Ignite sets off new era in Bentonville schools

BENTONVILLE -- Andy Mayes took time Tuesday to tell his students about a computer programming code called SQL -- short for Structured Query Language -- before letting them return to work on the websites they were designing.

"Do not be intimidated by SQL. It's a real easy syntax," Mayes told students.

Ignite director candidates

The Bentonville School District recently interviewed four finalists for the job of leading its Ignite program. Superintendent Michael Poore said he intends to recommend a candidate to the School Board this month. The candidates are:

• Teresa Hudson, career and technical education coordinator, Bentonville School District

• Julie Knight, student advocate, Bentonville School District

• Paul Stolt, director of communications, Bentonville School District

• Sandon Williams, program adviser, Arkansas Department of Career Education

Source: Staff report

Mayes is the Bentonville School District's director of technology, but he's also the instructor of Bentonville High School's new Information Technology Solutions class.

It's not just any career-oriented class; it represents the launch of the Ignite Professional Studies Center, a program that focuses on preparing students for jobs through partnerships with local businesses, nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs in the community.

The 16 students in Mayes' class meet each day at the Bentonville office of Tata Consultancy Services, an information technology services company that has offices around the world. The company, in addition to providing classroom space, has agreed to partner with the district by providing real-world problems for students to solve.

Students are spending these first few months learning technology concepts they will apply when they are working for Tata and other clients. Mayes serves less as a teacher and more as a facilitator or guide.

"I'll provide direct instruction on basic concepts, then I'll point them to a tool they can use to implement those concepts," Mayes said.

The class is currently split into groups of four students, with each group designing a website to represent the class and the services students will provide. When they're done, they'll vote on which group came up with the best site.

"I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but that's kind of the fun of it," said Adam Green, a junior. "You figure it out as you go."

Riley Babb, a senior and a co-worker in Green's group, was working Tuesday on making the group's website appear correctly on any web browser.

"This class gives you a lot of hands-on experience," Babb said.

Within a few weeks, the class will begin accepting projects to work on from the community.

"We have several clients in the pipeline," Mayes said.

The district began its path toward the Ignite program more than a year ago when officials traveled to Kansas City to observe the Center for Advanced Professional Studies, commonly referred to as CAPS, in which students serve as interns or provide professional services to small business and nonprofit clients in their community.

Bentonville officials agreed the CAPS delivery model fit the district's commitment to project-based learning and finding ways to make school more relevant and engaging for students. Bentonville officially joined the CAPS network, which includes 33 school districts in nine states, this past spring.

Officials decided to start Ignite with the technology class, but they plan to expand the program next year with strands in other career paths, including medical and health professions, culinary arts, digital media production and construction trades. Mayes estimated as many as 200 students could be involved in Ignite by this time next year.

The district is in the process of hiring a director for Ignite. Four candidates -- three from within the district, one from outside -- interviewed for the job last week. Michael Poore, superintendent, said he plans to make a hiring recommendation to the School Board at its next meeting on Oct. 19.

The Walton Family Foundation gave the Bentonville district a $239,600 grant to support Ignite's development. The district may use some of that money to pay the Ignite director's salary, which will be a maximum of $80,000 plus benefits, according to Poore.

"Whatever's left can be used for promotion of Ignite," Poore said.

State Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, visited the Information Technology Solutions class on Thursday. Dotson said he was impressed by the class and hopes it's a model that can be duplicated across Arkansas.

"It's an excellent opportunity for young individuals to pursue a passion they have and learn some real life-long skills they can take into the workforce," Dotson said. "People not only learn the skills and the trade while they're in class, they also have opportunities to work on projects that can affect companies today."

On Tuesday night, the district hosted an official launch event for Ignite at the Scott Family Amazeum. Students and community leaders were invited to watch "Most Likely to Succeed," a documentary released this year about a movement to change the country's educational system to better prepare students for a new economy. The film focuses on High Tech High, a San Diego charter school that emphasizes student-led, project-based learning -- much like Ignite does.

In his class, Mayes grades students not on individual assignments, but on how engaged they appear to be in the projects they're doing and how much they're contributing to the class, he said.

While the students are earning high school credit, they're also earning credits from Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville because the curriculum is deemed on par with what the college offers in two of its classes. Securing that concurrent credit arrangement through the state was a challenge, Poore said.

"You'd think that would be real easy, but it wasn't. It's a big accomplishment that we were able to get that done," Poore said.

Michael Paladino is co-founder and chief technology officer at RevUnit, a software development and digital marketing company of 24 employees in Bentonville. RevUnit plans to accept one of Mayes' students as an intern starting some time this semester, Paladino said.

Paladino views his firm's involvement in Ignite as a way to help address a shortage in skilled technology workers in Northwest Arkansas.

"There are just not enough candidates at both the senior level and the junior level," Paladino said. "In many cases we're looking at remote workers and relocating workers to Northwest Arkansas to build our workforce. We'd rather they were local."

He gave Mayes and Poore credit for the work they've done to launch Ignite.

"(Mayes) is doing an incredible job of giving students the opportunity to learn in the same way they would on the job. He's giving them assignments and telling them to go work on it. The students are talking about doing tutorials over the weekend and doing extra work just because they want to learn more," Paladino said.

NW News on 10/12/2015

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