Factors Influencing Student Enrollment in Career Academy Programs

There is considerable research demonstrating strong benefits of the career academy model to students and teachers, but there is little indicating why students enroll in academies and what methods of recruitment may work best. This study assessed factors influencing students' decisions to enroll in career academy programs by looking at factors that influence students to apply for academy programs and reasons students have for choosing not to enroll in academy programs. A survey was used to collect the necessary data with n = 401 responses from students enrolled in an academy and n = 2,421 responses from students not enrolled in an academy. A factor analysis resulted in two larger groupings linking items together based on program experience and student attitudes. A Pareto analysis indicated that counselors were the greatest influencing factors on student decisions to enroll in career academy programs. Parents, teachers, other students, the course catalog, website, and brochure also played a considerable role in how students learned about the academies. The most influential reasons students have for not applying included not knowing, not interested, and missed deadline.