[Senate Hearing 111-1139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-1139
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION:
RURAL HIGH SCHOOL REFORM
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING ESEA REAUTHORIZATION, FOCUSING ON RURAL
HIGH SCHOOL REFORM
__________
JULY 23, 2010 (GILLETTE, WY)
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JACK REED, Rhode Island JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
CARTE P. GOODWIN, West Virginia
Daniel Smith, Staff Director
Pamela Smith, Deputy Staff Director
Frank Macchiarola, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
__________
STATEMENTS
FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010
Page
Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming,
opening statement.............................................. 1
Abernethy, Rollin, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Provost,
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY............................. 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Rose, James, Ed.D., Executive Director, Wyoming Community College
Commission, Cheyenne, WY....................................... 11
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Mitchell, Kevin, Superintendent, Park County School District No.
1, Powell, WY.................................................. 16
Prepared statement........................................... 18
Velle, Verlyn, Ed.D., Coordinator of Career and Technical
Education, Campbell County School District, Gillette, Wyoming.. 20
Prepared statement........................................... 22
Jensen, Brandon, Principal, Cody High School, Cody, WY........... 26
Prepared statement........................................... 29
(iii)
FIELD HEARING: ESEA REAUTHORIZATION:
RURAL HIGH SCHOOL REFORM
----------
FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Gillette, WY.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:29 p.m. in the
Education Center, Gillette College Technical, 3251 South 4J
Road, Gillette, WY, Hon. Michael Enzi, presiding.
Present: Senator Enzi.
Opening Statement of Senator Enzi
Senator Enzi. I checked and there are contestants at the
National High School Rodeo Championship from every one of the
States for which we have Senators on the HELP Committee.
The purpose of the hearing, is for me to hear from more
witnesses from rural areas. I'm the Ranking Member on the
Senate HELP Committee, that means that if we were in the
majority I'd be the chairman. The way that it's set up when we
have a hearing in Washington, the chairman gets to pick all of
the witnesses on a panel except one, and then both sides show
up to beat up on the witnesses.
So, this is a much better venue, I got to pick all of the
witnesses.
[Laughter.]
I thank all of the witnesses for being willing to
participate in today's hearing. And consequently, they're all
rural witnesses who will help us build a vast volume of
testimony that will be used as we fix No Child Left Behind,
which is, of course, to reauthorize the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act.
I want to thank the college for letting us use this
building. I want to thank all of the people who put this
hearing together. I have several people here from my staff. I
have Lindsay Hunsicker, who works on education every day, as
does Beth Buehlmann. They both work on my education team. We
have a few more people that are on that team, and they
negotiate on the Federal education statutes, which range from
ESEA to the Workforce Investment Act. We have been trying to
get WIA through for a long time. If we could pass that we would
train 900,000 people a year to higher skilled jobs in their
area, but we haven't had any luck on getting that through, yet.
We're working on that virtually every day.
The hearing today will be a roundtable style. Consequently,
we're all up here instead of me up here and everybody else
facing me instead of the audience. The difference with the
roundtable--I instituted roundtables when I became the chairman
and Senator Kennedy came to like it well enough to use as
well--is that instead of holding a panel with just 1 person for
the minority and 5 for the majority, we usually agreed on,
maybe, 15 witnesses together. Each of them would be people that
actually do something, just as we have today. Each witness
would tell what they did and then they'd have a conversation
about how their idea might work with somebody else's idea. And
consequently, we came up with a lot of things that were
helpful.
I remember Senator Kennedy coming to me and saying, ``You
know, those roundtables are really fascinating, it's nice to
learn something before we draft the bill.''
[Laughter.]
I have a few formal comments here that I'll read for the
record. After I introduce our witnesses, they'll each provide
about 5 minutes of oral testimony, and once they've finished,
the six of us will engage in a discussion on this important
issue rather than having a question and answer exchange between
me and the witnesses.
Before I turn to the expert panel, I do want to make some
other opening comments to set the stage for the hearing. The
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, or HELP
Committee--``we're from the government, we're here to help
you''--started work on the reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act earlier this year with a series of
10 hearings on topics ranging from standards and assessments to
the well-being of children. We've also sought input from the
education community and received over 1,500 comments across the
country. Today we're here to learn more about high school
reform efforts in Wyoming and how the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act can be amended to support these efforts.
The Federal Government's role in this discussion should be
to encourage and support States and school districts so that
more students graduate from high school on time with the
knowledge and skills they need to attend college and enter the
workforce without the need for remediation.
However, the present situation is discouraging. Every day
in the United States, 7,000 students drop out of school. If the
high school students who have dropped out of the class of 2009
had graduated instead, the Nation's economy would have
benefited from an additional $335 billion in income that they
would have earned additionally over their lifetimes. It's an
incredible statistic. Because we couldn't reach those 7,000
students, it will cost us and them $335 billion in income, so
we all lose.
Now our outlook in Wyoming is better, there's still work to
be done. Wyoming is fortunate that over 80 percent of the
students graduate from high school. However, that still means
that 1,200 students who start high school don't make it to
graduation day. To ensure both the future success of this great
State and a higher quality of life for those students, we have
to do better. We simply can not afford to lose those students.
We must deal with the situation head on. We can not allow
students to waste their senior year and graduate unprepared for
any post-secondary education in a workforce that's focused on
skills and knowledge.
As we look to the reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, we need to strengthen programs that
provide relevance, context, and rigor for students in both
middle and high school. I believe it's time to bring attention
to the secondary part of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act. The Federal Government needs to provide some resources to
school districts for these efforts and ensure that the reforms
used are data-driven and have a solid evidence base of success.
We'll hear from our experts today that these efforts are
difficult, because there is no silver bullet when it comes to
education reform. However, the Federal Government can help
school districts by providing additional flexibility with the
funds we provide to allow for the best possible solution for
each struggling school.
In addition, it's important to emphasize the fact that a
high school diploma does not guarantee that a student has
learned the basics. Nearly half of all college students are
required to take remedial courses after graduating from high
school before they can take college level course work. Even in
Wyoming, 15 percent of the Hathaway Scholarship recipients
enroll in remedial courses once in college.
The witnesses before us today demonstrate that this work is
hard but it can be done. Without a plan for reforming our
secondary schools, the outcome for many of our students will
not change, which is not acceptable. If we are to remain
competitive in a global economy, we can not afford to lose
people because they don't have the education and skills they
need to be successful. Strong partnerships and alignment among
K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, business, and
government will help us meet this need.
I'm pleased to welcome the witnesses and thank them for
being here today. I look forward to a healthy exchange of ideas
that I can take back to Washington. All of it is being recorded
and will become a part of the record, as will their entire
written testimony.
I want to encourage each of you in attendance to send me
any comments or ideas that you have, that you come up with from
this discussion, or that you come up with later. We want to
make the ESEA law a better law for children, for teachers, for
administrators, and for parents. You can e-mail your comments
to me by visiting my Web site, which is www.enzi.senate.gov.
I'll mention that address again later. I'll then share your
comments with members of the HELP Committee. The unique
challenges and needs of rural schools and students must be a
part of any conversation we have around reauthorizing the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
I also want to mention that Jim McBride, the Wyoming
Superintendent of Public Instruction is here with us today.
[Applause.]
He's been a tremendous contributor to us as we've been
going through this process. Copies of one of the extensive
letters that he's written to me regarding NCLB are over on the
table for anybody that would like to have one.
We're gathering information any way that we can, so
remember that you can send me your suggestions, ideas, and
complaints.
Before we hear the testimony, I will introduce each of the
witnesses, and each of them will have 5 minutes to summarize
the testimony that they've submitted. Their whole testimony
becomes part of the record and will be shared with all of the
other Senators and staffs, and will be included in the record
of the official hearing.
Each of these witnesses has extensive experience in the
field of education, so I'll provide very abbreviated
introductions this afternoon so that we can get to the
testimony and conversation about issues.
I notice that we have a few legislators with us today, too.
Could you stand, Greg, John?
[Applause.]
These are a couple of the Wyoming State legislators, and
they're the ones that do the really heavy lifting on education,
because States are mostly responsible for education. I thank
you for all of your efforts.
So, in the way of introductions, we have Dr. Rollin
Abernethy, he's a professor of plant biology and an associate
provost at the University of Wyoming. Most recently he played a
prominent role in the formation of the Wyoming P-16 Education
Council, and serves as president of the council. Dr. Abernethy
obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Agronomy Plant
Physiology from Kansas State University, and a Ph.D. degree in
Agronomy Plant Physiology from the University of Arizona.
We have Dr. Jim Rose, who is the Executive Director of the
Wyoming Community College Commission. He is a Wyoming native,
born in Casper, and Dr. Rose grew up in Goshen County. He
graduated from the University of Wyoming with a degree in
architectural engineering, and then obtained a Master's degree
in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Dr. Rose
served in a faculty position in civil and architectural
engineering at the University of Wyoming for 18 years. He
received a Doctorate in Education from the University of
Wyoming, and in 1998, was elected to serve in the 55th Wyoming
Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives.
Kevin Mitchell has served as the Superintendent of Schools
in Park County School District No. 1 for 3 years. While Mr.
Mitchell didn't begin his college course work until the age of
30, he has since earned four degrees and is currently pursuing
a Doctorate. He's taught science and physical education,
coached basketball, football, and track, served 3 years as a
middle school principal, and is entering his 10th year as a
superintendent. Mr. Mitchell was honored as the Wyoming
Superintendent of the Year in 2009.
Lyn Velle, an old friend, who's been teaching me about
these issues for a long time, has been the Coordinator of
Career and Technical Education at Campbell County School
District in Gillette, WY for the past 19 years. She's
responsible for guiding the career academies in energy,
transportation technology, and hospitality and tourism, and is
the Wyoming State leader of the Project Lead the Way Program.
Lyn has taught at the junior high, the senior high, and the
college level in family and consumer education, and taught at
an alternative high school in Rock Springs, WY. Dr. Velle
received her Doctorate in Vocational Education Administration
and School Law from the University of Wyoming.
Brandon Jensen was hired in March 2010 as the new principal
of the Cody High School for the 2010-11 school year. He has
served as the Assistant Principal of Cody High School for the
last 4 years. In 2010, he was named the Wyoming Assistant
Principal of the year. Prior to coming to Cody High School, Mr.
Jensen served as an assistant principal at Walla Walla High
School in Walla Walla, WA. Before becoming a school
administrator, Jensen taught Spanish at the high school level
for 11 years. He received a Bachelor's degree in Education at
Eastern Washington University, a Master's degree in Curriculum
Development from Heritage University, and his administrative
endorsement from Portland State University.
I thank you all for being willing to do this. I need to
mention, too, that for all of our hearings, and I've been doing
hearings now for 14 years with almost all of them in
Washington, we have this requirement about providing testimony
in advance of the hearing. This is the first panel that I can
remember where we have all the testimony in advance.
[Laughter.]
[Applause.]
It shouldn't be a first after that many years, but it is
and it was a pleasure to read all of this, great information.
So, if you will summarize your testimony for us, we'd
appreciate it.
We'll start with Dr. Abernethy.
STATEMENT OF ROLLIN ABERNETHY, Ph.D., PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE
PROVOST, UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING, LARAMIE, WY
Mr. Abernethy. Thank you, Senator Enzi, and colleagues on
the panel.
Senator Enzi, colleagues on our panel, and the members of
the audience, it is indeed an honor for me to be here today to
be able to share with you all several initiatives of the
University of Wyoming, the P-16 Education Council, or both.
Several of these are shared initiatives. We believe these
initiatives will advance a rigorous and effective and a more
seamless educational system that supports high school reform.
I will go through these initiatives rather briefly, there
are six of them. The first initiative that I would like to
address is that of a rigorous and well-defined high school
curriculum. Compelling evidence exists that successful
completion of a defined and a rigorous high school course of
study enhances post-secondary and career readiness. The content
knowledge provided by college readiness curricula and career
readiness curricula are increasingly very similar. The Wyoming
Hathaway Scholarship, with its eligibility tied to the success
curriculum, provides Wyoming students and their families a
strong incentive to complete an academically challenging high
school curriculum.
Both the University and the P-16 Council have strongly
supported this success curriculum. With support at the State
Legislature, with funding to the Wyoming Department of
Education, the P-16 Council has fostered initiation of a long-
term longitudinal study, and assessment of the impacts of both
the scholarship, and of the curriculum, on Wyoming's school
preparation and career readiness workforce enhancements. We
believe any changes to this curriculum need to be based on
data, similar to that that would be acquired, or will be
acquired, in this study.
The second initiative involves faculty articulation across
grades 9 through 16. The enhanced transition of students from
one level of education to the next is facilitated by
conversations among educators across grade levels. Initially in
biology, now in writing and reading and in mathematics, we are
now undertaking these conversations. This program was conceived
initially, and led by, the Wyoming School University
Partnership under the leadership of director Dr. Audrey
Kleinsasser, and now involves a number of university faculty,
community college faculty and high school faculty.
The concept is simple, it brings together faculty from each
grade level, in a specific area, subject matter, to discuss
student learning goals at each grade level, using student work
as the point of the discussions. The faculty participating have
a strong desire to identify shared goals for student
achievement. This is a true collaboration of peers, it's a key
part, they view each other as equals from the beginning. As a
result, the participants understand the challenges each face,
they understand the aspirations each have for student learning,
and by communicating and collaborating, make great strides in
advancing those outcomes.
In summary, we think these articulation discussions are
probably one of the most effective strategies for enhancing
student transitions between grade levels, that we're aware of.
We believe it will enhance high school completion and post-
secondary and career readiness.
The Wyoming P-16 Education Council, a third initiative, has
developed some college and high school course comparison
charts. There are actually five of these, there are several up
here on the table for people to pick up. So, I won't talk about
those further.
The fourth initiative is the Common Core Standards, adopted
only a month ago by the Wyoming State Board of Education. These
standards are providing common outcomes for English language,
arts, and mathematics. We believe these standards have immense
capacity to--when integrated with Wyoming's State standards--
bring forward a much more rigorous and more effective secondary
and post-secondary system. The University has already supported
and will be joining, if the Wyoming State Department of
Education pursues it, a balanced assessment consortium that is
designed to bring together educators at all levels and develop
an assessment system for this common core standard that will
improve, further, those activities.
Finally, if high school reform efforts are to achieve their
potential, the local community must be engaged and must support
an academically focused and effective school system. It's
essential that we, as a country, move beyond the blame game.
The community, parents, business owners, employees, government
workers, civic leaders, and senior citizens, they all can--and
all should--play a role in elevating the importance of an
academically strong and effective school system. Teachers have
a role, but it can not only be the teachers' role.
The Community School Movement, I'm just now starting to
learn about, but I believe it deserves further study as we
consider this as an approach to foster community engagement
with our local schools. Rural schools should have an advantage
in that sense. On the one hand, in that the smaller scale
simply allows it to happen more readily. However, it's also a
disadvantage, possibly, in that rural community residents may
have less diversity and experience of perspective.
On that premise, our P-16 Council is currently engaged in a
project that will be our first experiment in engaging the
community with educators. Dr. Rose, I think, might talk about
that following my comments.
So with that, I thank you for this chance for a brief
summary, to share some of the thoughts and initiatives of our
P-16 Council at the University of Wyoming. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Abernethy follows:]
Prepared Statement of Rollin Abernethy, Ph.D.
summary
Dr. Rollin Abernethy, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs,
University of Wyoming, Laramie, and president of the Wyoming P-16
Education Council, a non-profit education organization created to
enhance the transition of students through each level of the
educational system. Enhancing transitions between stages requires
reinvigorated collaboration that leads to new and better academic and
student supports, thereby increasing the likelihood of greater post-
secondary participation and improved workforce preparation.
