Process checks were so frequent, the teams became masterfully collaborative. Discuss, confirm (data), design, implement, observe, and repeat became the Lindsay High School routine. At times the team did the twist, but often it was poetry in motion.
At the conclusion of the 2007–2008 school year, LHS had far surpassed its previous academic gains. Adequate yearly progress (AYP) target scores quadrupled. More important, stakeholders were excited. With support from the superintendent’s office, LHS shared its momentum with other district schools that then replicated (in unique ways) its successes. In 2017, LUSD is known as an exemplar in personalized and competency-based learning. And LHS ranks in the top 1 percent of schools on the California Healthy Kids Survey, which focuses on school climate and learner success.
When the Maine school consolidation law passed, many communities expressed Dorothy’s sentiments—“We’re not in Kansas anymore.” In 2007, the Maine legislature passed LD 2323, An Act to Remove Barriers to the Reorganization of School Administrative Units (Maine Department of Education, 2008). The law was established to ensure learning opportunities, rigorous academic programs, uniformity in delivering programs, a greater uniformity in tax rates, more efficient and effective use of limited resources, preservation of school choice and maximum opportunity to deliver services in an efficient manner.
With this passage, the State of Maine saved $66 million annually, but it also forced highly independent school districts into a loss of local control to consolidation and thus their culture and community identity. This loss of local tradition and processes was a concern.
A tornado of anxiety tore through the state.
Regional School Unit 2, which serves the towns of Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell, Monmouth, and Richmond, saw this law as an opportunity to think differently about how they could collectively support the unique needs of the 2,400 students living within this new, extended family within five towns. The region held countless meetings in schools, homes, churches, town halls, farms, theaters, and any other location where people congregated within each community. Everyone—from students to the senior town spokesperson—was invited to discuss how all RSU2 community members could support each student in meeting learners’ desired personal and professional goals.
RSU2 educators discussed the following four questions with the community.
1. What is our ultimate commitment to each student?
2. What are we preparing our students for?
3. How may each community member be a part of the solution?
4. How will the support of our community accelerate the growth of our students and our five towns?
Throughout 2009, the RSU2 towns evolved from five independent communities into one community of learners focused on putting students at the center of all learning decisions. The RSU2 learning community wanted to establish an ecosystem that embraced learner voice and choice through varied year-round learning opportunities occurring both inside and outside the schools.
The RSU2 learning community would work collaboratively to support highly personalized, competency-based learning opportunities via community projects that needed new solutions; internships with community and state partners; experiential learning engagements nurtured by educators and community members alike; and the students themselves. RSU2 parents and business leaders wanted their high school graduates to analyze and think critically, write and speak effectively, and collaboratively solve complex problems today and in the future. Equally important, the learning community requested students also be given the opportunity to learn at different paces based on their individual learning needs.
RSU2’s engagement of the entire community allows for the exponential growth of learning supports available to students, educators, and families. Though the consolidation law forced RSU2 communities to collaborate, it also allowed them to think differently about their schools, students, and commitment to regional prosperity.
LUSD and RSU2 are two unique stories separated by thousands of miles, but unified by one common vision: “A Community of Student Centered Learning.” To establish a highly personalized learning ecosystem, schools cannot continue to solely depend on the miraculous measures of our educators. (V. Hammonds, personal communication, October 2016)
Values: How Must We Behave to Achieve Our Vision?
As education visionary Thomas J. Sergiovanni (2007) writes:
When people are gathered together to share ideas and to commit to these ideas, their relationships change. They make promises to each other—implicitly perhaps, but promises nonetheless. And thus they are likely to feel morally obliged to keep their promises. (p. 3)
The values pillar is crucial. As Richard DuFour (2015) writes in In Praise of American Educators, the shift in thinking changes from the future of the vision to today. Shifting to competencies is a result of educators identifying the need for change today to prepare students for tomorrow.
As districts and schools move forward in their learning together, they must adhere to three specific collective commitments that will guide them. These commitments align precisely with the three big ideas that drive the work of a PLC (DuFour et al., 2016).
1. We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of our school and therefore are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.
2. We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose.
3. We will assess our effectiveness on the basis of results.
Schools must then delineate what each of these ideas will look like. This is a very important part of the process because these commitments state the conditions for what everyone will expect of each other. A safe, orderly, and respectful environment for all learners within a school, for example, is inclusive of both students and adults. The moral authority and collegial pressure of such an expectation is far more effective than any edict from an administrator deeming certain behaviors inappropriate.
Schools and teams need to revisit these three collective commitments and, using multiple data points, determine their growth within each area. They can then refine their practices based on this data.
Goals: How Will We Mark Our Progress?
The fourth pillar involves developing shared goals (DuFour et al., 2016). The process of developing school, team, and individual goals is an indicator of progress toward attaining a shared purpose. This process allows educators to confront their current reality together, and then make informed decisions about how they can move forward both as a system and as individuals to effect positive change.
SMART (strategic and specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented, and time bound) goals are a very productive way to track progress on a short-term or longterm basis (Conzemius & O’Neill, 2014). Schools that develop building-level goals based on their current reality provide common goals for teams to build their own goals based on their own data. Teams should formally assess their SMART goals at least midyear and again at the end of the year, although ongoing data collection and analysis are imperative throughout the year. During the midyear check, teams can report on which goals they are on track to meet or not meet, and how they are going to address any areas of deficiency. This provides teams with a road map to make any needed changes. During the end-of-year reporting, teachers should identify what helped them achieve each goal and what instruction may have been missing that didn’t allow students to effectively progress. This helps teachers become cognizant of each student’s individual needs so they can adjust instruction appropriately to provide the support and intervention necessary for continued growth.
Teams that develop SMART goals have a clear understanding of why the goals are important, how they relate to daily instruction, and how they support and, in many ways, define the work of their PLC. Teams can report progress on these goals to parents, the community, and a district’s school board throughout the year.
SMART