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One challenge is communication with community and stakeholders about the why especially around scoring and reporting.  K-8 not as bad as 9-12; People have deeply held beliefs around scoring and using scores to compare one child to another

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Last year, we did a self-assessment on the different structures. This self-assessment allowed us to have a better understanding on how we are doing implementing pieces of our vision, what areas are weaknesses to add PD, and defined clear next steps.

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In all the districts I have been in, having a clear vision and strategic plan that started with a clear purpose of why we need to change, has been key.  In Brewer, we look at our strategic plan and create a vision document for the year that highlights all of our goals and then we report out on our progress monitoring as we go throughout the year.

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RSU 12 has worked to change our outcomes, to group more flexibly, to improve our feedback in order to create conditions for intrinsic motivation, and to adopt technology to help us report learning progress and facilitate grouping and scheduling.

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We started with this work about three years ago.  We've had some individuals who've invested time and effort into understanding the components of proficiency based education and are trying things out.  I think my district is struggling with communication with all stakeholders.  We started this process with the thinking that we needed to bring everyone along as we deepen our understanding of the work.  We haven't done what we need to at this point.

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Everyone is at a different spot in terms of their willingness and capacity to implement competency-based learning. A differentiated professional development plan is necessary, but there is still real time learning that every teacher needs to bring more consistency to the systemic structure.

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We started with developing our Vision with Bea McGarvey and Linda. Foundational pieces- build relationships with

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We have seen some great improvement in changing instructional practices that meet the learner at where he/she maybe in the learning progression and tailor that instruction from there- particularly at the elementary level.

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It's really important that the admin are instructional leaders and continuously share our vision. In everything that we do, we should show educators how everything connects.

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1.  In all the districts I have been in I have started with the Strategic Design Process with Bea McGarvey and building learning progressions which I think were very positive experiences to set the stage. 2.  The foundational pieces that I have tried to get leadership teams to do and have not had great success is the dissect and analyze the 5 dysfunctions of a team and unpack the core values into measureable rubrics before moving forward.  I have to say that if this isn't done internal culture will tank the work and push external communication that gets everyone cranky.  So.. I would love for the alliance to really look at and put together supports expecially for building/school based leaders as that is where I see the biggest break down in the leadership teams.  Brene brown has some great resources on operationalizeing core values and so does Patrick Lencioni

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In one district we didn't have the buy in by all the teachers.  There also wasn't strong leadership with the superintendent at that time.  This was a barrier to collective change.

In Brewer, taking our time and monitoring the change process is important.  Being flexible and willing to listen and provide professional development when needed is also key.  Reporting out to our school committee and community on the "why" has been a success in helping us move forward as we have the support.

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We started with selecting standards and learning targets with  more of a process focus or higher level thinking and application.  This allows us to cluster targets for learning into interdisciplinary units.  Our AM schedules flex in and out of 2 or 3 week intensives, with some more routine sorting of students by need in between for foundation, extension and work around partnerships with community college or other entities.  Every afternoon students select by quarter hands-on interdisciplinary learning that meets the needs of their open learning targets and standards, or they design a proposal to be considered as an offering at that time.
With staff changes, we need to refresh the vision and mission, to ensure the new staff are using the appropriate language and transparency with learners regarding the learning design process and collection of evidence to maintain consistency across content areas and teams of staff.

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*The tenacity of old ideas - being stuck in traditional ways of thinking about learning
*Teacher trust
*Providing effective PD to support this work that reaches a tipping point of staff not just a select few
*Technology challenges - we continue to work with the company to create a product that adequately meets our needs.
-RSU 12

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Having a common vision and like minded individuals is such an important foundation. Until we had a written strategic vision it was easy for the mission/vision to get derailed or side tracked.

