Stuff for new hires about the model
From OpenContent
BSSD's Instructional Model (BSSD IM)
The Bering Strait School District is now one of several Alaskan districts working in partnership with the the Alaska Staff Development Network, the Reinventing Schools Coalition and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to enable all students to meet high standards. This effort was originally called the Quality School Model, or abbreviated QSM.
This is really the final step in this journey for our district, but is the culmination of a process that began for us quite some time ago. You can get an historical perspective by viewing the District Timeline.
After 13 years of instructional reform, and five years of QSM implementation, we have seen much of the time, effort and energy - not to mention the blood, sweat and tears - we expended pay off with a change of focus at all grade levels, and all our school sites.
Although we were influenced by several reform efforts over this time, including Total Quality Management applied to education, continuous progress models of assessment, and Lawrence Lezotte's ideas about effective instructional practices, the single greatest impact was seen from Alaska's own Quality School Model.
Since we have now developed many unique aspects in our application of these diverse ideas, and have diverged significantly from other QSM influenced districts, we are now using the term "BSSD Instructional Model", or "BSSD IM" to refer to our collective instructional approach.
There has been a great deal of encouraging data gathered about the changes that have impacted our students because of the District’s implementation of the BSSD Instructional Model:
- Increased achievement in core content areas - See statistics and charts here
- Greatly expanded, coordinated staff development in all district programs
- Dispersed leadership for reform in a "horizontal" dimension
- Widely adopted tools for collaborative work over distance
- Reduced dependence on proprietary curriculum materials and vendor-driven programs
- Organizational commitment to collecting and using data for decision-making
- Dramatically reduced teacher turnover rates - Now the lowest teacher turnover rate in rural Alaska!
- Significantly improved ability to recruit and retain high quality educators
Another benefit to the model is the tightening of bonds between the schools and the communities as we work together to define how all the standards should be defined in the individual communities and how we can bring more of the local culture and environment into our schools to add relevance for the students. This is a very exciting time for our school district and we welcome you as you join us in this endeavor.
This document is intended to give you a very brief overview of the BSSD Instructional Model. The most important thing for you to understand about the model as you join us is that it is critical for you to come to understand the philosophy of the model before you will be able to fully utilize the nuts and bolts.
The goal of the BSSD Instructional Model is to demonstrate that it is possible to help all students achieve by improving teaching and learning and enhancing access to technology for all students and staff. We have redesigned our educational systems to create a high performance, data driven, standards based, technology enhanced system that will enable all students to develop the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century.
The Quality Schools Model was developed in Alaska, by Alaskans, and for Alaskan students. The QSM model was originally conceived in the Chugach School District and that district has experienced much success with the model as evidenced by many measures, including, but not limited to:
- A tremendous increase in the quantity and quality of communication between the schools and their communities.
- Students are much more engaged in their learning and their participation and confidence has increased.
- Student achievement indicators (standardized test scores, % of students engaged in post-secondary programs, etc.) have skyrocketed.
- The district was one of the first two educational organizations to win the prestigious Baldrige Award – a national award presented to organizations which have demonstrated true systemic change according to very rigorous critieria.
Through the Alaska Quality Schools Coalition we first began to demonstrate to others throughout our state and nation how learning environments can be redesigned to help all students develop the abilities needed to make decisions beneficial to their life.
Four Elements of the Quality Schools Model
What follows is an overview of the four elements of the Quality Schools Model, and therefore help one understand our own instructional efforts under the BSSD Instructional Model.
These sections will be expanded as we develop this document.
Shared Vision
A shared vision is the explicit agreement of a group of people. In terms of the Quality Schools Model, the shared vision is what we want our schools to look like, what expectations we want to set for all our students. While there may be different layers of shared vision (e.g., the District Mission Statement and Strategic Plan, an individual school working with their community to brainstorm locally-relevant projects and units, a group of teachers designing a thematic unit, etc.), all layers should be in alignment.
