As enrollment begins this week, students will be choosing from 23 new elective courses in the new Computer and Business department and Human Services department.

Replacing current computer and Family and Consumer Science classes beginning next year are new classes under the Kansas State Department of Education’s career clusters and pathway model for extracurricular classes.

The new model, which will be standardized throughout the state, will replace the current VE-2 system. The district created the classes to be approved on March 15 by the state to meet the March 2013 deadline to receive KSDE funding.

“Change is always new and different until you get into it, they’re going to be good classes and benefit kids in the long run, and that’s what we’re after,” computer teacher Mark Chipman said.

Chipman’s department will change to the Computer and Business department under the new model, while FACS will become the new Human Studies department.

“I think that change in any respect brings about good things and maybe it will prepare more for the work world,” FACS teacher Rebecca Caves said.

The classes focus on preparing students for college.

“The pathways are to lead you to a career field and lead you to what you want to do in college,” district coordinator of grants and high school programs Cindy Fouraker said. “You’re going to not learn things in isolation; you’re integrating those skills into application.”

De Soto High School will also switch to the new model, and will offer all but two of the same classes.

The new classes offer more career-based learning to students.

For example, software-based computer courses such as Photoshop and Desktop Publishing will become courses such as Business Essentials, Entrepreneurship or Accounting, focusing on integrating one software or multiple software with career preparation. In the Human Services department, classes like Career and Life Planning will become classes like Consumer Education/Personal Finance or Family Studies, also career-based with opportunity for job shadowing and college credit and certification.

Fouraker says the change to classes focusing on career preparation will make elective classes as a whole more difficult but also more hands-on.

“I think the days of the hands-on blow off class are gone,” Fouraker said.

The new course guide featuring descriptions of all the new classes will be presented to students the week of Feb. 14.

Student awareness of the new classes is of some concern to teachers.

“They’ll have questions about what classes to take because nobody has taken them before, so they don’t know what they are about until they get into it,” Chipman said.

For teachers, creating all new curriculums could be a challenge as well as integrating old textbooks. The district does not plan on buying new textbooks as of present.

“I think starting all new classes is going to be really challenging. I don’t have a file cabinet to go to, I’ll have everything prepared, but I won’t have back-up materials,” Caves said.

For more information about the new model, click here.

The course guide for 2011-2012 is below.  Information on the new classes in the Computer and Business department and the Human Services department are on pages 12-14.