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In a small school district where we struggle to meet individual needs/desires of students with staffing considerations, we have found success in partnering with an online company that offers classes (aligned to Maine curriculum) that we might not otherwise be able to offer at our middle/high school (multiple foreign languages, certain AP classes, civics & gov., medical terminology) or simply classes that a student wants/needs but can't fit into traditional schedule. This is the 4th year we have had this partnership, and it continues to grow. We have approximately a 96% success rate with students. The feedback that we hear from students is that they truly like the course syllabus and pacing guides that come with each class. They also like the virtual communication with their teachers, who work diligently at meeting students where they are at (with the type of communication desired). The hardest change, from my perspective, is the feelings from some staff members that we are inadvertently reducing the staffing needs. However, we have to find ways of providing opportunity for our students, so when they leave us, they are college/career ready.

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Changing the mindset of teachers is something that should always be at the forefront.

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Tracy-Manheim Central Mindset and Beliefs around what learners are capable of doing

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Tracy-Manheim Central Mindset and Beliefs around what learners are capable of doing

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Having the right people in the right place. Mistakes have been thinking that you are hiring people without a good gauge of their strengths aligned to our mission/vision. We have started using the strength finder and that has been successful with some of our candidates.

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We have to think of all stakeholders as part of the learning community and think of them as learners- start with kids, adults, etc where they are in their learning of the work.

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We have done a significant amount of work at our high school on collecting evidence towards learning and changing the "traditional grading" structures. This work has also occurred at our Community School and our community has a firm understanding on Habits of Work. The internal structures in the classroom are much easier to change than the overall schedule structures in our buildings. While we continue to look for multiple pathways for students to achieve learning targets, we also sometimes run up against outside constraints or schedules we have to mesh with.

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We started with sound assessment practices then that led to having a felt need to make a change.  This took over 10 years to happen.  Then we moved to strategic design working with stakeholders to create a mission, vision, and core beliefs.  We currently are working on maintaining feedback loops and adjusting to meet needs and staying grounded in the research of best practices while slowly moving forward.  It feels like the system change has a lot of change and then pause to reflect and adjust, change then reflect and adjust..

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1. Complex Reasoning
2. Learning Opportunities
3. Viable Learning Outcomes

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Our journey started by identifying our Life Ready Graduate Profile. We partnered with Ed Leader 21, Battle
For Kids, and other districts across the country to identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that every student would demonstrate upon graduation.  This has guided much of our work.

We have also partnered with Modern Teacher and providing training for a teacher accelerated group. That will expand to another small group of teachers and will keep evolving until all teachers are trained. Our steering committee has been working on identifying our instructional model that is really centered-around personalized learning.

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Starting with mission, vision, and mindset is vital.

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The "time" structure has been a struggle as there are so many moving parts to our schedules that requires a lot of coordination. It seems that if we want to change how a class is set up or add a "mod" it starts this domino effect on everything else.

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Turnover of staff and admin...need to consistently re-teach (one step forward and two steps back)

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The hardest structures have been changing common planning time, particularly where we are such as small building.

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Communication is the key and I do think that leadership teams have to be tight and provide way more communication than they think and that is consistent and open.  The biggest barrier to this work is the people.  Internal culture is the key and I really feel that leadership in many places doesn't do enough with this before moving into a more transformative change process.  Also, again.. building leadership in particular needs some significant training in how to lead teachers and then communicate to the community.  I really like the circle way, world cafe protocols.  Tenneson woolf has some great resources as do others.  Even with the SD process world cafe processes with all stakeholders I think is the next step.  The mistakes I have seen lie in the not enough time on culture and communication.  I think the structural work is much easier when people actually can get comfortable with being vulnerable and take risks.  When people are armored up.. well the work comes to a hault.  It is very hard to recover from that.

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We have seen some great successes in our grading and reporting. Teachers are now using the same language PK-12, students have opportunities to earn a 4 and be challenged, and we are looking at different structures for some of our special subgroups for the first time.

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I think we struggle with commitment.  We've talked a lot about what we think should happen and have developed plans, but not everyone is following through with the agreed upon expectations established by the Leadership Team.

On the plus side, we have seen broad experimentation from all teachers based on the plans that have been followed through with!

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Like minded individuals that have the common vision and focus on learner centered.

