STRATEGIES

What are the most effective ways to achieve student success?

For those who believe that the dawn of a new digital age is upon us, the challenge is to keep up with our 21st century students without losing the rigor and relevance of our curriculum and without compromising the relationships amongst our faculty and our student body. To the challenges posed by the new “Three Rs,” we bring decades of partnership experience with schools of all sizes, populations, and geography.

Rigor: 21st century skills are embedded in the redesign of traditional curricula. We believe that these skills do not require the sacrifice of core content or the compromise of standards and assessments. Rather, by re-envisioning a course of study that repositions students as apprentices and their teachers as coaches in a process of "cognitive apprenticeship" to the the professional mind, we believe that we enhance the rigor of traditional academics.

Relevance: For some small percentage of students, educators do not need to make the argument for relevance and importance of academic study for its own sake. But for the rest of the student body, this argument must be thoughtfully woven into their studies - not sprinkled unevenly on top - so that their studies help them to envision a pathway to post-secondary schooling and a career beyond. When students are continuously offered opportunities that challenge their application of classroom knowledge to real-world problems the traditional four walls of the classroom become translucent and the relevance is self-evident.

Relationships: Our model is not designed to replace the teacher or remove the student from the classroom entirely. We believe that the most effective teaching and learning situations still happen when people come together, when they are challenged to think creatively towards the solutions to real-world challenges, and when they are provided resources adequate to meet this challenge. It is under these circumstances that interpersonal relationships and the skills developed through effective practice come to the fore.

Blended Learning

We use a blended learning model to ensure the integration of Internet communications tools and World Wide Web (WWW) resources in all courses. Blended learning is the use of an online instructional environment to strengthen learning in a classroom setting. Curriculum materials developed for a blended learning environment include instructional resources and student activities that utilize the Internet as a core component of the teaching and learning process. Students and teachers can access these online resources in the classroom or at anytime and anyplace through Moodle, our password-protected course management environment. Online collaboration further extends classroom discussion to include college faculty, scientists, and business professionals.

Experiential Learning in the Digital Age

Experiential learning takes students and teachers beyond the classroom and into the real world to experience the application of learning in a business environment. Classroom speakers, company tours, job shadows, student internships, and teacher externships are important strategies for connecting classroom teaching and learning to business and higher education. For example, students and teachers in our Connecticut Career Choices Program meet on a regular basis at a Connecticut college or corporate campus to meet with invited speakers who are business professionals or experts in their fields. During these events, students engage in course-related workshops and activities as they collaborate across district boundaries with other students and business mentors.