Nothing Normal about this New: One School’s Approach to Connecting, Engaging, and Learning

There are so many things we took for granted during what we are now calling “regular school.” We were so comfortable that we didn’t stop to question things--not only tangible things like photocopiers and hallway fist-bumps, but things like our definitions of engagement and learning. That’s all changed now.

Schools all over the world are scrambling to piece together plans and systems and structures to maintain or replicate or recreate a school experience for our students. We are all doing the best we can with the resources we have in the contexts we woke up in a few weeks or months ago (is that all it’s been?!). But one thing I think we’ve all discovered is that there is no way that what we’re doing (or trying to do) now is anything like school as we knew it.

In Vermont, we had two stages to this new normal: Maintenance of Learning and Remote Learning. These were dictated and defined by the state. The Maintenance stage could not include new learning, assessments, or mandatory work. It was put in place to provide families and schools time to develop systems to maximize equity, including ways to provide essential services and access to education for all students. During this stage, which was three weeks long, schools worked to create systems, structures, and strategies for stage two (while still providing food and essential services to all of their students). When we entered stage two, which started officially this week, the goal was to add accountability and learning to the mix. Schools were required to create learning plans and send these to the state, and our goals had to include how we were going to deliver and assess learning for all of our students.

In an effort to document this experience more than anything else (but maybe to provide something that someone else can take and revise and improve), we thought we would share what our school system is doing and what we are doing as teachers within our system.

Defining a Purpose: Our principal, Adam Bunting, declared within the first week of the first stage that the driving values of our school throughout the entire remote experience would be Connection, Engagement, and Learning, in that order. All systems designs and all decisions made were filtered through these lenses--and if the plans didn’t work to maximize these values in this order, then it was back to the drawing board. The clarity and conviction behind this statement gave all of us--school leaders, teachers, students, and community members--a solid foundation and shared purpose.

The Student Schedule: Once we had a shared purpose, we could begin to develop systems and structures. Our student schedule for Maintenance Learning (stage one) provided a balance of synchronous and asynchronous opportunities, all optional. We asked for feedback from teachers, families, and students after two weeks, and then designed our Remote Learning (stage two) schedule to better support connection, engagement, and learning. See the explanations in italics beneath the schedule for details about each part. (Note: The teacher schedule includes optional PD from 9-10 each morning (specific topics posted weekly with links to hangouts), and optional faculty meetings two afternoons a week.)

Agenda, Task, and Materials: Teachers will post agendas, tasks, and materials for the day’s learning by 9 a.m. Students should plan for approximately 90 minutes of work per week for each class; this includes class meeting times as well as the time it takes to make sense of the task, access input, think, and demonstrate learning through output. Teaches will use the scheduling function in Google Classroom so that these are posted at the correct time and day and that students are not overwhelmed by posts at all times of the day/week. *AP courses will follow this expectation as well, unless the class has not completed the abbreviated curriculum published by the College Board.

Class Meeting Times: To maintain our strong classroom communities, all class meetings should ideally begin with a live Hangout for the class during which the teacher explains the week’s assignments and provides some direct instruction. If this is not possible, teachers should post a short video/screencast to meet this purpose. Following the live Hangout, the remainder of class meeting time could be used for quick check in for small groups or individual students, discussion, or work time.

Connect Time: Teachers will be available every day to answer questions from any of their students, through email or Hangout from 2:30-3:00. We understand that there may be days when this is not possible, but having a consistent time when students can access teachers is important.

Exploration Menu: Each week, a menu of options categorized by Think, Feel, Act are posted. Students who want to do any of these activities can document them and send photos to Seth, Jamie, and Tim (This is not mandatory; it’s a way to build community and share with each other).



