Читать книгу From Reopen to Reinvent - Michael B. Horn - Страница 29

About 30 minutes outside Milwaukee sits the Kettle Moraine School District. A suburban school district with 11 schools that serve just under 4,000 students who hail mostly from middle- and upper-income families, the district was considered relatively high-performing, with over 80 percent of graduates enrolling in postsecondary education and training each year.

Beneath the positive results, however, there were opportunities to improve. Only 45 percent of students were completing their postsecondary programs—below the national average. With a threat identified, the district marshaled resources to address the challenge.

The district didn't maintain the threat framing. Once it had galvanized resources, it moved to create a variety of independent environments in which to personalize learning through microschools—schools within schools in this case—of no more than 180 students. Each had its own unique spin. Kettle Moraine authorized three charter schools on its high school campus and one at one of its elementary schools to help implement a mastery-based model that personalizes learning, along with seven “houses” in its middle school.

Within each learning environment, educators implemented comprehensive, data-rich learner profiles and customized learning paths for each student in which students' progress is contingent upon their performance. Its elementary micro charter school, for example, centers around projects. Students use the projects to demonstrate mastery of the required competencies. Another microschool at the high school level allows students to earn nursing and emergency medical technician certifications.

With a high degree of accountability in place, the innovations appear to be working.¹⁷ Results on the PISA exam, the OECD's Test for Schools, would rank the district among the top countries in the world. According to Education Week, the students in the district's traditional high school performed as well as students in Canada, Finland, and other European countries, while its students in its charter school performed in the same ballpark as that of Singapore—the second-highest-ranking country at the time—with very high engagement in the learning.¹⁸

Kettle Moraine School District:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhuTgnAz6fQ