K-12 Education Issue Work Group Seeks Your Input!

“We have a smart child that might benefit from going to another school district, but we haven’t pulled our child out of the school he is currently in because we are troubled by inequality. . . . A question we constantly face is how we get good, equal experiences for all kids --- regardless of what district they live in.”

“My non-ADHD/ADD son has lots of energy and does not sit still. His teacher lets him stand at his desk during class, get his hands dirty – and it works to keep him engaged. I guess the question is: how do we meet every child’s needs?”

“I use DVR because I don’t want to watch commercials. I don’t read the newspapers because I don’t want to wade through information that I am not interested in. With so much information out there, I want all of my content personalized. If that is the way I am, then think about how much further a 13-year-old is down that spectrum. We have to find new ways to communicate and to teach/learn.”

“My child has changed schools many times and is now at Morris Innovative High School. The technology is really helping her. Everything is online except for some classroom instruction on EOCT and graduation test preparation. My child watches lectures online and it is really benefiting her. She’s not a regular classroom learner.”

“In Whitfield County there is a 651 to 1 student to guidance counselor ratio. We’ve got to find another way to reach students with career messaging. Can we use social media?”

"For years, we talked about reforming our education system, but now we’re talking about transforming it --- starting from the ground floor and building it back up."

Over the past 8 months, over 150 citizens have contributed to Archway Education Issue Work Group discussions about how our community can make K-12 education relevant and responsive with comments like the ones highlighted above. Through conversation and study, the group quickly recognized that there are many weaknesses that our community cannot immediately impact, such as teacher tenure, teacher retention, and state funding. However, the group soon focused on four top priority weaknesses where local efforts can be impactful, including: (1) a recognition that we are conducting school in a tired, outdated manner in this digital age; (2) an understanding that our curriculum is not necessarily relevant to today’s society or – better yet – tomorrow’s society; (3) an understanding that we are underutilizing technology and not taking advantage of it as a learning tool; and (4) an awareness that our families are disconnected and are not acting as our partners in education.

Over the course of our community conversations, our parents, teachers, and volunteers provided valuable insight on their dreams for an ideal system. In particular, they repeatedly made the following points:

• We want equal opportunities for all students, but also want to be responsive to the needs and learning styles of individuals.
• We want something fresh and transformative --- not just reform. Key ideas include: (a) Following a learning model instead of a teaching model; (b) Finding opportunities for kids to teach each other and collaborate; (c) Focusing on critical thinking rather than rote memorization; (d) Personalizing education; (e) Making Education REAL; (f) Attracting the best and brightest teachers; and (g) Making our schools responsive to our community --- and even the individual variations in our communities.
• Technology is important, and we want our schools and students to take advantage of it.
• We want to help kids at an early age and “catch” them before they fall through the cracks.
• We want our students to learn and see at an early age what the possibilities are for them in the real world.
• We want schools where our parents can be involved.
• We want well-funded community educational institutions.
• To educate our students, we have to combat social obstacles, like hunger and poor nutrition, that make it hard for students to learn.

On August 16, 2011, the K-12 work group met for its last open-ended community conversation. Moving forward, the group will begin to generate specific and well-vetted recommendations for how we address our top weaknesses and achieve the type of school systems that parents, community members, and educators all claim they value.

To jump start this process, issue work group leaders have begun to develop specific recommendations for transforming our school systems. These recommendations are as follow:

Recommendation 1: Make the community the classroom by:

• Making free wireless internet available throughout the city and county;
• Making portable, internet-accessible technology available to all students;
• Exposing all students, including elementary and middle grades students, to opportunities available to them in the technical realm by showing them real world examples in their community; and
• Forming an on-going, community-wide education consortium so that we can keep the community involved in education.

In work group discussions, it was clear that citizens want to make education real, relevant, and responsive to the community. In addition, citizens want to give students exposure to real world opportunities. Finally, engaged citizens want to involve disconnected parents and taxpayers.

One option for realizing these goals is to begin to think of expansively of school so that it is no longer a bricks and mortar building but is instead a learning process that can take place in both live and virtual settings across the community.

The case for making our community a virtual community: While we do not recommend replacing all printed materials with technology, we believe that students will not be prepared for the world beyond high school if they do not have mastery of technology. However, for technology to truly become a learning tool, it must be available to all students in and out of the classroom. If students have access to technology and the internet outside of school hours, they can collaborate on class projects away from the classroom, access tutorials and teaching aids 24/7, and do relevant homework away from the school house.

The case for exposing our students to opportunities in the community: In our discussions, it became clear that our students (and even our teachers!) are not aware of the opportunities available to them in the real world --- starting with our community! Through the work of University of Georgia graduate research students, we learned that our students are not opposed to many local opportunities --- they simply don’t know they exist. Without that knowledge and understanding, students cannot make informed decisions about courses of study and plans after high school. To assist our students in making better decisions, we have to engage them in our local community through apprenticeships, job shadowing, field trips, etc.

The case for an on-going, community-wide education consortium: We learned through our group discussions that, too frequently, our education institutions and the rest of the community operate separately. We need some on-going mechanism for keeping our community and educators in lock-step.

