Mentorship: The foundation of Valley Pathways

Those unfamiliar with Valley Pathways can learn a lot about the Palmer-area alternative school by watching its commencement celebration. During each ceremony every May, staff advisors take a few moments to say a few words and recognize every single student graduating as part of that Pathways class.

Those staff advisors are mentors. Each student is paired with a mentor from their first day walking the school’s hallways to the chance to walk across the stage and receive their diploma on graduation day.

And those graduation speeches written or unscripted off-the-cuff represent the relationship, accomplishments and basis for Pathways’ structure and culture.

“It is the foundational piece for our program. The mentorship. We build everything around the mentorship,” Pathways principal William Reeder said.

Reeder has nearly 15 years invested at Pathways, two years as principal and another dozen as a teacher.

“I’ve lived that life (as a mentor), and it’s the most rewarding thing,” Reeder said. “To see the kids start in one place and end in another place, and as the administrator being able to keep that culture alive is super rewarding. You go to a graduation for Pathways and you can see how rewarding it is for the teachers.”

The reward is not the staff members’ own personal gain. It’s the growth and success of the student, he said. That journey starts as soon as the student and family make Pathways their choice for education. As soon as the student is registered, the process starts with an interview.

“Every single student comes and meets with us before they ever come to school. We find out what they're like, what their challenges are, what their strengths are. But then also what type of adults make them feel safe, trusted and loved,” Reeder said.

Pairing the right mentor with each student is a process the Pathways staff takes seriously.

“I ask them to describe your favorite teacher in all your years of school,” Reeder said. “I try to find somebody to match them that is similar in personality, someone they can build a connection with.”

Reeder said they look at a variety of factors. Is the student more comfortable with a male or female advisor? Someone a bit boisterous or a little more laid back?

Once a match is made, that mentorship begins as the student enters their journey at Valley Pathways.

“We make sure from Day 1, the first person they meet in the school is their mentor and becomes the go-to person here at the school,” Reeder said.

And that mentor does not change.

“That person is their mentor as long as they’re at Valley Pathways,” Reeder said. “They’re classes will change, but they’ll always have a mentor that stays the same.”

Reeder said each student meets with their mentor for at least 40 minutes each school day. The school’s master schedule is built around the time shared by mentors and students.

“The structure of our school is built around that relationship,” Reeder said.

Pathways is also a credit recovery school.

“Probably the number one reason why kids come to our school is because they've fallen behind on credits and they're needing some type of credit recovery or credit acceleration,” Reeder said.

That’s a valuable resource for those who are behind, but Reeder said it’s not the only reason students and families choose Pathways.

“But we also have kids who have come here who are just trying to start over, they need a second chance because they've had behavioral issues in other schools, they kept getting into trouble at other schools, and a lot of times that's just because they're a little fish in a huge pond, so we bring them into a smaller pond to give them that more individual supervision and connection,” Reeder said. “Then we have some kids that are high anxiety kids that don't perform well in a class of 45 kids. I can get that classroom size down to around 20.”

Pathways students work on credit recovery through the Academy of Blended Learning Education (ABLE) program. It is the same program that is also offered by Burchell High School in Wasilla. It’s an opportunity for students to earn credits at an accelerated rate to stay on track for graduation.

In this program, if a student can demonstrate a skill in an essential standard, the student does not have to complete additional lessons designed to teach that skill. If the student meets that standard, the student moves on to the next essential skill. Coursework in this program is stripped down to allow the student to focus on essential knowledge and skills. The lessons were curated by Pathways and Burchell staff.

“As a result, if the kid comes in and they work hard, they come in every day and stay focused, they can achieve credits at about twice the rate as a student would be able to achieve otherwise,” Reeder said.

Reeder said this helps make it possible for a student to complete a four-year program in three years of time.

Valley Pathways’ regular classroom schedule is also quarter-based, not semester based like the traditional brick and mortar schools.

“Kids are able to achieve 8.5 credits a year, which means it's already an accelerated model to where if they came in as a sophomore with no credits, they could take regular classes and if they passed all their classes they would be able to graduate on time,” Reeder said.

For more on Valley Pathways, see vps.matsuk12.us.

Jeremiah Bartz is the Community Relations Coordinator for the Mat-Su School District.