During the course of the 2022-2023 school year, Ridgewood HSD has been hosting site visits for districts across the country. Administrators from schools in Illinois and as far as South Dakota have taken the time to travel to RHS to understand the groundbreaking work we’ve been doing for our students. To better understand our work with Career Pathways and Competency Education, some districts have opted for Zoom meetings.
Why Ridgewood High School?
Ridgewood is considered a leader in the state in Competency Education and Career Pathways. We’ve been doing the work the longest (6 years) along with the most in depth and the highest quality. While some schools have a focus on Competency and others have a focus on Career Pathways, RHS realizes they work together in order to provide students with the best learning experience. Along with these visits, we always have districts reaching out to ask questions and get extra support with the work they are doing. D234 has never said no to helping districts in need.
“With our superintendent being on a lot of national committees, it has really helped spread that word on what Ridgewood is and what we do,” stated Assistant Principal Dr. Eric Lasky. “As those schools look deeper into what we are doing, they realize that we are innovative in years beyond other schools and they realize that we are the school they want to learn from.”
The visits and zoom meetings tend to look different for every district based on what they are currently doing and the knowledge they already possess about these initiatives. We acknowledge that every school district is different by assessing their needs and what they want to learn more about. A typical visit includes a teacher panel, classroom visits to see our work in action, a Q&A session and lastly we allow the groups to reflect on the content we are educating them on.
Due to Ridgewood having the reputation of being innovative, a lot of state organizations will look to RHS first when new initiatives come out to have us be a part of them. They know that us being a part of the initiatives will help provide credibility to the work and that we are dedicated to providing our students with the best experiences. This has helped RHS receive many grants to support the variety of opportunities for our students and the community.