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20
Community Council
Findings
tion of State Directors of Career and
Technical Education Consortium,
students enrolled in CTE programs
are 8 to 10 times less likely to drop
out and students who concentrated
in CTE graduated at higher rates
than those who did not—90 per-
cent compared to 75 percent.
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Speakers noted that students need
a variety of resources to be success-
fully engaged. Vaughan suggested
that giving every student access to
a computer is like placing a library
at their fingertip
s.
Support student success
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A high school schedule with one
extra class period allows students
who fail a class to graduate on time.
The extra period at Wa-Hi, which is
supported by levy dollars, will be-
come even more important when
Washington State high school grad-
uation requirements are increased
from 22 to 24 credits in 2021.
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Several administrators suggested
that building resiliency among
youth can enhance student con-
fidence and engagement. Doug
Johnson, Superintendent of Dayton
Public Schools, reported that resil-
iency can be taught, and McLough-
lin High School in Milton-Freewater
has instituted a new focus on
developing GRIT: great resilience
and internal toughness.
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Additional barriers to engagement
include poverty and inequality.
Peterson reported that the percent-
age of students receiving free and
reduced lunch at Wa-Hi increased
from 24.5 in 1999–2000 to 45.5 in
2014–2015. According to Cum-
mings, over 50 percent of middle
schoolers at Garrison and Pioneer
middle schools receive free and re-
duced lunch; at Blue Ridge Elemen-
tary, the rate is 85 percent.
In addition to those strategies,
speakers also told the Study Com-
mittee about programs that seek to
enhance student engagement and
support educational attainment
outside the traditional classroom. The
Study Committee recognizes there
may be other programs it did not hear
about; the discussion below is limited
to what was reported to the Study
Committee.
21st Century Community
Learning Centers
CCLC is a federally-funded program
that provides students opportunities
for educational and social enrichment
after school and during the summer.
The grant targets low-income, mi-
nority and struggling students, but
activities are open to all students. The
program operates at five sites in Walla
Walla (Blue Ridge Elementary, Garrison
Middle School, Pioneer Middle School,
Lincoln High School, and Wa-Hi) and
seeks to nurture life-long learning
through activities that have real-world
relevancy, engage active participation,
and encourage ownership of ideas.
CCLC offers unique activities, such as
weather balloon launches, 3-D printing,
BMX racing and robotics, designed to
Adverse childhood experiences,
such as abuse, neglect, and
household dysfunction, trigger
fight-or-flight responses that
limit an individual’s ability to
engage and make it difficult
to learn. Training all teachers
and staff in trauma-informed
learning can help create a
nurturing environment that
supports all learners.
make learning fun and spark a passion
for continued learning. According to
Cummings, these programs, provided
outside of school hours, foster the
development of habits of mind that
are important for academic success. He
measures the impact of CCLC pro-
grams by tracking a range of student
outcomes such as attitudes and beliefs,
resiliency, attendance, test scores, and
credits (for Wa-Hi ninth-graders). The
ability to track students long-term is
limited by the five-year grant cycle, and
expansion of the program is limited by
funding. One clear measure of success
is when former students return to the
program to serve as leaders, which has
begun to happen.
Summer of Exploration
The Summer of Exploration engages
middle-schoolers at Valle Lindo
(formerly known as the Farm Labor
Homes) in fun activities that stimulate
their intellectual curiosity, raise their
educational and vocational sights, and
invite them into the wider valley com-
munity. Developed by the Friends of
the Farm Labor Homes, the program is
supported primarily through generous
grants and donations from local indi-
viduals and businesses. The program
is run in partnership with the YMCA,
which provides insurance, skilled coun-
selors, transportation and access to its
facilities. Activities are designed to:
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Continue learning during the sum-
mer (e.g., stream ecology, Carnegie
Picture Lab and aeronautics).
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Provide windows into other cultures
(e.g., Tamástslikt Cultural Institute
and Whitman Mission).
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Help students understand the
importance of community (e.g.,
working with the Humane Society
and the Parks Department).
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Challenge youth physically and
facilitate interaction with friends