NATIONAL PARK COMMUNITY COLLEGE
PRESS RELEASE

NPCC Staff Attends HSTW Conference

National Park Community College was well represented at the national High Schools That Work Conference (HSTW), held July 8 – 12, at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. With over 7500 attendees, this was one of the largest HSTW conferences in history. Arkansas was represented by over 300 educators.

Attending from NPCC were David Hughes, National Park Technology Center Director; Jason Hudnell, Center Assistant Director and Internship Coordinator; Kay Anthony, Advertising Design Instructor; Richard Beason, Machine Tool Technology Instructor; Paula Ford, Criminal Justice Instructor; and Mary Kelly, High School Divisions Secretary.

The HSTW program is sponsored by the Southern Region Education Board (SREB), a consortium of states committed to increasing achievement in public schools through data- based decision making. The SREB has launched the Technology Centers That Work initiative to go hand-in-hand with the HSTW program. NPTC is the lead career and technical center in Arkansas for the TCTW initiative.

The conference presented nearly 600 sessions for educators including a first time strand for technology centers. Hughes, Hudnell, and Anthony each presented during the conference in Nashville. “I felt like we got a great response from our presentations,” Hudnell commented. “The people who attended our sessions were asking questions and taking notes about the things we do at NPTC. It was a good measuring stick to show where we are in terms of how successful our high school center is.”

Anthony presented a session titled “A House of Cards,” discussing the relationships NPTC has developed with area schools and the results of these relationships. Hudnell covered the technology center’s work ethics program, CHAMPIONS, in his session. Hughes’ session involved applying concepts from Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, to practices in the career center setting.

“This was an excellent conference,” stated Ford. “I was able to pick up some great ideas to use in my classroom and make contacts with other Criminal Justice instructors.”

Keynote speakers for the conference included SREB Senior Vice-President Gene Bottoms; Edward E. Gordon, President of Imperial Consulting Corporation; Ray Simon, US Deputy Secretary of Education; and Leonard Sax, author of the bestselling book, Boys Adrift.

“We’ll use the knowledge and techniques from this conference to help make our programs better for the students we serve in Hot Springs,” Hughes stated. “This was by far one of the best conferences I’ve attended. You get the best proven practices from the best teachers around the country.”

Next year’s conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.