Three Lessons for Creating a Culture of Learning from BFA Fairfax

Following my first post about Bellows Free Academy (BFA) in Fairfax, Vermont, my second post highlights how clear proficiencies and collaborative structures enable a culture of learning and responsiveness to student needs and interests. BFA Fairfax redesigned their curriculum to give more choices to students, created a system to identify students who need personalized support and transitioned to proficiency-based transcripts (without unintended negative consequences for college access). 

Clear Learning Goals Enable Responsive Redesign 

BFA Fairfax’s class of 2020 experienced their high school years fully in the proficiency-based graduation system. In 2021-22,  principal Liz Noonan, who was a social studies teacher at BFA before becoming principal, shares that the staff started talking about where they wanted to go next (after her first year as principal in 2020, which was focused on navigating COVID). They surfaced that even though they had moved to proficiencies, the model for classes had remained largely the same. At the same time, instructional coach Jensen Welch’s dissertation work, which centered student voice and choice in improving their personalized learning plan (PLP) system, prompted the school to increase student choice within the curriculum, too. Their reflection led to a new model for courses and a shift to a trimester system. 

Having a proficiency-based system created flexibility for the faculty at BFA Fairfax to rethink their curriculum to make courses more relevant and offer more choices to students. Noonan explained, “We want kids to be interested in what they’re learning. And through the proficiency model, we can still score them accurately. For example, in science they’re using next gen science standards-aligned proficiencies, which fit in all of the classes. We can see and track student progress on how well they can plan and execute an experiment. And you can see their growth over the four years that they’re here with us.”

Once BFA had a goal for redesigning their model, they started the process by asking students what they wanted to learn in a survey for students in 6th-11th grades. With feedback from students, teachers brainstormed new ideas for courses. Noonan spoke to the importance of including space for the interests and agency of both students and teachers, noting, “The departments each sort of had free range.  They got to look at the student data, and they got to look at their strengths and interests, because I think my teachers should also be really happy in what they’re teaching.”

For the 2022-2023 school year, BFA created the time and space to do the necessary work to make their idea a reality starting the following school year. They designated representatives from each department to be curriculum coordinators. Educators took on additional students to reduce the teaching load of the coordinators and allow them to use one block of time to write curriculum each day. Then, in their morning team meetings they would share and discuss if the work met the goal for the skill we want students to develop in this part of this course. 

After a year of writing, Noonan shares how “the next year, we went for it.” After holding their proficiency course night remotely throughout COVID, they held it in person since they were making such big changes. Noonan describes the night:

“We got amazing feedback from parents and families. We said, this is our why: we want more choices for your kids. We set it up and introduced the new classes. One of our new requirements was financial literacy for all students before they graduate and parents actually cheered in the meeting. It was funny, because we could have done that in the old system. But we hadn’t asked, or thought about really, what does a graduate need when they graduate? What is the goal?”

I visited during the trial run year, which was focused on implementing what was created without adding any new design work or major new learning initiatives for teachers. Courses that I saw or heard about during my visit included offerings such as: Forensic Sciences, Writing for Career, Sports literature, Cybersecurity, and Financial Literacy (and there is a full list in the Program of Studies). 

Teacher Collaboration Created the System and Continues to Drive the Work

The curriculum design work above is only one example of how teacher collaboration drives the work at BFA Fairfax. Leadership continues to find ways to create time for teacher collaboration. One of the current structures in place dates to a pre-pandemic agreement with the school board, whose members were interested in increasing the amount of time teachers were working. Welch, a teacher at the time, recalls that leadership and teachers responded that “we’re not going to make the teachers work with kids longer, but they need more time to collaborate and work on all these initiatives that are coming.” A solution for morning collaboration time emerged.

Currently called CTT or Collaborative Team Time – each morning teachers have 30 minutes to meet. The schedule has changed over the years, but when I visited, both Noonan and Welch agreed that the structure provided an essential feedback loop for the curriculum redesign and functions as an anchor for their MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support) work, which focuses on providing timely support to students. Each day has a focus to maximize the effectiveness of the time. 

