Shelley High School Solutions Program
(Shelley, Idaho)
Summary: Overview of the Strategy
Shelley High School is a small rural school in Southeast Idaho. For the
last 5 years we have been developing a school-to-work model called Solutions.
Solutions began with input from local business people, parents, government
employees post-secondary instructors and others. These people were asked
what we educators need to do to better prepare our students for success.
The responses emphatically stated that we should be-preparing students who
can communicate effectively, can solve problems, can work together in teams
and have strong character. These have now become the objectives for the
Solutions approach. We felt that one of the best ways to help students reach
these objectives was by having students work on "real world" problems.
Connecting strategies
Local businesses, government agencies, and others provide actual problems
being faced by their organizations for our students. These problems are
evaluated and categorized in the career pathways. Those that appear to have
the greatest educational value are presented to students and the students
select one of these for their class projects. The business people also provide
mentors to help students, and wherever possible, make their equipment and
facilities available for student use within their projects. We identify
projects in each of the career pathways so students can select a project
that will give them experiences in a potential career choice. We also enlist
the support of the business mentors to help us evaluate student performances.
Examples of some of the projects include:
The Lava Project
Several years ago our class was approached by a small community a little
distance away. The community of Lava has access to geothermal waters that
they use to heat a swimming pool/hot spa complex. The community wanted to
know what to do with the excess hot water left over after heating the swimming
complex. Students met with Lava city officials, college professors, business
people, and scientists. From their meetings they concluded that the best
use for the hot water would be in raising Tilapia, an edible, tropical fish.
Students worked with a fish farmer who supplied the fish and fish food.
They worked with a private land-owner who agreed to supply the pond and
to handle the feeding of the fish. The Lava foundation agreed to pipe the
water to the pond. And the students planted the fish and did the monitoring.
600 Tilapia were planted in May of 1995 and by November the 600 had turned
into 40,000 and were ready for harvest. The fish farmer returned to harvest
10,000. This first harvest allowed him to cover all his costs and to make
a slight profit. The project proved that raising Tilapia was a very viable
use for the excess geothermal water.
Tissue Culture
A local potato grower was very concerned with loss of market experienced
by Idaho potato growers. He felt that a solution might be the development
of a local seed potato industry. He learned that the best seed potatoes
were produced by tissue culturing. He then approached our class to see if
we would be interested in learning the techniques with the hope of starting
a local tissue culturing business.
The local farmer supplied the expensive start-up materials. Students
began research and experimentation and have become proficient in the operation.
Students work closely with the University of Idaho who supply the plants
used in the tissue culture operation. At this point in time, students are
looking to begin a scaled down version of a tissue culture operation.
School-based strategies
In the early stages of development of the Solutions model, we realized
that most of our students were lacking in the skills mentioned in the opening
paragraph. To help students master these skills and also to help prepare
the students to work appropriately with project mentors, we developed a
Solutions curriculum. This curriculum teaches such things as technical reading
and writing, good manners, computers, communication skills, the importance
of punctuality, problem solving, and other skills needed to succeed in the
real world workplace. Among other things, the Solutions curriculum is intended
to help students feel confident in their abilities and to avoid a feeling
of self-consciousness when working with the public.
Work-based strategies
A number of positive results have come from the Solutions program. By
working with business mentors on an actual problem a number of students
have decided that a career they were thinking about pursuing was not really
what they wanted. This can save those students the untold grief of spending
years in college or in on-the-job training only to find out that they really
don't like that particular career. Other students use their Solutions projects
as evidence of having experience in a particular field when they participate
in real job interviews or college acceptance interviews. Many of these students
have developed very impressive resumes and they have evidence that they
have actually developed those skills listed on their resume. Another benefit
has developed as a result from our business mentors being able to see how
sharp some of the students are who work on their projects. A number of businesses
have hired our students part time during the school year or during the summers
as a direct result of their Solutions experience.
The Need
The Solutions objectives can be categorized into 3 key areas:
Area 1: To help all students learn to communicate effectively, solve
problems, work well together and develop strong character.
