How Coventry High School Can Better Prepare Students for Life in the 21 st Century

Pat Dolan E Block Ms. Kirkpatrick February 13, 2014

Dolan 2 Mission The goal of Coventry High School is to prepare students for life in the 21 st century providing them with the tools they need in order to be successful in life. To be successful, students must learn not only math and science skills, but also critical thinking and technology skills. Mastery of these things gives students the opportunity to succeed, but there are other areas where schools fall short. While teachers are effectively preparing students to be successful in certain areas of their futures, like most high schools, the Coventry School system fails to teach students financial sustainability tactics and lacks substantial support through the college application process. Even though 90% of teachers believe that financial literacy classes should be a graduation requirement (Pelletier) they are required in just 13 states (Bortz). Recent studies have shown that there is two main underlying reasons students do not enroll in colleges. They are either lacking the grades to be accepted or fail to successfully apply due to a lack of support during the college application process (Tierny). With approximately one in three students entering directly into the workforce, it is essential for schools to prepare them in every way possible to be self-sustaining and active members of their community. While making a gallant effort, many schools fail to do this. Schools need to focus much of their guiding efforts on first generation college students. These students are much less confident about being successful college students when compared to second and third generation college students. It is believed that the reason for this lack in confidence is that there is no positive role model in a students life encouraging them to pursue their dreams and attend college (University).

Dolan 3 Statement of Need Students at Coventry High School currently are not being supported by the school during the college application process and are not properly educated about the job application process. In order for students at Coventry High to reach their fullest potential after graduation, it is essential for the school to begin a 1 st semester course for all seniors which will focus on the application process. Whether for college or a job, students need application skills to ensure financial stability for their future. This class will better support seniors during this turbulent time, making them feel more confident and prepared, permitting them to reach their dreams of going to college or being an active working member of society. An optional 2nd semester class will then be available, which will focus on pairing students up with local businesses to provide them with jobs. Many students leave high school not knowing how to manage their finances. This course will teach students the process required to borrow money from a bank. Whether financing their college education, purchasing a house or an automobile, students need to understand the application process and the payback calculations for loans. Student loans have recently been identified as a major problem for students enrolled in colleges because they were never educated about how they work and the interest rates associated with them (Amandolare). Students will also learn the importance of properly managing their finances from short-term investments to saving for retirement. Finally, students will learn what taxes they are required to pay and the impact these taxes will have on their finances.

Dolan 4 Goals/Objectives Goal 1: Create a required semester 1 senior course Post Graduratory Planning (PGP) Educate and guide students through the college application process o Provide students support throughout the college process to increase students pursuing higher education from 86% to at least 90% o Create interdisciplinary collaboration to construct a comprehensive college preparatory and real world experience course o Infuse real world skills such as taxes and budget into the course so students taking the exit survey can confidently report they are prepared to enter work force and independent living with 90% or higher accuracy. Goal 2: Create an elective semester 2: Real world & work experience course Through collaboration with a business teacher enable students to form external business relations and provide them lasting employment opportunities. o Supply 60% of enrolled students with an internship or job. o Create fitting and lasting careers with 25% of the created jobs lasting longer than one year.

Procedures Being mandatory for all seniors, the first semester of PGP will raise the number of students who attend college and enable them to attend more prestigious colleges. In order for PGP to be effectively implemented into the curriculum, first a meeting will be held with the principal, Mrs. Mullaly, to plan the course and make it most fitting the school environment,

Dolan 5 ensuring its long-term survival. Avon High School, located in Connecticut, offers three classes, which focus primarily on the same goals that PGP does (Appendix A) and their curriculum could be used as a basis for the new course. After designing the course, instructors need to be selected who would be willing to teach it. It would be most fitting for semester one of PGP to be co-taught, with one teacher focusing on financial skills while the other concentrates their efforts on the college application process. The business department then will teach the second semester course. Two surveys will then be distributed to the students of Coventry High School during advisory. The first of the surveys will ask students about their financial knowledge and the second will be given exclusively to seniors, asking them about their college application experience. Remaining statistics such as application rates and college attendance information will be provided by guidance. After sufficient information is analyzed and a sound curriculum created, PGP will be presented to the academic council for approval.

