North Marion began it's pilot program with a grant from the state of West Virginia to become an Innovation Zone. It's just what it sounds like: we put together a great plan to change our school for the better and gained permission to think outside the box!
Timeline
February 2010 New Principal, Rusty DeVito, responds to news that we have the highest drop out rate in our RESA saying, "We have to find a way to hook these kids!"
Summer 2010 A team of North Marion teachers attends Teacher Leadership Institute (TLI) and begin intensive training in Project Based Learning (PBL) teaching methods. The team has time for critical discussions upon viewing various school data such as drop out rate, standardized test scores, and freshmen failure rates.
September 2010 The North Marion Curriculum Council decides to write a grant to become an Innovation Zone in the state of West Virginia.
October 2010 Brainstorming Begins! Teachers from the Marion County Technical Center are invited to attend brainstorming sessions with North Marion teachers. The big question: "What is the best way for students to learn?" The Curriculum Council also attends a meeting for schools hoping to become an Innovation Zone. Donna Peduto of the Office of School Innovation asks, "What would make your students want to run IN to the school in the morning as fast as they run OUT in the evening?"
November 2010 The Curriculum Council meets several days a week to research and write. They discover research by Jay Smink of the National Center for Dropout Prevention that confirms what their teachers have already said: Students need to be engaged at an early age, mentoring by older students, parents and community members MUST be involved, Career and Technical Education is a critical component, innovative lesson design emphasizing real world connections is key.
December 2010 The grant is finished. Dr. Van Dempsey, Dean of Education at Fairmont State University, is invited to collaborate in the staff development. He asks whether the group has considered the New Tech model. Grant writers write into the grant that they will investigate the New Tech model.
January 2011 The Innovation Zones are announced and North Marion did not make it. However, they were advised that their application showed promise and were invited to re-write. Fortunately, they recognized that the New Tech Network offered training in areas North Marion was trying to invent. There was no need to reinvent the wheel--North Marion could send their teachers to New Tech training in PBL, a school culture of respect, responsibility, and trust, and learn from New Tech how to best utilize technology.
February 2011 North Marion High School is granted Innovation Zone status and a grant of $36,600, which included a waiver of portions of policy 2510. Jon Reinhard of the New Tech Network visits North Marion as a consultant.
April 2011 Three separate trips of 6-8 teachers visit various New Tech schools and showcases in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio, aided by a separate grant from Fairmont State University. North Marion Principal and teachers present their pilot idea to the Marion County Board of Education. As it turned out, there is no pilot program for New Tech and North Marion High School had to invent their own PBL based practices and educational reform incubator program.
May 2011 Eight teachers fly to Manor, TX to attend rigorous training in New Tech methodology. Teachers meet with members of the WV State Board of Education to learn more about personalizing education for students.
June 2011 North Marion holds a kickoff event in which they've invited members of the school, the community, the county, and the state to learn more about the plans for education reform at North Marion High School.
July 2011 Two teams of teachers in science, social studies, math, and English spend all summer developing a first year, integrated, co-taught, project based curriculum. Our Principal names this the Freshman Academy. Teachers Kristin DeVaul, April Gilpen, Christina Gouzd, Alex Milanese, Mary Ann Mullenax, Tommy Myers, and Elizabeth Stanton spend all summer collaborating and receive approximately $600 for their extra effort. In addition to the hours they worked to develop the integrated lessons, they moved furniture and changed classrooms. A Bowers Family Trust grant for $20,000 was written by librarian Nancy Haddix and Joetta Schneider and received for the purposes of buying 60 laptops for the Freshman Academy. Additional technology funding by Principal Rusty DeVito provided mobile storage for these labs.
