PROFESSIONAL
TTP Spotlight
One Educator's Strategies for Keeping Students Plugged In
Mary Flesberg is Chairwoman of the Business Education Department at Moorhead High School in Moorhead, Minnesota. She also serves as president of the Minnesota Business Educators, Inc. (MBEI), a state affiliate of the National Business Educators Association, and on the board of directors for the Minnesota Association for Career and Technical Education (MnACTE).
Technology Turning Points (TTP): In your experience, what are the main reasons students drop out of high school?
Mary Flesberg: I feel that there are two main reasons that students drop out. The first is that they don't feel a connection with anyone or a sense of belonging. That is something that all adults in education need to focus on with their time and energy.
The second is that they don't feel that the core courses they are required to take will ever really be useful or will help them in their work or personal life after graduation. With the increased focus on testing-followed directly by the increased requirements of the core subjects of math, science, English, and social studies-it is only logical that students will drop out of school if they are not being successful in those areas, yet our answer is to just make them take more of those very subjects. They give up, view school in a negative light, and drop out.
TTP: What strategies does your school district use to engage students who are at risk of dropping out?
Mary Flesberg: Our school district offers a wide variety of elective courses, outside the core, to give our students the opportunity to experience success in areas that they feel will help them in their everyday lives at work and at home. Our students are fortunate to have daily access to computers and multimedia. We have a technology director who is visionary and supportive.
TTP: How has your school district used twenty-first-century education technology-computers, multimedia, and alternative learning systems-to help reduce the dropout rate?
Mary Flesberg: Our Business Education Department is proud to offer more than 20 courses to our students. All of those courses use computers, digital media, TV cameras, and so on, daily in ways that allow the students to truly see and experience their application in the world of work. We don't hear the standard, "I'm never going to use this in real life" statement in computer education and business courses. This realization actually draws the students to take our classes. They connect, discover an interest, and stay in school.
TTP: How have computer education courses been used to reach out to at-risk students and reduce their chance of dropping out?
Mary Flesberg: Anytime you engage a student in a hands-on experience that will give them the skills to become successful in the workplace, they recognize it immediately. Everyone would agree that the use of technology and computers, specifically, is something that is expected by employers everywhere. For those two reasons, computer education students stay in school because they see the connection that the skills they are learning are ones they will use to succeed and meet employer expectations.
TTP: How can computer education teachers become involved in promoting their courses to at-risk students?
Mary Flesberg: Our best promoters are the students themselves. They network about worthwhile courses faster than any teacher can get the word out. We also have a very supportive counseling staff that raises the students' awareness as to the importance of high school preparation in the areas of technology.
TTP: Have there been particular computer education courses that have helped to reduce student dropouts? If so, what are these courses, and why do you think they have been effective?
Mary Flesberg: We offer a basic keyboarding course that is arranged for those students who are at risk or may not be able to experience success in the higher-level computer courses. The students enrolled in this course would certainly be those who may drop out because of frustration levels for whatever personal issues they are dealing with.
We also have had great success with our TV Production I and II courses. These courses give the students skills in many areas, including the use of the technology, writing, editing, and performing. These courses allow students to use a multitude of their talents in this creative format, and many find a reason to stay in school and a niche that they never knew existed.
Personal Finance is the course where we teach students to use computers in the ways we, as adults, use them everyday. Students plan trips by using navigation programs, book flights, rent cars, book hotels, search for restaurants and sites they would like to visit. They also research and follow stocks, comparison shop for banks and all types of insurance. They research housing prices from all over the country, learn how to navigate real estate company Web sites, use mortgage calculators, and currency converters. They become familiar with the IRS Web site and how to find the forms and information they need. Students leave this course with the ability to locate any information that they need to function in today's world.
TTP: What partnerships does your school district employ to engage at-risk students enrolled in computer education courses? How are these partnerships fostered by your school district and by your students?
Mary Flesberg: We have articulation agreements (dual credit) with all five of the Minnesota State Community and Technical Colleges in the areas of computer applications, Microsoft Office, Web design, and Accounting II. Students who pass the courses listed with an A or B receive credit for the courses at the schools participating.
We also offer a Business Mentorship class where the students learn about the world of work and shadow adults in their areas of career interest. Our Community Interactions course offers a shadowing opportunity also, but in the area of nonprofits and encouraging our youth to give back to their community by giving of their time and talents.
Our Business Education Department also has an advisory committee made up of parents, educators from all levels, and local businesspeople. Members of our department also serve on advisory committees for the community college and Concordia College.
We feel that we have strong community connections and that we live in an area where education is valued.
TTP: If you were to identify one strategy that a school district could use to reduce the dropout rate, what would that be and why?
Mary Flesberg: I would recommend that school district recognize that there is a direct relationship between the increase in the focus on "core subjects only" and the dropout rate. Dropout rates will continue to rise if districts cut elective programs, because they give students opportunities to experience hands-on application of skills and knowledge.
High school should be a time of discovery, exploration, and the acquisition of skills needed to succeed. Whether students are using computers to research mortgage rates, study advertising trends, look up legal cases, navigate all of the programs in Microsoft Office with ease, or create with multimedia, these students recognize that they are learning to learn and to perform the skills needed for their futures. When students take that first computer education course at our school, they tend to follow it up by taking many or most of the other courses offered in the Business Education Department.
Teaching to the test should not be the goal of education. Teaching students how to learn, to use technology, to problem solve, and to know "where and how" to look for answers is what we really need to focus on, and that is precisely what business and computer education courses do. Students will not drop out of a school that offers them their future!
