Uxbridge High 1 of 4 in Mass. to earn Innovation Pathway status
UXBRIDGE — The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced Tuesday that Uxbridge High School is one of only four schools in the Commonwealth to be named an Innovation Pathway school, capping a nearly year-long application process.
Launched by the Commonwealth last year, the Innovation Pathway program is designed to create partnerships with employers in order to expose students to career options and help them develop knowledge and skills related to their chosen field of study before they graduate high school.
For Uxbridge High School and its partner – the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce – the engineering/advanced manufacturing pathway will enable students to complete a three or four-course sequence in engineering and have
access to college-level courses while still in high school.
“We are proud of the work that we have done at Uxbridge High School to design a program that enables all of our students to achieve,” said High School Principal Michael Rubin. “Over the past two years, we have redesigned our guidance program, enhanced the engineering curricula, and helped build partnerships in the community that will be sustained in the Blackstone Valley and ensure that students have many choices following their time with us at UHS.”
Uxbridge High School currently offers three courses in its engineering/manufacturing program, with plans to potentially add a fourth course in the coming two years. Additionally, the school’s partnership with the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce will enable students to take the academic skills learned in school and put them to immediate use, either through a capstone/senior project or internship.
Part of the high school’s program that was considered particularly exceptional by the state was its comprehensive guidance model, the implementation of which has been led by its two second-year guidance counselors, Christopher Barry and
Amber Hampton, while the engineering courses have been championed by Michael Smutok and Daniel Sabourin, both technology education and engineering instructors at the school.
“The goal is keep our students competitive, to help our economic partners build and sustain a workforce, and to give parents some comfort that their students will have choices leaving high school, be it to be gainfully employed, further their education, or both,” Rubin said. “Our counselors work hard to have students understand quite a bit about who they are, so that course selection and posthigh school planning happens strategically, deliberately, and purposefully – and is ongoing, through each year a student is with us.”
The Innovation Pathway program is a highlight of the Baker-Polito Administration and its Workforce Skills cabinet, which partners the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and Housing/Economic Development. As legislators grapple with the next wave of education reform, additional partnerships with higher education institutions and maintaining connections with the needs of the work forces in the different regions of the state will be critical and strategic.
“We firmly believe that educational programming sits at the base of communities where economic development is strong and successful,” said Uxbridge Schools Supt. Kevin Carney. “It only makes sense to build academic pathways that are aligned to industry demands and which target skills that will enhance workforce sustainability and individual success. Our industry and school partnerships are only going to strengthen the marketability of our graduates for competitive colleges and universities.”
Jeannie Hebert, president of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the partnership with UHS has benefits in all domains of economic development – creating jobs within industries that are strong in the region, supporting employers who need to sustain an evolving, global workforce, and providing opportunities for students who are looking for authentic and real-world opportunities to learn.
“There is real buzz about this across the state, and it is exciting for UHS and the Chamber to be in the front of this movement,” she said.
Rubin says the high school has plans to expand its pathways beyond engineering in the coming years, with expansion to biomedical science and information science/digital media. Additionally, Rubin and Hebert’s collaboration with businesses through the development of the Blackstone Valley Ed Hub, which merges education and training with the businesses, will be central to the expansion of higher education opportunities within the region.
“Lots of schools put together goals for college and career readiness,” Rubin said. “We get to live it every day, and our students and the community will be better for it.”
Carney says there there is no greater satisfaction than when a vision becomes an action plan carried out by a team who believe in it.
“Setting core values and a course is one thing. Executing our vision is quite the other and you need to have the right people in the right places if your goals are to reach successful outcomes,” he said.
Carney noted the years of planning, restructuring, and relationship building it has taken the Uxbridge Public Schools to reach this level of distinction with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“I cannot overstate my pride in what Principal Rubin and his educators have been able to accomplish over the past few years,” he said. “They are on a mission, and they are right on the mark. They are bringing transformative change to what high schools are going to look like in the near future, and it will certainly have a positive, trickle down effect in our own district and beyond.”
The Blackstone Valley Ed Hub, which is supported by Skills Capital Grant funding through the state, has enabled Uxbridge High School, as a school campus partner, to procure additional equipment that supports its engineering program, including a 3D printer, a laser cutter, and a CNC router. In time, the plan will be for students leaving the engineering program to be ready and able to take the skills learned through the Innovation Pathway and be well suited for the college and employer-based training being offered at the Hub, all of which will support students in their post-secondary planning.
“I am excited about what this means for our community,” Rubin said. “For us to be on the map and being seen as a model for what is possible when we break down walls of competition and start collaborating is really an honor and tremendous responsibility.”