About ACE
The Oregon Building Congress in partnership with Centennial, Gresham-Barlow, Parkrose, and Reynolds School Districts sponsors a public, tuition-free charter high school, called the OBC Academy for Architecture, Construction and Engineering (ACE). ACE opened its doors for the 2008-2009 school year and has successfully completed its first year. ACE is a shared-time program for junior and senior students that is comprised of learners from the sponsoring school districts, neighboring high schools and home schools. ACE offers a math, science, English and technical skills curriculum in the design-build industry delivered in an integrated, hands-on setting. Industry partnerships are integral to students' experiences at ACE.
Learn more about ACE's:
Mission
The mission of the school is to provide a contextual educational experience within the architectural, construction and engineering disciplines, leading to the achievement of rigorous academic benchmarks and additional post-secondary education for a diverse
high school student body.
Academy Objectives
1. Increase student learning and achievement through the integration of academic and technical courses.
2. Increase choices and accessibility of learning opportunities for students.
3. Better meet individual student academic interests and needs with hands-on learning. In addition, students will be prepared to either enter apprenticeship or college depending on their own career goals.
4. Build stronger working relationships among educators, parents and other community members. Because students will connect with viable employers during high school via internships and mentorships, they will be better positioned to earn family-wage jobs in industries facing future labor shortages.
5. Encourage the use of different and innovative learning methods.
6. Provide opportunities in small learning environments for flexibility and innovation. Students will frequently have the same teacher for their academic and their technical courses and will be well-known by both the faculty and administration.
7. Create new professional development opportunities for teachers, using the successful “High Schools That Work” program.
Structure
ACE Academy has the capacity to enroll 500 juniors and seniors for each school year.
The ACE Academy provides a bridge between core academics and application within the professional technical arena, which will help students understand the usefulness, or relevance, of their learning. Every effort will be made to provide internships for rising seniors in the summer time for both pay and academic credit, so that students can apply their academic and technical courses in real world work experiences. Relevance will further be achieved through pairing each student with a mentor from the industry the student is inclined to pursue, and pairing each student with a teacher who will serve as a counselor.
The ACE Academy recruits and welcomes high school students from all walks of life. All students who have completed the requirements for entrance into grade 11 are eligible to apply for admission to the school. Students of all achievement levels will be welcomed, challenged and supported to achieve at higher levels. Teachers have been chosen for their demonstrated experience in motivating students to reach their potential. Students who do not tend to thrive in traditional settings will likely be drawn to the ACE Academy because of the hands-on nature of the curriculum.
Enrollment
180 students are enrolled in ACE as of August 27, 2009.
Program and Course Descriptions
Click here to download course descriptions for junior and senior year programs.
Click here to download the ACE curriculum and credit map.
The two year program offers one (1)credit of math, one (1) credit of science, two (2) credits of English and up to five (5)credits of Career/Technical Education in the context of the design and build industry (Architecture, Construction & Engineering). Students learn in a “hands on” environment where active involvement, participation, performance and product are the teaching and learning processes. The math and science credits meet the graduation requirements for a third year in each. The two years of English credits are third and fourth year (Junior and Senior) level credits and count for high school graduation in English. The Career Technical Education credits will count toward graduation and provide entry into advanced and apprenticeship training programs after graduation. They will also meet all Career Related Learning Standards and Experience (CRLS/CRLE) The academic and application level of this program will prepare students for a wide range of post-high school options including college and professional schools or programs, apprenticeship programs in the trades, direct entry in to the work force or military service. When the ACE Academy program is coordinated with home high school courses the student have the best of all options for planning their post high school experience or opportunity.
Location
The ACE Academy is located at 4222 NE 158th Ave., Portland, OR 97230. It is housed in the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute. Click on the map below to view where ACE is located in relation to Centennial High School, Gresham High School, Sam Barlow High School, Parkrose High School or Reynolds High School.
ACE utilizes the training facilities of the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute, the NECA-IBEW Electrical Training Center, the Northwest College of Construction and the HVAC & Metals Institute. Together, these facilities offer more than 61,000 square feet of shop area alone. Click here to learn more about ACE's Campus Training Partners.
Leadership
Oregon Building Congress, Executive Director, Dick O’Connor
Click to view a current list of ACE Directors and Partners
Prior to assuming the Executive Director’s role at Oregon Building Congress, Dr. O’Connor served 2 years in Portland Public Schools as a school-to-work manager. In the prior 15 years he worked in the insurance industry as an administrator, account executive, marketing manager and vice president at Marsh and McLennan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. Before entering the insurance industry, he directed the Illinois Project for the Law in American Society Foundation, and he taught high school social studies. He earned a BA degree in History from the University of Notre Dame; a Master’s Degree in Secondary Education from the University of Miami; and a Ph.D. in Social Studies Education from Northwestern University.
Background
Founded in 1921, Oregon Building Congress significantly changed its mission in 1997 to become the school-to-career arm for the construction industry in Oregon and southwestern Washington. Since this change has occurred it has conducted 12 years of teacher workshops in math, science and green building; conducted 8 years of construction academy programs for high school students from Jackson county in Southern Oregon to Cowlitz county in Washington; and published Building Futures magazine for 9 consecutive years which is distributed to high school and community college students in Oregon and Southwestern Washington who are engaged in construction and construction-related classes. OBC has won two national awards. The first in 2002 from the 50 State Directors of Professional-Technical Education and the second in 2005 from the Construction Users Roundtable.
OBC during this time has advocated for professional-technical education programs before legislative committees, at state and national conferences, in magazine articles and articles in AGC’s Construction News Update. It has strongly advocated for the continuation of construction technology programs at a time when school districts have cut these programs because of budgetary restrictions caused by expensive benefit costs. Despite OBC’s best efforts to explain the realities of the workforce needs of the design-build industries to hire historically high numbers of workers to fill their growth and replacement needs, districts have continued to cut programs that would help fill the pipeline of applications into the industry at the trade, technical, managerial and professional levels.
Faced with these cuts in public school programs and the rising demand for workers at all levels, and based upon OBC’s own involvement in educational programs for both teachers and students, OBC decided to take a serious look at opening its own charter school several years ago. Its board gave the go-ahead in the spring of 2006 to submit a proposal to the state of Oregon. This proposal was approved in May, 2006. OBC partnered with Centennial, Gresham-Barlow, Parkrose and Reynolds School Districts as well as over fifty industry partners to turn ACE from dream to reality.
The Academy for Architecture, Construction and Engineering is a vehicle to fulfill OBC’s mission of “partnering with educators to increase the quality and diversity of entrants into the building industry." Other OBC Initiatives include:
TEACHER WORKSHOPS
The OBC has conducted math, science, architecture and green building workshops for over 600 teachers in the past nine years. 94% of these teachers have rated the workshops in the upper 20% of all their professional development experiences. 37% of the teachers surveyed have stated they have changed the way they taught as a result of these workshops.
STUDENT CONSTRUCTION ACADEMIES
For the past five years OBC has operated summer construction programs which have earned rave reviews from educators. The academy program combines work experience for both pay and academic credit, applied academics (especially math, science and language arts) and career information on apprenticeship. These combinations of activities have been effective in keeping or returning “at-risk” youth to school as well as motivating them to take more demanding math courses, because they have learned they can access family wage jobs in the construction industry if they get a high school diploma and can do the math, especially algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
BUILDING FUTURES MAGAZINE
Twice a year, OBC publishes Building Futures magazine about careers in the design and building industries. The magazine is distributed at no charge to 20,000 high school and community college students in construction and design courses throughout southwestern Washington and Oregon.