Six initiatives of either the University of Wyoming or the P-16
Education Council, or both will be presented. These initiatives will
advance a rigorous, effective, and more seamless educational system
that supports high school reform. The initiatives include:
A defined and rigorous high school curriculum, the Hathaway
Scholarship Success Curriculum. Compelling evidence that successful
completion of a rigorous high school course of study enhances post-
secondary and career readiness is compelling. The Wyoming Hathaway
Scholarship Program and Success Curriculum, strongly supported by the
university and Council, provide Wyoming students a strong incentive for
academically challenging coursework.
Articulations by disciplinary faculty members across grades 9
through 16. Enhanced transition from one level of education to the next
is being facilitated by conversations among educators in biology,
writing and reading and mathematics from high schools, community
colleges and the university. Discussion and shared consensus on student
learning goals and outcomes should enhance transition from one level of
education to another.
The Wyoming P-16 Education Council's high school and college course
comparison charts. Charts that compare and contrast features of high
school and college coursework in mathematics, science, social studies,
world language and writing will be provided and briefly discussed.
Common Core State Standards initiative and comprehensive standards
assessment consortia. Adoption and integration of the Common Core
standards and Wyoming State standards along with creation of a new
generation of comprehensive standards assessment with a multi-state
consortium offers promising potential for improved assessment of
student and teacher effectiveness. UW and the Council are participants.
Features of teacher preparation at the University of Wyoming. We
support inclusion of substantial content coursework for secondary
education majors with concurrent degrees in the content area,
increasing opportunity for teacher education students to work in public
school classrooms with mentor teachers, and alternative certification
programs that provide substantial instructional interaction in school
classrooms. These are key elements of most effective teacher
preparation programs.
Community and schools, engaging the community to support more
effective schools. For high school reform efforts to achieve their
potential, the local community must be engaged and support an
academically focused and effective school system. The ``community
school'' movement deserves further study as one approach to foster this
engagement.
______
Good afternoon Senator Enzi and members of the committee. I am
Rollin Abernethy, a professor of plant biology and currently Associate
Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Wyoming. I also serve
as president of the Wyoming
P-16 Education Council (www.wp-16.org), a non-profit educational
organization in its third year. The overarching mission of the P-16
Council is to enhance the transition of students from each level of
education to the next and thereby increase post-secondary participation
and workforce preparation. The Council members represent all four
educational systems in Wyoming, primary through post-secondary and
include business sector and legislative representatives. It is an honor
to come before you today and share some of the efforts in which the
University of Wyoming and the P-16 Council are engaged to improve
student preparation for both post-secondary learning and work in our
rural State. With one 4-year university, 7 community colleges and 48
school districts in Wyoming, we believe we have near unequalled
opportunity to improve post-secondary participation and completion.
Today I will emphasize six initiatives that we believe will advance
a more rigorous, effective and seamless educational system and support
high school reform. These initiatives include:
1. A defined and rigorous high school curriculum, the Hathaway
Scholarship Success Curriculum;
2. Articulations by disciplinary faculty members across grades 9
through 16;
3. The Wyoming P-16 Education Council's high school and college
course comparison charts;
4. Common Core State Standards initiative and comprehensive
standards assessment consortia;
5. Teacher preparation at the University of Wyoming; and
6. Engaging the community to support more effective schools.
rigorous high school curriculum
The evidence is extensive: completion of a rigorous course of study
in high school enhances post-secondary participation, completion and
career readiness. The traditional gulf between college-readiness
curricula and career-readiness curricula is disappearing. With
development and implementation of Wyoming's Hathaway Scholarship
program, and scholarship eligibility linked to completion of the
Hathaway Scholarship Success Curriculum, policymakers in Wyoming
established a powerful incentive for students and families to pursue
more challenging high school coursework (www.k12.wy.us/eqa/Hathaway/
hathway_rubric.pdf). Likewise, our schools are challenged to provide
this opportunity for their students. Development and implementation of
the Hathaway Success Curriculum was an early stimulus for formation of
the P-16 Council. The Council was initiated by the university in close
collaboration with the Wyoming Department of Education and Wyoming
Workforce Council. Both the university and the P-16 Council have
contributed and strongly supported the Success Curriculum that will be
fully implemented during the upcoming academic year. With support of
the State legislature, the Council fostered initiation of a long-term
longitudinal study including the assessment of outcomes. The necessity
of sound data for informing decisions and formulating policy is one of
the P-16 Council's key tenets.
faculty articulation across grades 9 through 16
The Wyoming School-University Partnership under the leadership of
director Dr. Audrey Kleinsasser, along with several university faculty,
community college and school faculty, formulated a program several
years ago that continues to expand and mature. The program concept
initially brought together faculty teaching biology in high school,
community college and university classrooms for a discussion of student
learning goals at each grade level using student work from the
participating faculty classrooms as the focal point. The faculty
participants engaged in this endeavor with a strong desire to identify
shared goals for student achievement as they progress through
successive grade levels. As a result, participants better understand
and respect the challenges each face in their classrooms. Further, the
faculty participants have collectively developed strategies and
instructional exercises that help overcome some of the identified
challenges.
Conversation among peers at their respective institutions has led
to similar efforts with faculty in writing and reading, and in
mathematics over the last 2 years. Growing out of this articulation
initiative, a small work group representing French, German, and Spanish
faculty are developing recommendations for a placement exam and broadly
accepted student learning expectations for the first year of post-
secondary language study. We acknowledge the need to expand the
participants to include more secondary schools and more post-secondary
faculty.
understanding expectations for college and career readiness
The growth of knowledge and the complexity of our global society
make the importance of post-secondary experience more critical than
ever before. High school completion alone is widely recognized as a
partial, but generally insufficient step toward a rewarding career, and
as an informed and effective participant in our democracy. Awareness of
the differences between high school and college expectations is a well-
documented component creating successful post-secondary experiences,
particularly for those students who have limited access to college
experience mentoring. This is particularly critical in Wyoming, where
approximately one-fourth of residents age 25 and older have bachelor's
degrees. Acknowledging the need for this understanding, the P-16
Council initiated development of charts comparing and contrasting the
differences in instructional features for high school and college-level
courses. Charts for mathematics, science, social studies, world
languages and writing courses have been produced jointly by secondary
and post-secondary faculty, with support from the Wyoming State
Scholars Initiative and Wyoming School-University Partnership.
Differences in class sessions, out of class preparation, textbooks
and grading are among those outlined for each subject. These charts
have been provided schools across the State and are now accessible on
the P-16 Council Web site (www.wp-16.org/Projects.asp#PastProjects).
nga common core standards and balanced assessment consortium
The Wyoming State Board of Education (SBE) approved adoption of the
Common Core State Standards (Common Core) for English language-arts and
mathematics in June 2010. The common core standards are the product of
a State-led initiative coordinated by the National Governors
Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers following
extensive input from content experts, teachers, school administrators,
and parents from 48 States, two territories and the District of
Columbia. These common education standards for K-12 build on the
individual States standards by providing a consistent set of goals and
expectations across the States. The adopted mathematics and language-
arts Common Core standards are founded on rigorous content and
application of knowledge requiring higher order skills. The Common Core
does not tell teachers how to meet the standards as that is best left
to local districts. The Wyoming Department of Education coordinated the
State's input during development and the subsequent review of the
Common Core prior to adoption in June.
The University of Wyoming and Wyoming P-16 Education Council
strongly support the Common Core, and provided a recommendation in
support of adoption to the Wyoming SBE. Integration of this research-
based Common Core with its focus on college and career readiness and
the existing Wyoming K-12 standards offers additional potential for
increased post-secondary participation and completion.
If the full potential of the Common Core is to be realized, a new
generation assessment system is needed to support ongoing improvements
in instruction and consider a broad range of student learning outcomes.
The Comprehensive Assessment Systems Grant Program, a component of the
Race to the Top Fund Assessment Program, recognizes this need and
offers States an opportunity to participate in consortia to formulate
such an assessment. The University and the P-16 Council are on record
in support of the Wyoming Department of Education's application to join
the current 31 State SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The
University of Wyoming and Council were initially attracted to the key
elements and principals for a comprehensive assessment system proposed
in the MOU for the States joining the SBAC. These key elements and
principles are outlined in the Executive Summary on the SBAC Web site
(www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER/pubdocs/Exec_Smarter.pdf). The SBAC assessment
system calls for strategic use of a variety of item types and
performance events to measure the full range of the Common Core and to
ensure accurate assessment of all students. The importance of valid
assessment of student performance in meeting content standards is
obvious. However, the complexity of designing a valid assessment that
provides incentives for students, parents, teachers and schools to
improve and excel is not. We are eager for an opportunity to
participate in the development of a new generation comprehensive
assessment as proposed by the SBAC.
teacher preparation
Teacher preparation and evaluation are topics too often receiving
negative attention today. While the importance of well-qualified and
effective teachers committed to students and learning is inarguable,
proposals addressing teacher accountability more often emphasize
punitive actions rather than supportive and developmental actions.
Unfortunately punitive measures are occasionally necessary, but are a
last resort. The teacher preparation initiatives I outline are not
intended to discount the responsibility of instructional faculty at
every level, from pre-school through graduate school. It is imperative
that they effectively impart new knowledge to their students, but it is
not solely the responsibility of the school and the faculty. The role
of community is addressed in a subsequent section.
Without delving too deeply into teacher education, I want to
highlight three facets of our NCATE accredited College of Education
program at the University of Wyoming. Since 2005, every major in
secondary education must also complete a concurrent major in a specific
discipline. For example, secondary mathematics education majors must
complete 47 credit hours in mathematics coursework. The student must
receive a grade of C or better in the content coursework. Majors in
Art, Agricultural Education, English, Mathematics, Modern Languages,
Science (Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science and Physics) and Social
Studies Education must fulfill this expectation. These concurrent
majors provide substantial depth in content for students seeking
certification in that area.
A second key element for quality teacher education is an increasing
opportunity to work with students in actual public school classrooms to
develop the skills necessary to be a highly effective member of the
profession. In conjunction with required college coursework, teacher-
education program students at UW spend significant time with mentor
teachers in their classrooms. In addition, most of our education
college faculty have P-12 teaching experience on their resume providing
increased credibility in our work with mentor teachers across the
State. The increasing exposure to the public school classroom begins
during the second year and culminates with a two semester sequence in
the senior year. Each graduate completes 16 weeks of full-time field
experience in a partner school during the second semester senior year.
Lastly, alternative teacher certification pathways are a topic of
interest nationally. We have some concern about alternative
certification programs that do not provide substantial instructional
interaction with students in school classrooms. With that being said,
the University recognizes this need offering a program for students who
have already completed a bachelors degree that leads to teacher
certification through Wyoming's Professional Teaching Standards Board.
The Teacher Certification Program for Post-Baccalaureate Students is
not a degree program, but a path to teacher certification. The actual
certification courses can be completed over one summer and the
following academic year, including the student teaching experience we
value. An associated, but separate option with some additional
coursework, can lead to the master's degree.
engaging the community in support of effective schools
If high school reform is to be realized, it is essential that we as
a country move beyond the blame game. The community--parents, business
owners and employees, government workers, civic leaders, and seniors--
can and should all play a role in elevating the importance of an
academically strong, effective school system. David Kirp, in the June
14, 2010 issue of The Nation outlines a ``community school'' philosophy
using as a model a school in upper Manhattan Island of New York. In his
example, parents are involved as learners and teachers, with schools
offering medical care and social services in addition to academics.
Community groups and businesses are partners with the school and not
only provide new funding, but also connect students to the world beyond
their school and neighborhood. The traditional school day and year is
substantially expanded with programs after school, on weekends and
during the summer. While all the elements of this particular model may
not be readily transferable, the concept overall is worthy of more
widespread consideration.
One advantage of rural schools may be greater feasibility in
engaging the community in activities that enhance student achievement
in preparation for college and the workforce. While the smaller scale
should offer an advantage in terms of involving the community, it also
presents a disadvantage in that rural community residents may have less
diversity of experience and perspective. On that premise, that P-16
Education Council has debated various approaches to engage individual
communities in consensus building dialogue on specific elements of the
academic and social skills needed for effective functioning in a global
economy. Understanding and implementing best practices in providing
college coursework credits for appropriately prepared high school
students throughout the State is one example of a project the Council
is undertaking with support from the Wyoming Community College
Commission. The challenges in reaching broad consensus on a topic such
as this are substantial. Most importantly, the process creates
opportunity for participants to listen and learn about different
perspectives, values and practices. This is a powerful first step in
creating a shared vision for a stronger, more effective educational
system.
I thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts and will be
pleased to answer any questions.
Senator Enzi. Thank you very much.
Dr. Rose.
STATEMENT OF JAMES O. ROSE, Ed.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WYOMING
COMMUNITY COLLEGE COMMISSION, CHEYENNE, WY
Mr. Rose. Thank you, Senator Enzi. I, too, appreciate the
opportunity to be heard from. As you know, being in Wyoming,
we're oftentimes considered to sort of be an intellectual
wasteland, and I believe that we do actually have something to
contribute, so it's indeed an honor to be able to contribute to
that.
I would like to simply couch my recommendation or my
observations and a sort of redefinition of the three R's.
Reading, writing, and arithmetic we all are familiar with--I
think we need now, as an educational system, to look at
relevance, remediation, and resources.
Relevance, I believe it is--and as you have pointed out in
your opening remarks--going to become more and more important
as the merging of career and post-secondary education take
place, so that preparation at the high school level is
developed with goals that recognize that no student is going to
be adequately prepared with merely a high school education. I
think it also needs to be recognized that of the $772 billion
that's spent on education--postsecondary education annually,
nearly two-thirds of that number were spent not in traditional
institutions of higher education, but by public and private
entities, primarily employers. This is an enterprise that in
preparing high school students, I think we have to reform.
They're not all either going to some sort of formal career
technical education, nor are they necessarily going to higher
education. They very well may be going into the workforce, but
we need to recognize relevance as a primary piece of that.
I would call your attention--and I hope you've had a chance
to see this--this is a document published by the Wyoming
Department of Education in collaboration with NPR Associates in
2007. It points out, I think, a number of recommendations, two
that I would simply call your attention to.
One is the need for relevance through the use of employment
of career pathways--identifying for students what their career
aspirations are, and finding them a curriculum that is both
relevant to those aspirations, has a structure that will help
them advance to a point that they can become productive in
whatever career they choose.
The other piece I would put forth in terms of relevance is
that the actual relevance is not necessarily going to be
achieved once students identify their career aspirations. If
they're assisted in that by high school counselors, we are
dealing with a difficult challenge because even in Wyoming, we
have hundreds of students with those. When that relevance is
going to be achieved, I believe, is in the classroom. The
teacher corps needs to have assistance, professional
development opportunities in order to adjust their pedagogy and
make their curriculum relevant, so that students have
motivation and engagement in that learning process.
Remediation is one we've already spoken of. The Hathaway
Merit Scholarship that we have in this State, still results in
one student in seven being required to take a remedial course
at the college level before they actually can take credit-
bearing, college, transcriptable courses. We think there's a
problem in terms of the enrollment of high school curriculum,
and as Dr. Abernethy referenced, the common core standards, I
believe, are going to help us add rigor to high school work so
that there is a correlation between what's taught in high
school and what's expected in college. It also applies to
career and technical education in all facets of education.
I would just say that, for too long, those of us in post-
secondary education have really let curriculum--the whole post-
secondary education has been the culprits; it's their fault. I
believe that that hasn't taken us very far in terms of
improving this situation. What I believe we need to do is, as
Rollin has mentioned, we really have to open up communications
so that we're speaking about the same issues.