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They all seem inter-dependent.  One of our challenges has been trying to make these changes incrementally so as not to overwhelm.  Yet, in many ways, having one foot in the vision and the other in a traditional system makes it all even more difficult to implement.  I do not know how to reconcile this with the time and onboarding it takes to dive into these changes more completely.  This is an ongoing tension.
-RSU 12

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All learners belong to all of us. When teachers embrace this idea, change happens.

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In this pause/reflection year one statement is you can never over communicate. Taking the time to share with small and large groups cannot be understated. Also, once a change is made and there is pushback, you have to determine what is essential to the mission/vision and what can be done differently than you thought-- there needs to be open dialogue to allow everyone to help problem solve, as long as it is grounded in best practice and not just the easy way

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As we started the process, understanding and implementing RTI became really important. Also looking at transparency at all levels needed to be done to make this process successful.

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Transparency is important!  Communicating the WHY! Getting the community involved in re-shaping what "school" should look like and function.  

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Transparency is important!  Communicating the WHY! Getting the community involved in re-shaping what "school" should look like and function.  

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Helping teacher understand the importance of a personalized competency-based environment. This is an ongoing struggle, and our work on consistently getting feedback from our teachers has driven a lot of our professional
development.

Grading also has been a struggle to change. We have introduced a mastery scale that our teachers are working with, but we are still in a very traditional grading environment.

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I agree with the comments about the need for a strategic design but I would emphasize that it must be a "future focused" strategic design with key components like: vision, mission, core values, guiding principles and exit learner outcomes. 

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I agree with the comments about the need for a strategic design but I would emphasize that it must be a "future focused" strategic design with key components like: vision, mission, core values, guiding principles and exit learner outcomes. 

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We are about the embark on reviewing our strategic plan. Our school board is not interested in rewriting it; rather, just updating where we are in the implementation and ensuring that all stakeholders understand that we are continuing with our mission and vision of PBE.

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Finding time to collaborate. Seems so simple, but we're struggling.

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I cannot imagine trying to do this work without being able to regularly touch base with others who are also trying to do this.  I get re-energized by talking with others, I learn new things, and my understanding of the vision deepens as a result of working with others.
-RSU 12

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I think hardest structures to change are time based (scheduling flexibly) and grading. We still live in a time where we have a small but mighty group that wants the structures of time and norm referencing to stay in place so that the top 20 percent is possible and do not care that many of our learners are harmed emotionally and academically because of this. It is very disheartening to watch and hear how adults talk about kids when it comes to this. I think if we had more supports from the state and federal levels as well as got colleges to help us more effectively rather than pushing us to be a sorting tool for them and ultimately a way to socioeconomically segregate it would make a world of difference. NH got rid of the carnegie unit and the competency based law is the best in the country in my opinion but yet still we fight that need to have that top tier. It actually is a huge barrier and one that causes people to react in ways that in my opinion are really unethical and damaging to our young people. Changing the mindset is to me the hardest part. In my current district we have tackled time in a very good way. We have added flex and are using PLtools to allow our learners to schedule 90 minutes of their day. It has made a huge difference. We also put policy and protocols in place to remove toxic grading practices (not without huge contraversy but we did it) and at this point we have reduced our failure rate in the first semester by 60% from last year at this time. Huge win. However, culture is still a major issue to address.

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Our work with the LRG (Life Ready Graduate) profile has pointed everyone in the same direction in ways that our comprehensive plan never could.

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Education is like a domino. Once you work on one piece, it will affect something else. It's hard to pin point how just one structure impacted another because we have so many moving parts happening all at once. Probably because we started at the elementary level and are growing our system with the students.

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Time is always a challenge.  Having the largest PreK-8 school and three schedules within that school with different start and end times and overlapping teachers, makes it challenging to do some of the structural changes.

Training of new staff at times but I have found the hiring protocol useful to hire people that have the same vision and philosophy.  This has helped with new hires.

Having administrators that support teachers and are willing to take risks is also important.  We don't always have all the answers but if we don't take a risk and try, we are still in the same pattern.  Sometimes administrators are hesitant to take these risks.  Supporting them that it is okay and sometimes encouraging them in a direction is needed.

