Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia didn’t have to look far to find cues from his old job in the administration of Bill Ritter as he stood with Aurora Public Schools officials on April 26.
Garcia, the former senior policy adviser for education during Ritter’s tenure as Colorado governor, was on hand for the district’s celebration of its Pathways initiative, a program that connects high school students across Aurora with highly specialized and college-oriented education. Held at the district’s Professional Learning and Conference Center, the event featured APS students controlling hand-built robots, showing off complex computer-generated animations and performing complicated medical procedures on medical mannequins from the Work Education and Lifelong Learning Simulation Center.
All of these specialized programs had roots in the P-20 concept of education, Garcia marveled, a push formalized in a 2007 executive order by Ritter with the creation of a P-20 Council. The body would help usher in legislation like the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids or CAP4K, laws designed to expand public education to include professional training and college readiness.
As Garcia looked over the different APS pathways on display, he stressed how much the concept had grown and developed under the district’s model.
“It takes it the logical next step by involving businesses and career opportunities,” Garcia said, pointing to the district’s collaboration with the likes the University of Colorado Hospital, the Denver Art Museum, Raytheon and a long list of other local businesses. “What we were focused on was the educational continuum, but what we really want to do is prepare young people for the workforce.”
What started four years ago with collaborations between schools like Aurora Central and the budding Anschutz Medical Campus on the former Fitzsimons Army base has grown to a district-wide system with four distinct branches. APS students can choose from pathways in arts and communication, business, health sciences and science, technology, engineering and math.
Under those four general categories, students can get even more specific with different “institutes.” In the fall, for example, freshmen at Gateway High School will be able to sign up for the school’s new Human Performance Institute under the health sciences pathway, a structure that offers college credit through courses like anatomical kinesiology and exercise physiology. At the district’s newest high school, Vista PEAK, students can sign up for business administration and visual art and design institutes.
The new courses of study represent a development of the idea advocated in the original P-20 discussions.
“It was initially engineering and the biomedical sciences. What’s happened in the last couple of years is that we brought in arts and communication, we brought in business. From there, you’re seeing a multiplication through the institutes,” said Rich Patterson, director of student achievement and Pathway development for the district. Patterson added that the district’s development of the pathways system aligned with the work of the P-20 council and the passage of legislation like CAP4K, the ASCENT Program and laws tied to standards for Individual Career and Academic Plans. “All of the things lined up … All of this was happening at the same time, and we realized that we had to put standards to it.”
The district’s efforts have brought praise from federal education officials. In February, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised the Aurora Public School’s district growing system of specialized, career-based education tracks during a visit to the Vista PEAK campus.
The “Pathways to Results” showcase on April 26 brought all of the different pathways and institutes to the same building, giving high school students the chance to show off technical and academic achievements.
Jonathan Harrison, a 15-year-old sophomore from Vista PEAK, sat behind a television screen that beamed his original, computer-generated graphics. The school’s focus on visual art and design was a major motivator when he started his high school career.
“It’s basically why I came to Vista PEAK,” Harrison said. “I always thought it was interesting that we could get involved in these classes. I’ve only been here for two years … Basically, I’d want to find out how I can use animation in the business world.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707