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Vocational training program for Prairie High students with disabilities ‘personalized learning’
Students explore almost 300 jobs, identify their strengths and interests in new curriculum
Jun. 3, 2024 6:00 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — Students with intellectual disabilities will be more prepared for life after high school because of a new vocational training program at Prairie.
A classroom at Prairie High School has been transformed into a simulated workplace to help students with disabilities or other barriers to employment after high school. Participants get to explore 275 jobs in the five career areas of business and marketing, computer technology, processing and production, consumer service, and construction and industrial.
The new curriculum launched in fall 2021 is called the Practical Assessment Exploration System. It identifies aptitude for community-based employment, functional skills, interests and work strengths.
Students first complete a baseline assessment to identify their interests and abilities. Jobs progressively get more challenging as students complete each task.
“They’re learning many new skills, and you watch the frustration when jobs get really hard, but you also see the kids that don’t care if it’s hard or not. They love coming here because it’s different from their regular classes,” said Beth Smith, a paraeducator and the program’s “site supervisor.”
As site supervisor, Smith expects students to ask for her help in a professional manner — like they would on a job site. And she can’t help them until they ask for help, she said.
“There’s so many wins,” Smith said of the program. She watches students gain confidence as they gain work skills.
Smith said she’s had students whose parents don’t let them use the microwave at home or cook on the stove top. They’ve never seen a drill or a saw before. These are all tools they get to learn to use during the program.
Students learn to file and sort papers, sew, cook, work with tools and even build a shelf, a candle holder and put together wires to power a light bulb.
The program also can gauge how independently a student is able to work on a job site.
Students take the class if it is a good fit with their Individualized Education Plan, a legal document for a child in special education created through a team of their parents or guardians, teachers and other school personnel.
The “job” students are assigned each class period is randomized.
Jeff Moeller, who teaches the class, said students are “flourishing.”
He’s already watched some of the more than 60 students who have gone through the program gain employment after high school.
In addition to the experiences students get in the classroom, the program also partners with more than a dozen businesses where students get job coaching.
Some of these businesses are Theisen’s, Tractor Supply, The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Prairie Bistro restaurant, Fastenal Industrial Supplies and the Early Childhood Center at the College Community School District.
Students who aren’t ready for job coaching in the community can further practice their skills at Prairie Cares, a campus program that collects and distributes food, clothing and hygiene items to students and families.
The lab — where students practice workplace skills — is a good starting point to help them find careers they enjoy and have the aptitude for, said Julie McKibben, executive director of special education for the College Community School District
“It’s personalized learning at its finest,” McKibben said. “We can adapt to students’ individual needs.”
Other area school districts have similar programs that provide students in special education with employment transition services while in high school. There also are programs for students ages 18 to 21 who have completed four years of high school but continue to qualify for services and supports in the areas of living, learning and working.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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