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I think it is critical that the entire admin team understand and own the vision.  They need to be able to communicate the why to the staff in their buildings and use each other to recalibrate.  The vision needs to guide decision-making.  It is what will motivate when the going gets tough.  In addition, building a core of teacher leaders who also understand and espouse the vision helps inform the work.  RSU 12 is fortunate to have a school board that espouses it as well, which serves as a protection from outside political influences and pressure. See also my comments in the first column.
-RSU 12

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It seems simple, but it is not always obvious. If we expect our students to be co-planners and drive their own learning, then we need to set all structures in the classroom for that type of mindset. It starts with having a shared vision in the classroom, and take something as simple as how the class operates, if teachers are not involving their students in that process then they are missing a key step in moving to a competency-based environment.

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Meeting learners where they are in their learning at the elementary levels. When teachers embrace the idea that the learning standards belong to all of us, it's helping them to understand the idea to start kids where they are in their learning.

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The successes that we have experienced with changing certain structures have been increasing student learning, engagement, and attendance. In a small school district such as MSAD 44, we are challenged with ways to provide opportunities that other larger schools can offer. We meet those challenges by partnering with others in creating systems that provide non-traditional learning experiences that support students. We have three programs that immediately come to mind.
1. Partnering with local 4H Learning Center to provide an off-campus Telstar Freshman Academy, which data has shown to have increased learning, attendance, and engagement.
2. Dual Enrollment Program - partnered with a neighboring community college (CMCC) to offer qualified/interested juniors the opportunity to spend their senior year as a freshman on a college campus and earn a year's worth of college credits. Data has shown the success in learning, cost savings to families, attendance, and engagement.
3. On-line partnership with opportunities for our middle and high school students to take one/two online classes each year to meet their individual interests/needs with classes that we cannot do under our own roof. Going into our 4th year, we have had a 96% success rate, due, in part, to the structures we have in place for enrollment and on-going support. Data has shown an increase in engagement, attendance, and learning.

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We haven't gotten very far down this road. We have some people that are focusing on grouping and regrouping, we have a learning management system in place, and people are currently experimenting with it, and we're focusing our collective efforts on providing students with a variety of learning opportunities and ways of demonstrating their learning. I can't speak to what's been the "hardest to change" at this point. We're not far enough along in the process.

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Communication is Critical and is an area I think we need to work on... Please plan to join us for our Communications Think Tank on March 6th 

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Communication is Critical and is an area I think we need to work on... Please plan to join us for our Communications Think Tank on March 6th 

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RSU 12 began in exactly the place most say we shouldn't have.  We adopted a reporting system that required reporting learning progress by standard or learning target.  This was done with little work on the vision , learning outcomes, or instructional practices.  It was purposeful in that (1) we had the funds to do so, (2) we had a piloting group of teachers advocating for this, and (3) we thought it might serve as a means for ensuring that all of our teachers would be a part of our change work.  It created a significant amount of tension, which fueled a grassroots demand for greater understanding of the vision and how to implement it.  This then led us to joining MCCL to access support to meet those needs. Our approach came at some costs - a lot of teacher frustration and some lasting confusion that this work is all about grading/scoring differently.  We are trying to address the former with support and PD and the latter with a lot of emphasis on instructional design now.  Many would argue that our approach was a mistake, and yet I see other districts who spent a lot of time front loading the vision and PD who still experience signifiant confusion and resistance when it comes time to report learning differently.
-RSU 12

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Risk taking is vital, and we need teachers to take risks and learn from their experiences. When that learning occurs there needs to be a system for sharing and learning for others.

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Internal classroom structures are easier to change than whole school scheduling structures. See comments below Renita's as well.

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This is tiring work.  It is okay to take time to pause and breathe.  It does not mean you are not working towards the vision/mission, it just means you are pausing to give the organization time to adjust before moving ahead again.

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Mission/Vision, staffing with like minded individuals.

