{"id":2549,"date":"2012-06-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/spaulding-high-creating-a-comprehensive-system-of-supports\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T16:36:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T21:36:52","slug":"spaulding-high-creating-a-comprehensive-system-of-supports","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/spaulding-high-creating-a-comprehensive-system-of-supports\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaulding High: Creating a Comprehensive System of Supports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paul
Paul Newell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CCSSO\u2019s Innovation Lab Network includes a Comprehensive System of Supports as one of the six attributes of a next generation education system. In the working definition of competency education, the fourth element refers to \u201ctimely and differentiated support.\u201d Spaulding High School provides a window into what this really means for schools and districts as they build a competency education system.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

As Spaulding High moved forward in implementing competency education, they knew\u00a0 that students would need time for extra help. In addition to teachers providing extra help, they created E-Block to provide after-school tutoring, and<\/em> expanded the \u201cPlato room\u201d to provide-credit recovery programming.<\/em><\/p>\n

What they didn\u2019t plan for is how many students\u00a0 didn\u2019t complete all the competencies needed to transition to tenth grade status. The number of students needing credit recovery or competency recovery exceeded what Spaulding had planned on. They had approximately 500 NYC (Not Yet Competent) students \u2014 approximately 10 percent of the courses in the first quarter. Therefore, resources are being reassigned in order to help those students complete their competencies and move on to the next level. \u00a0This is requiring the teachers to stay after school to work with students or volunteer for E-Block.<\/p>\n

Paul Newell, assistant principal and a thoughtful alternative education practitioner, discussed how students value different qualities of the education system. \u201cFor students at the top of the ranks, a perception of fairness and consistency in applying the rules is very important. For students at the other end of the spectrum, personalization and relevance are the more powerful drivers.\u201d So Spaulding is investigating how to ensure that the supplemental instruction can be most effective. Paul described the effort as \u201craising the bar so that kids can\u2019t get off the hook by offering a less rigorous way to earn credits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Principal Rob Seaward explained that Spaulding is trying to change the language from recovery to course completion. Some of their explorations include:<\/p>\n