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Blaine County Teachers Embrace Progressive Programs
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The phrase “because we’ve always done it that way” isn’t one you often hear in Blaine County schools. That’s because public and private educators‚ as well as those at the college level‚ are in the business of putting innovation to work – overhauling programs to improve effectiveness‚ identifying new methods to better reach students and forging partnerships across the community.
One example is the Blaine County School District’s Dual Immersion Bilingual Education program in kindergarten through sixth grade. Dual-immersion classes are taught in English half the time and Spanish half the time. The program began when sixth graders for the 2007-08 academic year were in kindergarten‚ and each year new kindergarten classes have joined the initiative‚ which will eventually span K through 12.
“The research has shown that‚ at the beginning‚ students working in two languages for a year or two or even three have academic skills lower than or nearly equivalent to students who learn exclusively in one language‚” explains Matt Murray‚ Blaine County School’s director of curriculum and dual-language learners. “But by the third grade‚ these students catch up and typically pass the English-only students in terms of their abilities. Of course‚ what they have in addition is an ability to speak in another language.”
At the high-school level‚ the term “dual” helps describe a concurrent-enrollment program with the College of Southern Idaho that allows students to earn both high-school and college credit for the same course. “So it’s possible for students in a number of different areas from education to allied health‚ English composition to Spanish‚ drafting and engineering to finance‚ to be working on their high school degree at the same time as they’re working on a college degree‚” says Jenny E. Davidson‚ program director of CSI’s Blaine County Center.
In fact‚ Davidson points to the center itself as an example of an innovative educational collaboration. It’s located in the school system’s former high-school building‚ which is now known as the Community Campus. Still owned by the Blaine County School District‚ the Community Campus is a gathering place for organizations and houses classrooms used by CSI and for high-school instruction.
Many of the concurrent-enrollment classes meet at the Community Campus. “It’s really allowed for great growth in the college’s programming and a healthy synergy between the college and the school district because we’re actually sharing a facility‚” Davidson says.
Synergy of a different kind is stressed at The Mountain School‚ which opened in Bellevue in June 2007. The curriculum at the independent school for ages 4 through 12 is based on Waldorf principles‚ which emphasize environmental consciousness and artistic expression. “It’s a holistic education‚ hands-on with an aesthetic awareness‚” says Mountain School founder Katharine Woods. “I would say the basics aren’t the three R’s – reading‚ writing and arithmetic. They are food‚ shelter and clothing‚ just finding your place in the world of mineral‚ plant‚ animal and human interdependency.” In other words‚ no TV allowed. The school offers weekday‚ morning instruction for ages 4 through 7 and after-school and summer programs for ages 7 through 12.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Jeff Adkins
