Abstract: Since the 1980s publication "A Nation at Risk", policy makers have continually sought to improve America's education system by crafting education policies with strict guidelines. Recent policies like No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and now the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), are calling for increased accountability of school districts measured by standardized test scores. With the threat of losing funding and facing sanctions for failing to meet minimum College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) requirements, school districts are continually looking for research-based strategies and reform models that promise to enhance student achievement. Researchers have examined various reform models and methods including schools-within-a-school, small learning communities, career academies, school choice, career pathways, and charter schools. Some studies have displayed successful increases in student achievement as a result of implementing these reforms individually. However, the results have not proven to be entirely reproducible as other researchers exhibit insignificant findings. This casual-comparative design compared career academy charter schools to traditional public schools that had implemented career academies. The independent variable was school type-charter school and public school. The dependent variables were Georgia End-of-Course Test scores in the areas of English Language Arts, math, and science. Using ANOVA analysis, significant findings on one out of three measures indicated that implementing career academies at charter schools increased student achievement in science more than the implementation at public schools. The implementation did not positively or negatively impact ELA scores or math. However, when grade level was incorporated as a covariate, ANCOVA analysis revealed that implementing career academies at public schools significantly impacted student achievement in math compared to the charter site. The analysis also revealed that as grade level increased, so did test scores. ANCOVA analysis of the science data indicated that career academy charter school students significantly outperformed the public school career academy students. However, no interaction effects were observed between grade level and test scores. ANCOVA did not impact the results in ELA.