Recommendation 2: Ensure that Pre-K is available to all students on an on-going basis.

How a child performs in school at an early age impacts everything: likelihood of graduating, pursuing higher education, and even likelihood of staying out of prison. Community members have repeatedly voiced their concern about reaching children at an early age and have voiced many ideas for doing so. As state funding for Pre-K is redirected, it is clear that we need a Plan B to ensure that our residents can enroll their children in Pre-K programs. We need assistance in developing this Plan B and would like any well-founded ideas. An example of an idea is to turn students’ senior year into an off-campus apprenticeship year and use the saved funding for Pre-K programs.

Over the next month, work group leaders and volunteers will study and refine the recommendations together before presenting them back to the work group participants for further discussion on October 18 at 6:00 PM.

We need your help! This process will only be successful if you take the time to contribute. Please take a moment and reflect on your notes from our meetings. In addition, please take a moment to review some of the publications that we have discussed at our meetings (list with links is below). Once you have taken a moment to think through it, please email archway.education@gmail.com with your suggestions for how we should proceed with school system transformation. We will use your comments and thoughts as we work to finalize the recommendations.

Thanks so much for your participation!

Links to Articles Discussed/Studied in 2011 Archway K-12 Education Meetings:
“Vision for Public Education Equity and Excellence” (publication by the Georgia School Board Association and the Georgia School Superintendents' Association) ---http://www.visionforpubliced.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Mk8vLZ4DjzY%3d&tabid=39

“Waiting for Superman” --- trailer to movie located at http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/waiting-for-superman-trailer-1/17wecgr73?q=waiting+for+superman+trailer&FORM=VIRE2

“Race to Nowhere” --- trailer to movie located at http://www.racetonowhere.com/trailers-clips.

“Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform” (article by Diane Ravitch) --http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575109443305343962.html

“The ‘Superman’ Approach: A Business Leader’s Guide to Successful School Reform (article publicized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) ---http://icw.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/Waiting%20for%20Superman%20Toolkit_2011.pdf

“Pathways to Prosperity” (a February 2011 report by Harvard’s Graduate School of Education) (short summary attached) http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news_events/features/2011/Pathways_to_Prosperity_Feb2011.pdf

Landscape Designs Created for Local Greenways, Parks , Trails and Farmers Markets

           The Archway Partnership placed landscape architecture student interns in the community this summer to work on designs for several community projects.  Two interns are working with the City of Dalton to design hiking and biking trails and another intern is working with Whitfield County to create rural and urban farmers market design concepts.

Jason Dazzo and Kristen Carroll are focusing on ways to link the Dalton "greenway" to a planned park that will be built on an abandoned railroad spur in the Crown Mill area.  The greenway will eventually connect downtown Dalton to Mount Rachel all the way over to Heritage Point Park. Plans for the park as well as other changes to the Crown Mill area to make it into an arts and cultural center were developed by previous UGA landscape architecture interns last summer.  

Chris Kelly created two concepts for parcels that could be used as farmers markets:  one suggests amenities that capitalize on an urban setting and another on a rural setting.  His designs will be shared with the City Council and County Commission during the first couple weeks of August. 

Higher Education Issue Work Group Promotes Technical Education

The Higher Education Work Group organized and sponsored a week-long summer camp for middle school students on June 13-17.  The Design, Technology and Manufacturing Camp reached almost 30 students with hands-on learning and career exploration.  Additionally, members of the Work Group and others from our community traveled to Newnan, GA, for a tour of the Central Education Center on May 4.  The Central Education Center is well-known for its strong partnership with local industry and for its exceptional technical/career readiness programs. 

Jeff Fletcher, a recent University of Georgia graduate with a Masters in Business Administration, is working with the Higher Education Work Group this summer to develop a plan for bolstering the image of technical jobs as an avenue for recruiting more students into technical education.

Diverse, Forward-Thinking Economy Work Group Identifies Innovators

“We could be called the cutting edge manufacturing capital… or the innovation and applied technology capital of the world.”  This statement echoes the sentiment from the Diverse Forward-Thinking Economy and Hub for Research-Based Innovation Work Group after hearing about the findings from an inventory of local business innovations. Examples from the innovations list include protective coating for wind turbines, industrial robotic equipment, advanced adhesives, lubricants for diesel engines, advanced testing laboratory, fiber optics network, green technologies, solar power, food industry additives and chemical processing components, and advanced medical technologies. 

The Work Group continues to explore possibilities for establishing a business incubator program, identifying existing resources that support business creation.

Archway Partnership Brings Students to the Community

During the summer months, several college students from the University of Georgia (UGA) and Dalton State College (DSC) have been working with the Archway Partnership to accomplish community-identified projects that support the Communit-E³ vision and goals.  

·         *Samuel Kelleher, a graduate student in the UGA College of Environment and Design, created concept designs for enhancing the Market Street area as well as making the interstate exchanges more inviting to visitors.

·         *Leah Graham Stewart, a recent graduate of the UGA College of Environment and Design, has designed a logo and prepared conceptual landscape designs for the City of Varnell.