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Teaching practices can be changed in the classroom without a lot of impact to the entire building's schedule.  Groupings/regroupings, aligning to learning targets, creating continuums all can happen.  I would also say that problem solving, collaborative work, and critical thinking should also be tackled to transform the classroom.

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We started 6 years ago after a conversation with our Apple Education Rep regarding the book inevitable and the philosophy shift we were eager to make.  We took two years and had MCL Power Hour PD sessions throughout the year just dissecting at the 8 elements.  This mind shift ground work was imperative to any work following

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Culture, Culture, Culture... Communication, Communication, Communication
We are bringing in consultants in my currrent district to do more work on this. The communication plan is being overhauled and a PR person is being hired. Ultimately we are trying to get our internal and external stakeholders to learn how to work together and how to talk to each other. We are working on getting feedback loops that allow for weighing in and getting people to understand that weighing in doesn't mean you get your way. The structures of the World Cafe are where we plan to go next to have a better way for people to express their ideas and harvest them to make more impactful strategic goals from our SD documents. This I think will help move things forward in a more positive direction. Also, School Boards are really tricky... I suggest the alliance look at ways to train board members and get boards to work together as well. This has been another huge barrier in districts. They are like Kangaroo court.. Any help for districts with this entity I think would be super helpful.

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Turnover and consistent leadership committed to a common/mission vision.  The work is too hard not to have a group working on it together

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Rich Eby PV - K-6 has been an easier shift to create a true personalized proficiency based learning environment due to the traditional mindset of secondary grades/GPA, courses and transcripts.  Math and WL have actually been the two leaders in transforming this during this school year.  

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Rich Eby PV - K-6 has been an easier shift to create a true personalized proficiency based learning environment due to the traditional mindset of secondary grades/GPA, courses and transcripts.  Math and WL have actually been the two leaders in transforming this during this school year.  

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I think the biggest successes in my personal experience is building learning progressions and then supporting teachers with how to design instruction and experiences that will engage and focus in on learning not doing stuff on time for compliance.  When teachers see the instrinsic motivation working they keep going and do really creative and interesting things for kids.  Also, flex time has been a game changer at the middle and high school level.  I see this really launching when all the bugs are worked out.

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Clearly articulate and communicate why are we doing this? Why is it important? Why is it better for all stakeholders

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Another challenge is finding a technological system that tracks learning targets and competencies. Most of the systems are set up for test and quizzes, and would love to see something that does well with performance based assessments. If anyone has suggestion it would be greatly appreciated.

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I echo what Heather has stated about leadership.  Our longest serving principal in our district has been on board for 2 1/2 years. We also had a principal resign over the December break. We currently have an interim in that position. We definitely have other challenges and barriers. Those seem to rise to the top right now.

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We have a common reporting system, we are thinking in terms of learning targets as opposed to learning activities, we love our work with learners on the Habits of Mind, we are more purposeful about our work - questioning old ideas and practices.

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Rich Eby PV - At the Elementary k-6 level we have restructured in 3 bands allowing us to group across k-2, 3-4 and 5-6.  We have adopted the Empower Platform and are in the process of building the ELA K-6 continuum this year.  

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Rich Eby PV - At the Elementary k-6 level we have restructured in 3 bands allowing us to group across k-2, 3-4 and 5-6.  We have adopted the Empower Platform and are in the process of building the ELA K-6 continuum this year.  

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Rich Eby PV - Navigating the state assessment expectations and the tiers of regular ed leading into special ed has also been a challenge.

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Rich Eby PV - Navigating the state assessment expectations and the tiers of regular ed leading into special ed has also been a challenge.

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Culture. Minset.  Operationalizing core values and evaluating everyone on those.  Then time...I think leveraging time is huge for planning, students having different timeframes, support, etc.  I think that changing reporting structures should be last not first.  Time and toxic practices should be first.

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If you can get flexible time than it opens up the ability to share the load better and have the ability to support all learners needs. If this doesn't get tackled than the rest is much harder. Schedules that lock people into periods, start end times, grading timeframes etc. keep the time as a barrier.