Public schools, Lawton, Ok

[Sooner or later]

Some big changes coming this fall. Apparently, for the good.

We are taking one of our middle schools, Tomlinson, and turning it into an advanced placement school. We just built a larger middle school to replace an older middle school that will add capacity.

The A P school will offer a ton of advanced and new courses. Sign language and they hope to have a native American language course (no instructor for that at this time) on top of STEM. Any kid in 8th grade or above can take the advanced courses. The A P kids will spend a half day at Tomlinson and then bus back to the regular school for non A P classes.

If a kid does it right they can take college courses at the local university, Cameron, during their junior and senior years. For free. Max it out and they can graduate high school with a college associates degree or at least get a significant number of college credits.

They are also tying in with the local vo tech and the local US Army FISTA technology program. I brought up the FISTA program in an earlier thread. The city bought the local mall and is renovating the old Sears and Dillard's stores to hold defense contractor development. We will have local high school kids working as interns for high tech military contractors.

The school system is also going to work closely with the local TV station and newspaper to develop a high tech communication program between schools and the media. My little sis has been asked to be one of the 3 local teachers that will be involved in the process.

Little sis is really excited and can see great benefit from rhe changes. We will see how it goes.

[vash]

sounds GREAT.

i think smart kids are our future. the more the better.

[porsche4life]

Awesome! And much the opposite of what I expected when I saw Lawton and Public schools in the thread title! 😳

[gacook]

Sounds like Oklahoma is taking some really positive steps in education reform--good for them.

[KFC911]

^^^^ Yep!

[mattdavis11]

[QUOTE=Sooner or later;11324364]Some big changes coming this fall. Apparently, for the good./QUOTE]

It's about time! We had that sort of program when I was in High School in Texas 30 years ago. I wasn't smart enough to participate then. Looking back, it was a good idea. I have never had college debt, however. A head start is good.

[id10t]

We've been doing the dual enrollment here (both Santa Fe College and UF) since the 80s. A friend of mine was getting a taxi ride from the IB program school he was in to UF for his math class three days a week.

[onewhippedpuppy]

That’s awesome! We have some schools like that in KS, but it’s a travesty that all public schools don’t have those same opportunities. My kids go to private school and sadly they have less college opportunities than the better public schools. This is why school choice needs to be universal, why should kids be stuck in a crappy school because of their neighborhood?

[id10t]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

That’s awesome! We have some schools like that in KS, but it’s a travesty that all public schools don’t have those same opportunities. My kids go to private school and sadly they have less college opportunities than the better public schools. This is why school choice needs to be universal, why should kids be stuck in a crappy school because of their neighborhood?

It kinda requires a junior/community/whatever college or university close by. And it requires backing of the state, not just the county school board.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by id10t

It kinda requires a junior/community/whatever college or university close by. And it requires backing of the state, not just the county school board.

True, but that’s probably just about every community in the USA with more than 20,000 people. Community colleges are plentiful. I would also add that similar partnerships should exist with local tech schools, not everybody needs to go to college.

[LWJ]

As the parent of TAG kids and a special ed kid, I am a cynic.

My experience shows that most schools do an ok job on the 80% in the middle and poor on both ends.

I am a huge advocate for trade schools and technical education. That is a no-brainer.

Makes me wonder if the non-AP school kids will get the short stick?

Apologies for my negativity. Education is such a big deal.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

True, but that’s probably just about every community in the USA with more than 20,000 people. Community colleges are plentiful. I would also add that similar partnerships should exist with local tech schools, not everybody needs to go to college.

Community colleges aren't quite as plentiful as you may think in some areas... And yes, tech school choices would be good. And many/most community colleges offer votech courses/certs.

[Sooner or later]

Originally Posted by LWJ

As the parent of TAG kids and a special ed kid, I am a cynic.

My experience shows that most schools do an ok job on the 80% in the middle and poor on both ends.

I am a huge advocate for trade schools and technical education. That is a no-brainer.

Makes me wonder if the non-AP school kids will get the short stick?

Apologies for my negativity. Education is such a big deal.

According to my little sis. We have always had AP courses (of course). The problem was that not every school offered each AP course. We had 4 middle schools and 3 high schools. We will now have 3 middle schools, 3 high schools, and one AP/tech school. Students at Lawton High missed out on A P courses that we offered only at Eisenhower High. And vice versa. Also, it will add curriculum. The sign language course for example (just one of many). There weren't enough students at one school to make it a viable course. Combine the schools and there are enough students to make it effective.

We also always had a relationship with the local vo tech. That is just being expanded.

It is a massive change for the better. More AP. More courses. More slots available. A much closer tie in between the local schools, vo tech, university, Ft Sill, and the communications opportunity of the high school/local tv/local newspaper.

The Ft Sill tie in is the FISTA (Fires Innovation Science and Technology Accelerator) which is part of the US military Cross-Functional Team initiative and it is a win/win. FISTA brings government contractors into one space.(Dillards and Sears in the city owned mall), uses the resources of the Vo Tech and university who are also on board, and gives real world experience to high school students in high tech fields. Currently, the city claims they have at least 6 military contractors signed up to use the mall space. The mall space is currently being renovated for use. We paid about 12 million for the entire mall. Spending a couple of mill of the Sears/Dillards renovations. And we get rent from the contractors, rent from current mall stores, and federal money for being part of the Cross Functional Team initiatives.

We have gone all in. There is a hell of a lot of student opportunity within various methods of schooling that we never had in the past. Especially for city of only 100,000 population.

I think it is a spectacular effort to give kids many career choices and opportunities. Want high tech. It is there. Want vo tech. It is there. Want media/communications. It is there. Want real work experience. It is there. Want free college credits. It is there.

Little sis has been keeping me up to date on the changes. She was last year district teacher of the year and is up for state teacher of the year this year (plug for little sis). She is really excited about the changes. She feels this opens up far more courses to far more students.

Those that missed my earlier thread on the FISTA. Lawton/Ft Sill is the Long-range precision fires (LRP) cross funtional. group. They are looking to the future.

https://www.army.mil/article/227832/from_the_big_five_to_cross_functional_teams_integr ating_sustainment_into_modernization

[Arizona_928]

Lawton has fully embraced the future.

[tops911]

I was stationed at Ft Sill/ Lawton twice and my kids went to school there. I was less than impressed with the public schools. Not the worst schools (that goes to El Paso TX) but no where near the best either.
Good to see them trying to make things better