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1. Schools educate the whole student, including
Guiding Principles: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7The world is changing faster and faster and becoming more and more complex. This is not a new realization, but it is being addressed in some schools only some of the time. The challenge ahead is to ensure that not just some students, but virtually all students are prepared for the new world ahead.
Wellness. Today’s students will be living longer and healthier lives than any previous generation. This means that they will also be facing more complex lifestyle and health decisions than previous generations. Students need to have the skills and knowledge to make clear, informed decisions about a large and new array of choices and to be responsible for maintaining their own physical and mental health. Different life stages will demand very different skills and knowledge and habits. The knowledge base in the area of health is much larger than we have dealt with previously. Students will need to be critical utilizers of health information and services and to understand the necessity of actively practicing behaviors that promote their own wellness.
Life Skills. In a faster paced, more complex world, students will need to be constantly learning new skills to assume diverse roles, such as parent, voter, spouse or partner, community member, employer, and employee. Although today’s parents face many of the same issues that their parents did, they also face a large number of additional issues that were unknown to their parents. In the workplace, the reality will be change at all levels of employment. Some workers will retrain and gain new skills for very different jobs, many times over their lifetimes. Broad professional skills, such as teaching, law, and science, will always be in demand, but will change their definitions and applications over time.
Social Skills. Schools today hold many different kinds of youth from many different kinds of homes. As racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity increases and the gulf between rich and poor widens, students will be interacting with more and more people who are different than they are. Students need to be able to embrace diversity and appreciate the richness that it adds to our lives. They need to be able to respect differences without attempting to make everyone to fit into the same mold. Understanding the history, values, and social structures of others will be an important resource in the world to come. This learning will give students the guide books they need to successfully navigate their lives at home, at work and in their neighborhood, to be able to interact cooperatively with others, and to have empathy for those who see things differently. As students and workers join more often into cooperative work groups, interpersonal problem solving will become an important skill. Civility, interpersonal problem solving, and respect for others will also become critical in preventing individuals from resorting to violence in the face of interpersonal conflict. Community Involvement. As our population grows and our society becomes more complex, there is enormous pressure on all levels of government and social interaction to solve new and sometimes baffling problems. Problem solving in a democratic society will necessitate that individuals be willing and able to take active responsibility for decisions in their own lives, institutions, and neighborhoods. Students will need to learn how to take an active part in their society and to help effect needed changes. As the preservation of the environment becomes more and more critical, the skills and knowledge necessary to be stewards of the earth will assume prime importance. Students will need to have knowledge and understanding to make wise decisions in the voting booth, on committees, in the marketplace and in their own homes. Their education must produce the realization that these decisions will have effects on the rest of the world in the future as well as the present. 2. Students are prepared to be life-long learners who understand how to
Guiding Principles: 2,3Just as school is not the beginning of learning for children, neither should it be the end. The job of schooling is to help children become more skillful at and excited about learning. A child’s intrinsic motivation to learn must be fostered and nurtured by the school. It is imperative that students see the activities and work they engage in in school as part of rather than separate from real life. Learning is a continuous process rather than a discrete event. "School then work" is not a realistic option for the 21st Century. Life-long learning demands a continuous process of learning and application.
Given that our world is information rich, and the amount of new information created is increasing exponentially, schools must help students learn the skills needed to be effective and critical evaluators of information. At the same time, the school must support and enhance the student’s intrinsic desire to learn. Effectively and efficiently access information. Information is available today in multiple media, such as, oral accounts, text, graphics, audio, video, electronic, and primary source documents. In order for students to learn the context and conventions of the variety information media, they must have access to and support in their use. Schools need to be places in which and to which information can flow freely and fluently. Textbooks that are purchased every six years containing information that is incomplete or inaccurate by the time they are placed in the classroom can no longer be the primary providers of information. The internet, people, organizations, events, museums, universities, businesses, historical documents, libraries, and many other sources must become the usual and standard sources of information for students.
