New Cedar Hill 'Collegiate Pathway' Schools Encourage Higher Education
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CEDAR HILL (CBSDFW.COM) - Like many parents in her Cedar Hill neighborhood, Geneva Olivarez doesn't stop at the neighborhood school a few blocks away. She opts, instead, for a half hour commute and private school tuition to receive the individualized instruction that she and her husband prefer for their girls.
"I wouldn't want an education that's so focused on grades and test scores," says Olivarez. "I want to know: is my child learning how to think for themselves? How to solve problems? Are they going to be responsible adults when they grow up?"
Now, Cedar Hill school leaders are determined to court parents like Olivarez with a promise to build schools that will rival their private counterparts.
"I want to secure an option that is innovative, that's creative, that's robust," says Cedar Hill ISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick, "to tell a parent, 'choose us as an option, hold us accountable and I will grow something for you that others will look at with envy and say, that's something very special that's happening there'."
Supt. Riddick points to Cedar Hill's Collegiate High School as one of the things the district is doing right. Students graduate high school with two years of college already completed. Newsweek has ranked the school as one of the top six early college high schools in the nation.
Starting in the fall of 2015, Cedar Hill ISD will build on that success by opening what they're calling 'Collegiate Pathway' schools that will begin with Pre-K.
"It's got to be fun," Supt. Riddick stresses with a laugh, "we're not going to have kids walking around with a calculus book! It's got to be engaging, it's got to have that college focus."
And he is adamant that introducing very young students to a college preparatory focus early is the right move for the district's students.
"I know what it takes for students to launch up into the model, and why not push that opportunity down with a mindset for teachers, and a mindset for training, and a mindset for students, and accountability for parents."
The Collegiate Prep school will accommodate students in grades PreK through 5th. What's being called the Cedar Hill Collegiate Academy will begin with a 6th grade class in the fall, and then add a class each year until it houses a 6th-8th grade program.
The application process will begin in January. School officials are expecting demand to exceed the available slots. So a lottery will ultimately decide which students will get in.
Still, school leaders insist that the drive to improve won't end with the new College Pathway campuses. Town hall meetings are planned to solicit parent input on what areas of innovation the district should pursue.
"It's great if you have an option for private school. It's great if you have the option to home school. It's great if you have the option to attend a charter school," says Riddick. "But, I want parents to consider their neighborhood schools their first option."
It is an ambitious goal. For now, Olivarez will keep her girls in their private school while waiting to see what the district delivers. Still, as a parent and a taxpayer, she's rooting for their success, saying she'd be thrilled to get the kind of education she wants for her girls at schools her tax dollars already support.
"I would be like, YES!" she screams with enthusiasm. "I would love that. I would love it so much."
(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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