In what can be at times a divisive national, state, and local political climate regarding education I hope that this message provides a greater perspective on cause and effect, freedom and accountability, and the importance of continuous observation and learning within the context of our work.
Did you know the work you’re doing in NCS is positively impacting students across the state?
In part, as a result of our NCS high schools pushing against the status quo and connecting every graduate with people and places of work during the school day, the Kentucky Board of Education has adapted the postsecondary readiness indicator. Thus, 2023 will be the first year that students across Kentucky that successfully participate and meet the requirements of work based learning will also be transitional ready. This is an important example of NCS not waiting for change, but leading positive change for students!Community Based Accountability & Measurements of Learning
This past week I drafted and shared an article entitled “Beyond the Mousetrap of State Testing.” If you are passionate about the future of student learning and assessment I encourage you to read the article and explore the links related to Community Based Accountability (CBA).In short, the goal in describing the mousetrap is not to denigrate testing, but rather to point out the unhealthy conditions that can come from blind compliance and the need for a stronger local process of accountability.
In an effort to clarify further I share the following:
State Testing is Broken and Useful: Both can be true: state testing can be both broken by design and useful at the same time.The truth is we need both freedom and accountability for our systems to learn and grow. Standards and constraints provide important alignment and accountability to focus learning, and at the same time can limit possibilities and tend toward mediocrity. As educational leaders, we must ensure strong awareness of this contradiction, while maintaining the courage to go beyond it.
Beyond the Rigor of the Test: Our goals should be to master the rules in order to go beyond them. As an English teacher I wanted to understand the state tests to ensure my students were going beyond the rigor and level of thinking demanded. Certain power standards cross all content areas of life, others can be too narrow and have limited value. To this end, we must deeply understand and clarify the goals of “power standards” in order to intelligently build assessments and learning that goes beyond.
Embracing Yes AND Measurement: While artificial intelligence and technology are changing the workplace and the way people learn and communicate, the foundational skills of the 20th century will always be important to ensuring a student is highly agile and prepared to use technology and navigate life effectively.The future demands that schools ensure a strong academic foundation AND provide authentic learning experiences for students to purposefully apply those skills within. Community based accountability must ensure the foundational skills are in place and we provide more personalized pathways to success.
The Future of Education will be Uniquely Local: Community based accountability is long overdue. Students and families gain little from a ranking and sorting system that doesn’t matter for their child. Public schools across the country will continue to adapt towards more personalized pathways to success that ensure every student can live, work, and grow with purpose. Our families, students, and communities deserve more. The education profession demands more.
Learning from upcoming Kentucky State Assessments
Ultimately, our initial transition away from direct "state testing" alignment was a byproduct of a larger shift in conversation towards "Deep Learning" design and enduring skills like communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and contribution in the 2019-2020 school year. This shift was in its infancy by March of 2020 and we are just again beginning to build a crosswalk between state power standards and enduring skills. At this time, we have much to celebrate, and a number of important opportunities to focus our collaboration towards in the year ahead.
Celebrating Growth
1. Design Labs: The work your teams have been doing in Design Labs has been sincere and continues to build collective strength. Common learning design strategy and common language are essential to rigorous learning design. This year has been a big step towards uniting for success.
2. Cross-Curricular Collaboration: Life beyond school isn't compartmentalized into subject areas. Teachers across Nelson County have been breaking down walls and have been more collaborative in learning design than ever before.
3. Teacher Empowerment: Teachers have continued to embrace new learning design opportunities. Over 100 teachers were a part of the Next Gen Learning Design Introduction in 2022 and over 85 teachers have already signed up to join the two-week leadership pathway process in the summer of 2023! This summer will be huge!
Opportunities to Focus our Learning
1. Daily, Weekly, & Quarterly Assessment & Data Alignment: Continuous learning from student assessment is foundational to the teaching process. We must strengthen design labs with strong weekly and quarterly assessment information to share and act upon.
2. Study the Rigor of State Tests: Kentucky State Assessments provide another important opportunity to continue to study the standards and the rigor of the tests to better evaluate where we are going above and beyond the demands of the tests and where we may fall short.
3. Aligning Power Standards with 4Cs Crosswalk: Teacher leaders across the district have been engaged with curriculum and standards mapping in the last few months. In order to continue to unite people together we have to continue to identify the power standards that unite teams and evaluate and determine alignment to the 4Cs of Deeper Learning.
Here’s to a great week ahead. Thank you for your leadership!
