Leading for Deeper Learning, A Series in Four Parts, Part 4: Outcomes and Reflections

At Jefferson County Public Schools in KY, the implementation of the Backpack of Success Skills was transforming a district in trouble. When COVID hit, the transformation didn’t stop. In the final installment of this series, the author pauses to reflect on the wins, the challenges, and the future of deeper learning in the district.

The Outcomes. So Far.

There is still a long way to go in the district before the school experience is truly transformed for every student, but we indisputably made progress. This past May, a group of district leaders revisited some of our guiding documents, including The New Normal, the Quality Work Protocol and descriptors, and the Performance Outcomes. We also looked closely at school defense rubrics to see how they compared to the expectations outlined in those original documents. It was refreshing to again focus on the bigger vision for the kind of learning experiences we wanted for our students. 

So far, we mainly have qualitative data to support the impact of the Backpack on student learning. However, after five years, with three being heavily impacted by the pandemic, I can say this about our district of 100,000 students:

We know our students like never before. Defenses helped us realize that we were missing out on many of our students’ interests and special talents. Some schools have made new efforts to get to know students much more personally long before they are ready to transition.

We realize our students can do more than we imagined possible–and many need less direction than we had been providing. We have to give them opportunities to solve problems, create, and collaborate if we want them to learn. Having to figure out how to represent their learning and growth in new ways was a new challenge for our students, and they did it in ways the adults might never have considered.

We are talking about “evidence of learning” beyond test scores. The word “data” just means information. It is not a synonym for score. We miss out on important details about our students when we only consider numbers.

We are allowing our students to show what they know in many ways. It’s essential that we consider which standards and skills can be measured in a more traditional way and which need a “driver’s test,” or performance assessment.

We are using a shared definition of Quality Work across the district.

We are thinking about Bloom’s Taxonomy as a web instead of a ladder (Jal Mehta, Harvard Graduate School of Education).

We are finding powerful implications for professional learning needs through the artifacts students share during defenses.

We are investing in new ways, as the Modern Classrooms Project suggests, to structure classroom time for students and teachers, and rethink space to provide better opportunities for personalized learning.

We are investing in professional development that immerses teachers in the kind of competency-based experience we want for our kids, and we are providing ways for teachers to be credentialed and recognized for this learning.

Through our statewide Laboratories of Learning initiative, we are starting to create a competency-based path that will allow students to credential learning that happens outside of the school day and the school walls.

Reflections

I am not sure I even fully realize yet the learning that has occurred for me over the last five years. I know that I am forever grateful to the superintendent who invited me to join him for this journey, and I cannot say enough about the many people who came together over and over again to do the impossible. 

I also know that there are a few learnings that really stand out.

There are times when not knowing or understanding the full scope of your context is a gift. This allows you, as a leader, to make bold moves without considering the complexities or the history that might get in the way.

Collaboratively establishing the kinds of outcomes you want for your students–and the knowledge and skills they will need to achieve those outcomes–provides a firm foundation on which to build. I didn’t know what a graduate profile was when we were trying to determine what we wanted our diploma to mean in Danville (see Leading for Deeper Learning, Part 1). It just made sense to start with what we wanted to achieve and then build the system and experiences most likely to lead to those outcomes. There are certainly other ways to dive into deeper learning, but I haven’t found another that provides such a foundation and a springboard.

Students are capable of far more than we think or give them the opportunity to do. So are teachers. This bears repeating many times over.

You can’t overestimate the power of spotlighting the kind of work you want to see. The creator feels motivated to do more and many who see it are inspired to try.

It is vital to help others see what school can be. The experiences I had early on visiting schools in New York and California changed my entire view of what school could (and should!) look like. There was nothing like seeing kids–who looked just like my kids in Kentucky–completely engaged in work that really mattered to them. I am constantly thinking about how I can recreate this experience for those I lead.

My guess is that most teachers went into teaching to inspire passion and curiosity and create awesome learning experiences for kids. High stakes accountability as we have known it more recently causes both teachers and leaders to be fearful of trying anything that takes them too far from the norm. I have been in the room when a state department of education has said to a principal, “You were found through the audit not to have capacity to lead the work that needs to happen in this school.” The fear is real.

Deeper learning can be a game changer for students living in poverty. However, it’s within their schools where there is the most anxiety about consequences due to poor performance on traditional academic measures.

Even those who are not educators can come up with a general deeper learning experience, and without one day of PBL training. Although training is certainly needed to refine the delivery, it seems that we know intuitively how to create engaging experiences. It’s the way we naturally learn.

I’ve realized we don’t approach learning in school the way that we do in any other context. If you’ve ever coached a team or taught someone to play an instrument, bake a cake, or do any other kind of real life thing, you know that we teach by doing. We naturally describe what to do, demonstrate it, and then ask the learner to try. We give them specific feedback to encourage success. Now imagine approaching a “real world” activity using a traditional educational model. To teach someone to ride a horse, first you would teach vocabulary, then assign a reading about riding horses, then have them do research about horses and report to the class. After they draw a picture of a horse, you might take them to see a real horse. After the unit test, you would pronounce them ready to ride. We can’t wonder why students aren’t engaged, or why they are ill-prepared for their futures.

And, using that same example, there would be some students whose families could give them riding lessons. But many could not. So again, the students who probably most need the experience are not getting it.

We have to be conscious of what we ask our educators to do, and we must connect the dots so that their tasks have purpose and support a common vision. We have to be coherent in our messaging and clear in our definitions of deeper learning, competency-based education, personalized learning, and any other terms that we use. 

Finally–and I am positive of this–if leaders in a district aren’t steadfast and intentional about transforming the school experience and persistent about moving forward, any progress that is made will be lost. In our district, some schools might continue with the Backpack and defenses, but those who see this as something extra rather than a component of an entirely different approach, will stop. The district will still be ahead of where it was, and individual teachers, leaders, and schools will build on what they’ve learned and may continue to evolve. The system as a whole will not. 

In the bigger picture, I have to believe our work has made a significant contribution to the field. It is difficult to disrupt and impact practice even in the smallest of school districts. We were able to make meaningful progress toward the kind of school experience our students deserve. In a district of 100,000 students. During a global pandemic. Because of this, I am incredibly optimistic about what is possible.

Previously in Leading for Deeper Learning: Part 3, Backpacks, Defenses, and Surprises