Therefore, after investigating various treatments of the ninth grade nation-wide, the Cache County District decided that the faculties should define the direction for the two new schools. This provided an excellent opportunity for restructuring various elements of the schools' organization. Restructuring has proven to be a difficult task. The problem is where to begin restructuring and how to sustain the restructuring campaign once a course has been decided upon. An extended professional development program generated through a collaborative effort between the South Cache Freshman Center and Utah State University's Department of Secondary Education is providing the beginning point and the vehicle to sustain the restructuring effort of the South Cache ninth grade faculty as they re-configure the ninth grade year.
Teachers are in leadership positions in every aspect of the program.
Modules are in the areas of teaming and flexible scheduling, outcomes based advancement and remediation, curriculum development and interdisciplinary units, parental involvement, apprenticeships and vocational integration, transition and student advocacy. The modules for our project are produced by teams whose members include faculty from both the freshman center and the university. Each module is built from the current research and includes implementation strategies for the teachers to use in their classrooms. The duration of the project is expected to be five years.