Wakefield High School's Technology Program: Educating for the Future

A Forum — June 1, 2001

Wakefield High School, located in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC, is a comprehensive neighborhood high school. Once known as a low-performing school, challenged with a heavy influx of students from immigrant families, the school is now a leader in preparing students for college and the high tech economy of Northern Virginia. The school serves approximately 1,500 students, and has a diverse population of African American (476), Asian (188), Latino (608) and white (276) students.

At today’s forum, Dr. Marie Shiels-Djouadi, principal of 14 years, gave a brief overview of the school and the technology program. The school sets high expectations and standards for all students, and works to provide the necessary supports to help all students succeed. Ninth graders are placed in small houses to help them develop strong basic skills and transition to high school. Block scheduling allows greater opportunities for in-depth discussion, research, lab work, seminars and personal attention. In addition to the core curriculum requirements of history, English, biology and math, students acquire basic technology and computer skills, which is especially important for students who do not have the family resources to own a computer or access the Internet. Shiels-Djouadi feels it is part of the responsibility of the school to not only give students the academic skills they need, but to make sure they are prepared to function effectively in our high tech economy.

Computer information systems and business education teacher Monica Olivette outlined the high school’s comprehensive and inclusive technology program. The mission of the school’s technology program is "To provide students with instruction supported by state-of-the-art computer applications." This is coupled with a second mission to "provide students with access to careers in technology in Northern Virginia--now and in the future." "All students are enrolled in a technology course, even if they have just arrived in the country," says Shiels-Djouadi. Wakefield High School’s principal and faculty are dedicated to changing the way employers view their students as potential employees. "The expectations of employers are that only college students are capable of handling employment," said Shiels-Djouadi. She wants employers to see how much high school students have to offer. As part of this outreach, Jane Vandell, career education specialist, coordinates the intern program at the school and aggressively promotes students to local businesses, securing 200 paid student internships for this year.

A technology class is required in ninth grade so that students acquire skills in word processing, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing, Visual Basic programming and PowerPoint, enabling them to make multimedia presentations and work on multimedia web sites. The school’s Information Technology (IT) program is flexible and allows students to train in a Cisco Networking Academy program and in any of the following high tech areas:

• Computer Networking Administration (Novell 4.11)
• C++
• Visual Basic 6.0
• Computer operating systems such as Windows 95/98/2000, DOS and Microsoft NT
• Web page design and animation

As a graduation requirement, seniors must prepare and present an individually planned and developed senior project that includes a three-page essay; an oral presentation to a panel with an industry expert, a teacher, a peer and one other adult; and demonstrate mastery of a video or PowerPoint presentation (used to explain their project). Seniors must log at least 150 clock hours on their project throughout the year. If they do not receive a passing mark from the panel, students may enroll in Wakefield’s summer institute to further polish their project. Wakefield’s technology and senior project requirements go beyond state and district requirements for graduation. One student shared his feelings about the senior project; "You grow up when you do this project. If I hadn’t done this project, I wouldn’t know where I was going."

The school has not received any additional funds from the school district for their technology program; rather Shiels-Djouadi developed a master plan to acquire the hardware and software over several years. Staff and faculty were challenged to find creative ways to use existing funds to create teaching positions and computer labs throughout the school. Wakefield currently has over 450 new, networked computers. Shiels-Djouadi told policymakers that their success in acquiring an exceptional stock of computers and software came from "hard work on the school’s side and a serious commitment from area businesses to establish a school/career partnership." The school has a teacher productivity station in each classroom, eight computer labs for classroom use, two computer labs for use through a sign-up list, one mobile word processing station, 20 mini-labs and three after-school labs. Faculty who help run the technology program include: a full-time instructional technology coordinator, a full-time technology resource teacher, five technology teachers, two computer information system teachers, and a county-based network specialist and technician. Students fill in as assistants when needed.

A panel of seven Wakefield students described and then demonstrated, through presentations, a high level of competency with various forms of technology commonly used in today’s workforce. Elilta Habtu, a tenth-grade student, gave an overview of the school’s Annual Technology Expo through a PowerPoint presentation. Charles Hawkins, also a tenth-grade student, described his experience in the CISCO Networking two-year course that is preparing him to become a certified CISCO administrator. Charles has also been enrolled in AP courses at Wakefield and has acquired an internship opportunity with NASA. Toan Nguyen, a junior involved in Wakefield’s independent study class and advanced technology topics said "Wakefield High School realizes that technology is vital. Students can try out and specialize in a field through internships." Samuel Lindes, a senior, said about Wakefield, "If you have a career goal, they enhance that goal. They made me get myself together, be on time and graduate." Samuel is interested in pursuing a career in TV production and described 3-D animation as one of his strengths after running an animation clip that he had designed, from a laptop computer. Antonio Paz, a junior and recently immigrated from Mexico, told the audience that his study of the PowerPoint program for presentations had the added benefit of helping him excel in his mastery of the English language. Antonio has moved on to study Initial Basic programming and has written a small program to teach young children to add and multiply. Lyzz Ogunwo, a ninth-grader, described Wakefield’s freshman technology immersion program, Foundations of Technology. In this program, she has mastered the skills needed to edit and manipulate a presentation with PowerPoint and used the Internet to locate content information. Reza Pourrabi, a senior, created and presented to the audience a professional quality, video promotion piece for the Arlington County Chamber of Commerce. He said, "The great thing about technology is that it creates a healthy competition. Students are excited to be working with technology."

American Youth Policy Forum   1836 Jefferson Place NW,  Washington DC 20036
Telephone 202-775-9731      |      Fax 202-775-9733      |     Email aypf@aypf.org