Page 18 - BusinessWest April 3, 2023

Students at Discovery High participate in a project to create a circuit, one of many examples of hands-on learning at the school.
Brunell said the state recently started compiling data on the sal- aries earned by the graduates of specific high schools. Looking out five years or so, he projects this data will show that DHS students are faring better than those in high school with more traditional models.
“We see this as the benchmark for whether or not the school is
a success,” he said. “When we look at the average number of col- lege credits earned by freshman and sophomores at Discovery High School, we’re incredibly enthused — this is a leading indicator that the school is on the right track.”
Elaborating, he said there will be several ‘winners’ to emerge from the creation of DHS and schools like it, starting with the stu- dents, who can earn college credits and, as noted, perhaps even a degree in high school, without having to go into debt (those costs are absorbed by the school’s general-fund budget or philanthropy from groups such as the Barr Foundation and, locally, the Davis Foundation).
Other winners are the participating colleges, who gain enroll- ment, revenue, and, in some cases, future students, as well as area employers, especially those in technology-related fields, who are struggling, as other sectors are, to attract and retain qualified talent.
Another indicator of early success at DHS is the level of confi- dence exuded by students like Izabella Martinez, said Turner, noting that she and others can see this confidence build and reflect itself in how students see themselves and talk about the future.
“It’s really cool to see the shift from when they entered high school — to go from being scared and wondering, ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ to start future-planning and talking about their future in ways that make sense, and the feeling ‘I’m going to make some good money.’
“We see students come in and say, ‘I just want to graduate from high school, get a job, and help my family,’” she went on. “Now they’re understanding that they don’t have get a job at Geek Squad at Best Buy — ‘I can be a programmer; I can use my skills to go in the military and work in cybersecurity.’ It’s really cool to see that change, that mind shift.”
That’s what happens when young people start to take them- selves, and their futures, more seriously. BW
“It’s really cool
to see the shift from when they entered high school — to go from being scared and wondering, ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ to start future- planning and talking about their future in ways
that make sense, and the feeling ‘I’m going to make some good money.’”
Discovery
Continued from page 16
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lish such an identity is one of the ways the faculty and administra- tors at Discovery are measuring success, more than two full years before anyone is handed a diploma or earns enrollment at a college or university.
“When the Empowerment Zone surveyed the schools in the entire country that were getting the strongest results for kids, the most predictive quality of the schools that were propelling kids to earn a living wage was whether or not kids were taking college classes in high school,” Brunell said. “It is far more predictive of col- lege matriculation, of college success, of college achievement, of get- ting the diploma. If they can, during their high school years, actually spend the time in college-level classes and see themselves as being able to take those classes ... this is the biggest element for us.”
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