Process and integrate information. Once students have gathered information, they need to be able to do something with it. They need to integrate it with prior knowledge and make their own sense of it. Instruction needs to be organized in a way that teaches, emphasizes, and enhances a variety of ways to process and give meaning to information.
Evaluate information. As technology expands so do the sources of information. Each new source challenges the learner to evaluate its authenticity, accuracy, and reliability. The attributes of an authentic, accurate, and reliable source are consistent across all the varieties of sources. No matter what the source of information is, the qualities of a good source remain consistent. Students need to be directly taught these consistencies of evaluation and given many opportunities to apply them. Students need to be exposed to a variety of information sources in a variety of contexts for a variety of purposes to build a repertoire of evaluative skills. Create Information. We need to teach exploration techniques and investigative strategies. Schools must provide an opportunity for students to test theories and question concepts. 3. School climate promotes a sense of connectedness and belonging for all students.
As humans, the quality of our relationships and interactions with others is probably the most important component of a happy and fulfilled life. Additionally in order for students to learn, they must feel accepted, respected, validated, comfortable and safe. As noted earlier, the social milieu in which we live is increasingly complex and diverse. We recommend that schools make program and structure decisions that deliberately address and teach to a school culture of mutual respect and acceptance between students and their peers and between the adults in the school and the students.
Schools feel small. While large schools may facilitate fiscal economy and create a school with a more diverse student body, they can foster student anonymity. One of the main tasks of growing up is shaping a sense of self. Spending most of one's day in an institution in which no one knows you makes the job of figuring out who you are very difficult. As students grow older, they attend schools that increase in physical size and in the number of students. The culture and atmosphere of a small school can be established by creating smaller communities within a larger school. As schools move towards this approach, they need to keep in mind the importance of the need for each student to have at least one caring adult in their school day. The practice of keeping a limited number of students with the same teacher or team of teachers over time is very important. The school within a school, advisee groups, blended or multi-age classrooms, and looping* are some of the possible structures that facilitate a more nurturing grouping and climate. Social skills education is integrated into school programs. In order for students to feel safe and comfortable within the school, they need social skills to relate with each other and with the adults within the school. Just as students come to school with different aptitude and skill levels in reading and math, they come to school with a broad spectrum of social skills. Schools should have a clear commitment to social skills education. Effective programs that encourage community building among peers by teaching empathy and decision making skills, and teach the necessity and skills for avoiding bullying, discrimination, and harassment are available and should be used at all levels. Pro social student behavior is reinforced. Students come to school from diverse family structures, social and ethnic backgrounds, and parenting styles. In order for the school to function as a family-like community there must be clear behavior boundaries and expectations. These boundaries and expectations must be taught within the context of each environment within the school. It is important that consequences for negative behavior are balanced by recognition for positive behavior. This recognition must be seen as valuable and worthwhile to students.
Respect for diversity is woven throughout the school structure. Students come from many different backgrounds: family composition, socioeconomic status, ethnic and cultural identity, and gender all influence an individual's experience of the world and sense of self. Students need to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, materials, environment, activities, and culture of the school. In other words, students need to see people who literally look like them in the books they read, as leaders of student government, and as the teachers in front of their classrooms. Staff composition must reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of the student population and the community at-large, In addition, students must have the opportunity for further study of their own culture as well as that of others. Not only can high schools offer separate courses highlighting those from other cultures, but multiculturalism can be integrated throughout the curriculum in all grades. As a result, students will feel that they are a part of the school and that their culture and community are recognized and validated.
Benefits of such a commitment include: a diversity of positive role models for students; improved staff awareness and acceptance of and sensitivity to diversity; a more welcoming atmosphere at school for families from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds; and the ability for all students and staff to better relate and interact with the community and society outside the school boundaries. * Looping is the practice of a teacher or team of teachers staying with a specific group of students as they move to the next grade within a school. For example, a team of math, science, social studies, and language arts teachers for a seventh grade class will become eighth grade teachers when students in that class become eighth graders. This can mean that a group of students will have the same teachers for the same subjects two or more years in row. 4. Schools have a curriculum that provides students with essential career, academic and life skills for the new century including
Guiding Principles: 2, 3, 5As students enter the workplace in the 21st Century, the only thing we can guarantee them is change. Skills with limited application or flexibility will have very limited value. Knowledge bases are constantly expanding and shifting. Content we teach students today may be erroneous or incomplete tomorrow.
