Event Highlights

Business and Education Collaborate in Adams County
Contributed by: Chuck Hensel on 2/6/2006

Last week, the Department of Labor awarded a $15 million WIRED grant, naming the Adams County Education Consortium as a partner recipient of the metro-wide funds. This grant award validates the direction the Consortium is heading as they work with Adams County educators and businesses to enhance the quality of students that leave the classroom to enter the workforce.

The Adams County Education Consortium opened its doors in June of last year after several months of planning on behalf of all five major school districts, Front Range, Aurora, and Denver Community Colleges, and Adams County Economic Development. After many conversations, they realized that together, they needed to address the disconnect between the needs of the county’s business community and the education of the students in Adams County.

All parties pledged a collective donation of a half million dollars in time, money and resources to create the Adams County Education Consortium (ACEC) whose director, Lee Searcy will report to Adams County Economic Development. Adams County School District 50 donated Searcy’s services because of his vast experience as a former business owner and long time educator who developed seven alternative schools to address the needs of at-risk students in Grand Junction.
The superintendents of the five school districts, as well as the president of Front Range Community College have overwhelmingly endorsed this initiative and ACEC is working with several community based organizations as well as county and municipal officials in creating a vast infrastructure that will ultimately bring the business community right into the classroom to engage students.

Lee Searcy explains, "Too many of our underperforming students do not see the relevancy in what they are being taught. So they choose to disengage from the essential standards needed to succeed as adults. It is time for the educational community of Adams County to rethink the way they are meeting the needs of all learners including our at-risk youth."

Over the next several months, representatives from numerous Adams County businesses will collaborate with high school and community college department heads, as well as many classroom teachers from all five districts to develop "contextual lesson plans". These lesson plans will be based on state standards; cover all essential subjects, including mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies; and teach relevant components related to industry knowledge and skills, including the building trades, life sciences , logistics, and manufacturing sectors.

"It is our intent that students that are marginal performers in the classroom will be exposed to a variety of career paths, all within the same class during the same year," Searcy says. "Students in an algebra class will be shown the relevancy of math in the construction industry, manufacturing sector, life sciences field, and many more."

Searcy is working with many of the stakeholders of this initiative, including Brighton schools, to create the county’s first building trades academy within Adams County School District 27J’s new high school, Prairie View. When built, this academy will also serve as a teacher lab where teachers can learn to deliver the academic requirements needed by students to graduate from high school through career contextual lessons that are relevant to students now and in their future.

Sandy Steiner, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Adams County Economic Development sees the progress being made through this initiative. "The business community in Adams County has had concerns for many years about the preparedness of students coming from Adams County schools. I am working with numerous businesses to bring forth the resources needed to develop the educational programs in which Lee Searcy is engaged."

Steiner goes on to explain that as student participation grows within these classes, programs and academies, the business community is going to have to participate at a high level. "We are going to need human resources in the form of industry experts to help write curriculum, frequently demonstrate industry knowledge and basic work skills to classes, and provide plentiful, quality mentoring and internship experiences to this new and emerging, highly qualified workforce."

Statistics show that salaries of Adams County jobs are on the rise. Statistics also show that per capita income is lagging woefully when compared to the rest of the Denver metro area. Through the work of the county’s educational community and Adams County Economic Development, the Adams County Education Consortium will soon begin to fill more and more Adams County jobs with highly qualified Adams County residents.