NCSS SCHOOLS QUARTERLY REPORTFALL 2014
Lt. Governor's Seventh Annual Business and Education Summit
The Lt. Governor held a two day Summit first stopping at Rockdale Career Academy and then at Newton College and Career Academy. The article that follows explains the purpose of the summit and a few highlights.
Rockdale Career Academy students and programs were on display as bioscience industry and information technology leaders and college and career professionals from around the state came together for Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s seventh annual Business and Education Summit Thursday at RCA.
“First of all, Rockdale is the largest career and college academy in the state,”said Cagle, on why RCA was chosen to co-host this year’s summit. “We have seen tremendous success within the institution. Every year –this is our seventh year –we travel around the state doing our summit. It’s always done at a college and career academy. This year Rockdale was selected not only because of their size but also their excellence.”
The two-day summit focused on the bioscience industry in Georgia and healthcare information technology during panel
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NCSS SCHOOLS QUARTERLY REPORTFALL 2014
discussions on Thursday at RCA and Georgia’s film industry on Friday hosted at the Newton College and Career Academy.
Thursday morning’s first discussion panel focused on the needs of Georgia’s bioscience industries. It’s an exciting time to be in the bioscience industry, said panelists, because of the impact it can have on people’s lives and the wider economy and the state’s commitment to grow the industry.
Panelists said while many might have the perception that bioscience is about research, about three-quarters of the jobs available are in the manufacturing side of bioscience. Milward said, “Our industry doesn’t function just with biologists. The maintenance folks are just as important as the biologists. If the machines don’t work, you don’t work.”
While science background and skills are important, soft skills such as being able to work in a team, communicate effectively and constantly learn and change are almost as important as the initial skill set students will emerge with after graduating from a two- or four-year college.
“We’re in a field that evolves very rapidly,”said Milward. Students need to “be prepared for change…It’s a bit of a cliché, but learning how to learn”is important.
Baxter is initially looking for people with 15-plus years of experience as the plant is being built and set up. However, Howerton said, in about a year or two, Baxter will be hiring for a wide variety of positions. “What we’re doing starting today, we’re looking for a variety of roles. We’re looking to hire nondegree individuals with a military background. We’re looking to establish strong relationships with technical colleges in the area.”
Thursday’s second panel focused on the healthcare IT industry. Panelists included Ryan Sloan, Chief Marketing Officer of Solo Health, Baha Zeidan, Co-founder and CEO of Azalea Health out of Valdosta, Shea Ross, PR/Marketing Specialist of the Georgia Partnership for TeleHealth, Dan Rivera, Area Director for Intel, and moderator Pat Williams, President, McKenzie Daniels & Associates and Institute for Healthcare Information Technology Board Chair.
“It’s an industry that is just exploding,”said Cagle. “Many of these jobs and organizations, we don’t always see it.”
The beauty of the IT field, said Cagle, is that “we’re no longer bound by bricks and mortar. The world is the marketplace today and it’s all because of technology.”
Some of the services and technologies offered included telehealth visits allowing patients access to specialists that would otherwise be difficult to reach, or biometric machines diagnosing customers at kiosks at grocery stores and big box stores, or the use of health data analytics to home in on a correct treatment for an ailment.
The IT panelists expressed the same importance for potential employees to have soft skills as well as their field’s hard skills.
“We could find people with technical skills but they didn’t have the people skills,”said Ryan Sloan. “It seems obvious but it’s actually very important - having that good attitude, being willing to roll up their sleeves.”
Cagle concluded Thursday’s discussions by emphasizing the power of CCAs in making education exciting and relevant for students and attractive to industry. He outlined his vision of having every Georgia student have access to a college and career academy. Currently there are 29 throughout the state, with three more in the works.
“If you make a workforce and an industry will come,”said Cagle.
What can we learn from a student who loved welding?
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JEFF MEADORS: More school choice makes learning relevant
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued “Leaders & Laggards”this month highlighting bulls and bears in postsecondary education.
While it prefaces a later piece by Thomas Donohue, U.S. Chamber CEO, in “The Weekly Standard”where Donohue points to five ways to improve education, “Leaders & Laggards”remains largely uninspiring.
After lambasting the rate of increase in college tuition, nearly three times that of inflation rates, the report arraigns postsecondary education as “expensive, inefficient, and slow to change.”
To improve education Donohue argues we must expand school choice. Georgia students have more choices available to them than at any time in the three decades I have been in public education. Donohue encourages innovation. We are doing that. He praises STEM. Check.
Hard-working students in Georgia may leave high school with HOPE dollars and find a way to affordable two-year college programs of study with a high degree of transferability to four-year completion. The possibilities in 2014 are more than endless; they are wide open.
A high school counselor shared a compelling story with me recently.
One of her students, fascinated by welding, wanted desperately to work while in high school. He wanted to weld. The young man faced multiple challenges in life; self efficacy was not one. The counselor went the extra mile and found an employer willing to offer an internship to him. He completed high school because, as he told her, “I love to come to school because I love to work.”Welding was his fix, the glue that held him in the game. He finished high school.