Area 2: To provide our students with opportunities to experience career
options by working on actual, real world, community problems.
Area 3: To develop new community businesses.
Area 1 was developed as a result of direct input from local business
people, parents, post-secondary instructors, and others. These individuals
made it clear that we needed to do a better job in preparing students in
the four areas mentioned. Area 2 was developed because our rural community
has very few businesses and those businesses are quite small. Our students
simply didn't have opportunities to experience career exploration using
traditional school-to-work methods. Area 3 was developed because so many
of our young people leave our town after graduation. We are attempting to
help students turn some of their Solutions projects into community businesses.
Our hope is that these new businesses will provide employment opportunities
for any young person who desires to remain in our local community.
The Solutions program is designed to include all students. In our area
we have 88% white students, 11% Hispanic students (which includes about
2% migrant students), and 1% Native American students. Our Hispanic population
is growing at the fastest rate. This increase is putting a strain on the
school district, as many of the Hispanic students have limited English proficiency.
Some of our strategies to ensure access for Hispanic students include visits
to ESL classrooms to recruit students and having Spanish speaking student
mentors teach specific skills. There is also some collaboration with migrant
worker programs but this is difficult because their focus is specific to
agriculture.
Meeting the Need
The initial design of the Solutions model was a joint venture between
the Shelley School District, the Pillsbury Company, the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), Eastern Idaho Technical College, and
the Tech Prep organization of Southeast Idaho. As the program has developed,
additional partners have been identified such as the region six school-to-work
office, Bingham County Economic Development Council, and regions five and
six Fish and Game offices.
Solutions began with teacher visits to the community. We asked community
members what it was that we should be doing to better prepare our students
for success. Community input helped us to establish the student objectives
outlined in the overview. Members of our initial partnership determined
that the best way to meet these objectives was by having students work on
real problems being faced by our community. The teachers went back to the
local businesses to identify actual problems and to identify business mentors
to help students solve these problems. The businesses responded with some
great projects and some wonderful mentors, which helped to put the Solutions
concept into place. Once this base was established, the program has continued
to grow and develop over the years.
Many of the needed resources for the program to succeed have been provided
by the businesses who have identified the projects for the students. A great
deal of equipment and volunteer time has been provided by the businesses
and government agencies involved. Additional funding has been provided through
grants. The Idaho State Dept. of Education has provided grant monies, as
has the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. The INEEL has been wonderful
to provide part-time and summer employment for many of our Solutions students.
Since so many of the needed resources have been provided by business contribution,
the need for direct cash outlays has been minimized.
Solutions is an open-enrollment class. We include gifted and talented
students, students with limited English proficiency, students with disabilities,
as well as "mainstream" students. The program is adapted to meet
the needs of all students.
The Results
Over time we have continued to make some important improvements to the
model. We have developed a Solutions curriculum that has greatly helped
prepare students to successfully handle many of the problems they encounter.
We have become much more skilled at identifying projects with greater potential
benefit for students. Our business/community partnerships have become much
stronger. We have also become much more successful at reaching all types
of students, especially those with disabilities.
One area we are particularly pleased with has been our effort to include
students with cognitive disabilities. For the last year we have included
these students in all aspects of the class. Not only has the effort been
very beneficial for the students with disabilities, but students without
disabilities have grown tremendously by working with their disabled peers.
Another area of success involves the gifted and talented. Instead of becoming
bored in traditional classes, many of these students respond very well to
challenging, open-ended projects. Many of our mainstream students blossom
when they can use skills for which there is little demand in a traditional
classroom.
Solutions is evaluated in a number of different ways. Special education
teachers and aides help us evaluate our progress with students who have
disabilities. The English as a Second Language (ESOL) teacher helps us evaluate
our progress with students with limited English proficiency. Business mentors
and others from the community help us evaluate student performance on projects
and on their comportment and behaviors. We have also developed a number
of classroom evaluation techniques that we use in conjunction with traditional
paper and pencil type tests.