Finally, what I would suggest is an attention to resources.
This might be the place where you think I'm going to give you
the schpeel about more Federal dollars.
[Laughter.]
That's not my pitch. What I believe we need is a proper and
directed use of the resources we already have, and the place we
can best do that is to use data to our advantage. It's the data
resources we need at least as much as we need fiscal resources.
We are--as again, Rollin has suggested--in the process in
this State with the systems that can help us understand what
mechanisms are in a high school, secondary level and transform
them into a post-secondary or career training level through
longitudinal data, data to tell us how individual students
perform. I know you've seen references in the Obama
administration's proposal of a blueprint for reform to the use
of growth models in secondary education, and all of those are
components.
I would merely suggest that this is not simply a problem
that will be solved by throwing money at it. We just have to do
a better job of analyzing what we know now and formalizing it
into usable information that will guide all of our efforts.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Rose follows:]
Prepared Statement of James O. (Jim) Rose, Ed.D.
I sincerely appreciate this opportunity to address you this
afternoon and provide testimony as you explore the vital and vexing
issues of improving our public education system. In the context of
today's hearing, I am particularly thankful to be able to provide a
perspective from Wyoming and attempt to articulate some of the
challenges and opportunities we face as a rural State.
introduction
I should say at the outset, there is a limit to my experience with
secondary education: my only direct involvement was as a student in
Goshen County Schools and graduate of Lingle High School and then as a
school board member in Fremont County. Both of those experiences
occurred more years ago than I care to admit. All my remaining
educational experience stems from nearly 30 years as a professor and
administrator in post-secondary education and more recently, as the
administrator of the State system of community colleges. While I have
attempted to link what I am about to present to the secondary education
system, my familiarity with the challenges faced by today's high
schools is dated and derived from indirect involvement.
I believe that some of the important issues in this discussion can
be framed by a new definition for the ``Three R's''. While defining
competencies in readin', (w)ritin' and `rithmetic' holds a central
position in modern discussions of education reform, I would suggest
three alternative R's to consider if we are to progress to substantive,
meaningful improvement:
RELEVANCE
REMEDIATION
RESOURCES
Let me begin with RELEVANCE.
relevance
First, a qualifier regarding the scope of how post-secondary
education may be related to secondary reform. A study recently
published by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce \1\ indicates that of the $772 billion spent annually on
post-secondary education, 65 percent of that total is outside the
formal post-secondary system. Essentially, nearly two-thirds of post-
secondary education is provided by employers, formally or informally,
as well as through industry apprenticeships, certifications and public
job training. Only slightly more than a third is provided by
traditional institutions of higher education, be they public or
private.
Given this landscape, what constitutes realistic and effective
preparation for post-secondary education by high schools is subject to
considerable interpretation depending on the specific route a student
may follow. However, I believe it's safe to assert some relevant skills
that high school graduates should possess to ensure success
irrespective of the post-secondary education path chosen. And to my
point, it is equally vital how those skills are perceived and mastered
through relevant coursework connected to the interests and aspirations
of students.
In 2007, MPR Associates in collaboration with a number of
education-related entities produced ``New Directions for High School
Career and Technical Education in Wyoming: A Strategic Plan.'' \2\
Among the many recommendations this document contains, are two that I
believe merit consideration in this discussion. First, the plan
recommends that students be guided in exploring and developing their
own interests for future careers using the career pathways identified
by the U.S. Department of Education and adopted by the Wyoming
Department of Education. Providing students with opportunities to
relate high school courses to their individual interests and career
aspirations enhances student engagement with their studies regardless
of whether they intend to pursue a post-secondary degree or begin
preparation to enter the workforce. As a corollary to this action, it
is recommended that the separation between career and academic courses
be deemphasized, since virtually all current data suggest that college
and careers require essentially the same preparation at the secondary
level. This leads to the second recommendation.
In order to enhance relevance and improve student engagement, as
disciplinary divisions and career/academic barriers are dissolved,
there must be investment in assisting teachers in the integrative
process through professional development. The role of invigorating
student engagement cannot practically be left just to career
counselors, since by any measure their opportunity to provide career
guidance to students is circumscribed by sheer numbers. Even in
Wyoming, ratios of several hundred students per counselor preclude such
practice. The teaching faculty in many cases provides the only real
opportunity for guided career exploration. Effective, engaged learning
will require minor refinements for some faculty and major shifts in
classroom practice for others. Adjusting pedagogies to facilitate this
integration will most certainly require commitment of faculty and
administrators at the school level.
As you are aware, the National Governor's Association and the
Council of Chief State School Officers have recently published their
recommendation for common core standards and a number of States,
including Wyoming, have adopted them.\3\ A rigorous curriculum is
certainly one necessary component in the agenda to improve public
education in this country, but I believe a singular focus on standards
as a panacea without acknowledging the need for curricular integration
will allow a watershed opportunity in education to be squandered. More
about this in a subsequent section.
What is Wyoming Doing to Address This Issue?
One example of an effort in Wyoming to improve student engagement
and opportunity is work commissioned by the Wyoming Legislature earlier
this year. The Wyoming Post-Secondary Education Options Program (W.S.
21-20-201) provides an opportunity for high school students to enroll
in college courses offered during the normal school day on high school
campuses (concurrent enrollment) or outside the school day at other
sites or online (dual enrollment). The work being conducted this summer
and fall is intended to provide a comprehensive review of this program
and gain input from a full spectrum of education stakeholders. The
outcome will be enhanced equity and accessibility for students and
uniform accountability for the State.
This expansion of course offerings affords students in rural high
schools especially, the opportunity to be academically challenged and
to explore career interests in spite of the inherent limitations that
geography imposes on the breadth of coursework available to small
districts.
remediation
According to data published last month by the National Center for
Public Policy and Higher Education and the Southern Regional Education
Board \4\ nearly 60 percent of first-year college students who are
fully eligible to attend college must take at least one remedial
course. Estimates of the Bill and Melinda Gate's Foundation's Strong
American Schools estimates that this remedial education costs students
and States up to $2.3 billion annually.\5\ In addition to the fiscal
toll, the likelihood that a student will complete a bachelor's degree
if required to complete even just one remedial reading course is only
17 percent; for a math course, it is 27 percent.\6\
In Wyoming, the picture is not quite so bleak, but there is still
reason for concern. In data collected in 2008/2009 for the Hathaway
Scholarship Program, nearly 15 percent of scholarship recipients were
required to take at least one remedial class. Since the Hathaway
Program is a merit scholarship program, the fact that more than one
scholarship student in seven must take at least one remedial class
suggests there is still need for improvement.\7\
For too long, those of us in post-secondary education have looked
critically upon our secondary peers and intimated that the preparation
problem is solely in the purview of K-12 education. We have resisted
any suggestion that we are at all culpable for this disconnect between
what high school students receive and higher education demands.
Fortunately, there is growing recognition that secondary and post-
secondary education must work in tandem if lasting, substantive
improvement is to be achieved.
What is Wyoming Doing to Address This Issue?
The Wyoming Community College Commission, the Wyoming Department of
Education, school districts and the University of Wyoming are currently
considering joining with over 30 other States in a consortium designed
to develop a common assessment instrument. This test will be used to
evaluate student progress and mastery of the common core standards
referenced above.
More specifically, the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium \8\
seeks to develop a common assessment system, used in grades 3-8 and 11.
The exam given in the junior year will allow for addressing any
deficiencies during the remaining year of high school. For their part,
post-secondary institutions who participate in the consortium agree to
accept the results of the assessment to determine placement in college
coursework. No longer will separate placement exams be used by member
colleges and universities as part of the matriculation process.
Thirty-one States have signed on and agreed to adopt a single,
summative assessment exam that will allow schools to evaluate students
using the same test that will be employed by post-secondary
institutions.
resources
In spite of what you may be thinking--here comes the pitch for more
dollars--my choice of resources as the third ``R'' has less to do with
the amount of funding and more to do with how resources are employed to
achieve the most benefit for our entire education system.
By almost any measure, Wyoming has been blessed recently with
extraordinary fiscal resources to support public education at all
levels. For example:
Our K-12 system is among the highest funded systems per
capita in the country, with nearly $1.5 billion appropriated for the
current biennium.\9\
Public support of our post-secondary system, (UW and the
seven community colleges) in terms of $/FTE is the highest in the
Nation. Total revenue per FTE in 2009 was $17,460, while the U.S.
average was $10,998.\10\
When represented as a percentage of public higher
education revenue, Wyoming has the lowest net tuition of all the
States.\10\
I would submit that ours is not a challenge of resource quantity,
but rather of how the abundance that we have can best be invested to
create opportunities leading to fulfilling, productive lives. Perhaps
the most important component in evaluating the efficacy of how
resources are applied in pursuit of these goals is comprehensive,
current data.
Innovative new approaches to addressing present and current
challenges in education will only be effective if it is possible to
establish objectives and metrics by which success is to be measured and
achievement established. Data are the sin qua non to this process.
Without a comprehensive, longitudinal data capacity, we will continue
to resort to speculation and inference rather that accurately and
equitably assessing our performance. There are, of course, concerns of
individual privacy which must and can be addressed, but no longer can
we afford to merely employ anecdotal evidence as a proxy for assessing
performance.
What is Wyoming Doing to Address This Issue?
The Wyoming Community College Commission Statewide Strategic Plan
was completed early this year, presented to policymakers for
consideration, and approved as the guiding document for the future of
Wyoming's community college system.\11\ A product of 3 years of study,
first by a governor-appointed commission and then a legislative task
force, the plan sets out ambitious goals for continuing to strengthen
linkages between the K-12 system and the seven community colleges.
The plan also mandates continued collaboration among all education
sectors as an essential for continued progress. Partnerships with
workforce services and other human service agencies continue to provide
new avenues to jointly address the education and training needs of
Wyoming citizens. For example, the community colleges and the
Department of Workforce Services have recently cooperated in deploying
the Career Readiness Certificate, providing a nationally recognized
credential to assist employers in the hiring process and giving job
seekers a means to quantify their proficiency in applied mathematics,
reading for information and locating information.
conclusion
Relevance, remediation and resources--three components that I
believe merit examination for the role they can play in reforming our
secondary education system. Relevance, achieved through integration of
career and academic pathways into the learning process and professional
development opportunities to enhance educational practice. A reduced
need for remediation through better alignment of secondary and post-
secondary curriculum and the employment of common assessment
instruments. And effective application of resources through more
comprehensive and effective use of data to improve our understanding
and guide our decisions. I believe that by attending to these three
areas, we can achieve higher levels of success for all students and
ensure a brighter future for all of Wyoming and the Nation.
Thank you for this opportunity.
References
1. Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements
through 2018; Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce, June 2010.
2. Common Core State Standards Initiative; Council of Chief State
School Officers and the National Governor's Association, June 2010.
[http://corestandards.org]
3. New Directions for High School Career and Technical Education in
Wyoming: A Strategic Plan; Hoachlander, Gary; Klein, Steven and
Studier, Carol; MPR Associates, May 2007.
4. Beyond the Rhetoric: Improving College Readiness Through
Coherent State Policy; The National Center for Public Policy and Higher
Education and the Southern Regional Education Board, June 2010.
5. Getting Past Go: Rebuilding the Remedial Education Bridge to
College Success; Education Commission of the States, May 2010.
6. Answers in the Toolbox: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns,
and Bachelor's Degree Attainment; Office of Education Research and
Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 1999.
7. Wyoming Community College Commission, study conducted for
Legislative Services Office, 2010.
8. The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium; State of Washington,
Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, June 2010. [http://
www.k12.wa.us/SMARTER]
9. State of Wyoming: 2011-2012 Biennial Budget: Department of
Education.
10. State Higher Education Finance: FY 2009; State Higher Education
Executive Officers, 2010.
11. Wyoming Community College Commission Statewide Strategic Plan:
Planning for the Future of Wyoming's Community Colleges; MPR Associates
and the Wyoming Community College Commission, January 2010.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Mr. Mitchell.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN MITCHELL, SUPERINTENDENT, PARK COUNTY SCHOOL
DISTRICT NO. 1, POWELL, WY
Mr. Mitchell. Good afternoon. Senator Enzi, thank you for
inviting me to testify at this hearing today. It is an honor to
represent our school district and the rural school districts in
Wyoming and across the Nation.
Our school district is comprised of four elementary
schools, one middle school, one comprehensive high school and
one small alternative high school. We serve about 1,600
students in 1,458 square miles. Powell, a community of 5,000,
has a tradition of educational excellence, but we also
understand the need to make sure we continually strive to
improve our efforts to provide the quality of education our
students deserve.
In following with this tradition, recently our Board of
Trustees has adopted a strategic plan to guide the School
District in continuous school improvement. I have provided a
copy of our strategic plan. I'll speak briefly about just one
of the goals--we have three goals--but our main academic goal
is that we will increase student achievement by ensuring that
all students will be prepared for Algebra I by the end of 8th
grade; ensure that, at the end of 3rd grade and all subsequent
years thereafter, students will be reading on grade level; and
we'll attempt to attain 100 percent graduation rate.
As you can see, the student achievement goals are very
bold; however we believe we can reach our goals with the
support of our stakeholders. We can't do it alone, it's not
necessarily our teachers' responsibility.
High School Reform, we really don't call it high school
reform, but that was the title of some of the topics as we were
preparing for this, we call it Continuous School Improvement.
Some of the efforts that we have attempted during my short
tenure at Powell and certainly prior to my tenure was working
effectively with our high school staff and our community to
provide opportunities for our students. We offer a strong
curriculum of core academic classes, supplemented by the
traditional high school offerings.
We also partner with Northwest College to offer dual and
concurrent enrollment classes to our high school students and
we have recently started having articulation agreements and
discussions with faculty at Northwest College, which is located
in our community. It's a small step, but it will prove
advantageous for our students.
We have initiated several strategies in the recent years to
decrease our drop-out rate. One of those is, we have developed
academies at each grade level: 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th
grade, and 12th grade. The academy concept, briefly, is that
breaking our high school down into smaller groups with similar
teachers teaching similar students and then, not only that,
small groups of students meet regularly with one teacher, which
is their advisor, talking about their academic progress and
their needs and wants as a student, and also rescheduling--
working 2 years, our high school schedule allows those teachers
to periodically have common planning time so that they can meet
to talk about student data as it relates to student
achievement.
We also developed a project-based learning environment,
which not only covers core academic standards, but also allows
students to work together as a team for a common goal, which
embedded in that are career skills. Also it's mandatory that
each of those projects are integrated with the use of modern
technology.
We offer a strong school-to-work program for students that,
in their junior and senior years, have the ability to take some
time out of school and work at one of the local businesses. We
also have a job shadow component related to that, and recently,
in the last 2 years, we have implemented the Reconnecting Youth
program which is showing very good results in its first 2
years.
A variety of at-risk programs have been added to Powell
High School. In particular, we have after-school programming
every day, provided by tutors--high school students, that are
tutors that we pay to tutor our at-risk students with an
academic advisor--we're seeing that. Last year we started the
Lunch Intervention Program, commonly known as the LIP program.
This is a program during lunch period where, if a student is
missing an assignment, they have to go to the library with
their lunch and stay there until they get that assignment
turned in. Mixed results. It's 3 years we've been doing it at
the middle school, and our D/F list has decreased dramatically
with the Lunch Intervention Program there.
We offer summer school at all of our schools, most
recently, just this summer, we adopted a project-based summer
school at the high school. That project was focused on Roundup
Ready Beets. All the students had to do some type of project on
Roundup Ready Beets. I'm not sure if you're aware of that, but
it's a big deal in Powell, we can grow a lot of beets in our
country.
[Laughter.]
The Federal Government's involvement there sometimes slows
that down.