Time marched on and they lost touch until one of his siblings made it to high school. A connection formed; memories rushed forth. She asked about the student who loved welding. To her joy she learned that he is employed at Panel Steel Inc. in Loganville today, the site of his initial internship.
Not unlike students at Rockdale Career Academy who I have watched produce and present useful objects to sell based on a fascination with AutoCAD, the Panel Steel employee had a significant adult who made learning relevant.
Almost all of us can name one or two. The in ordinary educator, often caustic, with that inveterate ability to connect with students. No one taught it in teacher education; it is innate.
Not too long ago Peachtree Academy’s Wendy Hughes introduced me to Thinking Maps. Thinking Maps link to specific cognitive processes. Students work collaboratively, analyze complexity, think mathematically, and seek conceptual understanding. I was looking at fifth-grade work, but it looked like AP work. Innovative, Mr. Donohue.
“Leaders & Laggards”fails to capture lessons learned from the automotive student at RCA who rendered unsuspecting CEO Miki Edwards a reality check on the usefulness of place value in math. “It didn’t matter ‘til now,”he said. School choice.
“Leaders & Laggards”won’t feature Elizabeth Gregory at Newton College & Career Academy working feverishly to prep students to test toward dual enrollment options. There is no cameo of mathematician Scott Rains leading Newton’s STEM Institute to meet local labor market demands.
The story of data leviathan Jill Oldham, going school to school to recruit, guide, and monitor nearly 2,000 students annually to ensure CTAE success at RCA is, like others, untold in commissioned reports, but the welder loves going to work because someone found something that mattered to him.
You will read about him, and them, here. Not there.
Jeff Meadors offers occasional analysis and opinion on education.
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NCSS SCHOOLS QUARTERLY REPORTFALL 2014
Newton Foundation for Educational Excellence chooses three teachers for project grants
The Newton Foundation for Educational Excellence has selected three teachers to receive the Fall 2014 Re-Imagine Newton Classroom Grants.
Shanna Powell from Middle Ridge Elementary, Marcus Pollard from Newton College & Career Academy and Lynne Behnke from Oak Hill Elementary were chosen by the NFEE to each receive a grant worth up to $2,000 in October. Any teacher within the Newton County School System was eligible to apply for the grant, which can be used for an array of innovative instructional projects and materials.
“The Foundation received applications across all grade levels and disciplines, reflecting the caliber of our innovative educators and their desire to go beyond the standard curriculum,” said NFEE member Hillary Edgar. “It is gratifying for our volunteer board to be able to meet the needs of our public educators with the private funds we have raised.”
Powell plans to use her grant to fund her project called The Sprouting New Roots Garden and Outdoor Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Lab. Pollard’s grant will toward his Academic Trout Routes project, while Behnke will use her grant to fund her STEM lab.
“The committee members were extremely impressed by the scope of this year’s proposals and were especially excited to fund grants that highlight innovations in STEM education during this cycle,” said NFEE board Chair Dr. Jami Berry.
NFEE is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2009 to create support for public education in Newton County, with the goal of raising private dollars for public education. Re-Imagine Newton is NFEE’s annual campaign.
Entrepreneurial Business Incubator- Shark Tank
The first annual Entrepreneurial Business Incubator-Shark Tank Event at NCCA was held on Tuesday, November 18th in the Media Center.
There were over 25 people from the community as audience members and four wonderful Sharks (Business Leaders) who volunteered their time to learn about six student-led companies. The Sharks voted on the most viable EBI company and decided to award cash prizes totaling $200.00 to three companies!
Thanks to our Sharks- Mr. Jared Rutberg, Mr. Arthur Schlueter, Mr. Scott Willis, and Ms. Anita Hood for their time and business expertise. The prize money will be invested back into the student companies and they will report on their progress in January after the Holiday Break. We would also like to thank the staff at NCCA who helped in so many ways, especially the Graphics Department for printing business cards and brochures, to the Culinary team for providing lunch for the judges and participants, and for our Video Production Team for filming the event, and to our Marketing Associates who helped with branding and promotion. A special thanks also to Darrell Everidge from the Covington News for great media coverage.
Congratulations to our Shark Tank Participants from our Entrepreneurial Business Incubator Team and our winners!
Winners-2nd Place- Bianca Bush- B’s Swingin’Sweets
Tied for 1st Place- Courtney Cammarata and Sam Impeartrice- S & C’s T’s
And James Parsons and David Parker for The Web Technicians.
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NCSS SCHOOLS QUARTERLY REPORTFALL 2014
Graphic Arts Industry Certification
Congratulations are in order to Mr. Cohen (Graphics teacher) for recently being designated a PrintED accredited program! The accreditation process is one that takes nearly a year to complete and Mr. Cohen and the staff at NCCA have worked tirelessly to make this happen! I’ve attached the official letter from GAERF to this email and have also included a quick blurb about PrintED accreditation below:
PrintED accreditation is administered by the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) and is a national program, based on industry standards for secondary and post-secondary schools. Newton College and Career Academy’s graphics program is now among one of only 25 certified programs in the state of Georgia and this accreditation serves to show that the program is of the highest standards.
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