Columnist Sandy Thompson: PAL program is students’ best friend

Sandy Thompson

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2000 | 12:36 p.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com.

As educators and politicians debate ways to lower Nevada's school dropout rate, a team of teachers is quietly making a dent in the problem.

For the last four years, six Las Vegas High School teachers have been involved in an innovative program called Partnership at Las Vegas (PAL). In that time, they have cut the school's dropout rate in half.

"It's the best thing happening in Clark County," says Las Vegas High School Principal Barry Gunderson of PAL.

The only school-to-careers program of its type in the district emphasizes education inside and outside the classroom, bridging the gap between school and work. Designed for juniors and seniors, PAL stresses personal responsibility, initiative, trustworthiness and dependability.

Under the program, students attend school Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays they are placed in businesses across the Las Vegas Valley. The mix of work and school makes education more relevant, says Robert Bray, a Las Vegas High business teacher who helped start PAL in 1996.

That in itself does not make the program successful. Bray and Kirk Wallace, a history and government teacher who is program coordinator, credit team teaching.

"Team teaching and connecting with the community are the way to go in terms of education," Bray says.

The 140 students in PAL have the same six teachers for math, English, history, social studies and their electives, which are mostly business courses.

Students in a school as large as Las Vegas High (more than 2,700 students) often feel anonymous. That's not the case with PAL students. "We get to know our kids better than the average teacher," Bray says.

PAL has a stricter attendance policy than the school district. Students must call in if they are going to be late or absent from class or the job.

About 100 area businesses offer PAL students internships. The students, who are responsible for their own transportation to the job sites, work for free with veterinarians, government entities, hospitals, pharmacies, fire departments, computer repair companies, doctors, attorneys and auto repair shops.

The program is aimed at average students, many of whom are at the most risk for dropping out of school. Bray says that through PAL, these average kids have risen to higher expectations. He points out that PAL students have higher rates for passing the proficiency exam and going on to college than the district at large.

Dave Campbell, a PAL student, says his grade-point average has improved and he has become closer to his teachers. "The teachers (in PAL) watch out for you. You can't find that in other teachers."

Wallace credits the program for saving his teaching career. "I was burning out as a teacher. Now I can see the results of my labor," he says.

PAL has a phenomenal three-year graduation rate of 97 percent. Bray says a handful of kids have dropped out of the program or have been fired from their jobs -- primarily because of their attitude or absenteeism.

A few of the students, he says, thought work should be glamorous fun. "We teach that no work is beneath them. We have some kids who walk in and think they should run the business." PAL is not all work and no study. Because the six teachers in the program act as a team, they can adjust class schedules if more time is needed for one subject.

PAL students are getting the instruction time mandated by state standards, Principal Gunderson says.

From all indications, PAL is successful. So why, in a school system that Bray says breeds mediocrity, aren't there similar programs?

Other schools and teachers consider it "too much work," Bray says. The Las Vegas High team puts forth extra effort not just in overseeing the students on job sites, but in spending additional time with students.

Wallace says the idea of starting such a program is intimidating for schools. Planning for PAL began a year before it was implemented at Las Vegas High. "We had 100 internships the first year and no phone," he says.

Gunderson, who has implemented other programs at Las Vegas High to help kids and their parents, acknowledges PAL needs dedicated teachers and adequate funding to be successful.

"It takes double the effort," he says.

Considering PAL's success in helping kids succeed in school and in life, it's well worth it.

Other educators and politicians should take note of that.