Grading and Reporting: One of the most complicated decisions our school had to make was what to do about grades and transcripts. We are a standards-based school that provides end of course letter grades, and these grades inform the student GPAs on the transcript. When physical school closed for us, we had just wrapped up quarter 3, so all students had what we call Grade Snapshots that represented their current achievement of the course learning targets. Our quarters are cumulative, not averaged together, so the Q3 snapshot was an accurate communication of evidence students had provided up to that point; however, in most classes, had we continued as normal, students would have had many more opportunities to relearn, improve skills, and ultimately increase their target scores by the end of the year. This was particularly true in many of our semester courses, where the snapshot grades represented a small (and potentially misleading) sample size of evidence.

We spent a lot of time researching what other schools and colleges were doing, what states were recommending, and what leading experts on grading, equity, and assessment were suggesting. While there is no perfect model, we finally decided on the following, which was presented to faculty first, and after some revision, to students and families:

For year-long courses:

• End of year letter grade: Because students had the opportunity to provide a significant body of evidence of learning throughout the year, teachers can provide accurate scores for the course learning targets that were instructed, practiced, and assessed. Students will receive a letter grade on their transcripts based on these targets. In order to maximize equity and opportunity, the letter grade that students had at the last snapshot cannot go down during this new phase of learning, but can be raised through work they do the rest of the year. In order to receive a grade on the transcript, students must participate in Remote Learning; students who do not participate will get an Incomplete on their transcript.

For semester courses:

• Pass with Distinction or Incomplete: Students may not have had the opportunity to provide a sufficient body of evidence of learning for second semester courses. Teachers may not be able to provide accurate scores for learning targets in second semester courses at this time, so students will receive one of the following scores on their transcript: Incomplete or Pass with Distinction. 
• Incomplete (Inc): The following situations will result in an Inc on the student’s transcript, and students will have an opportunity to change this after the school year. Students who had a composite score below a 2 at the Q3 Snapshot and do not participate during Remote Learning to improve these scores, OR students who showed sufficient evidence of achievement at the Q3 Snapshot and did not participate during Remote Learning.
• Pass with Distinction (PD): Students who show sufficient evidence of achievement (either at the time of the Q3 snapshot or by the end of the year) and continue to participate during Remote Learning will receive a PD on their transcript.

Note about Grading and Transcripts: There may be individual circumstances where the above will need to be amended. For students with specific situations that may require other options, please contact your House Counselor and we will work together to ensure that no harm is done.

Originally, we had gone with 3 levels for semester courses: Inc, Pass, and Pass with Distinction. After many days of intense conversations about equity, access, and the extraordinary circumstances that a global pandemic brings, the decision was to simplify to 2 levels. Our leadership team felt strongly that keeping Pass with Distinction (rather than Pass) was an important symbolic recognition of how challenging these times are for so many in our community.

Assessment, Tracking, and Feedback

Once we had decided how to grade and report, we needed to develop some guidelines for assessment, tracking, and feedback that supported the purpose (connect, engage, and learn) as well as the new grading and reporting decisions. Here is the document we developed to help guide teacher choices.

Classes

We use KUDs as our curriculum documents at CVU, simple backwards-design templates that outline what students will Know, Understand, and be able to Do at the end of a learning experience. Teachers were asked to revise their existing KUDs or develop new ones for this remote period of learning. Our leadership team gave us all the option to either significantly pare down and modify what we had planned to do, or to completely veer from the existing KUD and develop a plan that we felt might be more engaging, relevant, or accessible. Because we needed to document curricular plans for the state, these KUDs provided us a way to be accountable to Vermont while also using what we know about learning design to prioritize our outcomes. As an example, here’s the KUD and revised plan for the course we teach: Think Tank: Remote Learning 2020.

Next Steps?

Our district is about to go on our spring vacation, which seems really strange. CVU created a menu of opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and families to stay connected and engaged over this coming week of break, as we know that cutting off contact may not be the best thing for some members of our community. As for what happens when we get back...who knows. There are so many things that change from day to day--for all of us collectively and for each of us individually. Planning seems virtually impossible, whether at the class level or the school level. What we do know is that we will continue to get feedback from all members of the community and revise and iterate as much as we can. We will continue to design opportunities that maximize and support connection, engagement, and learning (in that order!). And we will continue to do what CVU does best: take care of ourselves, take care of each other, and take care of the place.