An innovative approach to learning has earned Ozark’s Carroll High School special recognition from a prestigious group of educators.

Carroll is the first school in Alabama and only the ninth in the nation to receive certification for its focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) from AdvancED.

Carroll High School, located in Ozark, is the first school in Alabama to receive certification for its focus on STEM from AdvancED.

“We are very excited about earning the STEM accreditation,” said Dana Griggs, Director of Career Technical Education and Secondary Curriculum for Ozark City Schools. “We are extremely proud to be the first school in the state to earn this distinction.”

Atlanta-based AdvancED is a non-profit, nonpartisan education organization that performs on-site reviews of schools and school systems. AdvancED was created through a merger of the PreK-12 divisions of the North Central Association (NCA) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and expanded through the addition of the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC).

In 2012, Carroll High School implemented career academies, allowing students’ career interests to guide their course choices.

Since the fall of 2012, Carroll High School has been organized around career academies. Within the academies, students’ interests and career ideas guide their course choices, with an eye toward preparing them to be successful in college or the working world. Students create a plan in ninth grade, and through individualized study work through high school toward achieving specific goals.

The move to career academies led to a revelation among the school’s educators about the importance of STEM education for all students – no matter their career choice. “In the past, educators believed STEM was for the top 15 percent of students,” Griggs explained. “What the past four years has taught us at Carroll High School is that every student needs the STEM foundation.”

And once Carroll High School faculty and staff made that decision, they went to work.

School applies foundational principles of STEM to all students, allowing their career interests to play a role in their course selection.

“We began to focus more on the four C’s of education: Critical thinking, Collaboration, Communication and Creativity,” Griggs continued, “and we realized how much our career academy was already contributing to this approach. It became apparent that STEM is not just about math and science.”

The Certification Process

Gaining the STEM certification was an arduous process. A committee was formed and a website created where teachers gathered evidence of how STEM was being applied, and how the school was meeting STEM-related performance indicators. The website quickly filled with examples of student engagement and learning.

“Creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking were occurring in student-led presentations and in the interdisciplinary projects found throughout the school community.” Griggs said. “We saw students collaborating every day in career-tech courses and in core courses on group projects.” She said the visiting team from AdvancED commended the school on how it applied technology “to add a level of rigor to student creativity.”

Carroll High boasts 5 academies – the Alabama Power Business Academy, the Industrial Technology Academy, the Medical Sciences Academy, the Human Services Academy and the Arts Academy.

Griggs said the school’s JROTC program is one place where students apply critical thinking. “Our cadets embody leadership practices and accountability,” she said. “That is the perfect environment to learn how to make clear, reasonable judgments.”

Examples of student engagement are evident in all of Carroll’s five academies – the Alabama Power Business Academy, the Industrial Technology Academy, the Medical Sciences Academy, the Human Services Academy and the Arts Academy. Students run a store that sells products made in career tech or business classes. Others have earned certification on Microsoft applications. Still others are using 3-D instructional technology – another first in the state for Carroll High – or producing a daily broadcast in the school’s television studio.

Recently, members of the local business community spent a day at the school conducting mock job interviews and critiquing resumes to help students prepare for the job market. Each semester, the school hosts an etiquette banquet where business leaders mix and mingle with students and help them build communication and networking skills. Business leaders also visit classrooms to offer first-hand knowledge to the students.

The school hosts an etiquette banquet each semester, allowing business leaders to network with students and help them build communications skills.

“One of the things that stood out during our evaluation process was the partnerships we have with our business and industry leaders and how those partnerships have allowed us to be more creative in the way we approach traditional learning,” Griggs said. She said the school’s success would not have been possible without that collaboration.

“We know that students learn in different ways,” Griggs said. “What we are trying to do at Carroll High is offer and integrate the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics in a manner that the student can make connections between school, community, work and global enterprise.

“Receiving the STEM accreditation and going through the preparation process with the STEM team brought us a sense of affirmation that we are on the right track,” Griggs said.