[Laughter.]
Each one of the students had to present to the public--and
it was open to the community. It was quite an event, and not
only the students are still enthused about what they've learned
about Roundup Ready Beets, the audience themselves, quite a few
farmers showed up to know what the students knew about what
they were growing on their farms, and were quite impressed with
the knowledge that the students had gained.
Our small alternative high school is called the Shoshone
Learning Center, it's all online. We require all of our classes
through BYU, and Powell High School students also attend that
center. They do credit recovery there in the summer, that was
our traditional summer school until this year, but they bounce
back and forth depending on some of the class offerings that
they can't get or a class scheduling conflict. If the student
wants to take band for 4 years, it's hard for them to get all
of that in, so they might have to go to the Shoshone Learning
Center for a Latin class or something that they want for an
elective.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mitchell follows:]
Prepared Statement of Kevin Mitchell
summary
Good afternoon Chairman Harkin, Senator Enzi and members of the
committee. My name is Kevin Mitchell and I am the superintendent of
schools in Park County School District #1 (PCSD#1) in Powell, WY. Thank
you for inviting me to testify at this hearing today. It is an honor to
represent our school district and the rural school districts in Wyoming
and across the Nation.
PCSD#1 has developed a strategic planning effort to provide
continuous school improvement for each school that is tied to the
district student achievement goals. A copy of the plan is included with
my written testimony.
Powell High School has implemented or is in the process of
implementing programs to improve student achievement. Grade level
academies, after-school programs, common planning time, project-based
summer school, school-to-work program, and dual and concurrent
enrollment classes with the local junior college are some of the
programs being offered to support our efforts to increase student
achievement.
The reauthorization of ESEA should include a strong emphasis on
professional development for high school teachers and principals. A
focus on a strong academic core of reading, writing and mathematics
should be provided to each high school student. All other curriculum
offerings should be decided by the local Board of Trustees. A system of
support should be implemented rather than a system of compliance.
Increase the funds for IDEA and Title I to meet the needs of our
students with disabilities and those in poverty. The Department of
Education could assist districts and other agencies to develop a
collaborative model such as ``Ready by 21'' to meet the needs of our
youth.
______
introduction
Good afternoon Chairman Harkin, Senator Enzi and members of the
committee. My name is Kevin Mitchell and I am the superintendent of
schools in Park County School District #1 (PCSD#1) in Powell, WY. Thank
you for inviting me to testify at this hearing today. It is an honor to
represent our school district and the rural school districts in Wyoming
and across the Nation.
Our school district is comprised of four elementary schools, one
middle school, one comprehensive high school and one small alternative
high school. We serve about 1,600 students in an area of 1,458 square
miles. Powell has a tradition of educational excellence, but we also
understand the need to make sure we continually strive to improve our
efforts to provide the quality of education our students deserve. The
Board of Trustees has adopted a strategic planning process that guides
the efforts for continuous school improvement. A copy of the strategic
plan placemat is attached with this report. The goals of the strategic
plan are:
Goal 1: Increase Student Achievement
a. Ensure that all students will be prepared for Algebra I by the
end of 8th grade.
b. Ensure that, at the end of 3d grade and all subsequent years
thereafter, students will be reading on grade level.
c. Attain 100 percent graduation rate.
Goal 2: Ensure Effective and Efficient Operations
a. Develop a systematic approach to identify and evaluate the
operational processes of the district.
Goal 3: Strategic Communications With Stakeholders
a. Implement a district-wide communication plan.
As you can see, the student achievement goals are very bold;
however we believe we can reach our goals with the support of our
stakeholders. A detailed plan on the actions needed to achieve the
goals has been developed to guide our work.
high school reform
Powell High School (PHS) offers a strong curriculum of core
academic classes, supplemented with art, music, health and physical
education and career and technical education class offerings. There are
many other elective classes offered also that include AP classes. We
have a partnership with Northwest College to offer dual and concurrent
enrollment classes to our high school students.
Powell High School has adopted or is in the process of initiating
strategies to ensure that our graduates are prepared for college or a
career. Grade level academies have been established to provide
opportunities for small groups of teachers to develop relationships
with students. Many high school dropouts didn't have a personal
connection with anyone in the school. Each teacher is assigned a small
group of students to meet with to discuss their academic progress and
assist the students with any problems they might have. The academies
also allow the teachers a common planning time to discuss student
achievement data to monitor student achievement.
PHS is also in the process of developing a project-based approach
as an instructional strategy. This strategy develops skills that
students need to work together for a common goal. Standards in more
than one curricular area may be addressed along with career skills in
one assigned project guided by at least two teachers. The integration
of technology is mandatory in all of the project-based classes.
Powell High School also offers a strong school to work program.
This program allows students time to work in local businesses. This
program is coupled with a job shadowing program. These programs offer
students an opportunity to develop job-related skills and to also
determine if they want to pursue a specific career. PHS implemented the
Reconnecting Youth program 2 years ago to address identified at-risk
students that have poor attendance and are not on track to graduate.
The initial results of this program are positive.
PHS also has a variety of programs to offer at-risk students. An
after-school program, partially staffed by student tutors has been very
successful in assisting students in need of academic assistance. A
Lunch Intervention Program (LIP) was established this year for students
that are failing a class. The students are assigned to eat lunch in the
media center where they complete missing or incomplete assignments with
the assistance of a tutor. A project-based summer school was added this
year. Students failing reading and/or math were invited to summer
school where they completed a project of local interest, ``Roundup
Ready Beets.'' The students researched the controversy over ``Roundup
Ready Beets.'' They had to meet the standards in math, reading and
writing in the project. They presented their projects to the public at
the conclusion of summer school. PHS received very positive remarks
from the students and the public that attended the presentations.
The Shoshone Learning Center is our alternative high school. The
center serves as an alternative setting for students that have dropped
out of high school or do not meet the norms of PHS. The center delivers
the curriculum via distance education. The center is staffed by a
teacher, a para-educator, a part-time principal and an administrative
assistant. The center is also used by PHS students that want to take a
class that is not offered at the high school or to complete a credit
recovery class. The Shoshone Learning Center had a graduating class of
13 students that may not have graduated without this opportunity.
Most of these programs mentioned above are either fully or
partially funded using Federal funds we receive from consolidated
grants. Title I, neglected and delinquent, special education and
general funds are allocated to provide these programs for our students.
opportunities during the reauthorization of esea
The reauthorization of ESEA is very important, especially to rural
school districts and particularly to rural high school reform.
Secondary schools can be resistant to embrace change. The Federal
Government could assist local school districts in high school reform by
providing support to teachers and principals in the following areas:
1. Professional development in identifying the needs of high school
students and how to make sure all students have a personal connection
to the school.
2. All students must complete a rigorous core curriculum of
reading, writing and mathematics. All students must be prepared for
college in these three areas. One assessment could be developed to
measure a student's skills and knowledge in these areas. Even the so
called ``vocational professions'' such as plumbers and electricians
need these skills to complete the training necessary for their chosen
profession. This curriculum should certainly be supplemented by the
sciences, history, music, art, drama, foreign language, health and
physical education, technology and the list goes on. However, all
students in a rural area must be equipped with these college ready
skills. This practice would eliminate the need for remediation classes
at the college level. Students and their parents are not making the
appropriate class choices to insure they are college ready. We must
make these choices for them. Small rural high schools cannot offer a
large offering of curricular choices to students, but they can all
offer this rigorous core curriculum. You never know when a person may
choose to attend college after years of not needing or choosing to
attend college. ESEA should support the efforts of this core curriculum
such as the recently released common core standards and leave the rest
of the curriculum choices to the local Board of Trustees.
3. IDEA and title I funds are critical for school districts. These
grants should remain formula-driven and not be turned into competitive
grants where small rural districts are at a disadvantage to compete for
these funds. At-risk students live in all corners of the Nation and
funding for children of poverty or special needs should not be
determined by how well a grant application was written. Increasing
funding for IDEA and adding title I funds specifically for high schools
would assist rural districts in meeting the needs of our students in
poverty and our low performing schools.
4. The Department of Education could offer more regionally located
professional development opportunities in rural areas. This would
provide better customer service for our students. Attending very
expensive conferences in large cities shouldn't be the only offerings
to see how model schools improve student achievement. Referring someone
to a link on a Web site is not customer service. The development of
personal relationships with the Department of Education, the State
Department of Education and the local districts would be most helpful
and could be accomplished by face-to-face interactions.
5. The development of effective high school principals must be a
priority. I believe the high school principal has the most difficult
job in education today. They need quality professional development and
support from the local district and from the State and Federal levels.
Professional development offered regionally by the Department of
Education or in partnership with a local university is much-needed.
Providing real examples of education reform that increases student
achievement that includes a plan for implementation, followed by on-
site coaching during the implementation phase would be very effective
in assisting principals with education reform at the high school level.
6. Moving to a customer service model versus a compliance model
would be most helpful. Firing a principal and half of the staff of a
200-student high school in rural America will not provide the change
expected. In fact, that would be a tragedy in a small rural community.
7. Assist districts in developing partnerships with local
stakeholders in educating our youth. Programs such as ``Ready by 21''
could be developed in most communities with the assistance of the
Federal Government and could be funded as a part of ESEA. This would
include educational agencies from preschool to graduate school. A
collaborative model for educational agencies to work together for the
common good is needed. It is too easy to point the finger at someone
else for not doing their job. Joining them in the work to develop a
better understanding of the barriers to success would actually benefit
our students.
Educators are not afraid of accountability. We certainly aren't in
Park 1. There does need to be a realization that there are too many
students that aren't ready to attend school or do not receive any
support outside of the school setting to become career- or college-
ready.
Thank you again for offering me this opportunity to share my
comments with you. I would answer any questions that you might have for
me.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Dr. Velle.
STATEMENT OF VERLYN VELLE, Ed.D., COORDINATOR OF CAREER AND
TECHNICAL EDUCATION, CAMPBELL COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, GILLETTE,
WY
Ms. Velle. Senator Enzi, members of the panel, and
audience. I am thrilled to hear that Paul was doing some career
academies, because that's what I'm going to be talking about. I
was asked to talk about the concept that we have begun at
Campbell County High School, and it has mostly to do with
career academies.
Career academies may or may not be quite what we're talking
about, but in most career academies--well, in Wyoming, first of
all, most of our schools are really small. What happens in a
really small school is that these great relationships are
formed between parents and the school, and the teachers and the
administrators and everybody. You know, one of the students is
missing, all of the teachers know it, and they call Mom and Dad
and they try to find out why the student was missing and that
sort of thing.
What we have done is try to focus on some careers and I
want you to know that we've made some major mistakes. It's a
very slow process, and we've been learning all the way along.
Most career academies--this is an old concept that was
developed in Philadelphia about 40 years ago, but it's kind of
new to Wyoming. What happens in our academies is that we try to
keep the students together for at least 2 years. If they can
stay together for 3 years, it would be great. We have two
different campuses, so it's a little farther, but they stay
together, and we try to keep them with the same teachers, as
well.
One of the things that we found out from trying to do
career academies is that there's a lot of data that's been
collected, nationwide. The data has really supported our
interest in doing career academies.
For instance, in California, the students have 10 percent
higher graduation rate if they're in an academy. Now, there are
lots of different ways that you can do research, and everybody
knows that, and data can be used for all different kinds of
things. What we found in nationwide kinds of research is that
students graduated at a higher rate; less drop-outs, then, of
course. They have better academic entrance into college, or
into a job, they have--this seems very strange, I'm sure--but
they have been shown to have a better family life, and have
kept their jobs longer. There are all kinds of research that we
could go into.
The National Coalition on Career Academies says that there
are a number of things that you should focus on in a career
academy. That is, first of all, your focus should be on both
college and careers. We should raise student aspirations and
commitment. And that we should increase student achievement.
Those are the things that we are hoping to do.
Since our high school is about, almost 1,400 students, it
doesn't have that same, small--like my high school has 250
students, so every student knows every student, and every
teacher knows every student. During the school day, you have
1,400 students, you have what are called growth students, and
those are the students that get lost. They are doing something
that pulls them in.
What we did in Campbell County is, we started out by taking
people to see academies that worked well. So, we went to
California, we went to Florida, and we visited Palm Beach, FL,
where that school district has over 100 career academies in 98
high schools. We took the school board, members of the school
board, we took administrators, we took teachers. It has been
very clear to us that, unless you see it, you don't believe it.
It was always a good thing to take people to see these career
academies.
Once they see that and listen to the students talk about
what they've learned, how they've been a part of something, all
of those relationships that they've formed, then that's when
they become believers.
I too, am really interested in the--we call them the Four
R's--not reading, `rithmetic', that kind of thing--the Four R's
that we talk about in our career academies are our rigor,
relevance, relationships, and the last one is reflection--
you've got to think about what you have learned.
We have, right now, three academies, two of them are going
to start in the fall. Our first one was an ``Energy Academy.''
Obviously, if you're going to do a career academy, you have to
take what's happening in the community into--that's got to be
the main focus. We've got an Energy Academy, great. What
happened was, that there was an effort in a CTE program. What
we found with our career academies that they have to be
anchored in CTE.
Senator Enzi. CTE is?
Ms. Velle. Career Technical Education.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Ms. Velle. Our next academies Hospitality and Tourism which
includes culinary arts, and transportation, and transportation
technology, and that includes the whole energy theme, as well,
because we have the solar and water technology and all of that
sort of thing.
We start with sophomore, we get a small group of
sophomores, and each year we add some more sophomores.
Hopefully when these students get to be seniors, there will be
about 150 of them in an academy.
Now, nationwide statistics say that anything under 500 is a
smaller community, but for us, that's pretty high. We're trying
to get about 150 in each one of these.
These are things that have to be revisited all of the time.
My time is up, so I will stop there.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Velle follows:]
Prepared Statement of Verlyn Velle, Ed.D.
summary
Restructuring Rural High Schools--A Career Academy Concept
Why do we need to change? Albert Einstein once said, ``The
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting different results.'' Career academies provide change in
student interest in school, an increase in a sense of belonging and
improved attendance and graduation rates. Career Academies reduce
dropout rates and better prepare students to succeed into adulthood.
And they increase student achievement through relationships.
effectiveness of career academies (national career academy coalition)
When career academy students are compared to non-academy students
in the very same high school we find that academy students nationally:
earn more credits upon high school graduation (8 percent-
15 percent more);
graduation rate is considerably higher (CA. 10 percent
higher);
drop out of school at a lower rate (7.3 percent-14.6
percent lower);
enroll in post-secondary education at a higher rate (62
percent vs. 47 percent);
matriculate from 2-year and 4-year colleges at a higher
rate (52 percent vs. 36 percent);
report lower remediation rate than the national average (8
percent vs. 20 percent);
earned higher hourly wages, worked more hours per week,
had more months of employment and earned about 10 percent more per
month;
pass State exams at a higher rate (language arts 84
percent vs. 76 percent; math 80 percent vs. 74 percent); and
meet college entrance course requirements at a higher rate
(50 percent vs. 39 percent).
In Campbell County School District, we have not had career
academies long enough to have had any students graduate, however, we
now have a class of 27 seniors, who are completely dedicated to the
Career Academy concept, as well as 47 juniors in the Energy Academy. We
will start two additional career academies this fall in the areas of
Transportation Technology and Hospitality and Tourism. We have learned
much along the way, especially in the areas of communication concerning
career academies and support of the concept from some administrators
and teachers. We do have very strong support from parents and the
community as a whole, generally expressing a desire to have more career
academies added to the high school.
