Blair High and Middle School and John Muir High School Achieve ‘Model’ Status From the National Academy Foundation

Two schools under the Pasadena Unified School District have been designated as “model” and “distinguished” schools by the National Academy Foundation (NAF) because of their outstanding career academies that prepare high school students for higher education.

The status conferred on Blair High and Middle School’s Health Careers Academy and John Muir High School’s Engineering and Environmental Sciences Academy are the highest that can be obtained through the NAF certification process, according to PUSD assistant superintendent for secondary education Marisa Sarian.

“The reason we’re so excited is because these two academies were already certified,” Sarian says. “When you reach certification, it means that you are meeting the criteria for a high-quality pathway. But these two have reached the model status, which is the highest standard. And we’re really proud of the two academies that have reached that status.”

The NAF issues the certification through an online system designed to assess college and career readiness among students using a multi-method approach. Student performance is measured not only through end-of-course exams, but also through culminating projects and internships.

With a successful completion of NAF certification, students coming from certified schools become eligible for NAFTrack Certified Hiring, a program where several of America’s top companies commit to give special consideration to college students and eventual job applicants when they hire employees.

“NAF is working with some major corporations who are looking for ways to actually certify our students so that they will have priority over others when they interview to maybe hired at a higher salary, if they are from a NAF-certified academy and meet the criteria,” says Sarian. “This is a whole different way of the business community engaging and assessing our students, so it’s very exciting.”

On its website, the NAF says their certification process helps students make the connection between their high school coursework and their futures, reflect on their own learning in order to set goals for continuous improvement, gain proficiency in taking online assessments, and demonstrate the hard and soft skills they develop throughout their academy experience.

Sarian explained further that the career academies at Blair and John Muir are just some of the ten college and career academies in PUSD high schools.

“Approximately 44 percent of our high school students are on one of these ten academies,” says Sarian. “Some of our campuses like John Muir are wall to wall so every student is in one of the three academies at Muir. At Blair and PHS, we have three academies at PHS and one at Blair and not everyone is in an academy. And Marshall Fundamental just started an academy. They’re in their second year, so we only have 9th and 10th graders. And our alternative ed sites, Rose City and CIS have their own career exploration options academy.”

NAF reviewed a total of 716 academies in 36 states in this recent certification process.