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Cairo-Durham offering nontraditional programs to enhance education

By David Gordon

CAIRO — Cairo-Durham Board of Education members, school officials and visitors generally dress fairly casually for board meetings, so William Hygh stood out Thursday night in his three-piece pinstripe suit.

Hygh, a senior at Cairo-Durham High School, is enrolled in the school’s Career Research Seminar. The program offers students an opportunity to work in their chosen field to see whether it is really what they want. Hygh has been working for a local Certified Public Accountant, Susan True.

“I’m studying under an accountant, Susan True,” Hygh said. “I do basic accounting jobs, data entry, I file basic returns, I balance checkbooks. I sign out (of school) every other day, I leave early, and I’m allowed to go to my job.”

Last year Hygh worked in a bank through a mentoring program run by Thomas Karnes, one of the two business teachers in charge of the program. Karnes and fellow business teacher Heather Maassman supervise seven students working in such fields as veterinary science, finance, pharmaceuticals and teaching. Columbia-Greene Community College offers three credits to students who complete the career research seminar, Maassman explained.

“The overall goal of the program is to expose students to these careers now, while they are still in high school, so they are making more informed decisions when they get to college,” Karnes said.

In response to a question from the board, Hygh explained, “I had a general idea of where I was going. This program solidified it.”

The career research seminar was one of a number of programs described in a presentation by high school principal Anthony Taibi and teachers. Some of the programs are designed to help students remain in school and graduate with their classes.

The Alternative Learning Program (ALP), especially geared toward students in danger of not graduating, integrates the various subjects, said Lisa Henkel, a professional staff development specialist working through Questar III BOCES. Through integrating English and social studies, teachers were reinforcing the concepts and language between the two subjects, she explained.

“The teachers in the program were bragging about, rightfully so, the fact that their students, that they were working with in a small group, were outscoring students in the general population in vocabulary,” she said. “They were showing the kids how both content areas fit and supported each other, and they had a common set of vocabulary words. So the social studies teacher was essentially stressing the English teacher’s vocabulary words.”

The next step was to identify the techniques that could be transferred to the general population, Henkel said, leading to the Ninth Grade Academy. The teachers and Henkel worked over the summer to develop the concept, which includes interdisciplinary curricula, common projects across subjects, a team-teaching approach, parent involvement and rewards for good behavior.

A book room in the library provides material for students who are struggling with work as an alternative to the standard texts, Henkel said. Students have responded enthusiastically and have suggested books to include.

The incentive program for being good members of the school community, known as “Mustang Money,” involves giving students a card when they are seen doing something good, Henkel said. Students fill out the cards and there’s a drawing on pizza night to determine prizes.

Parents in the program are offering a spaghetti dinner Oct. 21.

Two English teachers, K.C. Morton and Tara Tolan, described the program, offering anecdotes to show how it works and how students are responding.

Tolan described how she and Morton adjusted their curriculum to fit that of social studies. For instance, English classes usually start reading novels with “The Pearl,” but as the social studies classes were studying foundations of civilization, the teachers substituted “Anthem,” which had a similar theme. “We moved ‘Anthem’ from December to September, she said.

In order to reinforce vocabulary study, the teachers put up a “word wall,” where new words would be displayed. The words are often those that they have also heard in social studies. When students define new words, they get to write the words and definitions and add them to the wall, Tolan said.

“They get to put their initials on it; it seems to give them ownership.” she said.

Students also like the Freshman Academy cards, also called “Mustang Money,” which “we hand out when we catch them doing something neat,” Morton said. “It also makes us more aware of what they are doing.”

Morton found out about students who petitioned the school board to let them wear Tripp Pants — baggy jeans with chains attached — when they mentioned the incident during a discussion on the right way to deal with authority. “A student raised her hand and asked, ‘Like about us going to the board,’ she said. So you could reward the kids for doing something properly.”

During the public participation portion of the meeting, Taibi said the students had agreed to remove the chains while they were in school. The school supplied clips to make removing and replacing the chains easier. So far, the compromise is working — students are not wearing chains to school.

Henkel described some initiatives that will be introduced this year, including expanding the mentoring program, which teams high school students with incoming freshmen. The mentors will be meeting with eighth-graders before they enter high school to help deal with their concerns before they enter the new school.

Henkel also hopes to meet with students who have dropped out to discuss their reasons for leaving, she said. “I really want to know why students at Cairo-Durham are throwing the towel in,” she said. “I’m hoping to meet with some of those youngsters — the ones that may be brave enough to come back to school and sit and chat with me — to tell me why.”

Board member Greg Koerner-Fox asked whether it would make sense to ask students who are dropping out to fill out a survey before they leave. He suggested that students be required to fill out a survey, though he acknowledged this may not be legal.

Assistant Principal Ron Agostinoni described the Saturday School, which allows students to catch up on work they may have missed during the marking period. The school is offered on the Saturday before grades come out to allow students to make up work and possibly pull up their grades before the report cards are issued.

Taibi reviewed the Regents’ exam grades for the classes of 2007 and 2008. In English, 94 percent of the class of 2007 was in the 55th percentile or better, 84 percent of students exceeded 65 percent, and 22 percent were at or above the 85th percentile. In math A, 97 percent exceeded 55 percent, 91 percent exceeded 65, and 15 percent exceeded 85. In math B the figures were 87 percent, 77 percent and 21 percent. Global studies pass rates were 89 percent, 69 percent and 17 percent. U.S. history pass rates were 93 percent at 55, 81 percent at 65, and 13 percent at 85. Earth science rates were 82 percent, 65 percent and 15 percent. Chemistry rates were 94 percent, 67 percent and 9 percent, and physics rates were 81 percent at 55, 67 percent at 65 and 7 percent at 85.

“When we look at this data, it gives us information we can use on a general basis. When we break it down and do the data analysis, we can use it more for instructional purposes,” Taibi said. One of the aims is to increase the number in the 85th percentile. “We’re doing very well with the students meeting the standard, but meeting the standard isn’t good enough. We want them to exceed the standard.”

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