·         * Jason Dazzo and Kristen Carroll, also from the UGA College of Environment and Design, added detail to planned public amenities that will serve and enhance the Dalton Greenway Project, connecting potential parks with Mt. Rachel.  And, Chris Kelly worked on concepts for parcels that could be used for farmers markets.

·         *Jennifer Taylor, graphic design student in the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art, provided graphical assistance to the Prenatal to Pre-K Work Group’s initiative on healthy lifestyles for children. 

·         Four DSC students, Dawn Duncan, Olivia Cobb, Diego Espinoza and Sarah Crow, led educational sessions at the “We Can!” Summer Camp for youth, also to promote healthy lifestyles. 

·         *James (Jimbo) Graves, a graduate student in the UGA Institute for Non-Profit Organizations, has assisted with research and design of an online small business resource center.

·         *Patrick Lines, a graduate student in the UGA Department of Geography, assisted the county with updating its GIS for use by 911 professionals in fire response.

·         *Charles Simpson, graduate student in the Masters of Business Administration program through the UGA Terry College of Business, is assigned to the Archway Successful Sustainable Industries Work Group.  Charles is addressing efforts to rebrand the image of the flooring industry to attract a highly qualified workforce.

·         *Jeff Fletcher, recent graduate of the Terry College, is assigned to the Archway Higher Education Work Group.  His efforts focus on meeting the industrial and technical needs of the community by increasing the interest of related career paths to the next generation of workers.

·         *Maury Gortemiller, graduate of the UGA Lamar Dodd School of Art, has visited the community to capture images that will support the highly innovative nature of business and industry as well as technical education.

·         *Edward Joaquin, doctoral student in the UGA College of Education, has participated in K-12 Work Group meetings.  His role is to identify potential resources available through the College of Education to support local education efforts. 

 

Diverse, Forward-Thinking Economy Issue Work Group Explores Incubators, Investor Networks, and Innovation

Group Tours Chattanooga Incubator 

            Over the past several months, a combined group of professionals and citizen volunteers has been meeting under the leadership of Archway Executive Committee members Don Cope and Elyse Cochran to specifically address how we as a community can diversify and support our entrepreneurs and innovators.  As part of its work, this group has been exploring tools that may be useful to entrepreneurs and innovators, such as a business incubator.

            As a result, Issue Work Group members Larry Johnson, Associate Dean of the Dalton State College School of Business, and Donna Mayo, Dean of the Dalton State College School of Business, arranged for a local delegation to visit the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Business Development Center on March 25 to learn about how that incubator operates. 

            At the incubator, Dalton representatives were greeted by Kathryn Foster, Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce; Dan Saieed, Director of the Hamilton County Development Department; and Cheryl Millsaps, CFA of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce.  Kathryn, Dan and Cheryl were able to give our local representatives an overview of the incubator’s history, funding, and success rates.  In addition, the Chattanooga staff shared the benchmarks (available at http://www.chattanoogachamber.com/PDF_Files/bdc_lease_09_10_08.pdf) that incubator tenants are expected to meet for the 3-4 years that they participate in the program.

            At an April 4, 2011, issue work group meeting, tour participants reported on what they learned.  As a result of questions asked at that meeting, plans are underway to have a representative from Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute come speak at the May 9th meeting of the group about funding vehicles for incubators.

            If you would like to be a part of these discussions, mark your calendar for the Issue Work Group’s next meeting at the Dalton Utilities Auditorium on May 9 at 4:00 PM.

            Group Explores Possibility of a Local Investor Network

            In addition to exploring the possibility of a business incubator, the Diverse, Forward Thinking Economy Issue Work Group has also begun considering how to assist those innovators and potential start ups in need of unconventional financing.  Issue Work Group members Dawn Sanders, Community Banking Relationship Manager and City President for the Dalton market of Regions Bank; Robert Varner, Senior Vice President and Business Services Officer at BB&T; and Rand Riedrich Northwest Area Director for the University of Georgia Small Business Development Center, are currently working together to identify the criteria that potential investors might require of applicants.  As this group’s work progresses, the Small Business Development Center can assist candidates with developing a business plan, and provide information on financing.  

            Ultimately, this group will need the expertise of attorneys and CPAs as it attempts to work with due diligence issues.  If you are interested in this topic and have expertise to offer, please join us at our 4:00 PM meeting on May 9, 2011, at Dalton Utilities to learn more. 

            Group works to Spotlight Dalton-Whitfield as an Innovation Hot Spot

            In March and April, the Diverse, Forward-Thinking Economy Work Group continued to compile an inventory of “innovation” currently occurring in this community.  The group has a robust inventory but is always looking for more information to highlight.  If you are an innovator with something to share, please contact Melissa Lu (mdlu@uga.edu) or Sue Chapman (chapmans@uga.edu) so we can put you in touch with the right people.  The group hopes to use non-confidential information from the inventory to market our community to outsiders as an innovative place of business.  In addition, the information will be used in determining how our current initiatives can be a launching pad for diversification.