Computer and technological literacy. We are all aware that computers and technology will be pervasive in business and society of the 21st Century. Schools must offer instruction, programs, and access to insure that all our students are not only literate but also fluent in their use.
Critical process skills. The term "process skills" in this recommendation means the ability to process information, reach agreements and understandings, and cooperate with other humans. They include the ability to communicate effectively, solve problems, mediate, negotiate, collaborate, and evaluate. Even though society will be constantly changing in the 21st Century, the skills needed to interact constructively with other people will remain essential. An increasingly diverse society will necessitate effective collaboration and the ability to evaluate and adjust objectives and activities based on investigation and findings. Problem solving within a systems paradigm will become increasingly important. Language literacy. Given that the 21st Century will be increasingly diverse and global, student proficiency in more than one language is important. This could include literacy in non-English native languages when that benefits the individual. Proficiency is the ability to communicate effectively in realistic situations and includes the ability to speak, listen, read, and write a language. When begun at a young age, second language acquisition contributes to cognitive development and is critical to the complete development of a person’s literacy.
Understanding of the principles and processes of academic content disciplines. Insistence that students master all the presently known information in content areas before graduation from high school is not realistic. The fact that information is constantly increasing and changing will make it impossible in the future. Still, there must be purposeful instruction in the content areas. Students must learn major themes and concepts, but the focus must change from "covering" certain events, areas, and branches of study. The content of any discipline should become the vehicle by which a student learns to become fluent in the investigative practices of that content area. History classes should use historical events and eras to teach students the habits, practices, and processes used by expert historians. The skills an expert uses to question, investigate, and communicate are those that students need to carry beyond the classroom into real life.
Fluency in reading, writing, speaking and mathematics. All the above processes and skills are crucial. Without the basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics, however, the others are limited and/or inaccessible. Humans have to access information, process it, and communicate their understanding in order to effect change in their immediate or wider environment. Individuals’ possibilities will be limited if they are not fluent in reading, writing, speaking, and computing. Clear, organized, systematic instruction guided by valid research and best practices in these areas is imperative. Eugene’s teachers need to have the time to investigate and be trained in innovative teaching strategies and approaches that have demonstrated success with students for whom those skills are difficult. Time and resources need to be allocated to carefully monitor students’ progress in the early grades, to immediately intervene and then to create and implement a plan of instruction for any student who is faltering. 5. Across the school district, schools provide for all students equitable opportunities and access to a comprehensive curriculum, including
Guiding Principles: 1, 2, 3, 7
This recommendation is based on our agreement that every student in every school in the district should have access to a variety of what we consider vital instructional programs and services. Budget cuts have necessitated schools having to decide between small class size or no specialists. If the 21st Century is going to put heavier demands on our students as consumers of information, users of technology, and cooperative humans, we must staff our schools to support and instruct in those areas.
Essential instructional programs and services and a variety of learning experiences at all grades. The neighborhood a child lives in should not determine the access that that child has to programs and services. Counseling, library/media, physical education, art, music, technology, and second language should be equally available to all students. These programs need to be staffed by specialists at each elementary, middle, and high school. Staffing of them should not be in conflict with the adequate staffing of regular classroom instruction.