Because of the sequence of courses required in Career and Technical
Education at Campbell County High School, students are really enrolled
in a career academy of sorts, only lacking the core academic teacher
involvement and integration. These areas include: Agriculture; Project
Lead The Way (pre-engineering), Business and Finance and Television,
Broadcasting and Animation Production and Careers, and generally
involve at least 2 years with the same group of students. Emphasis is
on the ``Four R's--Rigor, Relevance, Relationships and Reflection''.
______
The ``Small Learning Community'' concept is probably the most
common model for high schools in Wyoming, many of them having less than
500 students. In that model there is a strong relationship between the
teachers and the students, the administration and the teachers and the
students, and between the school and the community. When schools begin
having a student enrollment of over a thousand, those relationships are
generally not as strong or supportive and many students get lost simply
because of the size of the school. Campbell County High School is not a
typical rural school because it has a student population of
approximately 1,400. This large number of students has led to a fairly
high dropout rate and a graduation rate that is lower than desired.
With those opportunities in mind, the Campbell County Board of
Education members, the Superintendent, several administrators, career
and technical education and core academic teachers and community
leaders began looking at a model that would benefit the students in
preparing them for careers and for college and as a side benefit, for
the community to address workforce needs. That model is a type of
``Small Learning Community'' the career academy concept.
what is a career academy?
The concept of career academies originated 40 years ago to address
academic rigor, relevance of instruction and to build strong and
supportive relationships between students and adults. The success of
career academies over the years has been attributed to their dual
objective of college and career preparation, the broad cross section of
students they serve, as well as paying close attention to data and
research. Students who participate in academies are engaged in a
significant way, as academies support the students' positive
motivations. Understanding the student's motivations or career goals
have helped engage students in a significant way. We also know that
career academies within small learning communities foster
accountability at every level.
A career academy is generally comprised of a group of students that
takes classes together for at least 2 years and has a team of both
career technical education teachers and core academic teachers who stay
with that group as much as possible. Career academies generally have a
career theme that helps students to see the relationship between what
they are learning in their academic subjects and the application to
real world work, which get to the question of ``why do I have to learn
this?'' before the student asks. They also help to develop partnerships
with employers, the community and the local community college. Students
have the opportunity to get real world work-based learning through
mentorships (unpaid), internships (paid), on-the-job training, job
shadowing and school-based enterprises, such as Cafe' Latte' and Camel
Cafe', both within junior high and high school culinary arts classes.
The National Standards of Practice for Career Academies recommends
that every career academy has a written definition of its mission and
goals. These should be available to the administrators, teachers,
students, parents, advisory board and others involved in the academy.
These include at least the following:
a A focus on college and career. Academies enable students to
complete college entrance academic requirements while exposing them to
a vertical segment of the occupations within a career field,
encouraging them to aim as high as they wish.
b Raise student aspirations and commitment. An academy seeks to
increase the level of the students' motivation while in high school.
The biggest limiting factor in many youths future plans is not their
ability, but where they set their sights.
c Increase student achievement. An academy provides support to its
students to increase their achievement in high school. This comes
through close relationships with teachers and fellow students, rigorous
and relevant curriculum and exposure to career and educational options
outside the high school.
some research about career academies
Research tells us that students who are involved in a career
pathway or a career academy stay in school, graduate at a higher rate,
get better grades, do better and stay longer in college or career
academies and strangely enough, have been reported to establish more
fulfilling homes and families. (David Stern, Charles Dayton, and
Marilyn Raby. February 2010, ``Career Academies: A Proven Strategy to
Prepare High School Students for College and Careers'').
history of career academies in campbell county
Campbell County School District began using a structure that
involved four Career Pathways in the mid-1990s when ``School to
Careers'' was a major focus of the Federal legislature. An emphasis was
placed on giving students a better understanding of how their likes and
dislikes should play into selecting a career. This allowed students the
opportunity to learn about the career options available for them. Grant
money was used to establish career centers, employ career-center
directors and assist students in a comprehensive K-16 program of study
or individual 4- or 5-year career plan. The four career pathways that
were developed at that time--validated by local industry--have remained
a viable vehicle for assisting students to get into classes that will
enhance their career or higher education choices. Although students
were provided with the opportunity to visit the career centers and take
an ``Individualized Interest Inventory'' to help them select some
career options and one of the four pathways, there is a gap between the
student knowledge of the career pathways and the teachers interest in
learning about them. Because change is so hard, many teachers simple
rely on the old adage that ``this too shall pass!''. Change is
difficult, and can be very challenging, but it is time to embrace
changes that will advance the educational opportunities of our youth!
There is a story about an engineer, a doctor and a teacher who
lived 100 years ago and came back to see what the world was like today.
Both the engineer and the doctor could hardly recognize anything that
had to do with their chosen career; buildings, bridges and hospitals
had changed tremendously. However, the teacher could easily identify
the schools and the classrooms. Teachers were still in their own
individual classrooms, teaching by themselves and most of the buildings
still looked the same on the outside. Fortunately, the technology used
within the classrooms has improved.
what steps has campbell county school district taken to learn more
about and implement career academies?
It has become glaringly obvious to those of us supporting the
career academy concept that one must ``see it to believe it!''. With
that in mind several groups had the opportunity to visit school
districts with successful career academies, beginning with the members
of the Board of Education and the Superintendent. The next opportunity
was for other administrators and counselors along with interested
instructors to do some career academy site visits. Some of the schools/
school districts visited were in Bakersfield, CA, because of their
emphasis on energy-related areas, Palm Beach School District in Florida
(over 100 career academies in 98 high schools), San Diego City schools,
wall-to-wall career academies, Junction City, KS, EVIT Culinary Academy
in Phoenix, AZ, four career academy schools in Brooklyn, NY and most
recently, a group of the Hospitality and Tourism Advisory Board members
from Gillette visited Mt. Diablo Culinary Academy in Napa, CA. Once
participants have had the opportunity to watch the operation of a
career academy and to speak with the students, they become totally
supportive and aware of the benefits being in a career academy has on
student achievement and outcomes.
Another step taken to increase awareness of the benefits of career
academies was to hold large community dinners with guest speakers from
the Career Academy world. Three such dinners have been held, supported
by the Board of Cooperative Higher Education Services. The first
speaker was Deb Mills, from The Center for Occupational Research and
Development in Waco, TX. The second guest speaker was Dr. Ken Grey,
author of ``Other Ways to Win'' and the third was Ms. Connie Scotchel-
Gross, Career Technical Education director for all the career academy
schools in Palm Beach County, FL. These dinners included parents,
community members from business and industry, administrators, school
board members, students, counselors and other interested persons. Since
that time other experts have been brought into the school district to
train interdisciplinary teams of teachers in the areas of Integration
of Career and Technical Education with Core Academics, Project-based
Teaching and Learning and Reforming Education Through Smaller Learning
Communities.
The Wyoming Department of Education, Career and Technical Education
Unit, has been invaluable in helping to promote the career academy
concept in Wyoming. They were responsible for funding three
Demonstration Site Grants, one of which Campbell County School District
received to establish an ``Academy of Hospitality and Tourism''. They
also sponsored a State-wide career academy conference in March, 2010,
and invited a Career Academy guru to be the keynote speaker for the
Wyoming Association for Career and Technical Education Conference in
Buffalo, Wyoming in June of this year. The speaker, Dr. Valerie Jones,
Assistant Principal from Braden River High School in Bradenton, FL was
successful in structuring a new high school into three career academy
pathways. In 3 years she attained cooperation from all parties and the
school was such a hit that there is a waiting list to get in. Dr. Jones
was asked to repeat her achievement in a tougher 70 percent title I
environment. She was given just a year to come into a traditional high
school, win support of councilors, teachers and administrators, train
them all and work through the class schedules. How's she doing? ``Right
on Track'' The secret of her success is that every teacher, counselor,
administrator and student is aware of and involved with one of the
Career Academy/Pathways. Braden River uses only three pathways. Our
four pathways are well established and could possibly present a
workable structural option for Campbell County High School. The mantra
is: ``if it is good enough for some students--why not for all
students?''.
what we have learned along the way
First, change is REALLY hard and second, there must be a Career and
Technical Education sequence of courses available for the academy
students.
The first career academy that was started at Campbell County High
School was an ``Energy Academy'', which had all the major components of
an academy except for CTE classes on which to base student career
choice. So, students wanted to be in the academy for the relationship
part of the academy, but were scattered as to their career goals.
Students wanted to be doctors, architects, cosmetologists, engineers,
everything but energy-related kinds of careers. Because of that, nearly
half of the 50 beginning academy students opted out of the academy the
second year as they all needed different math classes, different
science classes and wanted to take AP and college classes, which
weren't built into the Energy Academy. The good news was that not one
of the Energy Academy students dropped out of school.
There was a very strong group of academy ambassadors from the first
year who went to the Junior High schools to recruit the students for
the second year of the Energy Academy. Because of the interest and
enthusiasm of the ambassadors, 50 ninth grade students signed up for
the Energy Academy year 2. We are starting year 3 of the Energy Academy
now in the fall with 27 seniors and 47 juniors. Most of these students
have had the same core academic teachers for 2 years, but have only
worked with a team including career and technical education teachers
for one or two projects. This career academy will be continued until
these students graduate in 2 more years.
It was then decided to morph the Energy Academy into a
Transportation Technology Academy, or perhaps, an Energy/Transportation
Academy for students with a clear career goal in the transportation
field. They will be taking a sequence of auto tech courses from
Campbell County High School and their capstone courses in Diesel
Technology from Gillette College. The career technical education
teachers have been meeting with the core academic teachers this summer
to prepare the curriculum for next year. So there will be an English
teacher, a math teacher, a science teacher and two auto tech teachers
working together for the Transportation Technology Academy team.
The third career academy is the Hospitality and Tourism academy
which is one of the outcomes of the Department of Education
Demonstration Site grant. Again there is a team of core academic
teachers, culinary arts teachers and marketing teachers who will be
working with the students beginning as sophomores this fall. As soon as
the academy students are ready, they will be able to go to the Gillette
College Tech Center state-of-the art culinary kitchen and ultimately
will serve meals in the dining room there.
Assisting in student knowledge and interest in career academies are
two opportunities for students to enroll in specialized career classes
at the ninth grade level. Sage Valley Junior High has a class called
``Cruising to Careers'' co-taught by a Family and Consumer Science
Teacher and a Business Education Teacher. And Twin Spruce Junior High
has a class called, ``The Real Game'', also taught by a Family and
Consumer Science Teacher.
more things we have learned
Each Career Academy must have an advisory board made up of local
business and industry representatives. These members can provide job
shadow and field trip sites, help with curriculum issues, act as guest
instructors, help with activities such as the academy picnic, provide
mentorship and internship sites and much more.
Both junior high and high school counselors must be on board with
the career academy concept, because they are key to placing students in
the appropriate majors and elective classes. Counselors must be very
careful to assign a broad spectrum of students in the career academies
and not emphasize the benefits to only ``at-risk'' students.
Unfortunately, scheduling Small Learning Communities within a
larger high school configuration can be a nightmare. Career academy
students generally must be hand-scheduled, because of the sequence of
courses required and the desire to keep all career academy students
together for 2 years as much as possible.
Intensive conversation and professional development is extremely
necessary to assure that all teachers, students, administrators,
counselors and parents are aware of the value of career academies for
student success.
Without clear direction for change from the Superintendent and the
Board of Education to be carried out by the high school principals,
with support of the other district administrators, the likelihood of
success is limited.
The schools that we have visited with career academies generally
have an administrator, a counselor and a director or lead teacher
assigned to each academy or pathway.
As much as possible, the career academies should be physically
close to each other, such as one academy upstairs and one downstairs or
one per hallway. This requires the breaking up of departments causing
much teacher stress.
Students should be allowed to change academies, only after they
have completed a school year in the one that they selected first.
Whenever possible, teams of teachers should have a common planning
time during the school day and should be allowed to spend professional
development time in designing interdisciplinary projects and
curriculum.
It is helpful to have the Career Center Directors work closely with
counselors, especially those assigned to the ninth grade, to assist
students in selecting their majors. They will also work with teachers,
providing information and professional development around the career
pathway/academy concept.
It is very difficult to have career academies in the truest sense
of the word when you have a two-campus model. One campus for sophomores
and another for juniors and seniors, because the students have a hard
time staying with the same teacher for more than 1 year.
conclusion
We know that we are losing students! No matter what the number, to
lose even one student is problematic and not acceptable. Establishing
our ``career academies or small learning communities'' we have learned
much the first couple of years and will probably do even more
``tweaking''. But schools where the pathway or academy system is well-
established have found considerable success, which is the goal in
Campbell County School District.
Senator Enzi. You're all being very punctual, we appreciate
that.
Mr. Jensen.
STATEMENT OF BRANDON JENSEN, PRINCIPAL, CODY HIGH SCHOOL, CODY,
WY
Mr. Jensen. Senator Enzi, I appreciate the opportunity to
be here, and to be representing Cody High School. I'm kind of
the hands-on administrator, if you will, I guess I'm the lowest
on the totem pole as I sit and look at everybody here.
I'm very proud to be part of Cody High School and some of
the things we are doing there. I was asked to talk about how
high schools are talking about diversity in needs, and to talk
about some of the things that we're doing at Cody High School
that are making a positive impact on the lives of our students,
especially in their achievement, their education.
Just to let you know, Cody High School has about 680
students that we serve, and with that, we still, we carry over
a 95 percent attendance rate, our graduation rate most recently
came out, was 92 percent. We feel like we do a really good job
of educating our students. We're big enough where we can offer
comprehensive curriculums, but not so small--we're big enough
that we can offer things, but small enough, still, where we can
develop those relationships that we discussed, here, which I
feel is a real important part of education.
I guess, in a way, we know that we do a very good job, we
know that we've still got a ways to go, because 92 percent
graduation rate isn't our goal. Our goal is to be 100 percent,
and make sure that all of our kids succeed. We realize that
we've got a lot of work to do.
In sharing with you some of the things that we've done in
the last couple of years to better serve our students, I guess
I'd like to talk a little bit about the school improvement
model that we've adopted, and it's called NS--it's something
that's been around, and it's not something new, but it's
something that we've taken and we're running with, and we've
found good results with. We're using professional learning
communities to drive everything we do. In a way, it focuses on
three different areas. No. 1 is, learning for all--both
students and staff--becomes a priority. The second part is
creating a collaborative culture, and the last one is a focus
on results. As we kind of reorganized how we do things,
everything we do at our school revolves around four critical
questions, whether it's lesson planning, whether it's looking
at essential outcomes, everything we do starts with: What do we
want each student to learn? How will we know when each student
has learned it? How will we respond when a student experiences
difficulty? How will we respond when a student already knows
it? That really has helped us develop some interventions and
some strategies on better reaching our students and helping
them succeed. Collaboration has been a huge cultural shift for
us, and I don't know how much experience you have being in a
high school, all I can tell you, as a high school teacher that
is isolationism at its finest. I go into my own little world, I
shut my door and it's my world, and I'm going to do what I'm
going to do. We are trying to break down those barriers
because, quite frankly, we've got some great pockets of
excellence where a teacher could do that, and those students
would be just fine. In the same course, with a different
teacher, those students are going to walk out of those same
courses with very different experiences, very different levels
of learning, and quite frankly, we owe those students the
opportunity--guaranteed--that every one of those students,
regardless of teacher, regardless of course, comes out with the
same essential learning outcome.
It's been an awesome process because our staff has done a
really good job--and we've taken groups of people that, at one
point really didn't even talk to each other, to now they can't
get enough time working together. We've really seen an awesome
cultural shift with that.
