As politicians, scholars and activists debate the state of the nation’s education system there are initiatives being designed and implemented to develop the skills of students to compete within a competitive workforce. On September 8, 2011 the Department of Education, the City University of New York (CUNY) and IBM partnered to open, P-TECH an innovative New York City high school where students are educated an additional two years from grade 9 through 14. In addition to learning traditional core subjects, pupils receive education in the fields of STEM (Science, technology engineering and mathematics), a high school diploma and an Associate’s degree in Applied Science (AAS) in Computer Systems Technology or Electromechanical Engineering Technology.
With IBM underwriting the program, students are given priority for select entry-level positions with the company. P-TECH opened with 104 first year students and will add an estimated 100 students per year, with a total projected enrollment of 400-450 students by 2014. Entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the success of the school is founding principal, Rashid Ferrod Davis, an education veteran with over 15 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal and, most recently, the principal of the highly celebrated, Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy (BETA). BlackEnterprise.com spoke with Davis recently to address the academic and socioeconomic challenges of students, promoting entrepreneurship, and his plans for P-TECH.
For the most part corporate philanthropy has focused on distributing money and resources without any real hands-on involvement in schools and organizations. How does this project differ from such common practices?
Davis: This is different because it’s not just about writing a check. They are saying these are the skills we know entry-level workers have and these are the skills workers come with that have three years of work experience. So we’re looking at how we scaffold those skills downward as early as high school. By the end of the six-year model students then develop those soft skills that are missing when students leave college.
What elements of the workplace learning curriculum have been incorporated to ensure that these soft skills are developed?
There are four classes, which include English, math, technology, and workplace learning is its own course. In it there is project-based learning focused around team building, power point usage, coming up with project management solutions. So they understand how to work as a team, develop plans and carry out those plans.
A large majority of your students are expected to come from low-income backgrounds. Along with that will be certain barriers; what is in place to address personal life challenges that students may have?
For 104 students we have two guidance counselors and a talent search coordinator from Brooklyn College to expose them to college and prepare families for the college readiness process. It’s about how do we help families understand financial literacy to prepare for college, college trips and studying for high stakes examinations.
The school is unscreened, which has its potential pros and cons. On one hand it levels out the playing field but on the other hand there are some concerned that without screening you may be setting some students up for failure if they don’t have the solid background needed to pursue this level of advanced work. What is your response to that?
We know that the demand for information technology is outpacing the supply. We want to get underrepresented students and populations to go into science, technology, engineering or math industries. It’s important not to focus only on top tier students. We have to work with those who need strengthening so that they have a shot at middle-income lifestyles via these industries. We did research before executing to make sure we are doing best practices to build literacy and numeracy for them to complete a two-year and four-year degree in a STEM field.
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What support systems are in place for those students who may struggle academically in the program?
First and foremost is hiring the right staff with the core component of dealing with struggling learners. When hiring I made sure that each teacher had the patience, will and desire to allow students to work at it to get confidence that they learned it. Also, we reduced the adult to student ratio. No teachers deal with more than 65 students in any given day. Teachers and other adults get the opportunity to know the students so that helping students build confidence is accelerated.
Teachers can feel overwhelmed and underappreciated with the stresses involved in education and being underpaid. How do you help motivate them through professional development?
The teachers have the opportunity to work with college professors and hear firsthand the expectations to prepare the students academically. CUNY supports them so that they learn pedagogical practices to differentiate lessons and strengthen their content practices. IBM provides them with their own mentors and a liaison on-site to reinforce the workplace-learning curriculum. So it’s a multi-tier approach for the teachers.
The school helps prepare young people for entry-level work with IBM and other companies, but do you also help promote an entrepreneurial spirit within students?
In workplace learning they also have a unit on entrepreneurship. We already have students designing their own video games and gadgets with the opportunity to learn how to go into business at some point for themselves. Through workplace learning they have the opportunity for internships as well as externships via job shadowing. That way they are constantly seeing from multiple perspectives the ins and outs of different companies.
This is a very high stakes project with many stakeholders. So how is success being measured for the students, teachers and yourself?
We are a six-year model with multiple ways to look at success. We’re in the second month but our year-to-date attendance is 97.1 percent. That percentage is
impressive since we were not able to screen for attendance. At the end of the year we will look to see who is promoted from grade 9 to 10 and passing Regents exams with no remediation. We will look at the observation process to make sure teachers are getting the support they need to grow in their field. For me I have a performance review that I am rated on each year that deals with my goal setting.There haven’t been many African American media outlets to feature this story. Most of the outlets covering the school have been mainstream. Why do you think this is the case?
When it comes to people of color we hear on the opposite ends that we are the ones where the gaps need to be closed. But we don’t hear enough about how early college initiatives have been underway for years to make sure that underrepresented students have the opportunity to advance. I think if it’s not coming from the federal level then it is not glamorized the same way as an entertainment issue. Until we have a reality show about education it won’t be on the forefront of people’s agenda.