Secondary, Higher Ed cooperation critical to future, superintendent says

Are you going to emphasize concurrent enrollment opportunities?  
This is a topic of great interest and emphasis.  In a meeting with Governor Herbert recently, he announced that 2018 will be known as the “Year of Technical Education.”
There is an increasing need for students to take advantage of college level classes while in high school.  However, the traditional idea that these college classes are intended to assist a student to earn an associate degree must be modified.  For every 1 job requiring a graduate level degree, there are 2 requiring a bachelor/associate degree, but there are 7 jobs requiring a certificate.
However, there will be ever fewer jobs that just require a high school diploma.  Some have said that a high school diploma will soon be a ticket to no where.  We have been working on a vision of secondary education where every student is on some pathway. 
There is a purpose for all students beyond a high school diploma. 
Some might be on a pathway to earning an associate degree by graduation.  Some might choose a pathway that leads to a welding certificate. For others, a pathway to the teaching profession or a pathway to one of the health care professions might be the choice. 
In every scenario, concurrent enrollment is essential.  Our cooperation with USU Eastern will be a critical component of our future at Carbon School District.  
We receive school grades as it is tied into state testing. What are our areas of concern? What are our areas of improvement?  
Our school grades have been gradually improving over the last four years.  This is due to wonderful efforts made by staff, students, and parents.  Of course we want to continue to see improvement in our school grades.  But honestly, the state continues to move the target.  Just when we thought we were understanding the SAGE assessment and we adjusted our instruction to demonstrate increased student learning on this measure, the state changes the target.  They have selected a whole different assessment that will be implemented next year.  We are getting tired of all the politics involved in student assessment.  We are getting ready to pay more attention to the real indicators of success.  What reading level are each of our students on?  How close or far away are they from the reading level they should be on?  Are they fluent in their math facts?  How many students graduate from high school with a certificate or completing a CTE pathway?  How many graduate with an associate degree?  These types of measures matter in the lives of students.  These measures don’t change every time someone new gets elected on the state school board.  Of course we will participate in state testing and we will continue to analyze that data to determine next steps, but state testing data ought to be balanced by real-life outcome data.