EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE THOMAS E. DAY AET 515 JULY 30, 2012 MARTHA KENNEDY

A NEW COURSE AT NORTHWEST VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE Northwest Valley Community College (NWVCC) has recognized the need for a new specialty course based on discussions with community leaders in the Kelsey Unified School District (KUSD), teachers from the high schools in the KUSD, and fast-start students who are attending NWVCC. The new course will be the beginning of a program to transition hybrid classes into the 12 high schools in the KUSD over a two-year period, and will be instructing 144 of the teachers in the KUSD to teach hybrid classes in their respective high schools to:  Increase the learning level of students in the KUSD high schools to higher order thinking skills.  Off-set the need for physical expansion of the high schools because of the anticipated overflow of students from the middle schools.  Allow fast-start students to receive college credit for approved classes at their local high schools rather than attend NWVCC for those classes.  Utilize proven hybrid classroom design as it is employed at NWVCC.  Allow teachers from the local area high schools to utilize the library and tools available at NWVCC for their classroom instruction.

ANALYSIS OF NEEDS NWVCC has recognized the need for a new course in our curriculum. This course will teach local high school teachers from the 12 high schools in the KUSD how to instruct the high school students using online hybrid classes at the high school level. This new course, entitled “Education for the Future” will address the following situations:  KUSD is reaching maximum occupancy in their high schools and the population is growing. Hybrid online classes will reduce the number of students at the school while maintaining and actually increasing the quality of educational standards.  Many students from the KUSD high schools are taking online courses at NWVCC which is placing an additional load on the college. This load will be virtually eliminated when the high schools begin their own fast-start programs in cooperation with NWVCC.  Online education has proven highly successful for many subjects. By allowing students the same flexibility in high school that they will receive at the college level they will be better prepared for adult life.

COURSE DESIGN NWVCC began teaching online hybrid courses in Hybrid courses allow students to study on their own time, and cut much of the cost of travel to and from school. In addition the students still have one day each week of face-to-face interaction with their instructors to meet with their peers and resolve learning issues with their instructors. The courses at NWVCC are the template for the courses as they will be implemented at the 12 high schools in the KUSD. Following is a list of the tools the KUSD high school teachers will be learning to use for their own courses.  A threaded bulletin board for posting discussion questions and assignments for students.  The NWVCC library containing links to thousands of articles, periodicals, books, videos, and audio learning aids.  An on-time assignments page for turning in papers that automatically adjusts scores for late assignments.  Utilization of the centers of excellence at NWVCC for writing, math, computing, history, geography, and science.  Utilization of the writing, math, database, presentation, and spread-sheet tools.

COURSE DEVELOPMENT NWVCC and KUSD have received grant monies from the state, and federal government, and donations from area businesses to install six workstations in each of the 12 KUSD high schools over a two-year period. Course development at NWVCC and at the 12 KUSD high schools will occur in the following order:  Beginning Fall quarter 2012, 24 high school teachers (two from each KUSD high school) will begin a three month course in basic knowledge, and use of hybrid instruction.  Each teacher will participate in six hours of instruction two-times per week at the NWVCC campus. Teachers in this program will be paid their regular wages, and will be provided with travel compensation money. NWVCC course will be taught during regular high school class hours.  Teachers in the “Education for the Future” course will use screencasts to perfect their use of the online tools.  Teachers will begin teaching hybrid classes at their local high school upon course completion, beginning Winter quarter  As each group of teachers is certified they will begin assisting in the instruction of the next set of teachers entering the program.

COURSE IMPLEMENTATION Over a two-year period NWVCC will initially train 12 teachers for each of the 12 high schools in the KUSD. Each of the 12 high schools will also receive the following over a two-year period.  In the first week of September 2012, one workstation will be installed at each of the 12 KUSD high schools for the two teachers at that school to utilize for their online instruction. Every three months after the initial installation, another system will be installed until each high school has six equivalent computing stations and 12 trained instructors.  Each high school will begin instruction for their students in Winter quarter Each of the two instructors who have completed their three month certification at NWVCC will teach a hybrid class in their field of expertise.  Students who are currently participating in the fast-start programs at their high- schools will be given priority to take the new hybrid online classes at their local high school.  Low income students will be given assistance to participate in the program with the highest priority given to those with the greatest demonstrable needs.

NWVCC COURSE EVALUATION Evaluations will occur at all levels for the two –year span of the program with the understanding that program success will be a basis for expansion of the system within the KUSD high schools, and into the KUSD middle schools. Formative and summative assessments will occur on the following schedule:  Formative assessments will once each week when the teachers learning how to use hybrid instruction in their classrooms meet. During this time the course instructor will determine if the information needed to effectively convey incorporate the hybrid tools are being learned by the 24 teachers and to subsequently adjust training if necessary..  Formative assessments will occur once each month to determine if the 24 teachers are able to adequately use the tools specific to the courses they are instructing. During this period the instructors teaching similar subjects will be grouped so that information specific to their areas of expertise can be shared, and adjusted to ensure that subject specific matters are being learned.  Summative assessments will occur three times during the course (in the form of tests), and once every six months there-after. The purpose of the ongoing summative assessment over the two-years of the program is to ensure that all aspects of the hybrid system have been adequately learned.

HYBRID HIGH SCHOOL COURSE EVALUATIONS It will be necessary for each teacher participating in the program to provide formative and summative evaluations of the hybrid high school courses they will be teaching. It is the overall goal of the program to create hybrid classes in the KUSD to primarily train students to use and utilize higher order thinking skills in their high school classes, and into addition excel academically overall, which is not the current situation in the traditional classroom.  Formative assessments for students in the hybrid classes will be rigorous initially to determine as best as possible if those students are meeting academic standards. It is imperative that no student receive less than an adequate education in any of their hybrid courses. Hybrid teaching will be new to most of the 24 teachers in the program, and they must make adjustments if necessary early on in the instruction of their classes to ensure that their students are learning the material. If students to not succeed in the hybrid classes the program will lose funding an fail. For this reason all teachers and students must understand that initially there will be a great deal of assessment.  Summative assessment for all students who have taken the hybrid courses will occur when those students are tested for academic standing state-wide and nationally for those courses they are taking hybrid, and traditional. Though students may perform acceptably academically in both hybrid, and traditional classes they may perform differently on state and national standardized tests. If there is a difference, it needs to be accounted for in the evaluation of the hybrid high school class of the future.

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