• On Mondays and Thursdays, academic departments meet. 
• On Tuesday, grade level teams of advisors review student data for their advisee students. They continue on Wednesday, though sometimes this is for grade-level activity and event planning. 
• Other meetings, such as student IEP meetings, fall on Fridays. 

The school uses their tech platforms (EduClimber and PowerSchool) to create a list of any student with a proficiency level in an academic or transferable skills falling below 2.6. Noonan shares: “we’re able to track kids much more efficiently than we ever were, it’s been kind of game changing. This is the first year we’ve really, truly implemented that system. And we were able to catch kids a lot earlier than we normally do and where they’re struggling and get them help and support.” Welch’s reflections echo the sentiment: “it’s pretty cool to watch on a Tuesday morning [and] just to see everybody’s talking about kids and how to support kids.”

As of the 2023-24 school year, regardless of which teams meet, the teachers all meet in a multi-purpose flex room rather than scattered throughout the building. The relatively small shift of where to meet enhances the effectiveness at CTT because Noonan, Welch, and others, like advisors, can easily check in with a teacher on a student.  

Ensuring Post-Secondary Options

Concerns about access to college and scholarships can inhibit some systems from fully transitioning to proficiency-based reporting. Since BFA Fairfax had navigated this successfully, I wanted to hear from the guidance perspective about what had enabled their transition. Katherine McElroy, the current Director of Guidance and Counseling, started with a reflection that: 

“I think for everyone, the anticipation might have been a little harder than the reality. I think [the worries were] big until we could live it for a little bit. Families needed to feel like they understood that their child was going to get into college and not be at a disadvantage. They really needed to hear that from us, but they also needed to hear it from colleges.”

She described the importance of communicating the why behind the work and how they asked themselves, “How do we capture and communicate what we’re doing to students and families and then to colleges?”

For colleges, McElroy says that in her experience overall, “that colleges are fine with what you give them, as long as you help them understand how to interpret it and how to compare students to what’s average at your school.” She also works on the backend to translate their system into traditional formats like a GPA (grade-point average) as needed. An example college attendance list illustrates that graduates matriculate at a range of higher education institutions.   

For parents, the communication starts with the reasons why to make the change. Early messages included that learning was not just the outcome, but also the process. Now, messages include the goals of “giving choice and meeting people where they’re at, progressing at different paces, and learning not being so confined to time and space.” These messages get reinforced with practices that help students navigate their options and see the multiple pathways available to them. For example, in addition to the traditional college exploration, they also host a career fair with local business owners who talk about the skills and qualities people need to succeed.

Final Themes: Leadership and Trying It Out

Leadership and a learning mindset are key pieces of BFA Fairfax’s transformation. Leaders at the building and district levels provided both support and the space to learn. McElroy reflected, “we’re lucky at the time that we were doing this, we had a principal that was very up for trying stuff and like not tied to things being the way they always were.” Welch notes a similar dynamic, saying, “I remember feeling like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna work hard to make this work, but if it doesn’t work…our superintendent and our principal were going to back us up; they were going to talk to the community and the school board and they were going to provide that leadership [that] this is the right direction.’” Over time, they have also increasingly involved students in decision-making and participating, which is both evidence of the transition and an important way to approach the change process. 

From the design of proficiencies to curriculum, from learning management systems to collaboration schedules, there isn’t necessarily one best way. Learning from others through documenting stories and continuing to create new resources to make it easier for more people to make this transition help. And, as McElroy summed up, “I think you just have to do it, and muddle through, and there’ll be mistakes and things you change.” 

Learn More

• When Students and Adults Work Together Toward Change
• Celebrating 10 Years of Flexible Pathways Legislation in Vermont
• Designing for Big Picture Learning at New Village Academy

Laurie Gagnon is the CompetencyWorks Program Director at the Aurora Institute. She leads the work of sharing promising practices shaping the future of K-12 personalized, competency-based education (CBE). She had the opportunity to spend the morning at Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax the day after the Act 77 Celebration event in December of 2023 and looks forward to sharing more stories from Vermont.