Learning opportunities based on individual needs. Too often a student’s special needs are not investigated or attended to until it becomes obvious that the child is not "being successful" in the classroom. Students who are talented and gifted, students who speak English as a second-language, students with learning difficulties, students from nonsupportive or unstable homes, students who are homeless, students with emotional problems, and all other students who don’t fit the mold of "average" or "usual" can find school to be an uncomfortable fit. All students need to develop a vision of themselves as capable and valued. Teachers and other adults in the schools need to function as advocates, advisors, mentors, and facilitators. In order to fulfill those roles a school’s staff needs accurate information about individual students and the support, time, and resources necessary to provide programs, structures, and opportunities to meet each individual student’s needs. 6. Students’ learning and instruction extends to the wider world outside the classroom in order to integrate and apply knowledge in a multi-dimensional and more complex context.Guiding Principles: 2, 4, 6Learning is enhanced and made more powerful by providing contexts or settings that facilitate it. The world outside the classroom has layers of complexities and dimensions that cannot be replicated within classroom or school. If we believe that "school then work" is not an option, we have to find a way of blending and mixing the two.
In early school years it makes sense to integrate the outside world into the safe, controlled environment of the classroom through field trips, artists in the school, guest speakers, and a wide variety of community volunteers. As students progress through middle and high school, the frequency and length of their individual experiences outside the school and their independence need to increase. The purpose of experiences outside the classroom should change as the student matures. Early experience should be exploratory, to become aware of what the larger world is like, what institutions exist, and how they work. Subsequently, exploration should be supplemented by mentorship both by and for the student and service learning activities. As students progress through high school, they should experience community and work based experiences that are related to their career interests. The goal is a seamless transition to life beyond the classroom. 7. Schools encourage the full potential of every student by
Guiding Principles: 1, 2, 3, 7The school’s task is to help students go as far as they can in learning and growing. This is different than what is usually meant by the term "to meet high expectations". "Expectations" usually come from outside the child or learner. "High expectations" are usually fixed and uniform for everyone. If they are not met, the result is failure. We think that each child has unique potential. The school’s task is to support and assist the child in the realization of that potential. Schools need to clearly demonstrate to each student his ability to become a competent, capable person able to achieve greatness in his own special way.
Recognizing every child’s strong points. It is important that no "false" limits impede a child’s academic or personal growth. Success must not be narrowly defined. A child’s aptitudes or talents must be mentored and nurtured by the school so that she develops to her full extent in all areas of school and learning. Talents in areas other than reading, writing, and figuring must be seen as strengths in and opportunities for development of all areas. The school should recognize, accept, and sustain a wider definition of strength or success.
Recognizing and fostering creativity of all kinds. A strength of the human brain is its ability to create new knowledge, tools, literature, song, and a hundred other kinds of things. Children are happy when their work or play results in something novel. Furthermore, making something one’s own insures involvement and understanding, both of which are necessary for learning. Simply following someone else’s directions or path is not enough. In order for students to "own" their learning, they must use it to create a unique expression of meaning to them. Students must be allowed and encouraged to create in a variety of modes and media of their own choosing or devising. Opportunities for the expression of students’ creativity need to extend beyond final, cumulative projects into daily instruction and learning. Recognizing and utilizing all learning styles in instruction. Teachers often become teachers because they were themselves successful in their own schooling. That can mean that they are more comfortable in verbal or mathematical modes of taking in information. Consequently, they are more comfortable in delivering instruction in those two styles. That is helpful to those students who are comfortable in those modes themselves. Many children, however, are more comfortable in other approaches such as visual, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, or musical. All modes of learning should be used. Instruction in multiple modes fosters understanding for students whose style may not be the same as the teacher’s. Also, delivering ideas, concepts, and skills in a variety of ways enhances all students’ depth of understanding. 8. Successful schools assess students in order to foster their achievement and success. Such an assessment system should:
Guiding Principles: 1, 2, 3, 7
This recommendation is based on the realization that assessment of students and their work needs to express progress. Any assessment should reflect where the student started, how far he or she has come, and in which direction the student is headed. It is difficult to understand how one letter or word or phrase or set of numbers can accurately describe a student’s progress, skills, performance, or understanding.
Use multiple ways to measure student progress. A student must have multiple opportunities, contexts, and media in which to document progress. The assessment should reflect the complexity and difficulty of what is being assessed. The ranking and sorting of students according to test scores should be avoided.