Reflections on Our Strategy
There are a number of improvements we need to make. One improvement involves
the recruitment of Hispanic students. While the number of Hispanic students
taking Solutions increases every year, the growth is too slow. Another pressing
need is to speed up the development of community businesses. It is taking
too long to turn Solutions projects into community businesses.
Having students with disabilities working with non-disabled students
has provided a much greater mutual benefit than we could have imagined.
In addition, the reduction of initial complaints by a faction in our community
about having students working outside the school has been greater than we
expected.
One of the first adaptations we had to make in order to make Solutions
work for all types of students was one of teacher attitude. We had to give
more than lip service to the fact that all students have something to offer.
We had to search out ways to give all students opportunities to develop
and use unique skills. Another change we had to make was to get out of the
classroom. In order to make Solutions work, it is critical that teachers
develop strong partnerships with the business community. These partnerships
work best when they are mutually beneficial. One bit of advice I would give
to those wishing to implement the Solutions model is to know that the implementation
will take a lot of outside time, but the time spent is totally worth it.
Examples of Learners
(student names are fictitious but the situations are real)
Example 1
Jed is a student with a cognitive disability. He was mainstreamed into
the regular classroom during his first year in high school, but mostly sat
in the back of a classroom and colored. One of the great things we learned
about Jed is that he is very precise. It takes him longer to learn a task
but once he learns it, he performs the task with exactness and he retains
the memory of how to perform the task for long periods of time. Jed has
been involved in a tissue culture (cloning) project. A team of students
worked out teaching methods suitable to Jed's level of understanding. He
now works right alongside his non-disabled peers, tissue culturing potatoes
for a local farmer. The work is very technical and very repetitive. Jed
has demonstrated that he can master the complexities and is not troubled
by, and in fact thrives on, the repetition. The hope is that the tissue
culture project can develop into a community business and Jed and a large
number of others will find gainful employment in the community.
Example 2
Celeste is a talented young lady of very high intelligence. She was approaching
an "at-risk" label because of her conduct in her traditional classes
and because of her propensity for after school difficulties. Celeste entered
Solutions as a sophomore and immediately became interested in a 3-D animation
program. She demonstrated a talent for mastering the difficult computer
program and turned out some remarkable work. A laizes-faire classroom approach
was instigated which allowed Celeste to work at her own speed while she
was working through some of the emotional problems she was dealing with.
In time she began to emerge from her emotional shell and began to teach
younger students how to use the computer program. She became so talented
that she was offered jobs during the summer and after school hours working
in the computer visualization department at the Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory. Currently she is a senior and is preparing
a portfolio of her work so she can enter a school of the arts to continue
her computer animation career.
Example 3
Jose is an Hispanic student who enrolled in Solutions the first year
after his arrival from Mexico. He spoke only limited English, but he had
a great desire to learn and improve his skills. Jose became very interested
in Geographical Information Systems program called ArcView. The project
he worked on was to develop a computer program that mapped the district's
bus routes. The program also kept track of maintenance schedules on the
buses, history of the buses, driver background information, etc. The program
received such interest that Jose and other members of his team were asked
to give presentations to the school board and to the state transportation
department Director. Not only did he learn the computer program, but he
was able to give a very good explanation of the program in English. It was
very difficult for him to learn because of his language difficulties and
our lack of translation abilities. But he learned the program well - even
better than his project partners who speak fluent English. Later we used
Jose to help teach other Hispanic students how to use ArcView.
Recruitment
We have used a number of recruiting techniques. In one case we went to
the special education department and asked that students with disabilities
be included in Solutions. We were told that an aide would have to accompany
the students and that there were no funds for the aide. So we identified
an aide with the right background and interest, wrote a grant to cover the
aide's time, and included the students with disabilities as a regular part
of Solutions. Another recruiting technique involves using Hispanic students
to recruit other Hispanic students. This technique is working slowly.
For more information on the Shelley High School Solutions Program, contact:
- H. Michael Winston
- Shelley High School
- 570 West Fir Street
- Shelley, Idaho 83274
- (Phone) 208/357-7400 ext. 410
- (Fax) 208/357-5585
- (E-mail) mwinston@sd60.k12.id.us
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