Standards Based Design
What are the basics things we, as a district, as a region, as communities, want all our students to know and be able to do upon high school graduation?
In some respect, these are the very things that will breathe life into our district mission statement, the things that will truly help our children become self-sufficient and responsible citizens.The BSSD IM curriculum is based upon developmental standards in ten content areas.
BSSD Does Not Use Grade Levels
The District has done away with the "grade levels" used by most other schools in the United States. Grade levels are an "age cohort" model that groups students according to their birthdate. Students within one year of each in age are grouped for instruction in graded schools.
Instead, BSSD uses flexible grouping strategies that have students of various ages working together based on their skill mastery in our curriculum standards. Some classes in core content areas are grouped by ability, such as Reading and Math. Others are usually more heterogenous in composition.
Students advance through the nine Content Area standards at their own individual developmental pace, aiming to meet or exceed the graduation level in each content area. Each content area has between five and twelve "levels" of standards that students progress through. Each one also has an identified level that is considered the minimum required for graduation.
There is a "mastery learning" component involved since districtwide assessments are used to document student skill attainment in each of the standards before they are allowed to move to the next level.
BSSD's 9 Content Areas
Each of the following is a subject, or "Content Area" in the BSSD curriculum. You can click on the content area to view the levels in each:
Continous Progress Assessment
Under the BSSD Instructional Model, the district uses various assessment tools to obtain information about student learning; these tools are used to guide a variety of educational strategies and decisions.
The most important point here is the intentional use of all the different types of assessment listed below:
- Skills-based Assessments: Demonstration of knowledge and skills through basic recall of facts and specifics in a traditional manner.
- Analytical Assessments: Assesses the ability to apply the knowledge and skills.
- Contextual Assessments: Assesses the quality of performance, and measures skills applied in the context of a real world situation.
- Student Self Assessments: Student directed assessments of knowledge and skills of a particular standard and level.
Here are the State and National Assessments used by the district.
Effective Instruction
The BSSD Instructional Model is an integrated instructional model that actively engages students with the best research-based teaching practices. We will employ a balanced instructional model which emphasizes multiple approaches to the learning itself and student demonstration of learning.
The four strands of our balanced instructional model include:
- Drill and Practice: Traditional teaching that is build upon knowledge bites that are linked in an organized
fashion. (Example: Five step lesson plan teaching basic math skills.)
- Practical Application: The way in which a student can apply one or more skills in some relevant and realistic context. (Example: Using basic math skills for checkbook writing.)
- Interactive: The way in which a student can practice skills through role playing in a simulation. (Example:
Using basic math skills as a classroom accountant.)
- Real Life Connection: The way in which a student can apply skills in meaningful real life situations. (Example: Using basic math skills with personal checking account.)
Because BSSD has student groupings that are not in typical grade levels, we suggest that teachers explore techniques used for instruction that support wide ranges of ability and age. These include:
The district offered Differentiated Instruction classes by distance learning this year, and will be expanding resources in this area in the coming year.
How Are BSSD Classrooms Different?
Unlike our non-graded setting, teachers in typcial classrooms around the country are frequently unable to clearly identify individual instructional levels in their "graded" classrooms.
Research shows that students in any grade - despite being born within a year of each other - are spread out over a wide range of ability in any subject area.
Graded Classroom Weaknesses
- Letter grades give little or no indication of what was actually learned
- Report cards or transcripts carry no indication of what was taught before
- Students receiving a grade of F get no credit for work completed
You won't find that here! Teachers are intimately involved in gauging student progress on the standards that make up the levels they are instructing in each content area.
It takes getting used to at first, but most teacher find the information contained in their standards-based report card much more instructionally useful, and detail rich than the old "A-F" system.
DART System - Reporting & Recording
BSSD uses an Open Source tool called the Data Analysis and Reporting Toolkit ( DART) to both track student progress through our standards-based curriculum, and to guide instructional decisions and planning.
In short, the DART automatically calculates the greatest common standards needs of any group or individual. Teachers and school administrators can quickly and easily form groups for making decisions, and analyzing student, group, building or district needs.
