{"id":11297,"date":"2020-01-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/the-evolution-of-competency-based-transformation-in-northern-cass\/"},"modified":"2020-03-10T08:15:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T12:15:59","slug":"the-evolution-of-competency-based-transformation-in-northern-cass","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/the-evolution-of-competency-based-transformation-in-northern-cass\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of Competency-Based Transformation in Northern Cass"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Three
Northern Cass Student Ambassadors (Visitor Guides)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was either we continue to produce unprepared kids, or we change. And we made the decision as a district that we are done with that and we are going to make the change.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Kelly Trudeau, Northern Cass Educator<\/p>\n

This is the first post in a series about the <\/em>Northern Cass School District<\/em><\/a>. Links to the other posts are at the end of this article.<\/em><\/p>\n

Northern Cass, a rural school district in North Dakota, is making an energetic transition to competency-based education. About half an hour north of Fargo, they are early innovators in what has become a larger movement for change within the state. The district is a single, newly-constructed K-12 school building that emerges after several miles of driving through farm fields. It serves 650 students from a sending area of 925 square miles, about three-quarters the size of Rhode Island.<\/p>\n

Shared Purpose for Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their transformation began with a sense of shared purpose, well-stated by educator Kelly Trudeau in the opening quotation above about the need for change. (Northern Cass uses the term \u201ceducator\u201d rather than teacher. Also \u201clearner\u201d rather than student.) She added that the Northern Cass School District has always been on the cutting edge, pushing educators to find innovations and best practices. \u201cWith this personalized learning journey, we\u2019re really starting to figure out that what has been happening in education just isn\u2019t working for our kids. It\u2019s not preparing them for what life is like when they leave us.\u201d<\/p>\n

They knew it wasn\u2019t working because they had students who were strong in school but then struggled in college and jobs. \u201cThey\u2019ve struggled to advocate for themselves,\u201d Trudeau added. \u201cThey\u2019ve struggled to keep up with the rigor. Our move toward personalized learning is to allow them to learn some of those things that they\u2019ll need to do in college\u2014when they don\u2019t have a teacher right next to them all of the time walking them through things and reminding them \u2018This is due tomorrow\u2019 and \u2018Your test is on Wednesday\u2019 and \u2018Make sure you\u2019re studying.\u2019 In the personalized setting, it\u2019s more on them to take control of that and take ownership of their learning. Then hopefully they\u2019ll leave high school being able to do that in college or being able to be a great employee for whoever they go to work for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Educator Christian Thompson added, \u201cIt\u2019s really just learning how to learn. Our students were good at understanding concepts if they knew exactly what they needed to know, if they were told when and how to learn it. But when they were thrown into situations where they had to adapt and figure out how to learn on their own, that\u2019s what they really struggled with. And that\u2019s when I realized that something need to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steps Toward Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

These realizations led the school community to discuss how they could really change. They turned toward discussing resources such as the book Beyond Reform: Systemic Shifts Toward Personalized Learning<\/em> from the Lindsay Unified School District. They also visited school districts who were years into their competency-based transformation, such as Lindsay USD in California and RSU2 in Maine.<\/p>\n

Once they decided to change, they continued working with outside experts and building their own expertise. They are part of a \u201cProficiency Competency-Based Learning\u201d (PCBL) cohort of five districts in the state moving toward personalized learning. The PCBL cohort members are working with KnowledgeWorks and the Center for Collaborative Education. Their work is funded in part by the Bush Foundation, which is supporting competency-based transformation in the region.<\/p>\n

\"Master's
Teacher Leader Academy Graduates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another important initiative has been their Teacher Leadership Academy. Northern Cass partnered with North Dakota State University to develop a program in which 20 educators earned a master\u2019s degree while also advancing the district\u2019s personalized learning work. Their courses and master\u2019s theses included work such as rewriting the school\u2019s policies, strategic plan, and family engagement plan, as well as developing new pedagogical strategies and leading professional development activities to share the new knowledge with their colleagues. Much of the course work and research took place at the school, eliminating the long commute to the college campus.<\/p>\n

