutual respect for individual differences among the different relationship levels within the school (adult-adult, student - student, and student-adult). The positive rating for Support for Learning indicates that students, staff, and parents mutually agree that there is a use of differentiated learning and supportive teaching practices such as encouragement and positive feedback. Students receive individual attention and are provided with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and skills to peers and adults in meaningful ways.