Marion City Schools add job-ready skills to curriculum

MARION — Chloe Tackett thought she’d like to be a teacher.

Now she knows that's the case.

Tackett is senior at Harding High School and an aide in Tamara Williams’ preschool class at Taft Elementary School. Tackett participates in games, helps unwrap snacks and leads a group story time in Williams’ class.

Tackett is able to experience the classroom teaching environment because she’s enrolled in the early childhood education program at Harding, one of four programs started this school year as part of the administration’s Diploma Plus initiative, designed to give all students some job experience, industry certification or a head start in a post-secondary education.

“I love watching them grow up, I love watching them learn, so this has been a great experience for me,” said Tackett, who has been accepted at the Ohio State University-Marion this fall to study early childhood education.

The high school has developed curricula in exercise science, health care technologies and global logistics in addition to early childhood education, which started this fall for juniors and seniors. The curricula have been developed with input from area employers and local colleges and technical schools, according to Steve Fujii, director of college and career success at Marion City Schools.

Solid foundation needed

Fujii spoke of the school’s obligation to “prepare all young people with solid foundation of literacy, numeracy and the thinking skills for responsible citizenship, career development and lifelong learning,” to a group of civic and business leaders gathered at the Rotary Club of Marion’s Tuesday luncheon.

“We know there profoundly troubling signs that our graduates are falling behind in the skills necessary for continued economic success,” said Fujii, who added that the percentage of teens and young adults who hold down jobs today is at its lowest level since before World War II.

“A diploma is no longer the key to success. We are focused on a ‘diploma plus acceptance’ to one of four areas: a two- to four-year college; adult education or apprenticeships; the United States military; and high demand, well paying jobs in our region.”

Fujii, along with Amy Wood, the district’s director of education programs and grants, updated the city school’s efforts to reform public education in Marion.

Superintendent Gary Barber opened the presentation by explaining his overarching vision to instill in students the “soft skills” needed in today’s workplace, including the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing; to work collaboratively in teams; to interact appropriately with supervisors, peers and supervisors; and to take responsibility for job duties.

Barber detailed how his administration has been implementing the Franklin Covey’s “Leader in Me” program throughout the district to emphasize leadership habits in students, beginning in elementary school.

Improving literacy

Amy Woods described the district’s efforts to improve literacy in reading and math by adopting a program called the Literacy Collaborative developed by Ohio State University. Literacy coaches who have been trained in the method are placed in each school to teach and assist teachers in large, small and individual settings.

When asked by an audience member how parents are responding to the districts' attempt to get ninth- and tenth-graders to start thinking about a future career when they are still mostly concerned with the next football practice or what's on the lunch menu, Barber reacted like he's spoke to that concern more than once.

"We are only trying to get students to think about a career path. We are providing opportunities to explore different pathways while still in school," Barber said.

Barber responded frankly to a question about the districts' performance progress compared to other schools in the region.

"We are in the bottom third of performance rankings. That's our challenge. I can say that we are no longer in high priority oversight as we had been two years ago. We believe students have many opportunities in the city schools, partially because of our proximity to the 'education corridor,' " said Barber, who listed Marion Technical College, OSU-Marion and Tri-Rivers Career Center as the district's partners in creating the Diploma Plus concept.

The effort to solicit feedback from area business leaders and colleges to build the classroom instruction models for the job training programs are at the heart of Diploma Plus curriculum, Fujii said.

“We assembled a design team consisting of 20 business leaders and 20 staffers to build a profile of graduates that fit into the workplace,” he said. “Our logistics program grew out of a meeting between Gary Barber and Ted Graham.”

Graham is the president of the Marion Industrial Center and Marion Intermodal.

“Anyone who is interested in transportation or distribution on a national scale could benefit from our program. Our goal is to have students earn college credit and industry recognized certification,” Fujii said.

Fujii said that a former Advanced Placement calculus instructor is teaching the class, which has 14 students enrolled this fall.

“When I was teaching at Big Walnut, we had only one path to graduate from high school. Students in Marion now have multiple paths to a diploma. When we speak of acceptance, we mean all options are on the table for our kids. We are exploring whatever opportunities we can find to assist our kids.”

jsmiller@gannett.com

740-375-5148

Twitter @motionblur56