Evaluation The true effectiveness of this course will become evident when an increased number of students begin attending college. Although a 6% increase in the number of students attending college may seem like a small increase it will greatly impact the lives of those students who make the decision to attend college. Recent studies have shown that those who receive a college degree make an average of $17,500 more per year than those who do not attend college and this gap continues to increase. In addition unemployment rates are well over 3 times higher in people who have failed to attend secondary schooling (Kurtzleben). Other goals however are not as clear in their success. Students need to be

Dolan 6 prepared for life and educated on basic financial planning skills so they are conf ident upon graduating. This goal will be met if at least 90% of students report that they feel CHS has prepared them for life. If students decide to enroll in the second semester of the course they will be paired up with local businesses with the goal of creating lasting employment partnerships. The limiting factor for this is obviously the number of work and intern opportunities available to students. This is why a 60% partnership rate is practical. The goal will be met when at least 60% of participants are successfully partnered up with a company, meaning that they are in regular attendance and benefit from their partnership. Logically, for a partnership to be successful it will be long lasting as well. That is why at lease 25% of the partnerships should last a minimum of one year. Those lasting this long will most likely be jobs, which will stay with the students for a long time.

Facilities and Equipment It would be most logical for the class to be lectured in the Lecture Hall, where there is plenty of space, and once a week held in a computer lab, so students can utilize class time to work on college applications and resume building. It will be simple to reserve a spot in the Lecture Hall because currently the only class held there is CI, which only meets once a day. On days where the students meet in the computer lab the students could be split up between the Library Media Center and one of the other computer labs.

Personnel A course such as this one will require two teachers who will work together to instruct the class. It would be most fitting for the class to be instructed by a business teacher, who is

Dolan 7 already knowledgeable about the business world, and a guidance counselor who has experience in helping students with their guidance application. Kathryn Zadrowski, a guidance counselor at Coventry High School and St. Johns graduate, stated that she thinks the class would be beneficial to seniors who are going through the application process (Zadrowski). Even though guidance counselors are very busy in their day-to-day activities, much of their time is consumed preparing seniors for colleges. If this class were to be implemented, it would not significantly change their workload because they would be instructing seniors as a whole, which will prevent the need to have individual meetings with different students, repeating the same information. If there happens to be a meeting or something that the guidance counselor cannot miss they would be able to miss a period, since another teacher will be able to instruct the class. Their efforts will also only be focused on PGP during the first semester. During the second semester the business teacher will partner students with local businesses to provide them with work after graduation. It would be best for students to fill out a survey describing their ideal partnership and what they would like to get out of it. This data could them be compiled and students will be partnered with the company that best fits their need. Weather students want a paying job or just an internship to assure them of a career they wish to pursue, this class will surly provide them with what every they are searching for.

Conclusion As Coventry High School continues educating students it is essential for them to fully prepare them for their futures. This is why CHS needs to adopt PGP, which will ensure that students do in fact leave Coventry Schools knowing how to do basic finances, apply for a job,

Dolan 8 and increase the number of students who attend college. When PGP is fully implemented into the curriculum it will produce life-changing results for some while improving the lives of the rest. Attending college has become exponentially more important for those seeking success in recent years. Since 1984 the median net worth of households has dropped to less than one third of what it originally was (Kurtzleben) and while this continues to drop it is essential for schools to do everything possible to encourage students to attend college.

Dolan 9 Works Cited Amandolare, Sarah. "student loans: how the middle class gets hammered." Journal Inquirer [Coventry] 12 Feb. 2014, sec. Editorials & Comment: 18. Print. Avon. Course of Studies 2014-2015.<http://www.avon.k12.ct.us/backpack/AvonHS20142015CourseofStudies.pdf> Bortz, Daniel. "Basic Money Lessons You (Probably) Missed in High School." US News RSS. US News, 5 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. <http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/slideshows/basic-money-lessonsyou-probably-missed-in-high-school>. Kurtzleben, Danielle. "Study: Income Gap Between Young College and High School Grads Widens." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. Pelletier, John. "On States Efforts to Improve Financial Efforts in High School." National Report Card. Champlain College, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. <http://www.champlain.edu/Documents/Centers-of-Excellence/Center-for-FinancialLiteracy/Champlain-College-Center-for-Financial-Literacy-State-Report-Card_.pdf>. Tierny, W.G., Bailey,T., Constantine, J., Finkelstein, N., & Hurd, N. F. (2009). Helping Students Navigate the Path to College: What High Schools Can do: A Practice Guide. 13 Feb. 2014 "University of Michigan School of Information." Social media can aid first-gen college students. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 6 June 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. <https://www.si.umich.edu/news/social-media-can-aid-first-gen-college-students>. Zadrowski, Kathryn. Personal Interview. Feb 9, 2014.

Dolan 10 Appendix A

http://www.avon.k12.ct.us/backpack/AvonHS2014-2015CourseofStudies.pdf