Life Discovery curriculum a win for local schools

A year after launching Life Discovery, most area school districts that signed on are calling it a good deal.

The curriculum was developed by Cleveland-area entrepreneur Fred Ode’s Education Revolution Association. As a former public school math and business teacher, Ode told The Portager he became “disillusioned” with the whole educational system.

Life Discovery focuses on emotional intelligence and self-discovery while exposing students to a wide variety of guests and life skills. Similar assessments and curricula have been available for decades, but Ode said ERA’s ultimately multi-year program will turn out teenagers who will have a better idea as to what they want to do with their lives.

He approached Summit County Educational Service Center Superintendent Joseph Iacano, who agreed to give the program a try as a year-long elective. It didn’t hurt that ERA offered to fully fund all program materials and to cover the teachers’ salaries for however many sections of Life Discovery they might teach.

When Iacano and ERA reps pitched the program last year to officials in Portage and Summit County, superintendents at James A. Garfield, Rootstown, Southeast and Waterloo high school schools in Portage County and at Manchester and Woodridge high schools in Summit County signed on.

The verdicts?

Rootstown

Rootstown High School offered Life Discovery to juniors and seniors last year and plans to offer the same curriculum for the 2026-27 school year. The district’s relationship with ERA is a win-win that provides students with an elective the district and its taxpayers don’t have to fund, district Superintendent Andrew Hawkins said.

Students who signed for the Life Discovery elective focused on interviewing skills and met with people from all walks of life, he said. Meeting business owners and people who had followed nontraditional paths or who had taken advantage of chance opportunities taught them that there are multiple ways to achieve success, however success may be measured.

“I think they enjoyed the class, the way it was presented and the fact that they were learning something a little different and actually went true to the name. Life skills was what they were taught and they had a lot of community involved, speakers coming in and a lot of input, so I think they enjoyed that piece of it,” Hawkins said.

To fine-tune the curriculum, Rootstown's Life Discovery teachers collaborated with representatives from other area schools that were offering the program and with ERA staff throughout the previous school year. They’ll meet again before the coming academic year begins. Teacher and student feedback will drive any curriculum changes, he said.

James A. Garfield

James A. Garfield Local Schools Superintendent Ted Lysiak also characterized Life Discovery as a popular class that will return in August.

“Students consistently identified the hands-on learning opportunities and interactions with BCI staff as highlights of the experience. Several commented that they enjoyed learning how fingerprints and ballistic evidence are analyzed, gaining a better understanding of the forensic process and seeing how science is applied in real-world careers,” James A. Garfield High School Principal Kathleen Kisabeth said.

Though ERA conceived of Life Discovery as a year-long course, the district is opting to offer it this year as a semester elective. The shift will allow more students to sign up, Kisabeth said.

Woodridge

Woodridge High School students will continue to see Life Discovery as a full-year elective, district Superintendent N’ecole Ast said.

“The program gave students another opportunity to explore their strengths, interests, future pathways and how what they are learning in school connects to what they may want to do beyond high school,” she said.

It’s hard for kids to speak with adults, especially in formal settings, but Life Discovery gave them the tools and confidence to do it, Woodridge High School Principal Albert DiTommaso said.

DiTommaso himself sat for an interview with a Life Discovery student who was new to the district and recalled being impressed at how well-prepared the student was.

“The only parts, at least as far as I could tell, that seemed ad-libbed were the follow-up questions. And, to be fair, I’m certain they worked on that aspect of interviewing, too,” he said.

All in all, DiTommaso termed Life Discovery a positive experience for WHS students, some of whom told him “it was stuff we can use” or “we learned how to be more confident.”

Bowing out

Two Portage County school districts, though, won’t be renewing their contracts with ERA.

Waterloo

Waterloo High School Principal Tyler Vallinger said the district’s decision to add sixth graders to Waterloo JHS triggered a “reworking” of teacher schedules and assigned courses. The Life Discovery elective, though popular with juniors and seniors, just wouldn’t fit, he said.

Southeast

Also exiting stage left is Southeast Local Schools. District Superintendent Robert Dunn said the decision to sever the district’s relationship with ERA, at least for the time being, was twofold.

First, even though ERA funded the two teachers’ salaries for the sections they taught, that meant those teachers were unavailable to teach other courses. District budgetary constraints forced the district’s hand, so the teachers were reassigned to other classes, he said.

Also, Southeast already offers freshman and senior seminars that mirror at least some of the Life Discovery content. ERA, though, would not allow the district to embed its content into the seminars.

“We did talk to the coordinators, to see if they would consider that, and they just weren’t going to fund that,” Dunn said. “It had to be a standalone class, and we didn’t have room, particularly next year, for a standalone class.”

Southeast High School offered two sections of the year-long curriculum to juniors and seniors last year, attracting about 50 students.

Should district finances recover to the point that renewing Southeast’s relationship with ERA becomes possible, Dunn said he would consider offering Life Discovery again.

Summit County ESC

Despite losing two school districts, Iacano calls the Life Discovery curriculum and rollout a success.

“We have been incredibly pleased with the collaboration between Summit ESC, the team at ERA and our participating districts,” he said. “The fact that most of our original schools are returning, combined with the anticipated addition of new districts, really speaks to the success of this pilot year. We truly believe the Life Discovery program is beneficial for both students and schools, and Summit ESC is proud to help facilitate it.”

ERA

Acknowledging that a year-long elective did not work for some school districts, ERA has restructured the course to include a semester-long format, Executive Director Tim O’Shei said.

ERA plans to develop multiple versions of Life Discovery, tighten the curriculum to eliminate redundancies teachers and students identified, provide additional tools for teachers to access and add instructional strategies teachers may use.

The nonprofit expects 14 districts to sign on this year, 10 of them in Ohio, he said. In Summit County, Coventry High School will join Woodridge and Manchester in offering Life Discovery as a 2026-27 elective. Manchester Local Schools did not respond to The Portager’s request for comment.

ERA did not provide The Portager with a comprehensive list of districts by press time.