These teachers are developing what we call essential
learning outcomes, where we're simplifying. It's saying that
every course has at least eight outcomes that every student has
to know, we're guaranteeing that. Everything we do has to meet
those--everything beyond that is icing on the cake, but we've
got to guarantee all students get that. These teachers are
developing common, formative assessments where they can
periodically check how they're doing, and then compare with
each other. Talk about conferring the brutal facts, sometimes--
when you're a teacher and your data shows that you're not
getting it done when the other people are, that's a time for
reflection to say, ``How are you getting it done? Because I'm
not.'' That's not easy for people to do, but it's something
that we need to do if we're going to get better. I've been
pleased with our teachers' willingness to do that.
We're constantly planted in the set of, looking at our
data, seeing what our current achievement levels are, setting
goals on how we're going to meet those, and then periodically
checking to see how we're doing. It's a cycle that we're in. In
the last couple of years it's been very successful.
We've carved out some time for collaboration, having early-
or late-start Mondays where teachers come in at their normal
7:30 time, students don't come in until 9 o'clock, and that's
been very beneficial, because there's a lot of work to do.
Teachers need time to be prescriptive when they're working with
each one of these students, and that's one thing I wish we had
more of, is time.
Regarding some advantages and challenges of a rural school,
I talked a little bit about one of the advantages is that you
get to know kids, and you can really develop those
relationships--not just staff, but parents, community members--
there is a little more bonding that can go on, because
everybody tends to know everyone.
My concern, especially at the rural school level, is our
at-risk students. Those are the ones that, in a lot of ways,
are not helping us meet that 100 percent; those are that 8
percent that are missing. In these rural schools staffing
ratios become an issue because these students need some
support. We just don't have the staff to support them, and
that's difficult.
The other thing is, is when our focus becomes all on math
scores and English scores, and AYP, what do they cut? They cut
the voc ed classes, they cut the fine arts things to focus on
these other areas, and in many cases, those are the kinds of
courses these students need to be successful. I think this is a
real disadvantage.
I know that one of the concerns I have as far as NCOB is
balancing the needs of the rural schools with the urban
schools. It seems like NCOB is very urban-school driven. That
kind of leaves us in the dark sometimes, and that's a shame
because our students deserve more.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Jensen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Brandon Jensen
summary
Thank you and introduction of Cody High School
Purpose of testimony
How high schools are adapting to meet diverse student needs
What we are doing at Cody High School that has made a positive
impact?
Cultural Shift at Cody High School
Professional Learning Communities as our model for
school improvement
Focus on four crucial questions
1. What do we want each student to learn?
2. How will we know when each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty
in learning?
4. How will we respond when a student already knows it?
Collaboration
Focus on results
Advantages and Challenges of a rural high school
Big enough to offer comprehensive curriculum but still
small enough to foster positive relationships.
At-risk students an issue of concern
Rural schools having to cut career/technical
courses
Transition school and student support center
Recommendations for reauthorization of ESEA
How to balance the needs of rural schools with the
needs of urban schools?
Growth model in measuring academic success
Allowance of multiple measures of student performance
to determine AYP
Graduation rates to be determined by mastery of
competency, not the ability to graduate in 4 years.
______
Senator Enzi and other members of the committee, thank you for
inviting me to speak today. I am the new incoming principal at Cody
High School in Cody, WY. At Cody High School we are striving to create
a student-centered environment that provides multiple opportunities for
students. Our everyday focus is embedded in our school mission: ``Every
student. Every chance. Every Day.'' Cody High School offers a
comprehensive academic program that includes Advanced Placement
offerings, honors offerings, career and technical courses, and special
education. We serve 681 students in grades 9-12, of which 20 percent
are served by free and reduced lunch. Our attendance rate is above 95
percent and our most recent high school graduation rate is 92 percent,
up 3 percent from the previous year. This data helps support the
approach we are taking in trying to meet the needs of our students.
As a current high school administrator, I have been asked to share
with you my perspective about how high schools have changed and adapted
to meet the diverse needs of students. I would also like to share with
you some of the things we are doing at Cody High School to engage
students in their education and prepare them with the knowledge and
skills they need for success in post-secondary education and the
workforce. In my role as principal and assistant principal, I have been
directly involved in transforming our school culture to one that is
collaborative, learning-
focused, and dynamic to better meet the needs of our students.
Today, I'd like to highlight some of the key components of our
school's shift in culture and the success we are having with students
from a rural high school. For your consideration, I will also touch on
some of the benefits and challenges that are specific to small rural
high schools as you reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act.
cultural shift
Three years ago, we began to look at ways to better serve our
students in a rapidly changing 21st century world and to better prepare
them for life beyond high school. What we determined was that a real
shift in the way we did things needed to occur for us to reach levels
of student achievement previously unattained. We found our change agent
in the implementation of professional learning communities as our model
for school improvement. Our emphasis is on learning for all (students
and adults), building a collaborative culture, and maintaining a
constant focus on results.
Over the past several years, our fundamental purpose has shifted
from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. The most profound
impact this has had on our staff and students comes from the four
crucial questions that drive all of the work we do:
1. What do we want each student to learn?
2. How will we know when each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in
learning?
4. How will we respond when a student already knows it?
These questions alone have provided us a new focus on student
learning and are having a strong impact on how we approach teaching
students, developing interventions that increase learning opportunities
and ultimately, improving student achievement.
Another huge shift has occurred in the way we work with one
another. We are making the move from teaching in isolation to one of
collaboration. To most effectively answer our crucial questions, it is
imperative that teachers work together in developing essential learning
outcomes that are guaranteed to be learned, regardless of the teacher,
and then work together to analyze and improve classroom practice. For
learning to improve and for teachers to be able to be prescriptive to
individual student needs, they need additional time to perfect their
craft. Professional development needs to be focused on our staff needs.
The past 2 years we have been able to carve out consistent amounts of
time during the instructional day to allow for this collaboration to
occur throughout the year. This is necessary to accomplish the amount
of work required to answer our crucial questions. However, budget
restraints and ``one and done'' professional development programs make
it difficult to create real change in what we do. What we have found is
that we have many teachers with years of experience and expertise that
are valuable and accessible. By working together collaboratively, our
teachers are expected to share ideas, materials, and effective
strategies that meet the needs of all students.
The last cultural change has been a greater focus on results to
judge our effectiveness. Teacher teams at Cody High School participate
in an ongoing process of identifying current levels of student
achievement, establishing goals to improve the current level, and then
working together to achieve that goal while providing periodical
evidence of progress. Our teacher teams have spent the past 2 years
developing not only essential course outcomes for each course but are
also creating common formative assessments that allow teachers to know
if classroom practice is effective and to compare with one another to
look for gaps in teaching and learning. This allows for teachers to
identify areas of the curriculum that need more attention and to
consciously look for successful practice by other teachers that they
can replicate in their own practice.
advantages and challenges of a rural high school
There are both advantages and challenges of a rural high school.
Cody High School prides itself on being big enough to offer a
comprehensive high school program, including a comprehensive career and
technical educational program, to meet the needs of all student groups.
Yet it is small enough to allow for the development of relationships
that support learning and student achievement. My belief is that these
relationships are crucial to student growth and achievement. The
greatest challenges rural high schools face is being able to
appropriately serve the at-risk students that all schools have and need
to reach. Staffing ratios in smaller/rural schools make it difficult to
give these students the support they need. Many rural schools don't
have the necessary resources to offer comprehensive curriculums and
comprehensive career and technical experiences are generally lacking.
When scores in math, science, English, and AYP drive a rural school's
focus, the first things to cut out become the vocational programs that
many of these at-risk students need. The benefit of these career/
technical courses is that they allow for different types of learning
and application of learning. These are generally the exact types of
classes our at-risk students need and excel at. Cody High School has
been somewhat successful in identifying at-risk students early and
applying specific interventions and strategies that are proven to allow
all students to experience academic success. Without additional
resources, we have developed a transition school that provides key
academic support to specific students who struggle in a regular
classroom as well as teach them skills that are necessary for success
in life such as collaboration, problem-solving strategies, study
skills, and interpersonal interaction. We have also transformed our in-
school suspension program into a student support center that teams with
our transition school to help students who struggle with academic and
attendance issues. While early in their implementation, they have shown
signs of being effective in helping our at-risk students and are part
of the reason for our high graduation rate.
key recommendations
I offer several recommendations for you to consider as you
reauthorize the ESEA.
1. I believe that we need to look at how to balance the needs of
the rural school with the needs of the urban school. Many of the issues
facing schools in general today are similar in nature, but there are
also some vast differences between rural and urban schools. As such,
they cannot be looked at in the same light on every issue just as we
expect all students to learn and achieve at the same rate.
2. I fully support the recommendation that States should be allowed
to measure AYP for each student subgroup on the basis of State-
developed growth formulas that calculate growth in individual student
achievement from year to year. I also support States being allowed to
use multiple measures of student performance in determining AYP and not
just State assessments in language arts, math, and science.
3. In regards to graduation rates, I support student performance
being measured by master of subject competency rather than by the
ability to graduate in 4 years. Not all students entering the 9th grade
arrive with the same levels of knowledge and ability and not all
students learn and grow at the same rate.
Thank you again for this opportunity to speak to you today.
Senator Enzi. You mentioned the need for the rural
differences and that's one of the reasons we're doing this
hearing. I have had a couple of people come to Washington from
Wyoming and testify and they've been able to point that out
real well. I did get the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan,
to come to Glen Rock and we had people there from all over the
State. What pleased me is the comments were a representative
cross-section of what I hear all over the State, and he got to
hear it directly and took good notes. Since that meeting he has
said some of the things he heard that day back to me. People in
Wyoming are good educators.
I appreciate the testimony today, but, there are a couple
of things that I want you just to briefly explain a little bit
more.
Dr. Abernethy, the P-16 Council, a lot of people might not
be familiar with what that is, so, can you please explain the
purpose of the Council?
Mr. Abernethy. Senator Enzi, yes, I will be happy to talk a
little bit more about the Wyoming P-16 Education Council. Five
minutes isn't very long.
It's a nonprofit organization, we're in our 3rd year.
Representation on our Council is from all sectors of education,
K-12, community college and the university. It involves
policymakers, two legislators--three legislators, now. Wyoming
Department of Education is represented. It's the spectrum of
education and community, in a sense, brought together as an
organization. We have, only about a month ago, decided as a
Council we're mature enough now to expand our membership a bit,
so we will be bringing in a superintendent and some more
faculty, actually, some more teachers. We have two teachers on
the Council, now, and we'll increase that number.
Our goals are pretty simple, but they're very difficult to
achieve. They're easy to say and hard to do. It's simply
increasing post-secondary preparation through better completion
at every level. We want more students to complete through K-12,
and we talk about post-secondary in a very broad term. We talk
about postsecondary--when I do, in this sense--I mean something
after high school. I think most people are increasingly
believing that, today, to be successful in our complex world, a
global economy that we live in, to have the best career, the
best opportunities, you really do need to have some education
after high school. That's what we mean, and that's what our
goals are, are to get more students to do that, in Wyoming.
Senator Enzi. And the P stands for?
Mr. Abernethy. Primary.
Senator Enzi. Oh, OK.
Mr. Abernethy. Primary school through----
Senator Enzi. Primary, preschool, postsecondary----
[Laughter.]
OK, thanks.
Mr. Abernethy. We could start sooner, but----
[Laughter.]
Senator Enzi. We put a lot of emphasis on preschool, too,
because that does make a difference.
Dr. Rose, you mentioned the need for good resources, and
attributed that as data, which I was very pleased to hear.
There are a lot of resources that are needed, but I've gotten
to talk to the Gates Foundation a few times, regarding the work
they're doing in education and before they put any money into
anything, they come up with a list of data criteria that's all
measurable. I don't know if you've run into that or not, or how
you're coming into developing the data requirements--that's
what we need, data requirements. I served with John for a long
time, actually, John was my mentor, he'd been there awhile
before I got to the legislature.
When we talk about education, one of the things that is
frustrating to legislators is, how do we tell people that we're
getting something for the money that we put out there. That's
where the testing programs come from. If you have testing, and
data that can be compared across the United States and your
group does real well, you can say, ``Hey, our money is really
doing well, we're better than everybody else.'' We want that
Lake Woebegone syndrome to crop in there.
Well, this question is for any of you, what kind of data do
we need to measure success? We're talking about changing to
growth models, now, and I'm sure that's going to happen, so we
can tell how much child development is ideal and instead of
highly qualified teachers, we're going to be talking about
highly effective teachers, which are the teachers that are able
to move people along a little bit more than average.
What kinds of data would be useful to teachers, and again,
for our bragging rights?
Mr. Rose. Well, I might just start by giving you one
example that we're trying to employ in the community college
funding system, and that is to move from a system that
essentially funds based upon students who are enrolled in a
class, which we know is very important--students have to be
able to get in the door before they can begin to make progress.
The problem with that is, that those students may not make
it to the end of the semester. Certainly many of them, and
particularly in community colleges, many of them don't ever
walk across the stage, with any kind of certificate or diploma.
One of the things we have implemented as part of our
Strategic Plan, and I gave Beth a copy, and I have plenty to
share--our Strategic Plan was adopted last year and presented
to the legislature and has now become our guiding, sort of,
document. It incorporates a completion component in terms of
our funding models, so that we are beginning to implement a
funding process that says, a student will--and a college will--
gain a certain portion of funding for the enrollment that they
achieve. As you know, across the country, Senator, enrollments
in community colleges are just ballooning.
The problem is, if we don't increase completion, if we
don't get credentials that are valuable to people so that they
can improve their sustainable wages and contribute to the
economy, those enrollments, really, are kind of a hollow
victory.
We are incorporating in our funding model a completion
component, that says a certain portion of your funding, as a
college, will depend on not how many you put in the seats at
the beginning, but how many actually make a passing grade? It's
where the data piece comes in, because we have to have very
sophisticated unitary data--we have to know student by student
how many complete. That's one of the pieces that is not
directly resource-driven, but in fact really is the reverse. It
drives the resources.
Senator Enzi. OK, thanks.
Mr. Mitchell, I've got one definitional question, here, you
said ``the D/F list decreased.'' I'm not sure that I know what
a D/F list is.
Mr. Mitchell. The students that received a D or an F in a
class.
Senator Enzi. Ah, OK.
Mr. Mitchell. Because they were not turning their
assignments in, now they're forced to go to lunch and do their
assignments, so they are increasing the grade point average.
Senator Enzi. Excellent.
You also mentioned you were having articulation discussions
with the community college?
Mr. Mitchell. Yes, we are--we're not too far away from the
Northwest College Campus of Powell High School, and we're just
starting to have discussions with math instructors, language
arts instructors about what it takes for us to prepare a
student to go to Northwest College.
We had to start that within our own system about 3 years
ago, we started having discussions with our 5th grade teachers
and our 6th grade teachers, and our 8th grade teachers, and our
9th grade teachers--having the same discussion about the blame
game--it goes downhill from junior college, to high school, to
middle school, and elementary school, and then we want to focus
on parents, below that.
Those discussions have started happening where the 9th
grade teachers visit with the 8th grade teachers, saying,
``This is what we need at our level, so that we can move them
to a level so that they're ready for college.'' It flows back,
actually, from the top down to the bottom.
Dr. Breschwich, the President of Northwest College and I,
the last time we met, are having these discussions about when
and how we can get our faculty members together. Outside of
that, though, with our recent concurrent enrollment agreement
that we have, our faculties are talking together, on their own,
about specifically mathematics and English classes. Very
important for us.
Senator Enzi. I appreciate that. I do know that blame game,
as we try to focus in on where the real problem is, it's always
in somebody else's yard, one way, up or down.
Dr. Velle, you mentioned that these career schools, or
career academies are 40 years old, I probably heard about them
about 3 years ago.
Ms. Velle. I know. At least I've been able to go to
conferences and heard about them about that same time.
Senator Enzi. Yes.
