Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce

It is no secret that our nation’s education system faces some extremely challenging times. With globalization and technology rapidly rewriting the rules of the game, the needs of the 21st century workforce are far different than they were just a decade ago—and our schools must keep up with the times. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, intended to address some of the system’s shortcomings, has met with mixed success and no small amount of controversy.

With approximately 45 school districts in the Tri-County Area, we were unable to speak with each one, due to space and time constraints. However, we were able to get extensive responses from seven area school districts for this roundtable. Read on for more about partnering with the business community, vocational/technical programs and thoughts on No Child Left Behind, as well as what’s new for the upcoming school year.

Briefly describe what is new in your district for the upcoming school year.

Dee-Mack: We are completing phase one of a two-phase, major renovation ($5.43 million) to our high school building. In phase one, we will open eight new classrooms and two new science labs this August. Phase two is scheduled for completion in August 2009, with new offices, library/media and seven additional new classrooms.

Dunlap: The great expectation for the 2008-‘09 school year is the opening of a new, second middle school in August. After an 18-month construction project, Dunlap Valley Middle School will open on August 15th on Route 91. The new school has a community theme, with a Main Street, town square, food court and classrooms “in-house.” The classrooms on Main Street have storefront appearances—for example, the art class is an art gallery. The district closed the ‘07-‘08 school year with 750 students in the old middle school. Looking forward to the new school year, each middle school will hold about 400 students. By having two middle schools, the students will have expanded opportunities to play sports, participate in co-curricular activities and experience leadership programs.

Another exciting fall initiative is that Dunlap High School will be offering Arabic as a foreign language course, continuing to broaden our horizon into this global society. The high school added Chinese two years ago, and the district continues to embrace these unique offerings in the 21st century.

Eureka: We have just adopted a new, technology-enhanced reading/ language arts curriculum for grades K-5. Although we have the traditional reading textbooks that have been staples in the classroom, teachers, parents and students now have access to all reading and language arts materials online—at school and at home. Specifically, the online component includes CD-ROMs with all teacher materials, Read-Aloud Anthology books, writer companion books, text-to-speech for all student editions and leveled reading books.

Additionally, a new state-approved mentoring program is in its inaugural year, with the aim to support teachers new to District 140 and keep great teachers in our district. Increased special education reading materials using technology are stressed for the ‘08-‘09 school year. District teachers will begin to use several forms of text-to-speech software programs to help support struggling readers in grades K-12. Furthering the use of LEXILES (www.lexile.com) will also be an initiative in our district to keep readers in the level that best speeds their learning.

Limestone: We will continue with our Air Force JROTC Program for the second year and Project Lead the Way (pre-engineering) for the third year. We are making many technological advancements throughout the building—we currently have three student computers and one teacher computer in every classroom, as well as six computer labs, and all are being upgraded. Over 30 classrooms will be equipped with LCD projectors permanently mounted to the ceilings.

Metamora: We are adding Project Lead the Way to our curriculum. We will be adding a “professional learning community” program. Teachers will meet every other week for at least an hour to discuss common curriculum, goals, assessments and instruction to teach the curriculum. They will share their progress and discuss failures for the purpose of improving. The idea is that the teachers are the real experts. They need to share their successes, lessons and assessments.

Morton: One of the continuing initiatives that the district is implementing includes our new assessment instrument called Measure of Academic Progress that we are continuing to develop in grades kindergarten through 8th. In addition, the district is expanding the Response to Intervention services throughout grades K to 6 to provide more intensive educational services to students at risk of falling behind their peers. In addition, the high school is redesigning a Student Assistance Program to provide more intense educational services to those students in need.

Physically, the district is in the second year of modifying school facilities to provide air-conditioned classrooms at all of the schools. At the end of this summer, all classrooms at the elementary schools and the junior high will have air conditioned classrooms. The balance of the high school classrooms will be completed next year. The district is also installing a new athletic track at the high school and remodeling more of the classrooms at the high school and junior high.

Peoria: New this year on the primary level, teachers will spend every Wednesday afternoon collaborating at each grade level. This collaboration is professional development based on research and best practices, and we project a very positive increase in student learning and achievement. We know it will redefine teaching and learning on that level—one of our main objectives—and we look forward to seeing how to carry this initiative over to other grade levels in the future.

We also plan to continue developing processes and procedures that will solicit positive student behavior, school safety and customer service on a district-wide level. Some of the biggest and most challenging projects are mandated by the state. Restructuring at Manual High School and others have our staff and administration focused on standard aligned classrooms.

We will also continue to develop our benchmarking program, which will be in place throughout the district for the ’08-‘09 school year. Benchmarks allow each classroom teacher to actively track and individualize student progress throughout the year, allowing for quick and needed changes to student instruction. Another change will revamp administrator evaluations to performance-based assessment. And, this fall, many of our teachers and staff will go through the Pacific Institute’s 21 Keys training as we look to develop a constructive culture as our foundation.

We have a great start in developing partnerships with organizations such as our community schools, businesses, Bradley and ICC, to help each individual student find his or her best career path. We also hope to expand opportunities for students by implementing more enriched and accelerated programs for our K-8 students. Many of our students were able to learn more globally this year than ever before through the Mandarin language program.

Finally, our PACES program continues to expand. This program is a partnership with the United Way focused on providing education and prevention for substance abuse, mental health issues and violence. Next year, we will have even more counselors to assist our students.