Angola High School
(Angola, Indiana)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
Angola High School is a public high school located in a rural area of
north eastern Indiana, with a student enrollment 850 students. Our Workplace
Program is still in its infancy being only two years old, but has grown
to a reality by the vision of several business, industrial, and educational
leaders.
The Workplace Program is a natural partnership between business, the
community, and school. It is designed for all students to have the opportunity
to observe reality beyond high school and provides the college bound student,
the vocational student, and the undecided student a unique opportunity for
a life long learning foundation. This opportunity is structured to help
students see the relevance of rigorous course work, responsible work and
study habits, good attendance, and more. Students are exposed to various
jobs, from plant managers, shop floor personnel, to office clerical, to
small businesses. Students will have the chance to interact with employee
attitudes, their motivations and educational requirements for success in
the business world.
We have several components to this option that enables all students the
opportunity to participate. We begin the experience with the Workplace Orientation
Program which allows ninth and tenth grade learners to participate in a
shadowing situation for one hour a day, four days a week at a local business.
The fifth day is spent in classroom discussion. Juniors may be involved
in the Workplace Participation Program, where the student job shadows two
hours a day, five days a week and with classroom discussion twice a week.
Seniors have the opportunity to participate in the I.C.E. (Interdisciplinary
Cooperative Education). All students have the opportunity to participate
in Service Learning where the student interacts with adults in service organizations
after school. The students involved in the program have the option of participating
anywhere from a nine-week period up to a year. Teachers are also involved
in the shadowing experiences during the school year and in the summer to
help learners to relate what is needed in the workplace to their own discipline
area.
We provide our students with the chance to experience a broad scope of
work settings and exposure to individuals within each business/industry.
The student is introduced to the concept that life and their future success
or failures are a matter of choices. These opportunities provide our students
with the chance to explore a number of options to help them make their choices.
The Need
This program is needed to give students experiences in the workforce
that may not be possible elsewhere. It allows them to explore a vast array
of possibilities while forming career related impressions. It provides a
teaming between the community and school to enhance work skills.
Our goal is to provide opportunities to all Angola High School students
to experience reality beyond their normal school schedules and to relate
their educational experiences to those within the community and the workplace.
Opportunities are provided for students to experience the nature of several
career paths and the educational requirements necessary within them, which
helps students to make better personal decisions regarding courses they
should take during high school.
Students are offered an effective means to learn the importance of good
work and study habits. Education for all students is enhanced by this cooperative
partnership, offering opportunities to students beyond the traditional high
school.
Meeting the Need
Led by community, business, and educational leaders in the Angola area,
the Workplace Program became a reality in the 1997-98 school year. In September
of 1997, this opportunity was introduced to the student population with
seven students rotating through the program shadowing six large industries
and a bank rotation of six different banking institutions.
Since that time, we have added a small business rotation, a large retail
rotation, and a professional rotation with a total of forty-five businesses
in our curriculum. Each business is asked to develop a nine-week curriculum
before a student can be placed. The student involvement has grown from seven
the first quarter in 1997 to forty students the third quarter of 1999. Approximately
210 students will have participated by the end of the fourth quarter of
this year.
Students can repeat these experiences multiple times. Our goal is to
help focus all students on their future educational needs and allow a dose
of reality to happen earlier than usual.
The Results
An assessment of our efforts to date have been positive. We are collecting
qualitative and quantitative data and comparing it to baseline data prior
to this opportunity being offered. Even though we are only in our second
year the initial returns are positive. Students who have participated in
this program have higher GPAs, attendance rates, and test scores than those
who did not participate.
Students who have been through the Workplace Program have demonstrated
an understanding of the need to work toward success after high school. Among
them are attendance, punctuality, teamwork, communication, problem solving,
time management, and leadership. These students have already begun to select
high school courses based upon the understanding of skills needed for future
success. Everyday these students are able to make comparisons and connections
to career-related skills and their course work.
Since our teachers began to job shadow as well, they have experienced
various operations taking place in Angola. Now, they are able to make several
connections with industrial applications and their classrooms.
Obviously with only two years of experience we are still fine tuning
our Workplace Program. We meet once a month with our business leaders and
with their help we have been able to avoid some of the pitfalls of this
new opportunity.
Reflections on Our Strategy
Most people would have no idea of the difficulty in just to getting educators
and the business community together to discuss the idea of a Workplace Program,
let alone try to organize the program once it was instituted.
Implementing a new program such as the Workplace Program would involve
several areas:
- Design the program around student needs.
- Establish workplace sites that would reach the student as well as the
employer.
- Have the workplace establish a curriculum for the student.
- Convince teachers that they may need to make some changes in their
course work to incorporate what the students will need to compete for the
jobs of the future.
- Keep the workplace sites on board as they go through changes in their
busy schedules.
Listening to the excitement in the voices of the students as they talk
about what they have learned and the relationships that have grown between
the students and the employers has made any organizational problems seem
small and the program worth while.
Examples of Learners
Example 1
Joe is a student who has a learning disability. He was placed as a freshman
in a class with other students having similar difficulties. Even though
he was mainstreamed for most of his classes, he became more discouraged
and fell further behind each year mainly because he saw no point in going
to school. He was on the verge of dropping out of school and getting into
serious trouble because he could not hold a job. Last year as a senior Joe
entered our Workplace Program. His first workplace site asked him not to
come back after the second day. He was again placed at another site, but
this time his host made him show up for work and do the things he was not
used to doing. Joe stuck it out for the full nine weeks. Today, instead
of being a high school drop out with no future, he has a full time job and
more importantly he has self-respect.
Example 2
Kris is a senior this year. She is a straight A honors student with a
very bright future. There was one problem however, she did not have a clue
as to what she wanted to study in college. She signed up for the Workplace
Participation Program this past fall. Kris has experienced three different
work sites. As a result of going through all of these different businesses
and shadowing the various departments, she now has a direction she was to
follow for her course of study and plans to stay in the area after she graduates
from college.
Example 3
Chad was a junior last year when he enrolled in the Workplace Participation
Program. He was an average student academically but knew he did not want
anything to do with college after high school. He was taking courses that
had no relevance to what he wanted. He thought he wanted to start his own
business but had no idea as to what field. Chad went through our small business
rotation and the industrial rotation. As a result of his experiences, he
was hired in the large industry for the summer and is planning on going
to a vocational school after graduation. This year, his senior year, he
was able to choose the courses that would help him in his future endeavors.
Recruiting
Our recruitment process for our Workplace Programs has several dimensions.
We review it with incoming freshmen and their parents during orientation
meetings. We have had business representatives speak during those sessions.
Emphasis is placed on the fact that this is a program for ALL students.
We want to break the vocational vs. college prep traditional thinking. We
distribute brochures to all students and the program is listed in the course
selection guide for all students. We get regular coverage through the local
media. It seems that they enjoy focusing on students in the workplace. This
coverage, along with "word-of-mouth" between students, has seemed
to help the program grow. There are also two instructors who meet quarterly
with large groups of students (class meeting types of sessions) and update
them on the program and encourage the students to participate. These personal
efforts, including the traditional contacts the guidance counselors make,
seem to be effective.
For more information on Angola High School, contact:
Dr. Rex Bolinger, Principal
Angola High School
755 S 100 E
Angola, IN 46703
(Phone) 219/665-2186 ext. 1999
(Fax) 219/665-7012
(E-mail) rbolinger@msdsteuben.k12.in.us
(URL) www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/
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