Supporting Student Success – NH Extended Learning Opportunities

All Site Meeting

March 5, 2009

Location:               NH DOE, Walker Building, Room 100 

Time:                      9:00 – 12:00

In attendance:

ELO Teams:

Manchester Central

Laconia 

Franklin 

Newfound Regional

Monadnock Regional

Farmington

Raymond

Mascenic

Nute High School, Milton

Oyster River 

ELO Partnership:

NH DOE: Paul Leather, Mariane Gfroerer, Suzanne Birdsall

PlusTime NH: Janice Hastings (facilitator), Melissa Gallagher

QED: Kim Carter, Elizabeth Cardine

CACES: Rose Colby, Rob Lukasiak

CSSR: (Center for Secondary School Redesign) Joe DiMartino

Antioch NE: Tom Julius and Laura Thomas

Special guests:

Student presenter from Newfound Regional High School

Announcements

• Tom Julius from Antioch University said a few words about the ELO Teacher to Teacher conference (flyer distributed).  This event will be held at Antioch University in Keene on May 7^th.  Tom will be speaking with all of the schools to collect ideas on what they would like to see at this conference.
• SAVE THE DATE – The ELO Summer Institute will be held on July 21^st & 22^nd, 2009.  Site to be announced.
• A forum on alternative learning programs for at risk students will be held at Antioch on March 13^th from 12 – 4 (flyer distributed)
• PlusTime NH is holding a nature training series called “Welcome Back Birds” for afterschool professionals and anyone else interested (flyer distributed).  The trainings will be held in Manchester on 3/19; Laconia on 3/24; and in Bethlehem on 3/24.

LPA Summary

Learning Point Associates has submitted a draft report of their findings from school site visits. A Summary of highlights from the report was distributed and Mariane reviewed it with the group.  She noted the small sample size and that one school is not represented with the student surveys.  Highlights included:

• A variety of subjects are being used for ELOs.
• There is High involvement of the HQT in approving content and credit
• A high percentage of students were involved in developing their ELOs = student centered.
• ELOs are being rigorously assessed
• The variety of ways that students are being recruited is exciting
• The barriers to ELOs include scheduling, time, and transportation
• Areas to work on include student engagement and motivation (based on teacher feedback). 
• Teaching pedagogy has been influenced/changed through participation in ELO.  We want to learn more about that. 

Steve Beals added that it is important to provide opportunities for schools to observe some of the underserved learners in ELOs.  They would like to learn about what kept them motivated and engaged.

Breakout Activity

Schools broke out into two groups:

• Group 1: School leadership and other core team members participated in a discussion led by Joe DiMartino
• Group 2: Kim Carter and Elizabeth Cardine of QED facilitated two school presentations by Newfound Regional and Franklin High Schools:
• Newfound Regional ELO coordinator Beth Colby was accompanied by Art teacher Laura Hutchins and student Brittany Newton to reenact an ELO team planning session.  Group feedback was given using the Tuning protocol.
• Franklin ELO Coordinator Donna Dusell was accompanied by English teacher Carrie Charette to describe a recently completed ELO.  They shared what the planning process looked like including the challenges and successes along the way.  Group feedback was given using the Tuning protocol.

Networking

The last portion of the meeting was used for schools to network with one another.