Washington County Enterprise-Leader
SCHOOL LOOKS TO REDESIGN CURRICULUM
ADMINISTRATORS, TEACHERS TRAVEL TO MOUNTAIN HOME TO SEE AN ACADEMY PROGRAM
MOUNTAIN HOME —The Farmington School District is considering a plan to redesign its high school into career academies, based on a student’s interest and learning ability and with the support of community and business partners.
Farmington administrators and teachers have taken two trips to Mountain Home High School to look at its career academies and get advice on how to implement a similar program in Farmington.
A panel of Mountain Home High School students met with the Farmington group during the Oct. 16 visit and one student, Brett Brewer, gave this advice to Farmington: “Have the academies. That’s the best I can say.”
A presentation on career academies will be made at the Farmington School Board’s November 18 meeting and Bryan Law, superintendent, said he plans to ask the board at that time to give its OK to move ahead with the changes.
“It’s not a done deal at this point but we liked what we’ve heard,” Law said in Mountain Home. “We’re not at the end. We’re certainly getting close to the fourth quarter.”
Law asked the teachers involved in the tour to go back to Farmington and talk to the rest of the high school teachers about the concept and see what they think.
Mountain Home High is one school, divided into three career academies: the ACME Academy which focuses on architecture, construction, manufacturing and engineering; CAB Academy for communications, arts and business; and HHS Academy for health and human services.
Each academy has pathways. For ACME, the pathways include engineering and computer science, manufacturing and automotive technology. For CAB, pathways are communications, accounting/finance, marketing and general business, and government, public service and law. The health and human services academy focuses on health and medicine, hospitality and food service, environmental science and animal science.
Law said Farmington may not use the same three academies as Mountain Home. The school would look at what best fits its students and what can be supported by businesses in northwest Arkansas.
Brigitte Shipman, academy coordinator at Mountain Home High, said the school researched the best way to redesign its high school for about two years and then decided to go “wall to wall” with career academies, instead of implementing the new model in stages.
Faculty members were allowed to write down their first, second and third choices of which academy to join, with the understanding that “I will be flexible for the students,” Shipman said. It worked out that most teachers received their first choice.
Students were placed into academies, based on their interests and then placed in classes based on their learning styles.
For example, students who learn best through hands-on activities were placed in classes with students who like to learn the same way.
Academy Components
Shipman said the school used the following format in developing its career academies:
Faculty members selected their academy of choice.
Leaders were selected for each academy with the responsibility of understanding their team and uplifting their team.
Team building activities are held each year with the teachers.
Classrooms were moved to fit the academies. This was hard, Shipman said, because many times teachers do not want to change classrooms.
The school created the identity of its three academies by what would be a natural fit for the school and its business and community partners.
The school named Academy advisers, who meet weekly with their students.
Shipman said the school received the approval to implement Career Academies without any additional money from the district, without any new construction or without the ability to increase its staff.
“We pulled it off,” Shipman said, but pointed out some teachers are shared throughout the three academies.
To sustain the academies, Shipman said it is important to have parental support, community resources, district leadership, building leadership and support from national organizations.
“I cannot stress enough that you will not sustain it without your community,” Shipman said.
Other components of the program include teacher externships where teachers go into different businesses and come back with ideas to implement into the classroom to give students real world applications.
Mountain Home also has plus/zero hours for the students, a late start every Wednesday for students who pass standardized tests and are up to date in their classes and an internship program for seniors only.
The school uses block scheduling, with each class lasting 1 1/2 hours. One week students will attend a class for three days of the week and the next week, they will go to that class for two days.
Another key part of the academies is the mentoring program. Mountain Home High has 100 business partners and the mentors meet monthly with a group of students to help them in several areas, such as writing resumes, interviewing for jobs and other life skills needed in the work force. The mentors make a threeyear commitment to the school.
Academy Benefits
Dana Brown, Mountain Home High principal, said the program gives students the opportunities to try out different areas before they go to college or go into the workplace. She said students come back to Mountain Home and say they were better prepared for college and more confident in college or better prepared to start a career.
Shipman added, “They are able to take this journey starting their freshman year until they leave our doors and they can articulate what they do and why they are doing it.”
She pointed out that Career Academies give students and teachers the opportunity to develop relationships, similar to what happens on the elementary level. Students will stay in the same academy for three years and get to know their teachers during that time, Shipman said.
Mountain Home is now in its 12th year using the Career Academy concept. The first year was used only to rearrange classrooms and redesign the layout of the school campus for the academies. The school elected to become a charter school and received $150,000 in start-up money as a charter school. This money was used for professional development.
The school held town hall meetings and met with teachers, parents, stakeholders in the community to explain the model and bring everyone on board.
“It was very student centered and was focused on what’s best for the kids,” Brown said.
Brown said the school knew the program was working four years later when the first group of ninth graders were seniors in high school.
“We could see we did it right,” Brown said.
She added that the model requires a lot of work, “but it’s worth it.”
Students Speak
During the student panel session, the students made the following comments on why they like the concept of Career Academies at their school:
“I’m grouped with people who learn the same way I do.”
“We get to know our teachers. For three years, we build relationships with them.”
“I can take classes in other academies and learn to work with people who learn a different way.”
“I h av e t e a c h - e rs wh o s h a re my common interests.”
“I feel like we had a leg up on other students who go to other schools.”
All the students on the panel said they preferred block scheduling and they all liked the late start on Wednesday mornings. Shipman said the late Wednesday start is a big motivator for students to do well in class. Students who meet the criteria do not have to be at school until 9 a.m. on Wednesdays. For other students, the hour is used for remediation and tutoring.
The students also said that being a part of an academy means a lot to them and gives them an identity. Each academy has its own t-shirt and the teams do activities and service projects together.
Law Addresses Group
After the presentations, Law met alone with the Farmington group and told them, “We want to be a school of innovation.”
He said Farmington officials have looked at other concepts, such as being a New Tech school, but weren’t drawn to them.
“What I like about this is that they’ve driven their learning and teaching to match the students,” Law said. “Somehow we have the thought in our heads, that there is career and there’s college. We’ve got to put those together.”
Farmington’s mission is to be the best school district in the state.
“What are we doing to be the best school in Arkansas?” Law asked. “I don’t necessarily think you have to reinvent the wheel.”
He told the teachers that this change needs to come from the staff and needs to be driven by the teachers. He asked for their input on the proposal.
If the district decides to go ahead with implementing career academies, the next step would be to design a new high school building to fit that model.
Farmington is in the midst of discussing its future high school and will place the project on its next Master Facilities Plan, due to the state in February.