Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Philip Hickman led tours of district schools for local community leaders Thursday and Friday to experience what he calls a “new district,” following the implementation of a number of new initiatives.
“We’ve done everything, now it’s just about time,” Hickman said during Friday’s tour of changing the district’s direction.
The tour began with a sit down with about 15 community leaders, including representatives from Clay County’s Yokohama Tire Plant, Columbus Air Force Base, Columbus Police Department and Columbus-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce at the Brandon Central Services building. The group was sent by van on a tour of Columbus Middle School, Cook Elementary School, Stokes-Beard Elementary School and Columbus High School.
Hickman promised the group the district they would see would challenge public perceptions — with cleaner buildings, different learning techniques and more engaged, properly behaving students.
“There are things that can be staged and things that can’t be staged,” he said.
The promise that was kept. Children in all classes were attentive and courteous, children were engaged with the new learning structures (like “pod” learning and individual instruction) and technology, and the buildings were tidy.
Hickman said he also wanted local officials to see the impact of the district’s increased access to technology and other district education model changes, some implemented as recently as August.
While Hickman said changes to the district’s success level are expected, he insisted it will take time. However, he pointed out it has already seen results in different ways, including a 10-percent increase in its most recent graduation rates.
“We’re fixing the problem,” he said, adding the problem was “not the kids, it was the instruction.”
‘Growth is ahead’
The group toured multiple classes in each school, observing students utilizing new technology — from tablet use throughout the district, to a SPTV animation glass with children creating their own green-screen video projects, to a technology lab at Columbus High School featuring animation and coding technologies and even 3D printing.
Hickman said part of helping the district progress was adding more opportunities for students, like the high school’s lab acquired through a grant which 70 students now frequent as part of an after-school program. He said such opportunities when he arrived were minimal, aside from sports and band extracurriculars.
“It was desolate here after school. We didn’t have anything,” he said, adding such implementation is important, especially for students that may not have positive home life. “It’s how do we extend their time in a positive, stimulating environment?”
Hickman said he hopes to eventually make the lab available for all classes.
The group was shown teacher data and student progress dashboards, demonstrating that there’s been tremendous growth in catching students up to where they need to be, to be successful, but also that there was much work to be done.
“The majority of (middle school students) are below basic (in proficiency) because of instruction in the past,” he said. “If I could fix this in one, two years, I’d be a millionaire…(but) growth is ahead.”
Hickman said the “achievement gap” at the school meant students were often performing four or five grade levels below where they should be, but now are progressing by two to three grade levels in a single year.
One of the biggest factors leading to change, Hickman said, was removing the district’s textbooks to close the gap, and, for the first time, implementing an aligned curriculum between grade levels. He added they are still working at “growing” teachers, who he said were not bad teachers but “undertrained.”
Sam Luvisi is news editor and covers education for The Dispatch.
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