Designing a Student-Driven CTE School with Shelley Groves Transformative Principal 533

Shelley Groves is an assistant superintendent of a Career Technical Education Planning District in Ohio. In this podcast, she shares her experiences with CTE, work-based learning experiences, how she keeps kids from failing, and how she has changed the curriculum to give students more choice while still focusing on the standards. She also talks about the collaboration between the two campuses and the Focus Friday pilot program that has helped to build more effective relationships.

• In Ohio, CTE can be delivered several different ways: career technical planning district
• One exceptional experience. 2 campuses, Fairfield and Franklin Counties
• Only juniors and seniors.
• From career exploration to workforce development.
• How far do kids have to travel. 1 hour bus ride for some.
• Perkins funding comes with CTE.
• Required to have work-based learning experiences.
• Failure is not an option.
• My students don’t fail, because I don’t give them an option.
• Kids are leaving and working on the job.
• AASA last year - listening to one of the speakers. Why are we afraid to ask for student feedback.
• What are we afraid they are going to say?
• Looking at our curriculum, students who come here are hands-on, but over the past years, our academic model didn’t reflect what’s happening in our CTE labs.
• How do we help students love the academic model?
• Gave students Children’s literature class and Inquiry passion projects based on their own interests.
• Some students don’t report to campus at all.
• Stopped doing English 11 and started giving kids more choice so they could focus on the standards.
• Scary thing for teachers because they have to learn with the students.
• The teacher already knows the standards.
• Are you getting what you need from this class?
• Two campuses - struggling with collaboration.
• Two schools working independently of each other.
• Teachers wondering if they are going to go through it every year?
• How do we make classes sufficient so that kids can do things in any section or period?
• Applied academics - kids who are in construction go to each of their classes together.
• Students’ concerns are that they don’t want to be identified by just their program.
• Pilot Program - Focus Fridays - no classes on those days, different sessions you can attend.
• How different classes have helped teachers build more effective relationships.
• Kids really feel like the school is committed to them as an individual.
• Passion for learning, what better way to model this than to give kids opportunities to do what classes they want.
• Applications are up by 300 students.
• Lots of communication behind the “Why”
• How can you fix the academic part of it?
• Why are we teaching what we’re teaching and how are we teaching it?
• How to be a transformative Principal? Try something new. Model something new for your staff and don’t give up.

About our Guest

Shelley Groves has been in education for 25 years, started as teacher of math and now overseeing curriculum as assistant superintendent of a CTE Planning District. They serve 16 schools districts 

About our Host

Jethro Jones, 2017 Digital Principal of the Year, is a former principal and founder of the BE Podcast Network. He is also the author of the books How to be a Transformative Principal and SchoolX: How principals can design a transformative school experience for students, teachers, parents – and themselves! Jethro currently speaks around the country on a variety of subjects from principal leadership to student driven learning. Jethro has worked as a principal at all K–12 levels, including a prison school, a district coach, distance learning team lead, and English teacher.

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