Next Generation Learning: Making Learning Relevant for Our Students, and Our Community

Some will say it is like 'Back to the Future'. Some will say, "the pendulum continues to swing". Others will simply say "thank goodness", or "it's about time".

The learning community of Woodland heights School knew excellence. It knew education and achievement at the cutting edge. It had been a well-oiled organization of talented and dedicated professionals all sailing the good ship 'WHS' in the same direction.

Then came 'No Child Left Behind'. Then came high-stakes standardized testing. Then came the language and labels: 'school in need of improvement', 'failing school', and 'corrective action'. Really? Well, as with most school districts who encountered difficulty meeting the bar of NCLB, administrators in Laconia took dramatic steps toward 'school improvement'. Many of these measures were consistent with what other school systems were doing to try to increase test scores, and not really improve the school. With the experience of the last handful of years, almost all educators are now taking a deep breath and without fear are now beginning to contemplate, "maybe there is more to a quality education, a quality school than test scores". Although we still must strive for increased performance on standardized tests, we at WHS now understand clearly that accountability measures of the past and 'teaching to the test' are woefully inept in determining and addressing the needs and skills critical for lifelong success, or for providing the educational experiences that children will need to be successful in the workplace of the 21st Century.

At WHS and at other progressive schools across the globe, it is known as the 21st Century Learning movement, recently refashioned into the 'Next Generation Learning' (NxGL) movement. At WHS we are not only in the thick of this movement, we are at the forefront of it here in New Hampshire.

The following is information is organized and presented by the Partnership for Next Generation Learning. This coalition of states, educational organizations, and business foundations promotes a realistic perspective on the flaws of our country's educational system and offers a realistic approach to addressing the imporvement needs of our society's educational institutions. If school systems are to really meet a bar that would constitute success for public education now and in the future, they would be striving to meet the following blueprint that our U.S. Department of Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, is now beginning to promote.

The Six Critical Attributes of Next Generation Learning
The work of the Partnership for Next Generation Learning is rooted in six attributes that form the foundation of a redesigned education system for all learners. The attributes describe the characteristics or conditions of a transformed student experience that will lead to higher levels of achievement and successful transition to postsecondary education, work, and adult life for all students.

Sources of the Attributes
The attributes spring from three primary sources that did not exist or were not relevant when the current system of education was designed:
Recognition that the world has changed
 We have moved from a highly-localized industrial and agrarian economy to a technology-enabled global knowledge and service economy.
 Economic shifts are playing out in every community, and the end game for public education has changed.
Greater knowledge of how learning happens
 The science of learning has progressed dramatically since the basic structures and processes of public education were put in place.
 We know more from neuroscience about how learning occurs and what kinds of experiences best foster learning.
Deepened understanding of social and cultural factors
 The United States represents a highly diverse segment of the global population with an array of assets and needs.
 The education system must have more intentional relationships with families, community agencies, and formal and informal learning providers.

The Attributes as Design Principles
The attributes are not program strategies. Rather, they serve as a set of design
principles to guide and inform the process of system redesign to a new, learnercentric system of public education. Grounded in a solid base of research and best practice from around the world, the attributes are:
 Personalizing learning calls for a data-driven framework to set goals, assess
progress, and ensure students receive the academic and developmental
supports they need
 World-class knowledge and skills require achievement goals to sufficiently
encompass the content knowledge and skills required for success in a globallyoriented
world
 Performance-based learning and assessment puts students at the center of
the learning process by enabling the demonstration of mastery based on high,
clear, and commonly-shared expectations
 Comprehensive systems of learning supports address social, emotional,
physical, and cognitive development along a continuum of services to ensure
the success of all students
 Anytime, everywhere opportunities provide constructive learning experiences
in all aspects of a child’s life, through both the geographic and the Internetconnected
community
 Authentic student voice is the deep engagement of students in directing and
owning their individual learning and shaping the nature of the education experience among their peers

As we at Woodland heights School have already begun; over the coming years, outstanding school systems across our country will be redesigning their programs and student learning opportunities to emulate these goals and attributes in order to provide a more meaningful, authentic, and effective educational experience for our nation's students. Our students come to us trusting that we will provide them with the knowledge, tools, skills, and abilities to lead happy, productive, successful, and fulfilling lives as adults. We must not disappoint our students by providing them with an education that was designed to serve the society and students populating our schools 30-40 years ago. The world has changed, and so must we.

For WHS Educators: Summer School Every Year!