A Phased Transition <\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite wanting to put their new beliefs and insights into practice rapidly, Northern Cass staff recognized that deep change would require much more than a few days of summer professional development, and more than one or two school years for full implementation. Their frank acknowledgment that they are a change-in-progress has helped them manage their transformation at a sustainable pace and offers a model for other transitioning schools and districts.<\/p>\n

In support of ambitious but manageable change, Superintendent Cory Steiner emphasized the importance of having a growth mindset for adults, not just students. \u201cMovement forward has been so fast and good,\u201d he said. \u201cWe take deep breaths and celebrate where we are but also keep on improving. It\u2019s the most fulfilling educational work the teachers have ever done, but also the most difficult. At first some people wanted to jump ship, but now they\u2019re on board, and we\u2019ve seen a big jump in the use of competency-based approaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple educators talked about the need to be \u201cOK with messiness\u201d and moving ahead at different speeds, and they appreciate the support for this from colleagues and school leaders. One educator said, \u201cI\u2019m still walking through those murky waters of what personalized learning is going to look like in my classroom. Some of my colleagues have really dived in and their classrooms are completely personalized, which is fantastic. I will be honest that mine is not. I\u2019m 100% in agreement with personalized learning, I\u2019m 100% for it, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I\u2019m still figuring out the exact path to get there. So that\u2019s been kind of hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she has gotten started. Even though she introduces new material the way she always has, now students can submit homework and progress at their own pace until the end of the unit. Instead of quizzing every Tuesday even though many learners say they\u2019re not ready, now they can take the quiz whenever they feel ready. \u201cIt\u2019s been an adjustment,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s scary. You\u2019re putting a lot of trust in the students. But I think they like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the need to embrace messiness and uncertainty is essential. Many teachers have very high standards and have invested years of effort in honing their approach. They\u2019re on board with deep changes but have to sacrifice some of that investment to learn something knew. Some teachers are comfortable being transparent with students, parents, and colleagues that the transformation is a work in progress, but others feel a great need to project mastery at all times to maintain their sense of professionalism.<\/p>\n

Regardless of where educators fall on this spectrum, the support of colleagues and school leaders is essential. One educator said, \u201cI try to emulate the people around me and bring some of it into my classroom. But it\u2019s scary, because what if you try it and it blows up in your face and you\u2019ve wasted three weeks? If the people around me weren\u2019t so motivated, it would be easy for me to sit in my gray area and be scared about it. But when they\u2019re willing to dive in, then it\u2019s like \u2018OK, if they can be brave, I can be brave too.\u2019 Then I start bouncing ideas off colleagues and getting feedback about ways to get things to work better. That\u2019s helping me move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another educator said, \u201cI\u2019m moving at a slower pace than some of our \u2018runners\u2019 \u2013 but that means whenever I have a question or I\u2019m struggling with something there\u2019s always someone I can go. That\u2019s a culture we\u2019ve created. I\u2019m not scared to ask a question. I won\u2019t feel stupid. I won\u2019t feel like I\u2019m a bad teacher because I don\u2019t have all my materials fully uploaded onto [our learning management system] yet. No one ever makes you feel like that, even our adminstration. They\u2019ve been really good at just supporting and helping and understanding that the gray areas are scary and the unknown is scary, and as long as we\u2019re moving forward we\u2019re doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are actual implementation deadlines though. All educators were required to have standards-based grading in place for the current school year, for example. Their proficiency scales\u2014defining what constituted a 1, 2, 3, or 4 on each priority standard for their courses\u2014were due last May. Several educators mentioned that much of this work, such as developing units, integrating them with the learning management system, and developing proficiency scales, required a lot of up-front time which would not need to be repeated in future years. Other blog posts in this series will talk more about implementing some of these and other Northern Cass competency-based strategies.<\/p>\n

Other Posts In This Series<\/strong><\/p>\n