Success evident in Homegrown Talent Initiative effort in Holyoke schools
Holyoke School District is known statewide, even nationwide, for its progress with the Homegrown Talent Initiative effort in the district.
With HTI grant funding continuing through the 2021-22 school year, lead coordinator Summer Maloney reported on the program success and plans at the Aug. 17 school board meeting.
In particular, the district’s progress on the capstone projects piece for each student has risen to the top. Each student’s capstone project incorporates their individual goals and targeted skills necessary for their individual high school achievement.
It’s the capstone project topic that led to the district being invited to present information at the Colorado Association of School Boards annual convention later this year. Holyoke is one of the few districts that pushed forward with the capstone project concept.
Additionally, the district is prominently featured as an example district in the Center of Reinventing Public Education’s national report on HTI.
The biggest thing that has evolved over the last year, according to Maloney, is that “every student is an HTI kid!”
HTI started as a program and now it’s something that every student is targeted in. It started with juniors and seniors, then incorporated grades 5-10. “But really, it needs to start as early as kindergarten,” said Superintendent Kyle Stumpf.
“Built off a career-connected continuum, HTI recognizes that every kid is on a different pathway to success,” Maloney emphasized.
The four stages for kids are career awareness, develop a pathway, develop skills and learn how to enter the career.
Growing the “educonomy” or pairing with the community is key to the HTI success as well, and the school is extremely grateful to the business partners that have been established.
The seminar class for grades 7-12 was revamped from the former ICAP class. Maloney cited several focuses of the seminar sessions including career exploration, social-emotional work, building graduate profile skills, and employability and real life skills.
Stumpf noted that when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Holyoke teachers continued to work virtually on HTI with one-hour daily meetings.
This school year, Maloney hopes that they can use more speakers, presentations and field trips to assist students in their career paths. She said they’ve talked about Real World Fridays to utilize time since the district moved to a four-day school week.
Throughout the past school year, Holyoke reps met with Envision Learning Partners out of California. This is a free resource provided through HTI.
Locally, they were able to create high-quality performance outcomes and rubrics on how to grade capstone projects.
JR/SR high counselor Ashley Clayton and Maloney pushed forward to incorporate preliminary work on capstone projects in seminar classes.
As a result, students will be in line to start giving final presentations on their capstone projects to the board, administration and teachers.
Internships have evolved through the HTI program as business partnerships have been established.
Stumpf pointed out that industry certificates have become really popular. The district went from zero industry certificates to 55. The goal is to reach 100.
They have industry certificate potential in a variety of areas from babysitting to food preparation to hospital coding, certified nurses aides and more.
Maloney cited an employer needs survey that was completed last March and gave the district a lot of direction.
Concurrent enrollment class options through Northeastern Junior College were able to expand this year. Clayton was not wanting to wait a year, so she plowed forward in pursuing these options, to the advantage of students.
The growth in NJC courses meets different pathway needs for students.
Maloney said they were also able to participate in an Innovative Learning Opportunities pilot program. Basically, this involves flexible seat time, she explained.
For instance, a student could do a five-hour daily internship and pursue concurrent enrollment and industry certification at the same time. Stumpf noted that this student can now be counted as a full-time student for state funding purposes.
Maloney said the beauty is that Holyoke is a small community. Individual conversations with each student are possible, which wouldn’t necessarily happen in large school districts.
Two years ago, Holyoke vocational business teacher Lori Nelson and Phillips County Economic Development Corporation Director Trisha Herman wrote a grant for the HTI program.
The group involved is proud of what Holyoke has done even through the pandemic when other schools put the HTI on hold.
A celebration will be planned with HTI partners to acknowledge appreciation for their support. Stumpf said they plan to use one of the district’s Promethean panels to place at the entryway during ballgames to promote the HTI business partners.
Looking ahead, Maloney said they’re excited for the HTI link on the school district’s website. There is a districtwide calendar of opportunities available for sign-up, and a community champion committee is brainstorming now.
They’re looking to promote student, teacher and community highlights and to show student recognition for graduation profiles.
Site visits to the eight schools involved in the HTI program will be conducted, with Holyoke hosting the seven other schools this fall. Maloney said the best part of this will be hearing ideas from the others.
When the district moves out of the grant financial support next year, they will still have the partnerships for support.
The addition of capstone projects and other HTI promotions will add to the job load of the counselor. After the grant runs out, Stumpf said he would recommend looking at having two counselors instead of one at the JR/SR high.
He feels the district contribution should be invested in people because the materials are already in place from the past years of involvement in the grant.
S-CAP reviews continued
As part of the 15 schools involved in the Student-Centered Accountability Program, Holyoke was able to maintain and function through S-CAP reviews, even during the pandemic.
In addition to the HTI update, district representatives have been asked to present another session on the S-CAP information at the annual CASB convention this year.
Fifteen schools are currently involved in S-CAP, with the goal to grow by five every year. Stumpf serves on the S-CAP board as vice president and will take over as president next year.
Holyoke’s S-CAP partners this year are Buena Vista and Monte Vista, and site visits at each school will be scheduled. The Holyoke visit is scheduled in March.