OLD SAYBROOK, CT — Old Saybrook Public Schools welcomed former United States Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona to the district during Convocation, where he spoke with teachers and staff about preparing students for a world that looks very different than it did even a decade ago.
Much of Dr. Cardona’s message focused on giving students more opportunities to learn by doing, discover what interests them and take a more active role in their education. He also spoke about the importance of teachers having ownership of that work, rather than having a new initiative simply handed to them.
Those ideas are closely connected to the Pathways work already underway in Old Saybrook.
Following Convocation, Dr. Cardona met with the district’s new Pathways Coordinators and toured several of the spaces being developed to support the program. For anyone trying to understand what Pathways will eventually look like for students, Old Saybrook High School is probably the easiest place to start.
Students now have five areas they can explore through the Rams School of Arts, Rams School of Business, Rams School of Medical Science and Wellness, Rams School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Manufacturing, and Rams School of Humanities.
The names are only part of the story. The larger goal is to give students more depth in areas they care about and create clearer connections between classes they take during the school day and what they may want to do after graduation. Some of those changes are already easy to see.
The Medical Science and Wellness space now includes hospital beds, new medical equipment and an ambulance that has been incorporated directly into the classroom. Students interested in healthcare and emergency medicine will be able to practice skills in an environment that looks much closer to what they might eventually encounter in the field.
The Business School classroom has also been updated and now includes a working stock ticker, allowing students studying business and finance to follow what is happening in the markets as part of their coursework. The room has also been outfitted with new furniture that encourages collaboration.
While these physical changes are part of Pathways that families will probably notice first, the work is not intended to begin when a student enters ninth grade.
At Goodwin School, the focus is much more basic, and intentionally so. Before students can take advantage of advanced courses or specialized programs, they need to be strong readers, writers, mathematicians and communicators. Goodwin’s redesigned schedule has added instructional time in literacy and math, along with a WIN, or “What I Need,” block for small-group instruction, support and enrichment.
By middle school, students have more room to try things. Robotics, Musical Theater, and Advanced Science are examples of newer offerings that expose students to areas they may want to continue exploring in high school. Student-led conferences give students practice talking about their own strengths, challenges and goals, while school counselors will help students in Grades 7 and 8 begin connecting their interests with possible courses and career areas.
We do not expect middle school students to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives. In fact, we expect many of them to change their minds several times. What we want is for students to have enough different experiences that they begin to understand what they enjoy, where they have strengths and what they may want to try next.
That was one of the reasons Dr. Cardona’s visit came at such a good time for the district. Pathways is moving from planning into implementation, and the teachers who work with our students every day will have a major role in determining what those experiences ultimately look like.
There is still a great deal of work ahead. Courses will continue to grow, additional community partnerships will be developed, and opportunities for internships, early college coursework, credentials and capstone experiences will continue to expand.
For parents, though, the larger idea is fairly straightforward. A student should not have to wait until their junior or senior year of high school to begin figuring out what interests them. We want that process to start with curiosity at Goodwin, grow through exploration at the middle school and lead to deeper opportunities at the high school.
By graduation, our hope is that students leave Old Saybrook with more than a diploma. We want them to leave knowing something about themselves, having had the chance to test their interests in real ways, and feeling better prepared to decide what comes next.
