The Central Educational Center (CEC), in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and Florida State University, used a 2004 grant from Georgia's Department of Education to disseminate the CEC model. Three Georgia school districts were assisted to plan and startup new public charter career academies. These districts are located in Douglas, Walton, and Whitfield counties. All have formed partnerships between school districts, higher education institutions, and business and industry to meet the local needs of a 21st century economy.

The CEC dissemination team provided a combination of mentoring, professional development, and technical assistance to the selected communities as they designed, developed, and launched new charter career academies based on the essential elements and principles that underscore the current CEC model. The team also developed materials to serve as guides to school districts throughout the state and beyond on the practices and strategies employed by CEC and its protégé schools in launching and sustaining successful charter career academies.

The three counties selected are in various stages of replicating the CEC experience. The resulting charter career academies differ slightly in their models, but each strives to incorporate the essential elements of the Coweta County CEC.

• Whitfield County has established the Whitfield Career Academy (WCA) in a newly constructed career and technical high school building. The academy enrolls ninth through twelfth graders drawn from two base high schools, some of whom are full-time WCA students. This charter career academy opened in August 2005 and will continue to expand as Dalton State College builds a technical education facility on the WCA site. Contact: Phillip Brown, Principal, at phillip_brown@whitfield.k12.ga.us or 706-876-3600.
• The Walton Career Academy is housed in a renovated high school building that had been recently vacated after the construction of a new high school. The Walton County school system entered into a joint venture with Athens Technical College. This charter career academy opened in August 2006. Contact: Mark Peevy, CEO, at mpeevy@walton.k12.ga.us or 770-266-4505.
• ¢ In Douglas County, the school system and West Central Technical College are cooperating in the construction of a building to house the charter career academy on the college's county campus. Dual enrollment programs began in the fall of 2006 and the charter career academy, to be named Douglas College and Career Institute, is scheduled to open in January 2008. Contact: Judy Scherer, Deputy Superintendent, Douglas County Schools, at judy_scherer@douglas.k12.ga.us or 770-651-2081.

These four institutions formalized their network through naming it the Georgia College and Career Association. They will continue to partner in developing innovative career and technical education programs, providing professional development opportunities for faculty and administrators, and offering advice, assistance, and mentoring to other communities interested in developing similar career academies.

This website was developed as part of the grant effort to serve as a dissemination mechanism to share these with many communities. In addition to providing interested communities with replication tools such as the Essential Elements of CEC and the ADDIE Accomplishments Checklist, this site houses a complete replication manual for communities not able to avail themselves of in-person technical assistance. See Strengthening Education to Drive Economic Development: A Manual for Replicating the CEC Experience in Your Community. The manual can be read on this site or downloaded, section by section, in Word or pdf files.

For more information, please contact:
Mark Whitlock, CEO, Central Educational Center at mark.whitlock@gacec.com or 678-423-2009.