Ms. Velle. A little bit before that.
Senator Enzi. I almost got tears in my eyes when I think
back, one of the people that had a career academy we're talking
about, they had one that was a building trade. Everybody in any
academy learns the same thing, they just learn it from the
focus of what they'd like to do when they get a career.
Ms. Velle. Right, correct.
Senator Enzi. This principal was so pleased because so many
of the kids went to this building school, building academy, to
be a carpenter. Before long the students figured out that they
really had a lot of talent, and they became architects.
Ms. Velle. Right.
Senator Enzi. And I think that's what we want--we want them
to learn everything, and realize what their potential is.
Can you tell us a little bit more about what students in
the Energy Academy learn?
Ms. Velle. What we've learned by having the Energy Academy?
Senator Enzi. Yes.
Ms. Velle. Yes. I can.
In any career academy, you need to have, of course, career
technical education teachers who are sometimes not even known
to the academic decorum as teachers, but you need to have those
teachers working together. We try to get some of the CTE
teachers, and the core academic teachers to work in like a
cohort but a little bit different than the professional
learning community in that it doesn't take all of the sciences
teachers together and all of the English teachers together, and
so forth. We have an English teacher, a math teacher, a social
studies teacher, and a science teacher, along with the CTE
teachers.
Well, when we started the Energy Academy, we knew that this
community really supported the energy careers. What we didn't
do, is we don't have a Career Technical Education course called
``Energy,'' so we didn't really have an anchor for it.
We had all of these students who loved the academy--they
really liked the academy concept, because they liked those
relationships. What wasn't happening was, when they took their
career interest inventories, they all had careers all over the
place. They wanted to be cosmetologists, and doctors, and oil
space engineers, and everything in the world that didn't have
anything to do with--they actually didn't want anything to do
with energy, because their parents did that. I don't mean that
in a bad way, I just mean, a lot of the students did say things
like that. Which is, ``My parents work in the mine, and I don't
want to do that, I want to be a doctor,'' or whatever.
Then when the Department of Education had the demonstration
site grants, and we were able to apply for one of those, and
that was--thank goodness that was just a wonderful way for us
to get started into our next--what we thought was our second-
biggest industry, here, which we thought was hospitality and
tourism. Then we were able to hook it to marketing and culinary
arts. We have a partnership, of course, with the college, so we
have our culinary arts over here, we have culinary arts at the
high school, so now we've got English, social studies, science,
and math teachers working on projects with the culinary arts
teachers, and the marketing teachers.
We've learned to benefit from something that the kids
liked, so that they feel like they're really a part of
something. We're kind of morphing, getting the Energy Academy
into the Transportation and technology academies. Because we
think we'll get a lot of those same students, but we know that
we have a lot of students that want to take the automotive and
diesel classes. They'll take their capstone class here, at the
community college, so they'll take their diesel classes over
here.
Senator Enzi. OK.
Thanks. Mr. Jensen, you mentioned professional learning
communities. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? I'm
interested from all of you in knowing what role community
partners play in your reform efforts, and that sounds like one
of them.
Mr. Jensen. Well, I guess really, the essence is that the
professional learning community is understanding that it takes
everybody engaged in the same work, on the same page, and
working toward the same goal to make something happen. We use
professionals in the communities in the context of teachers.
Certainly, as you get good at what you do, you should be able
to branch out there and pull in resources from a community--
resources and such to be part of that. In a perfect world, I
think that's where we'd be. I think that's easier said than
done. Certainly, the opportunity to sit as a group of
professionals--and I think the key here, is that if you think
of the students as ``my'' student--whether you see that student
ever or not--if I still approach that student as ``my''
student, not ``your'' student, but ``my'' student or ``our''
student, and I'm just as responsible to make sure that the
learning occurs as you are and as she is, I think that's when
you really find that momentum that propels that student to
areas of achievement which they haven't been able to attain
before, because they're getting the focus of not one, but many.
Senator Enzi. So, you're looking at the school as a
community.
Mr. Jensen. Most definitely. Because, like I said, high
school is a--we're a community of neighbors that don't talk
much to one another, or have been. These gentlemen talked about
articulation--having these conversations between high school
and middle school, middle school and elementary, high school
and college, and those are conversations that have to happen,
so that we know what they expect, and then we can do what we
need to do to get them there, and that vertical line is so
important, it's got to happen more.
Senator Enzi. One of the things I was looking at in
preparation for this was the drop-out rate for Wyoming. I've
seen some drop-out rates from other States, and we're not doing
as well as we could, but we're sure doing a lot better than
some of the other States.
[Laughter.]
That's one of those data points that's handy.
I did notice, Dr. Velle, you mentioned that smaller schools
have more success--you said it much more eloquently than that,
but in looking at this, I noticed that there were other high
schools that have 100 percent graduation rate. Then I looked at
the size of the school, and I think 27 students was the biggest
one. There obviously is a correlation with that.
Ms. Velle. May I say something?
Senator Enzi. Sure.
Ms. Velle. We are not to the point, yet, that we have any
students that are graduating from a career academy. One of the
things that we really want to take notice of is whether our
students who are in academies, and career academies, graduate
at a higher rate than those students who aren't in academies.
Because, that way we can really focus on the fact that
academies are succeeding. We don't have that data yet. It would
be wonderful to have, but we don't have it yet. Our students
who were in the Energy Academy--we have our first group of
seniors, so we don't know.
We do know that of the students that we've had in
academies, not one of them has dropped out of school.
Senator Enzi. Wow.
Ms. Velle. Not one.
Senator Enzi. I'll be anxious to see those statistics as
they come a little bit further.
Would any of you like to comment on what you see as key
elements of any high school reform effort? For example, do you
believe that parent buy-in is important to the success, and how
can we make whatever reform thing you think of work?
If you want to jump on the parental thing, you can tell me
how to do that. We can't pass a law.
[Laughter.]
Anyone want to comment? Dr. Velle?
Ms. Velle. Sometimes I think that the people that we have
on our advisory boards are also parents. Very often they're
parents of grown--well, for instance, Perkins requires that you
have some parents on your advisory boards.
I think that the more that you can involve the students
going into the community and the community coming into your
school--which includes parents that just makes everybody more
aware of what's going on. For instance, for each of the career
academies, we have an advisory board. Sometimes, in the
advisory board, people come in and talk to the students--they
pay a lot more attention to that than they do to the teachers.
So, whether the advisory people come in and say, ``You know, in
order for you to get a job at our place, you better not have
anything bad on your driving record.'' Or, whatever it happens
to be. Then the students really pay attention to that. Whereas,
in the auto tech class, if you tell them that, they're sort of
like, ``Oh yes, you would tell us that.''
Senator Enzi. So outside speakers help, then?
Ms. Velle. Oh yes. Parents are great to do that.
Senator Enzi. Other ideas?
Mr. Abernethy. Yes, I think one of the comments I'd make
relative to high school reform has to do with the role of the
teachers and the community in the assessments. I mentioned,
very briefly, the common core State standards, and an
assessment consortium that I think Wyoming's very close to
pursuing membership in. Thirty-one States, initially signed up.
This would bring together teachers and folks from the
community, teachers at each level, which I think, as I said
already several times is a key part, you need to have the
vertical articulation as well as horizontal.
As we build assessments, again, like whatever kinds of
student measures/outcomes we're looking at, they need to be
developed by people that truly are understanding and working in
the trenches, that know what the challenges are, and know
better how to assess the information in ways that makes it
useful for them. I'm afraid sometimes what's happened, at least
it seems to me is that many of our assessments are developed
with the main outcome being something punitive if you didn't
achieve a level, instead of that--if you don't achieve a level,
No. 1, what should you being doing about it, as a school, or as
a classroom, or as a teacher, but what also, then, can we do
with that assessment information that would help the teacher
get better, or choose to get better? There needs to be some
incentives for the teachers in this assessment, as well.
That's one of the things that really struck me about this
balanced assessment consortium that I hope we do get involved
with for the common core State standards. That is one of the
elements that struck me as a good idea, a new idea that we
really should engage in. Wyoming, along with, probably
ultimately, be 35 or so States, I don't know, 31 right now--
that would help--that would, together, develop assessments. I
think Dr. McBride touched on this in comments he's provided you
before, is one of the things that would be beneficial to
education across the Nation. Saving resources is a common
assessment that has local flavor that could be accommodating to
the local needs and interests, but also would be one that we
wouldn't have to invest so much resource in at the State level,
so that we could spend more time in the classroom or
collaborating, building relationships, which I believe is
really important.
I'm not sure that was very articulate, but conceptually, I
think that's really important and somewhat missing element
right now.
Senator Enzi. Mr. Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell. I actually was handed the consortium
information at a legislative meeting in Lander on Wednesday, so
I read that information on the way over here today, and found
some of the components very interesting.
You were asking about data points, what would the schools
need as far as data points. We need an assessment system that
does give us some type of school which shows where a student
is, but most importantly, that assessment needs to have
information about the progress of a particular student so that
a teacher--not necessarily the teacher has to get better, but
they need to have information about that student so they can
refocus their efforts on the skills and knowledge that these
students don't have. So, this assessment system that this
consortium is looking at, we agree with that, for language
arts, mathematics, writing.
On the flip side of that, we believe that all other
curriculum areas are up to the local Board of Trustees. The
Federal Government should stay out of those areas. If they
focus on a national, rigorous curriculum in reading, writing
and mathematics. Help us with an assessment that we've never
had before, that we can compare apples to apples. We can do the
rest. Not without Federal support, but not the punitive manner
in which the support has come in the past.
This assessment is critical, and I do hope--unfortunately,
I didn't read a lot about teachers being involved at this
point, it's all about higher education. I hope that, at least
in Wyoming, that they will bring classroom teachers into that
assessment piece, so that we get the information that we need
about particular students' progress.
Thank you.
Senator Enzi. Thanks.
Anyone else?
Ms. Velle. I just would add to that that, for instance,
with the Perkins funding, we are centering on achievement in
the skills area. Technical and skill assessment is a really
important part of that.
In the past, the only assessment that we've had in Perkins
has been in math, and science, and so forth, and language arts.
Now, the teachers are actually being asked to write the
assessments. With the press associates in Jackson, they are
writing their writing assessments, so that students all over
the State will be asked to know the same kind of information. I
think that's a really important point, there. I mean, that is
for the Federal interests, we have the impetus behind that. The
State is really stepping up to the plate, I think, in that
area.
Senator Enzi. OK. Other comments on that?
Dr. Rose.
Mr. Rose. I know that you're getting ready to wrap up, but
I didn't want to let the time pass before I had an opportunity
to, at least, express an opinion that's fairly widely held in
this State, and that is to the point of how fortunate we feel
in having you as our Senator in a position that you are in,
currently, in terms of two very important watershed pieces of
legislation, coming together almost simultaneously in the form
of a Workforce Investment Act, and the renewal of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
I spoke, just briefly, in my remarks about how important I
think we recognize in the education community, now, it is for
us to dissolve the boundaries between pure technical and
academic pursuits. We realize that, all through the course of
education that these things can be compartmentalized and
successfully, really successfully, delivered.
I would hope that in the course of the formulation of these
two very important laws that there's recognition that there
really can be more cooperation between the Department of Labor
and the Department of Education, and though I think
collaboration can achieve some really important goals--and,
once again I--in my experience, in knowing what I know, the
little piece that I know about how you operate, I think we're
extraordinarily blessed to have you as our advocate in
Washington, and I really do want to thank you.
Senator Enzi. Thanks. I appreciate the comments.
[Applause.]
Of course, the way that I most often get information is
when Diana and I come back to the State pretty much every
weekend and go around and talk to real people, not the ones
inside the Beltway.
[Laughter.]
I also have some tremendous staff that are doing excellent
work. I noticed that Beth was smiling when you were saying that
Dr. Rose, knowing that that's what we were trying to press them
to do on both of those. We're trying to get rid of some of the
silos in the Workforce Investment Act, because we wind up with
every State having some money that they can't spend, because
they don't have anybody that qualifies for that, but we have
other areas that they desperately need money in, and they spend
it all. So, we want to get a little more flexibility there.
We will eventually get all of those things done.
Mr. Mitchell, when you were speaking before, you mentioned
academies. How do your academies differ from Dr. Velle's
academies?
Mr. Mitchell. Our academies are basically grade-level
academies where we have assigned a science teacher to the 9th
grade, a social studies teacher, language arts teacher, and
history teacher and before they are randomly scheduled for
grades 9 through 12, so we're trying to pull specific teachers
that only teach 9th grade, and another group of teachers that
teach 10th grade, so that they are working only with those 120,
125 student, and then we give them common planning time so that
they can spend time together, looking at data.
It's not necessarily aimed at careers. Ours is more of a
community, the professional learning community approach, not
necessarily--there can be some of our career tech education
teachers in that group, but they can't be in all four grade
levels. In the 9th grade, the rolling teacher might be part of
that group, in 10th grade, there might be a technology
instructor as part of that group, depending on when their
planning time is.
Senator Enzi. OK.
Time to go back to assessments a little bit more, because
we were talking about any kind of common standards. The idea
that's evolved out of common standards has been to have some
commonly developed tested questions that a State could pick
from to do their assessment. I think that's a very expensive
part of doing accountability--the testing. This has already
been tried a little bit for English language learners and
students with disabilities.
Any suggestions you have on the testing, I'd be interested
in. You can either provide them now, or in writing, later.
When we're talking about assessments, we're also told that
the schools want to have flexibility. I see a lot of head-
shaking, here. What does flexibility mean to you? Is it how the
Federal dollars are spent, that kind of flexibility, or how you
meet the Federal requirements, or freedom from Federal
reporting requirements, or any other--what does flexibility
mean to you?
Mr. Mitchell. I'll start, Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Mr. Mitchell. I think it's a combination of all of the
above. Certainly we are looking at flexibility, as far as the
different grant funds that we get that allows us the
flexibility to use those resources as needed. We understand
that there is always going to be accountability tied to those
funds, just as there are the State-level funds. The focus can't
be in every area. The flexibility for us, we initially are on-
board with the common core standards, knowing that there's
going to be an assessment of all of that. That's just a natural
progression. It's happening a lot faster than I realized,
because I didn't even know that there was a grant that the
consortium was working on. But, not opposed to that, I just
hope that we get to participate in that.
The flexibility that we're looking for, in particular, not
all schools are failing, in fact, we think that there are very
few that are failing. Some of the flexibility that we would
encourage in the reauthorization is that, if your school
district has no failing schools and meets AYP every year, that
we get the flexibility of using Federal dollars the way we see
fit at the local level.
Ms. Velle. One of the things about flexibility that I see
is that, for instance, in a career academy, the way you teach
is way different than--it's not what you're teaching, it's the
way you're teaching. I think that's where we'd like to see more
flexibility where we know that we have to meet the State
standards, we know that we don't want any students not to be
ready to receive the Hathaway scholarship at whichever level
they are aiming toward.
With the career academy, we need to have the flexibility
that we can teach, say, out in the community. That we take the
students out and they're doing something that the English
teacher can, for instance--can I do a ``for instance''?
Senator Enzi. Absolutely.
Ms. Velle. The Christmas tree that's going to be at the
White House this year is from Wyoming. There are some
organizations in Wyoming that have been asked to do ornaments
for this Christmas tree. The ornaments have to be something
that are, like, 12 inches, like this. They have to be something
that is Wyoming-like. I talked to some of the CTE teachers, and
we were having a project-based learning workshop. And I said,
``Here's a project that we have to get done by October, can you
do this?'' So that, they're going to make these ornaments, and
they have to have 5,000 ornaments for this tree. The Family
Consumer Science teachers are going to paint, and maybe the art
teachers, as well. For their students to do the painting--the
Tech Ed teachers are going to do the CNC routing of the
ornaments and cut them out, the math teachers are going to have
their students figure out how much material they need, the
English teachers are going to work with the students to write
up about the project and put it in the newspaper, and all of
that kind of stuff, so we're going to involve a whole bunch of
students, and a whole bunch of teachers.
