CTE Pathway's 2023 Hoffman Award

Palo Alto, CA - The outreach provided by Palo Alto High School's Human Development Career Technical Education Pathway students is receiving a 2023 Glenn Hoffman Exemplary Award. The Santa Clara County Office of Education acknowledges this Palo Alto Unified School District program as one of five outstanding county-wide educational programs influencing student success. Human Development Instructor Hilary McDaniel is scheduled to accept this honor at the Metropolitan Education District in San Jose on May 10. "My teaching is a partnership," McDaniel shares. "It is a mutual development. I learn from my students, and they learn from me."

The application and judging process allowed PAUSD to explain its dedicated Human Development curriculum. This program amplifies student excellence while serving and celebrating other students, a part of the Priority Areas shared across the district. Under the leadership of McDaniel, nearly 75 secondary students impact the lives of young children, including preschool and transitional kindergarten through first grade. The high school students spend time engaging the younger students two times each week. Both fine and gross-motor skills are impacted through reading workshops, writing support, story plays, and two-wheel biking.

Literacy, math, science, and art are woven into the integrated studies involving the younger students who actively participate on the campuses of: Duveneck Elementary, El Carmelo Elementary, Greendell Preschool, and Palo Verde Elementary. Hoover Elementary students will join this list in the 2023 - 2024 year.

Seventy of McDaniel's students are dually enrolled in Foothill Community College's Child Development Department. McDaniel believes finding teachers and being sure they have an education really matters. Her students are receiving college credit while completing high school graduation requirements. McDaniel, a nineteen-year PAUSD veteran, credits Sharon Keplinger, a Greendell Preschool retired principal, for the inception of this PAUSD program.