Keep the student in mind. A good assessment provides clear information that helps the student as well as the teacher see what the next step should be. Assessment and its results can no longer be mysterious to the student and parent. They should understand the criteria by which students are being assessed and that criteria should be relevant to that specific student. The results should be important to the student not because it is a value judgment based on some vague, irrelevant standard. It should be valuable because it tells the student how far he or she has come in several dimensions and what to work on next. A variety of media of assessment should be available so that a student can perform the way that is most comfortable.
Develop a sense of urgency for intervention. The purpose of an assessment is to give information about a student’s progress. When an assessment shows that progress has not been sufficient to assure a student’s success, intervention of some sort is necessary. Teachers must be enabled to take quick, early, and appropriate action when a student is in need of help. The school must provide the structure, support, and resources necessary for the teacher to take that action. 9. Schools use ongoing, multiple strategies to guide decisions concerning changes in curriculum, programs, resource allocation and school climate.
Guiding Principles: 2, 4Education is a dynamic process. Because it reflects the values and needs of the society of which it is a part, it must adapt as needs and priorities change. The industrial-based social model of the 1900’s profoundly influenced the type of education that the parents and grandparents of today’s students received. That model continues to shape to a great extent what is taught and the way it is delivered in today’s schools. As we begin to understand what will be required of citizens in a environment where technology has erased the boundaries of geography and time, and where information and service form the basis of commerce, schools will need to adapt. As the rate of change accelerates, so must the education system’s response if it is to prepare students adequately for the world in which they will live as adults. In effect, educators must model the very same critical process skills which students will be expected to master. A systems approach is taken to program evaluation. When change is proposed for one department or aspect of the school community, the impact upon other parts of the system must be considered. It is critical that all key players be consulted. A collaborative and flexible attitude ought to be encouraged on the part of staff. When students are struggling, the best schools explore systemic as well as individual sources and solutions of the problem. Educators avoid classifying a student as the"identified patient," which assumes that the unsuccessful student has a problem or defect. Program evaluation and adjustment must be regarded as an ongoing and proactive process.
School wide performance on Oregon State Assessments is one way to evaluate program effectiveness, but should not be regarded as the sole definitive measure. Schools must employ multiple ways to evaluate student performance and measure the effectiveness of curriculum and programs. Students participate in a meaningful way in curriculum decisions and program evaluation. Schools exist in order to meet the educational needs of students. It is essential that students be consulted when evaluating whether the curriculum and learning environment are functioning effectively for them. Some possible mechanisms include:
10.Schools are a vital part of the neighborhood communities in which they are located, and their internal organization creates a nurturing community for students.
Guiding Principles:1, 2, 4, 6
The viability of both schools and neighborhoods are considered vital. The neighborhood school is a focus of neighborhood identity and social interaction. Neighborhoods play a role in providing students with a sense of security, community and support. Decisions about school closure and consolidation must take these important roles into consideration. Schools optimize size advantages of both large and small learning communities. Strategies for creating smaller communities within large schools are actively explored and given priority for implementation. Yet while large schools can create a richly diverse and stimulating environment, researchers agree that the school climate of large schools is a concern in regard to issues of safety, dropping out, disruption and student alienation. Schools can be "small" either in overall enrollment or through structures that create smaller "communities for learning" within a larger whole, such as schools-within-a-school, houses, teams, pods, looping, etc. The goal is creation of a nurturing, supportive environment for learning (see Recommendation #3).
Access for all students to a full array of educational programs is a priority. It is unfortunate that in today’s climate, the smallest schools cannot offer equitable programming for their students within current fiscal restraints. Decisions about school size and configuration must also take into account the ability to provide adequate staffing for programs and services such as physical education, music, art, counseling and media. Alternatives to neighborhood school closure are explored. Although sometimes schools must be closed, it is often possible to offer creative solutions to the problem of under enrollment. Such solutions might include co-location of alternative programs with neighborhood schools that have grown too small to be viable. Such a solution means that both programs benefit from the program enhancements and cost economies that larger student enrollment permits. Another possibility is moving students from two schools which are geographically close into a new building which is located so as to be connected to both neighborhoods. 11. School schedules acknowledge different learning styles and foster continuous learning.Guiding Principles: 1, 2Alternative schedules for the school day and the school year may improve student learning or benefit student welfare. For example:
The task force did not have sufficient time to explore and discuss these specific issues in any detail, but wishes to recommend that the Board be willing to take leadership in "breaking out of the time box" as part of the process of visioning schools of the future.
