Companies, schools embrace P-TECH training

Beginning the new year, there will be 50 fresh-faced freshmen at Longmont’s Skyline High School facing a new direction in education, as they begin their pursuit of an associate’s degree in computer science. And while that may seem formidable, participation in one of the state’s first P-TECH — Pathways in Technology Early College High School — programs isn’t attracting only the overachievers.

“It’s hard to say these kids would not have been college track — we have some kids who are very high flyers,” said Assistant Principal Greg Stephens. However, he said 76 percent of the students would be the first generation in their family to go to college, and 65 percent of them would qualify as socio-economically challenged.

But thanks to their corporate sponsor, IBM Corp., and Front Range Community College, these 50 young people may not need to mortgage their futures to attend college. They are assured a paid internship at IBM before their senior year in high school and also assured of going to the front of the company’s interview list after graduation.

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Brandon Shaffer, who directs the school’s P-TECH program, said there is a framework for the program, which is rapidly gaining acceptance around the nation, but the corporate sponsor and the college work with the high schools in determining the coursework. IBM was looking to promote programming in this case, but at Northglenn High School’s P-TECH program, the corporate sponsor, Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications, is asking students to work for a more general associate’s degree in STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

“I call this ‘Education Reform 2.0.’ It’s really about changing the way we teach kids in the classroom,” Shaffer said. “We bring in industry partners to make it relevant, bring in colleges to show them what it’s like to take a college course.”

Colorado Succeeds, a consortium of leading Colorado businesses working to effect changes in education, played a major role of bringing the program to Colorado, which required legislation, House Bill 15-1270, that was signed into law in May 2015. Jamie Trafficanda, the manager of communications and programs at Colorado Succeeds, credited then House Majority Leader Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, for leading the legislative effort, and Ray Johnson, IBM’s manager of corporate citizenship & corporate affairs, for not only supporting the state effort, but also for championing the program across the nation.

“The model just makes a lot of sense — bridging high school, college and the workplace,” Trafficanda said. “From our perspective, representing the business community, that’s what we do as an organization: We tear down the walls between business and education.”

For instance, another state program Colorado Succeeds has promoted, the Incentive for Industry Credentials, will reward a school district up to $1,000 for each student who passes the AP accreditation for computer science. A similar Florida program saw 45,000 such students last year, up from 4,500 the previous, first, year.

Though carrying the P-TECH banner around the nation, Johnson is also working at the ground level, serving as the coordinator, and as one of the mentors for the Skyline program.

“We’re lucky to have IBM as a partner; they were really the originators of this model,” said Skyline principal Heidi Ringer, noting that the school came across the program while working with a federal “Race to the Top” educational grant. “Because of our strong relationship with IBM, they’ve brought us into the P-TECH model, and you just cannot say enough about how much Ray Johnson has done for us.”

Northglenn High has already had one class of 32 students start the program this semester, said Principal Sharee Blunt, and the school expects to double participation next year. Though the school has a different corporate sponsor, the first class offered by the collegiate sponsor, Front Range, is the same as the one Skyline students will take: Computer Information Systems.

“As soon as they passed the bill last year, we were approached by some of our industry partners, and we submitted our application Dec. 1 (2015),” Blunt said. There are currently only three districts participating in the state, Adams 12 with Northglenn, St. Vrain Valley with Skyline and the James Irwin Charter School in Colorado Springs.

Northglenn and Skyline share some common student demographics, including students for whom English is a second language, but the participation in P-TECH is a little different here, said Kellie Lauth, the principal for STEM Launch in Adams 12.

“Within our program, 100 percent are first-generation college, or under-represented in STEM (backgrounds),” Lauth said. “More than half, 56 percent, are girls, and over half are English-language minors.”

The district took exceptional care to monitor the first P-TECH class — as they were not only starting a college course, but also starting their first semester in high school — and had the students in a mini-summer camp to help with the adjustment. While graduation rates for P-TECH, which has been in some parts of the country for more than five years, aren’t available, some studies indicate that graduation rates for students involved in similar programs increase dramatically.

“Our feedback from the kids has been very positive, and the partnership with the mentors has played a really key role,” Blunt said. In fact, she said, the students recently took a field trip to Front Range to register for their second class and get their student IDs updated.

“They love wearing their college IDs around here,” she said.

At Skyline, Ringer noted that the St. Vrain Valley School District has been involved with various pathway studies, such as STEM-focused curriculum for more than a decade. Patty Quinones, the executive director of innovation for the district, was also a major proponent of the legislative effort for P-TECH.

However, Shaffer noted that the P-TECH program brings a different sense of culture than other focus pathways. He said that the recruitment meeting this year for 8th-graders looking at the program was more than double that of last year.

“It’s very collaborative, and it’s really taken on a life of its own,” he said. “Now that it has some air under its wings, it will be self-sustaining.”

Stephens said the program not only bridges the gaps between school, the workplace and academia, but also appears to create more buy-in from the students’ families.

“We had one father at a recruiting event, who had taken some computer programming in Mexico, and he realized he was only a few credits short of a degree from Front Range,” Stephens said. “Now the father is finishing his degree in CS at Front Range (at the same time his child is attending.)

“This is not only changing the lives of our students; it’s changing the lives of our families.”