There’s a unique energy that fills the air during back-to-school season. It’s one of nerves, excitement, and possibility of what the year will bring. For Rockingham County Schools, there is hope that the year ahead will deliver meaningful experiences for students that move them forward on their journey to becoming “choice ready” when they graduate.

Superintendent John (Shawn) Stover III is committed to figuring out what it takes to prepare students to be “choice ready,” and he’s visiting all the schools in his district again this year to listen and learn more about how they might achieve this goal. Stover started as the superintendent of Rockingham County Schools in 2022.

“I believe that we need to have our kids choice ready,” said Stover. “What I mean by that is that we provide them with the knowledge, the skills, the experiences, and the advice that opens up the world of opportunities to them.”

A critical piece of providing more opportunities to students is making sure they are exposed to options early in their school career, Stover said. When he began his role as superintendent, Stover brought a vision for a middle school career exploration program with him. Last year, the district piloted the program at two of their four middle schools. Starting this year, with the support of Rockingham County Economic Development, they were able to expand the program to all four of their middle schools. 

“It used to be that we had to almost put kids in tracks, right? But with an uncertain future, nobody knows what’s going to happen five years or 10 years from now. We have to make sure our kids are ready for all of the above,” said Stover.

Rockingham County is part of the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. It is directly north of Guilford County, which has the third largest school district in the state. Rockingham is a rural county and has 22 schools. Last year, the school district served a total of 11,184 students.

Below you’ll find more data on Rockingham County from U.S. Census Quick Facts and the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Stover believes that any success the district has is due to the hard work and dedication of his team. In a rural county like Rockingham, he noted the valuable interconnectedness of people and organizations, all working towards the same goal of making their county the best it can be for students and families. He also emphasized the importance of focusing on the process of teaching over just outcomes in the form of test scores.

“I’m not driven by test scores. I’m driven by making sure our students are prepared. If we do that, the test scores will come. I’m not worried about that…if we teach what we’re supposed to teach in a loving manner, and we involve our community authentically, scores will come.”

Superintendent John (Shawn) Stover III

Exposure and discovery

On a sunny morning during the first week of school, students at Rockingham County Middle School get settled into class in the career exploration lab. The room is segmented into stations where students can learn more about different career pathways.

“Our vision with this career exploration in middle grades was we wanted to expose students to all the different pathways. Each lab is aligned to the pathways that are offered at their feeder high schools,” said Nina Walls, the director of career and technical education and innovation at Rockingham County Schools.

There are 16 modules offered in the career lab and most can be accessed by students as early as sixth grade. The energy and power module is saved for eighth graders due to its higher level of complexity. Some of the modules offered include nursing, culinary arts, veterinary medicine, forensic science, digital manufacturing, and computer graphics. The software captures the progress of the student, so it is possible for them to continue their learning as they advance grade levels.

“This allows the students to come in and explore different pathways but also allows them to identify what they like or what we like to say…It allows them to identify what they don’t like and what they don’t want to do,” said Walls.

Continuity is the driving force behind the decision to have students only explore the career options offered as pathways where they will go to high school. This way, if a student finds that they enjoy learning about a particular field in the exploration lab in middle school, they will then be able to continue their learning in high school with more advanced opportunities, including courses for college credit and exposure to local business and industry.

“What an opportunity for these kids. In this county, where it’s so rural, kids may not have any idea that some of these jobs even exist. Their family members may not be involved in any of this. It really opens up the doors for what could happen after high school for them.”

Dr. Jennifer Hardin, principal of Rockingham County Middle School

Sparking STEM

About 15 minutes down the road from Rockingham County Middle School, students at Reidsville High School are in a different but similarly career focused lab. In the first four days of the school year, the SparkLab at the school has had 75 students come through the door and express interest. William Bradshaw, the SparkLab leader for Rockingham County Schools, expects that number to triple or quadruple by the end of the year. 

“For somebody who doesn’t know what they want to do, this is a great opportunity to show them that they’re more talented than they know,” said Bradshaw.

The SparkLab is supported by SparkNC, a nonprofit organization that aims to “give North Carolina’s students a competitive edge on their way to high-wage and socially impactful careers,” according to their website. 

The SparkLab at Reidsville High School offers topics like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and UX/UI design in the form of on-demand units, which means students can come in and learn more about a topic any time that works for them. There are also live units, which are designed and led by SparkLab leaders and industry experts in a live format either in-person or virtually, and experiential units, which are live events like student conferences and summits, job shadowing, and other hands-on learning opportunities.

“I wholeheartedly believe in the STEM component to this. I mean, when the curriculum is updated with partners from the tech industry, with current standards and current trends, it’s an amazing thing,” said Bradshaw.

Stover and Bradshaw both see the SparkLab as one piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating “choice ready” students. The units in the SparkLab are updated to be industry relevant, which allows students to develop skills that they are actually interested in learning and see the real-world implications of those skills. This way, students can get a clearer picture of the career they might want to pursue and grow their aptitude for their chosen field before they even graduate high school.

This year, Bradshaw shared that game design is one of the most popular units, followed by cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. But regardless of their field of interest, it’s the opportunity to have a choice in what they learn and do that seems to matter most to the district. 

“The thing is, we can’t limit our kids… we have to trust our students and our families to make the best choices for them. We just have to make sure that they have all of the above, that they have every opportunity, and we are not a barrier or a kind of a fence towards success. That’s really what we’re all about,” said Stover.