At the high school, we provide students with a portfolio of different education models. Students attending these schools will continue to be eligible for additional funding. Portfolio categories for the 2008–09 school year are:
Career and Technical Education (CTE): All students are engaged in sequences of instruction that integrate rigorous academic study with workforce skills in specific career pathways. The weight does not include comprehensive high schools with CTE courses or career-themed schools with no formalized CTE programs.
Students will be funded according to a four-tier structure recommended by the Office of Portfolio Development:
The tiered structure of the CTE funding reflects the different cost factors necessary to operate different CTE programs of study. The significant factors reflected in this structure are: class size requirements, equipment and materials, industry training for teachers and start-up costs. The tier 1 and 2 programs require significantly lower class size, industry specific equipment and highly specialized and ongoing industry training. The weightings assigned to the remaining tiers account for the proportional class size requirements, the level and frequency of industry training required and the nature of the equipment and materials for the programs in each tier. The tier 3 and 4 programs do not have significant class size requirements, but still incur equipment and material costs, as well as ongoing industry training needs, that are more significant than traditional schools.
Specialized Academic: This category continues to capture academically challenging high schools that have been funded at a higher level in the past.
Specialized Audition: All students within the school participate in the equivalent of a five-year sequence through two double periods daily of study in their art form.
Transfer: Small high schools designed to re-engage students who have dropped out or are overage and under-credited for grade, as identified by the Division of Youth Development / Office of Multiple Pathways.