As has been the case for years now in Laconia, the paradigm of teachers 'having the summer off' is a vestige of the distant past.

Our teachers are almost as busy during the summer as they are during the schol year -- really! How could this be so? Although many are not teaching children during the steamy weeks of July and August, many are. Here are some of the programs that call our educators in to school to service children:

Extended School Year Program (ESY) -- This program exists to support students with identified learning needs to help assure that 'regression' does not occur (we aim to help students maintain the academic gains made over the school year, rather than let them slip away over the steamy weeks of summer).

Project Extra Summer Stretch -- This learning opportunity is extended to students who would benefit from additional support over the summer to help shore up their basic academic skills in a fun and engagin way. This program helps students be in a stronger place, academically, when they enter the new school year than when they left school the previous June.

Project Extra Summer Camp -- This fun-filled summer learning opportunity promotes the further development of social and other skills in a safe, supervised setting over the course of the summer. The emphasis of this program is on healthy recreational activities, good sportmanship, and building relationships across our community.

Kindergarten Camp -- It is through Kindergarten Camp that we offer students entering our kindergarten program a transitional learning opportunity. The kids get to come into our kindergarten classrooms for two weeks in August to work with kindergarten program staff and get a head start on their first year at WHS. Familiarizing students with life as a student in a public school, focusing on social growth and learning school routines is the primary goal of this program.

Renzulli Learning -- This technology-based enrichment opportunity is made available to advanced learners in our intermediate grades. It is housed at Laconia Middle School, and is an extension of the Project Extra enrichment programs offered in that building for middle school students.

Additionally, it is during the weeks of summer that much of our professional development (teacher training) and curriculum and program development occurs. the summer is true 'quality time' for teachers to come together and improve our school program and their own professional expertise.

Here are some of the professional development opportunities that our teachers are pursuing this summer:

College Coursework -- Many of our staff members take advantage of the summer months to take college or university courses (on campus and/or online) to further their command of their material, or broaden their perspectives of their role as public school educators. Much of this is degree-track coursework, and will ultimately result in the attainment of a professional degree (such as a Master of Education degree), or a new professional certification through the NH Department of Education (in areas such as Special Education, School Administration and Leadership, School Counselling, etc.).

Laconia Summer Institutes -- Each summer the educators of the Laconia School District have opportunities to attend professional development institutes that are organized by Laconia Administrators. A sampling of such institutes includes: Mahesh Sharma Mathematics Interventions (specific techniques to help strengthen student math ability), Mahesh Sharma Curriculum Course (staff will learn how to make mathematics program improvements to promote high levels of success for our students in mathematics), Reading Comprehension Instruction (staff will learn/reinforce the instructional techniques that are considered 'best practice' for the teaching of reading in elementary schools), Writing Workshop Instruction (staff will learn/reinforce the instructional techniques that are considered 'best practice' for the teaching of writing in elementary schools), and NWEA Measures of Academic Progress Data Analysis (staff will learn how to analyze NWEA assessment results, and use that information to improve learning in their classrooms).

Conferences and Workshops -- WHS Staff members also attend a variety of independent or team-based professional development activities away from our schools site. Some of these conferences include: RTI&I Leadership Institute (our team learned how to better lead the further develpment of our school's 'Response to Intervention and Instruction' program), ISTE (our team learn cutting edge techniques for integrating educational technology and 21st Century skill development into the everyday learning experience of our students), ASCD-Boston (a team attended a workshop on RtII & Differentiated Instruction and the common ground betwen these two approaches to meeting student learning needs), and the LRCIA Technology Institute (many Laconia teachers will work together to learn best practices for technology integration in our schools).

Team and School Based Initiatives -- This summer work for staff includes such opportunities as: School Summits (staff members come together to work on a specific issue or initiative -- i.e., School Climate, Grant Writing), Team Planning (grade level teachers come together to discuss, develop, and coordinate program for the coming year -- what they will do to meet curriculum standards in each subject area, with what materials, and using which instructional techniques), and Individual Classroom Community Set-Up -- teachers spend an exhaustive number of hours setting up their classroom community spaces to make them safe, inviting, developmentally appropriate, engaging, and conducive to high quality teaching and learning).

As you can see, at WHS the learning never stops, for kids or adults. We are a learning community dedicated to meeting the academic and social needs of our students, and the professional development needs of our staff. Our need for teaching and learning never ends; and niether do the broad opportunities for learning at Woodland Heights School.