Linkage to the BSSD OpenContent Wiki is Essential
The standards identified link to the standards information here in wiki-based curriculum system, and all stakeholders can collaboratively add to and edit the instructional resources and strategies quickly and easily.
For more information, and a fully functional demonstration system, use the following link:
- Information about the DART System
Leadership
Continuous Improvement
Because the BSSD instructional model keys on continuous progress models of assesment, data is always available about specific learner strengths and weaknesses. Teachers can use this to plan for both meaningful individual and group instruction.
Questions on the BSSD Instructional Model
How Do things Change Under the BSSD Instructional Model?
- Allows students, parents, teachers, and principals to engage in focused conversations on a child’s educational progress• Increase student engagement, self esteem, and motivation as they achieve easily identifiable goals
- Strengths and areas of concern easily identifiable using continuous progress approaches to assessment.
- Gaps in instruction are reduced. In the past, our district reviewed and revised curriculum areas on a 5-6 year rotation. This meant that even if we knew we needed to upgrade our Science program, we might not do so for 2-3 years until it came back up for review.
Under the BSSD IM, we address needs as they come up and our clear goal will be to make things better each and every year. We will certainly make adjustments during the year at both the school and district levels, and will review the need for substantial adjustments on an annual basis.
If the axiom, “If you keep doing what you have always done, you will continue getting what you have always got,” is true, then we always want to keep looking for ways in which we can refine what we are doing instructionally.
The OpenContent website you are on is one example of this. The wiki-based technology this site uses allows each stakeholder to suggest changes, improvements and corrections to the official BSSD curriculum documents. The annual revisions reflect these suggestions to the degree our CASC committees approve them for the next year's official versions used in all classrooms.
What Does This Mean to Students?
Student progress will be based on what students have learned• Instead of time being the constant, time will be the variable• Students will be provided with multiple ways to demonstrate knowledge• Students will experience success at their particular instructional level• Students will be able to track their own progress, be aware of strengths and areas of concern and will develop individualized learning plans• Individual Learning Plan’s• Focus on those things we agree are important for students but we have not done in a formal fashion.
How Has This Changed Practices in Our Schools?
No letter grades• Grade levels will change to instructional levels• Report Cards
Brian Krosschell is currently in his 4th year as a teacher at Whittier Community School in the Chugach School District. Prior to that, Brian worked for the Bering Strait School District in Shaktoolik for 5 years. When asked what are the two most significant changes for teachers in moving to the Quality Schools Model, Brian replied, “Making certain that all instruction begins with the standards and making certain that you are doing less direct instruction and pencil and paper assessment in order to make time for more applied learning and assessment.”
Other Quality Focused Districts in Alaska
Chugach School District
http://www.chugachschools.com
Denali Borough School District
Highland High Tech Charter School
Kuspuk School District
http://www.kuspuk.org/
Lake & Peninsula School District
http://www.lpsd.com/
Lower Kuskokwim School District
http://www.lksd.org/
Lower Yukon School District
http://www.lysd.gcisa.net/
Southeast Island School District
http://www.sisd.k12.ak.us/
For more information regarding the Quality Schools Model, you are encouraged to check out the websites listed above as well as the BSSD website.
If you have specific questions regarding the BSSD IM (or QSM) in the Bering Strait School District you can e-mail either Greg Johnson, Director of Curriculum & Instruction (gjohnson@bssd.org) or Kim Hanisch, BSSD Instructional Model Trainer/Facilitator (khanisch@bssd.org).
For information specific to your school, please contact Ted VanBronkhorst, Executive Director of Personnel ([1]). If Ted cannot answer your question immediately, he will be more than happy to put you in touch with someone from that school who can.
Another exciting aspect of the District’s implementation of the BSSD Instructional Model is that we will all be working together to implement and refine the model. Every single individual will have the opportunity to help us work on the continual improvement of the model. Welcome to the Bering Strait School District.