They're not going to be doing what it looks like what
regular school is like. They're going to be doing all kinds of
other stuff. The students are going to get the idea, ``OK, I
have to be able to write, at this level. I have to be able to
figure out these things with algebraic equations. I've got to
know how to do all of these different standards, but I'm going
to do them in a project that makes sense to me.''
That's where I feel like we have to have a lot of
flexibility.
Senator Enzi. Good. I'm glad to hear about the
participation on the tree, too. Senator Barrasso did a
marvelous job of getting Wyoming in line on that, and getting a
tree. Five-thousand ornaments from five-hundred thousand
people--and that's counting everybody. I bet there's a lot of
participation, and I'll bet there are some awards that go with
that, too. So, I'm glad you're doing that project.
Anything else on flexibility?
Mr. Rose. Senator, just one additional point, I think the
National Governors and the Chief State School Officers, as they
develop these core standards, one of the things that came out
of that discussion is, we can really agree on some standards
that are not overly complicated and complex. I think
flexibility can really be achieved with the simplest form of
standards that we can develop and agree on, rather than trying
to dictate the very miniscule and very detailed ways in which
proficiency in those standards is accomplished.
I think flexibility in part can be developed through--as
Kevin said earlier--some different approaches, but some common
outcomes. We understand that this isn't necessarily a
prescriptive, and very, very directed sort of approach, but
that we really can agree on some fairly simple standards that
everyone should be able to achieve, irrespective of whether
you're talking about an urban school district with the learning
challenges that students face there, or here where we have
geography as a constant--I think flexibility really, in part,
can be done more effectively through simplicity, and through
just simple agreement on some very basic principles.
Senator Enzi. There seems to be some interest and agreement
that, since the Governors are putting together the core
standards, as opposed to the Federal Government, that it might
be more acceptable.
[Laughter.]
I was pleased in talking with the Secretary of Education
where he made some comments about how Wyoming's standards had
not been downgraded over the period of time in order to make
the schools look better over the period of time, and that was
quite a compliment to Wyoming.
Does anyone want to make any comments?
Mr. Abernethy. Senator.
Senator Enzi. Go ahead.
Mr. Abernethy. Senator Enzi, I would like to say, in a
different way, somewhat the same things that both Dr. Velle and
Dr. Rose have said. Thinking about flexibility, as I ponder
these issues in education, really flexibility for me is
acknowledging and devising educational practices that
recognizes that students learn a lot differently. Each of us
learn in a different way. Dr. Velle's gave an example where
you're learning content, which ties in with what Dr. Rose said,
I think, there's some level of content in, let's say,
mathematics as a simple example. Some level of content that you
need to be able to do regardless of what your career or your
future holds.
How I learn how to do that content may be quite different
than how Dr. Velle learns how to do that content, but we still
need to be able to do the same activities at the end.
Flexibility is acknowledging that we need to have an
educational system that acknowledges different learning styles,
different abilities in the way--and that's what intrigues me so
much about the career academy concept, and building that.
I speak highly--and I will continue to do so--of the
importance of maintaining the Hathaway Success curriculum. I do
that with some honest trepidation, in a sense, in that--
especially in rural schools--I'm not real sure how we achieve
those outcomes from those courses in ways that acknowledge
different learning styles. How do you make advanced algebra
relevant to somebody--for me, it's a conceptual--I'm a
conceptual learner, I love to think about philosophies, like
I'm doing now, theorizing. A lot of our students need to have
the hands on--they need to be figuring out advanced mathematics
in a sense of building something, of using their hands, or of
putting pieces together in a puzzle. That's flexibility.
I'm looking for help every day in how we do that, how do we
make it relevant to different students, different learning
styles, and still meet the outcomes that we need to have for
our society?
Senator Enzi. Mr. Mitchell.
Mr. Mitchell. I can tell you what's happening in rural
schools in Wyoming, at least the ones that I've talked to, high
schools. We're not opposed to the success curriculum. We
support it, when you focus on certain areas, and students are
driven into those areas, other areas suffer. Right now, at
least in Powell High School, career and technical education is
suffering.
We reduced a teacher this year, there's a chance we're
going to reduce another teacher in the future, through
attrition, because the students aren't taking those classes,
because their parents are demanding that they take the classes
that fit into the success curriculum.
We're struggling with that same dilemma of how do we still
offer that high, rigorous curriculum in everything that we do.
I've listened to the Superintendent, I've heard that they were
going to release five career technical education teachers this
year, so wondering how she was going to go about that. I had a
conversation--and they didn't release any, because the
community and the Board said, ``We're not going to.'' Then you
have teachers that have two or three students enrolled in their
class, which is not good for resources.
It is a continuous struggle of hitting that high rigor for
every student in the high school, and not focusing on two or
three areas.
Ms. Velle. That's a struggle for us, as well. When we have
the success curriculum that demands that you have foreign
language, for instance. If they had a little bit more option,
if they could have an option of fine arts, an option of career
technical education or language, to me, that would make more
sense. I know that that's more of a State kind of thing than it
is a Federal.
It really does affect our programs, very adversely, because
there are a lot of students whose parents say, ``No, you're not
going to take construction,'' even though they would learn a
higher level math and geometry in building the house. You can't
take a construction class because you've got to take a fourth
year of math, or whatever. Or you've got to take this--another
year of Spanish, or whatever it happens to be.
Mr. Jensen. And in terms of flexibility, this is a little
bit different than what we've been talking about, but I think
it applies--I think the flexibility we need--the realization
that students do learn differently, vastly differently, and
that students come to us at all kinds of different levels, and
to expect all students to reach the end point in the specific 4
years, it doesn't matter where you are here, by the time you
get here, everybody's got to be the same--that's never going to
happen. I mean, it just won't.
Having the flexibility and knowing what's important as we
take the student, wherever they are, and get them where they
need to be, and not be constrained by--it's got to happen in
this amount of time or you suffer, because what's important
here is that the student gets that, and that's what we're
trying to do.
The flexibility in ways that you determine graduation
rates, focusing more on mastering material and competency as
opposed to time.
Senator Enzi. I know that Mr. Mitchell mentioned
alternative schools, and do you have an alternative school, as
well?
Mr. Jensen. We have a pseudo-alternative school. We call it
Transition School. It's a school within our school.
Senator Enzi. It's for what students?
Mr. Jensen. It's for at-risk students who struggle in
regular classrooms, regular 24 students. When they've shown
that they've struggled in certain aspects, certain strategies
haven't worked, we were able to try some things differently.
It's a small group. We've allocated some teachers and resources
to teach them in different ways. We tie in online learning, we
teach them a lot of skills, discovery skills, and personal
skills. In some ways, they just don't interact well with others
in a big group setting, but maybe in a small group setting,
they're able to be more productive, and we can help them out.
I don't know if you're familiar, much, with Rudy Fame, and
her work on students in poverty, but they use some of those
same concepts there, as well, because a lot of the students are
the ones we serve in the transition school.
Senator Enzi. How are the kids selected for that?
Mr. Jensen. We've been developing a process, basically it
comes through teacher and counselor referral. We have certain
interventions that we try to use in the regular ed classroom
before we look at transition school. Oftentimes we need to see
what the student is just flat out feeling and if they are
unable to be successful in the regular classroom before we go
that route.
Sometimes there's some signs or some things that are going
on with a student's life that help us know, by referral, we
take those and we take them to our team that looks at those
referrals and then we make the changes.
Senator Enzi. How does the alternative school work?
Mr. Mitchell. There are some referrals, but they have to
apply and go through an enrollment process where they sit down
with a counselor and we have one certified teacher at that high
school--they have to set goals for themselves, the timelines
that they're going to meet their goals, and not everybody gets
to go to the alternative school. They have to go through a
rigorous enrollment.
It's not that you don't make it at Powell High School,
you've got to go there. Definitely students who choose to be
behavior problems don't necessarily get to go to that school,
either. So it's not a dumping grounds.
Senator Enzi. How do the other students feel about having
that school?
Mr. Mitchell. I think it was difficult at first. I wasn't
in the community, but I wasn't very far away, about 15 miles,
so I kind of knew what was going on over there. We have several
Powell High School students taking classes over there every
day. They'll leave the high school and go to the alternative
school to take a credit class through a semester. The
transition and attrition back and forth between the students--
the true alternative high school students, there's probably
about 20 is all there are, that's the only school that they go
to. We graduated 13 students out of that high school this year
though, had their own separate graduation ceremony.
Mr. Jensen. Senator Enzi, if I could just talk a little bit
about that, as well. At the end of the year we have a little
celebration for our transition students who are graduating. We
had 14 that graduated this year. I started at Cody High School
4 years ago, so these were the kids that I've seen for the last
4 years. To a kid, as freshman, if I was a betting man, I would
have said, ``Going to drop out, going to drop out, going to
drop out.'' It was outstanding to sit in that room with these
kids and to--and these are kids who are graduating and moving
on, some are going to community colleges, some are entering the
workforce, some are even going to 4-year universities, but it
was a neat experience just to see that and to realize on my
end, you never give up on kids, because you never know, you
never know. That was neat.
Senator Enzi. Of course, one of the things I want to dwell
on a little bit is the difference between rural and urban. Now,
I do know that when I'm in Cheyenne, they think they're urban.
[Laughter.]
I know when I'm in Chicago, they think that Cheyenne is
rural.
[Laughter.]
I know that Secretary Duncan got a much different
impression when he came out here. Incidentally, he came here
after being in Alaska. That's pretty rural, too, although they
might exceed us in population. One of the really nice things,
when he was up there, he never saw a single wild animal, but he
did when he was in Wyoming.
[Laughter.]
Mostly antelope, of course.
What sorts of things with ESEA, called No Child Left
Behind, are difficult because of our rural nature?
Ms. Velle. I would say one of the things that is difficult
is the fact that a very small rural school just does not have
the resources, usually personnel, to teach all the courses. One
teacher very often has to teach many things. They might only
have one English teacher, and so they don't have the luxury of
teaching drama. They may have only a tech ed teacher, and that
tech ed teacher has to teach probably machining, welding, and
construction, or whatever they happen--they can't do that whole
sequence of courses, which everybody now is talking about a
program of study, that every student should have a program of
study. I think it's very difficult for smaller schools to
really offer those programs of study that have the sequence
that really get students ready to either go on to college or to
go to a career.
Mr. Mitchell. Senator Enzi, I have a few items. Some of the
things that peer schools have to offer are supplemental
services. In rural areas there are no supplemental services.
There's just no other outside agency that we can send our
students to, it's us. The other is, that an entire subgroup can
transfer to another school. We have one middle school, so
there's no school for them to go to other than Powell Middle
School.
Then the other is firing staff. In small communities the
school is the largest employer, and to fire half the people in
a school system in Wyoming is not going to be taken very
lightly, I don't think. There's got to be other ways that are
nonpunitive, and I would hope that, in the reauthorization, the
Department of Education looks at more of a support model for
schools that are failing versus penalizing them.
In support, I mean by offering professional development for
principals, teachers, curriculum directors, in areas of school
improvement, bring in models of schools that have shown success
versus penalizing. And the other is that it needs to be locally
driven. I'm not sure about the cost, but it doesn't do any good
for them to tell me to click on their Web site from Washington,
DC. I don't get service from a Web site.
Relationships are important and we need to have a contact,
not only from the State Department level, but from the Federal
level. When a school is in trouble, they need people to help.
They don't need a book to read and they don't need a Web site
to go to.
Senator Enzi. OK. At this point, do any of you have
questions for each other?
Mr. Abernethy. Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Yes.
Mr. Abernethy. I have a question for Dr. Velle in the
career academies. The students in the career academies, sound
like what we call learning communities at the university. We
have learning communities for our first-year students. The idea
being to make a smaller community out of a population of 1,500
first-year students or thereabouts. Do the students in these
career academies or learning communities, do they take the same
kinds of high school classes, that is like the writing, the
mathematics, the language arts, are they in the same classes
for the core skills as all students?
Ms. Velle. They take the same courses. They have to fulfill
all the requirements for graduation, they have to meet all the
State standards, they have to meet all of the criteria for the
Hathaway Scholarship. They just do it with a, hopefully, a
teacher that stays with them for a couple of years. These
teachers meet together, so there'll be a math teacher, science,
English, social studies, and CTE who meet together and they
talk about how they're going to do these projects.
Now, they don't do everything project-based. They just do
some things project-based. They collaborate, so it is very much
like what you're talking about, the community. It's just a new
way of teaching, like was mentioned, that there's a story about
an engineer and a doctor and a teacher who died 100 years ago.
They come back to see what's going on. The engineer and the
doctor look at the hospitals and look at the bridges and look
at the buildings, and say, ``Oh my, nothing is the same.'' And
the teacher looks at the school and says, ``What's changed?''
It's unfortunate that we still have many teachers who go--
and some do well that way. I don't want to say that it doesn't
ever work, because it does. Teachers mostly go into a classroom
and close their door and teach in isolation. What we want to do
is make it more like the real world, because when you go out to
have a job, you're going to need English and you're going to
need math and you don't turn off the math skills and work on
the English skills.
So yes, we don't want to take anything away from those
students, we want to give them something more.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Is there any question that I should have asked you that I
haven't? We probably have about 10 minutes, yet.
If not, we don't have to use all of the time, but I really
appreciate all this information and I will have some more
questions that I'll get to you in writing and some of the other
Senators may have once they've looked at the testimony that we
may need cleared up.
I think that there's a great future for education and I'm
really impressed with the young people that I see in Washington
that come from Wyoming. When we see these groups from all over
the United States, and they're asking questions, I can pick the
Wyoming kids out. They're just a little bit more independent
and polite and thoughtful. You're doing a good job, but we can
do better.
I remember when I was in junior high, the Russians shot up
Sputnik, and we found out we were behind. The students were
embarrassed, the parents were embarrassed, the teachers were
embarrassed, the country was embarrassed, and we kind of had a
revolution in education.
I don't want us to have to have that kind of a problem to
get kids inspired in education. After Sputnik, several of us
started a Boy Scout explorer post and we built rockets. I've
talked to Homer Hickam who did the Rocket Boys, October Skies
is the movie, and we judged some rocket competitions out there,
and I like to tell them we did an electronic ignition on the
second shot, not the eighth.
[Laughter.]
Out of the 11 of us that were in that, 8 became engineers.
It did inspire people to get into science and technology,
engineering and math. I was one of the ones that didn't. I
loved the math and the engineering and everything, and at one
time was going to be a NASA specialist, but that led down a
different path. We have to take into consideration those people
that--I call it, when God winks--wind up doing something
different than they thought they would. I appreciate all that
you do to make sure that they're prepared for whatever
direction they have to go.
I think this has been a great conversation. I want to thank
each of you for taking the time and effort to come here and,
again, to prepare in advance.
[Laughter.]
I'll be telling my colleagues about that.
I want to thank the audience for joining us today and
listening, and I hope that you have some ideas from this that
you will also share with me.
If you have any comments on the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which at the current
time is called No Child Left Behind, please let me know. We
know it needs to be fixed, and we plan on doing that in a very
bipartisan way. We've been having discussions, the people from
the House and the Senate are getting together, both Republicans
and Democrats--education is pretty bipartisan--to discuss this
issue. We've been pleased with the discussion so far.
At this point, I'll mention that the record will stay open
for 10 days, and that's for members to submit additional
questions to the witnesses and for people to send in comments.
The committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:19 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]