12. Parents play an active and vital role in the school community.
Guiding Principles: 2, 4, 6
Many parents and other family members may not be accustomed to or initially comfortable with interacting with school. Some families have unique family or cultural backgrounds. Use of community resources is often necessary to facilitate effective outreach. Effective and proactive measures must be pursued to welcome into the school all families. Informed parents are valuable allies. They can help to promote the student’s success if they are educated in strategies to do so, and informed of problems in a timely manner. Given advice and support concerning the challenges of parenting, they can deliver emotionally healthier children to the school room door. It is in the school’s best interest, as well as the best interest of students, to provide opportunities for such parent education. Parents can also serve as advocates for education in the community. If they have participated in the governance of their school and are kept informed on relevant issues, they are likely to feel more ownership and support. 13. Schools provide ongoing staff development programs and individual teacher support.
Guiding Principles: 2, 4Everything that has been said previously in this document about the learning, assessment, and support of students is also true for teachers. Teaching is an extremely complex and important job. As the world for which students are being prepared changes, so must the teaching and preparation of the students change. Teachers constantly face new demands and tasks. In the past they have had very little time and support to learn the skills needed to meet these new demands and tasks. That is not acceptable. Individual buildings, regions, and the district as a whole have staff development plans and activities and sufficient budget and access to personnel to support them. At each level of the district; building, region, and district-wide, a staff development plan should be developed. These plans should have input from all stake holder groups: teachers, students, parents, administrators, community members, board members, and site councils.
New teachers receive systematic support in the first two to four years of teaching. In order for students to be best served, the enthusiasm and energy of new teachers can be coupled with the practical knowledge gained by veteran teachers and administrators. The relationship between novice and veteran supports and enhances the skills of each. Novices and veterans should be teamed and provided with time to develop a relationship of mutual support and sharing. Veterans gain new insights and renewed confidence in their own skills. Novices gain understanding of the structure, techniques, and strategies of instruction.
Practicing teachers have the opportunity to refine skills, learn and practice new skills, and investigate research in their fields. The demands of day-to-day classroom preparation and instruction leave little or no time for teachers to augment or improve their skills and understanding of the act of teaching. Educational research in the last twenty years has burgeoned and has a richness of strategies, best practices, and theoretical knowledge to offer teachers. Teachers need time and support to access research either individually or in a class, and then integrate it into their own teaching. Teachers who are not successful in the classroom receive an abundance of help, support, and training while being held accountable to a path of improvement. Good teaching is earmarked by adequate preparation, clear and competent instruction, and a healthy relationship with students. No one is well served in a classroom that is missing any of these components. Students are disheartened and discouraged. Parents are frustrated. The teacher, realizing how important teaching is, is demoralized. An unsuccessful classroom is too damaging to the learning, progress, and aspirations of students to be tolerated. Regrettably, there is no simple solution. Laws, labor contracts, and basic humanity keep the school district from summarily dismissing teachers who are seen to be unsuccessful. A program of instruction, support, and coaching of the teacher should be combined with clear timeline of necessary improvement. Decisive intervention must begin at the earliest sign of problems. The best hope for success is to never let a teacher’s missteps or weaknesses become acute. Teaching is difficult. Every teacher falters. Teaching is always a work in progress demanding effort and thought and inspiration. No one has all the answers, and the path to success is lined with constant reflection and conversations with and support of one’s peers and mentors. Teachers must become confident that they are not isolated in their difficulties. The need for and availability of help or support must become an accepted part of the profession. | |
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Eugene School District 4J