With an expanding <\/span>Flexible Pathways Program<\/span><\/a> Flexible Pathways program in place, Mr. Dinzeo was able to offer this student options that kept him in the game of school during an especially\u00a0 challenging time.\u00a0 The 18 different pathways now available at North Country Union High School students didn\u2019t just happen overnight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The program grew strategically from the right combination of leadership,\u00a0 passion, and increased need for more flexible options for students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Similar to many other schools in the state, North Country Union High School\u00a0 started to research different approaches to Flexible Pathways in response to <\/span>\u00a0Act 77 in\u00a0 2013<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 For several years, Flexible Pathways opportunities in the school were coordinated by a guidance counselor and a half time Work Based Learning Coordinator.\u00a0 After the school hired\u00a0 Ian Dinzeo as its full time Coordinator,\u00a0 the<\/span> Flexible Pathways Program<\/span><\/a> blossomed serving over 1000 instances a year of students taking advantage of more flexible learning opportunities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As North Country educators immersed themselves into the developing proficiency based graduation requirement, Chris Young, principal, saw the growth of \u201ca widely held belief in our school that we need to provide as many ways as possible for students to meet graduation proficiencies. This set the Flexible Pathways up to be the main vehicle that we use to get to more transferable skills level proficiencies rather than just content level proficiencies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Listening to Principal Young, it\u2019s obvious that he has an innovator\u2019s mindset with a bias towards action.\u00a0 He describes himself as a leader that is \u201ccomfortable living with some ambiguity and not putting up artificial barriers to implementing some of these program.\u201d\u00a0 He is committed to providing the Flexible Pathways program the freedom and support to continue to build opportunities so that students have access to a lot of different ways to get where they want to go\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is obvious that passion of the school leaders, the staff, and students are key contributors to the growth of the Flexible Pathways program. \u201cOur flexible pathways program would not be successful without the contributions of the majority of teachers and staff within the building,\u201d says Dinzeo.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe more the faculty and staff believe these pathways are to educational benefit to our students the better. During my first year we were still targeting a small number of Teacher of Records for our independent studies, that pool has grown over time as more of the staff started to buy in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith staff buy in comes student buy in. I strongly believe we have the buy in from the majority of our staff that this is a viable educational option for our students without the loss of academic rigor. <\/span>If a certain pathway lacks the rigor or something else the staff is not shy about providing feedback. This leads to the overall improvement of said pathway and the betterment of the pathways program as a whole.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ian\u2019s passion for meeting student individual learning needs as well as his leadership skills stand out. His previous experience as the school\u2019s athletic director serve him well in this role. He understands that to grow and sustain a program, you need a strong base of participants, visible wins, and community support.\u00a0 He\u2019s no stranger to motivating students and teams; he applies the same strategies he used on the athletic fields to academics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n His active listening skills help him identify students\u2019 personal interests, which he uses to motivate students to set achievable goals and create a plan to meet those goals.\u00a0 Instead of recruiting coaches, he now recruits teachers and community members\u00a0 to support students in reaching individualized goals through a wealth of flexible options ranging from more structured non-traditional programs to a student\u2019s\u00a0 individual pursuit of their passion or\u00a0 interest.<\/span><\/p>\n More structured options like North Country Arts and Communication Academy, The STEM Academy, The Kingdom Course, or even the local Career and Technical Education program\u00a0 bring together students with similar interests.\u00a0 Some options (community service and mentoring programs) have\u00a0 been put on hold due to COVID.\u00a0 The school also offers students an opportunity to select either \u201cstructured\u201d or \u2018student designed\u201d independent study options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Principal Young, also acknowledges that a key area he can provide support in is to build systems\u00a0 where educators\u2019s commitment to flexible pathways are sustainable.\u00a0 Ideas for growing a pool of \u2018teachers of records\u201d for student independent projects range from providing stipends for teachers to tapping into school leaders to supervise independent studies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n COVID and the school response to the pandemic created an even greater need for flexible options for students. \u00a0 With several families choosing remote only options for their student, North Country High School\u2019s Flexible Pathway option was in high demand. The program quickly added distance learning pathway offerings from Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative and <\/span>Edmentum<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0Fifty eight students are currently engaged in the distant learning pathway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n North Country predicts that COVID will\u00a0 also increase the demand for credit recovery options.\u00a0 High school principal, Chris Young is putting together a team to create multiple credit recovery pathways to meet the upcoming need.\u00a0 The school\u2019s well developed Flexible Pathway program will be instrumental in that process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ian understands that each pathway has different logistical needs; although some translate from pathway to pathway some needs do not and it still takes time to tweak pathways and have them grow. He’ll bring his experience planning, piloting, reflecting with others, and\u00a0 making changes to the process of preparing additional flexible learning opportunities for students as the school prepares for post-COVID learning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ian is determined that as the Flexible Pathways program continues to expand, it will always be centered around student voice. Noticing that a teacher voice easily overshadows student voice in the design of a personalized learning plan, Ian has adjusted the process of engaging a teacher to support a student\u2019s individualized project plan.\u00a0 \u201cWe use to bring in an educator early into the planning process of a individual student project.\u00a0 I now work with the student to design a draft of their plan before we bring in a supporting teacher,\u201d\u00a0 explains Ian.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the options for Flexible Pathways continue to grow, it will be important to start preparing students to use their voice and leverage these options by advocating for their own learning needs.\u00a0 Middle school passion projects or genius hour projects can help create\u00a0 a mindset where students take accountability for communicating what they need and become designers of their learning.\u00a0 \u201cEvery single kid ought to be reaching out to their teacher with something — specific question about science problem, an assignment, or a bigger problem like I need to meet graduation proficiencies,\u201d explains Principal Young.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “The good news is that during our pandemic response, we got really good at identifying the most important things a student had to learn,” he continues. “We now have a tighter more accurate description for the portrait of a graduate. Flexible pathways provide ways for students to develop the transferable skills proficiencies that are part of that portrait.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fifteen year old boy slowly hobbled from the parking lot to the school\u2019s main office, stopping to adjust his crutches.\u00a0 He was welcomed by the school\u2019s Flexible Pathway Coordinator, Ian Dinzeo for their 10 o\u2019clock appointment.\u00a0 They both sat down, masked,\u00a0 at opposite ends of a table in the school cafeteria – which offered … <\/p>\n![\"North](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/NCU-Flexible-pathways-1-1024x717.png\")
<\/a>![\"North](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Flexible-2-1024x763.png\")