August 2011-March 2012 The Freshman Academy was up and running! The WV State Department of Education offered additional grant funding for the purposes of dropout prevention. North Marion teachers Joy Gaines, Andrea Neptune, and Joetta Schneider--with the help of Community Coordinator, Dana Powell and English teacher, Amy Carpenter--submitted a second Innovation Zone grant proposal and were awarded approximately $300,000 in this competitive grant funding opportunity. Teachers from the North Marion Journalism department and the Marion County Technical Center attended a yearbook camp in order to prepare a coordinated program of delivering the yearbook; additional teachers were trained and received funding for staff development in PBL, and 30 additional laptops were purchased. Virginia Dobreff began as a technology consultant hired by grant funds to work 10 hours per week (as per grant goals.) Virginia brings to the table many years of top-notch experience on all levels. Dana Powell takes our Community Partners group to enrollment numbers over 100 and brings in another consultant (Lyla Grandstaff) for staff development and middle school transition efforts. Due to the efforts of Amy Carpenter and Joetta Schneider, along with WVU faculty mentor, Sharon Hayes, North Marion was awarded a $9,000 grant to study student voice and our school culture.
May 2012 A six person Steering Committee was formed to help achieve the goals of the grant. They were: Amy Carpenter, Joy Gaines, Sheila Hawkins, Andrea Neptune, Dana Powell, and Joetta Schneider. They met monthly to discuss the progress of grant implementation. An exit interview was held with this inaugural class of freshmen students.
June 2012 North Marion High School is invited to present at the State Superintendent's Conference. A team consisting of Amy Carpenter, Rusty DeVito, Virginia Dobreff, Christina Gouzd, MaryAnn Mullenax, Andrea Neptune, and Joetta Schneider presented a theme of shared leadership. North Marion receives $10,000 from the WV State legislature for additional computers and printers for the Freshman academy due to the efforts of Senator Roman Prezioso and teachers Josie Plachta, Carol White, Andrea Neptune, and Joetta Schneider.
August 2012-May 2013 The master schedule was further tweaked to include two additional integrated courses for Sophomores--Biology/Chemistry and Algebra II/Geometry. Additional computers were purchased to support these efforts. The math team experienced difficulty due to the implementation of a new math curriculum at the state level and thus only lasted one year. The Biology/Chemistry team carried on into 2013. Other highlights of curriculum changes--one of the art teachers collaborated with a biology teacher to create and implement four Project Based Learning units; the yearbook program continued into its second year; Joy Gaines and Colin Petonick piloted a new reading program and discarded one that did not seem to work for our students; and Jan Quailey, Ed.D.--a retired Principal from the Green County Technical Center in Waynesburg, PA--consulted with the Steering Committee pro bono for more than 60 hours including helping facilitate a group meeting between the teachers of North Marion and the Technical Center for team building purposes. As a result, three technical center teachers participated in integrated, co-taught PBLs with North Marion teachers for staff development hours. In other areas, our new head counselor noted that an unprecedented number of students from the freshman academy began taking AP courses. Additionally, a graduation coach was hired to meet with at-risk juniors and seniors. The superintendent and vocational center Principal of another county called and asked for a meeting with the steering committee to determine how North Marion managed their program, this was an all day meeting in which the needs of the other county were discussed, the visitors took tours of our Freshman Academy, and the Principal from our sister school, the Marion County Technical Center also participated. Dana Powell and Lyla Grandstaff organized and "Aware Fair" in conjunction with the Technical Center with enrichment presentations from local employers and Public Service Organizations.
August 2013-June 2014 The freshman academy took on the new state math program and implemented Math I in one of its sections; one of the Marion County Technical Center teachers, Ray Frazier, who participated in the PBL training and collaboration last year became the Principal there; and North Marion High School tried a new extracurricular club structure as student and teacher voice was heeded. Community Coordinator Dana Powell and Assistant Principal, Rob Shaffer, merged the Community Awareness Partnerships for our School (C.A.P.S) program with our state legislated L.S.I.C. North Marion High School had the highest number of students in the county taking AP exams this year. These are only some of the highlights, and we've learned many lessons. Next year as the grant winds down to a close, we focus on evaluation.
