Pea Ridge High School

10 PEA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL | 12.30.2020 By Randy Rice Eight years ago, the Pea Ridge School District took a long, hard look at the graduates of their school system and decided that things needed to change. About 65% of the students were going on to college but only 20% were finishing. They concluded that some students had a desire to go to college while others had no real interest in going. And neither of those student groupings were really being offered any kind of value-added diploma where grads could come out of Pea Ridge High School (PRHS) set on a path to a career or college. This realization started the district down the path of creating their Pathways program to help better prepare them for life after high school. The district wanted to create the links between learning and employability. They developed a model that is now witnessing the successes of students leaving the school who are immediately employable as well as those reaping the benefits of having a jump on college with college credits earned at PRHS. "Our courses of study, and our philosophy about these courses, is to prepare students to be workforce developed with an emphasis on employability," Pea Ridge Masters Teacher Crystal Marquez said. "The model was designed to provide an experience that separates Pea Ridge schools from the traditional learning model." One of the most innovative aspects of their approach was that the district invited business and industry to participate in the education. Those outside partners are involved with the teachers and are heavily engaged with the curriculum. Most important, they advise the school district on the instructional practices by telling them what they want their future employees to look like. That is the big difference between the Pea Ridge learning model and that of the rest of Arkansas. The Pea Ridge School District Professional Programs of Study include several categories or what they call pathways. They include Agriculture, Audio Visual Technology and Graphic Design, Computer Science and Information, Culinary Arts- Hospitality and Tourism, Fine Arts, Health Science and Marketing, Business and Logistics. And all of these pathways cross over and compliment each other to provide the student with a well- rounded education. "Our new building here this high school really lends itself to the flexibility of our courses of study," said James Rappe, Assistant High School Principal and Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE). "We have a beautiful new kitchen where we are able to teach the students about the culinary arts and we have begun to explore some cross curricular options for them with our science teachers and also farming and gardening. And then that flows into the health care as we offer a class that teaches students the importance of a well-balanced diet and nutrition as it relates to your overall health." "We have our health care pathway now enhanced by our on-site health center," Crystal added. "We offer computer science courses and we're trying to expand the options for the programming and networking to integrate other engineering and medical courses." "It's all very intentional in trying to create this crossover approach which allows mobility back and forth between our pathways," James said. "We're really looking at trying to encourage our students to have a more well-rounded experience. It gives them that workforce readiness piece with that emphasis on employability." Tiauna Young is the Business and Marketing Teacher. She is also the manager of the school store and the DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) advisor. For her, the outside business partnerships are essential to the education of the students in her program. "It's easy for us to talk about jobs," she said. "But when they get to visit our business partners and they learn about what that job actually entails and what it is that they have to do to get to that job, they really get a full understanding of it. It helps the kids to begin to figure out what they want to do after high school. In addition, by having those business partners within our community, it allows us to link those students to jobs and internships right out of high school or, in some cases, they are able to work on the job while they're still going to school and it turns into a full- time position upon graduation." As advisor for DECA, Tiauna gets to Pea Ridge Pathways provide innovative education Cathy Segur Marketing and Logistics teacher Tiauna Young Business and Marketing Teacher Casey Connior Virtual Program Coordinator Crystal Marquez Masters Teacher We're really looking at trying to encourage our students to have a more well-rounded experience. It gives them that workforce readiness piece with that emphasis on employability. " James Rappe Assistant Principal and Director of Career and Technical Education

• Cover