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8/20/2019 Piedmont City School District: Piedmont Middle School (271752973)
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Piedmont Middle School will challenge the status quo for what a successful ruraldistrict school can look like.
M ATT AKIN , S UPERINTENDENT , PIEDMONT C ITY S CHOOL DISTRICT
PIEDMONT CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTPIEDMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL
The Vision: Piedmont City School Dis-trict is a high-performing district thatlaunched the “mPower Piedmont”initiative in 2010 to create citywidewireless Internet access, provide lap-
tops to every student, and invest indigital content. The eorts improvedstate assessment scores. Even thoughgraduates were well-prepared, manyremained in poverty due to limited op-portunities in the region or limited ex-posure to college and career options.A Gallup poll of students revealed thattheir sense of hope, engagement, andwell-being was troublingly low.
District leaders decided to createa new school and community cul-
ture lled with hope and opportunitythrough “mBolden Piedmont” by re-designing teaching and learning withthe now available technology, start-ing in middle school. They wanted toprovide a more enriched educationalexperience, increasing exposure tocareers and college through careerimmersions and global project-basedlearning opportunities.
The personalized, blended learningschool model fosters students’ abilityto set and achieve goals, solve prob-
lems, and develop important non-cog-nitive skills like grit and tenacity.
The Academic Model: Advanced Mastery: Piedmont
expects students to master statestandards through hands-on proj-ects, original creations, and experi-ments, not just multiple-choice tests.Teachers guide students to advancethrough standards using adap-tive digital content at an individualpace while demonstrating deeper
understanding of core conceptsthrough interdisciplinary projectsand performance assessments. Thecurriculum is not bound by grade levels or seat time.
Relevance: The school also emphasizes relevant learning experiencesand connections to people in the locacommunity and beyond, drawing a di-rect line to students’ futures. Studentsmight share a new robot design witha grad student at Jacksonville StateUniversity or present a strategic planto local business leaders for improving Main Street. And students takesurveys regularly to discover careerinterests; teachers then create learn
ing opportunities relevant to each student’s life goals.Student Ownership: With 24/7
citywide Internet access and devicesfor each student, anytime, anyplacelearning is a reality for all studentsDuring Class Time, students have control over their learning pace and theyhave choice in demonstrating mas-tery through digital content and project-based learning.
Students self-direct their learningduring My Time, a daily ex block
for independent learning that canbe used for remediation, contentmastery, advanced mastery, projectcompletion, and career explorationStudents work o of action plans theymake during Goal Time.
Students meet in small teamsduring Goal Time (aka Team Timewith a teacher who serves as theirmentor/advisor throughout middleschool. Students set short and longterm goals, experience hands-on
CHANGING RURAL STUDENTS’ FUTURES WITH RELEVANT,ENGAGING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
AT A GLANCE:Start Date: Fall 2014
Grades Served: 6-8
Location: Piedmont, AL
Operator: Piedmont City School District
Operator Type: DistrictSetting: Rural
Students at Start: 275
Students at Capacity: 290
KEY FEATURES:
Complete Redesign
Flipped Classroom,
Individual Rotation, Flex
Blended Model
Competency-Based
Learning
Project-Based andExperiential Learning
Higher Education and
Community Partnerships
MODEL TOOLBOX:Learning Management System:Blackboard, Ed Elements
Student Information System:
STI’s InformationNOW, Ed Elements
Gradebook: Blackboard, MasteryConnect
Assessment Tools andApproaches: Mastery Connect
Implementation Partner: Ed Elements
Digital Content Providers:Compass Odyssey, IXL Math,TenMarks, Classworks, Think ThroughMath, Discovery Ed, Brain Pop, StudyIsland, No Red Ink, Stride Academy,Global Scholar, Mathalicious, ReexMath, iStation
Hardware: Macbook Air
8/20/2019 Piedmont City School District: Piedmont Middle School (271752973)
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nextgenlearning.org
Expansionto 5th Grade
50%
11%
learning, and interact with collegestudents, professors, or workingprofessionals.
The Organizational Model: Theschool has taken a phased ap-proach to implementing its redesign.Through ongoing professional de-velopment, each subject-area teach-ing team is building expertise in oneaspect of the model each year over
three years.Teachers spend about half of daily
My Time analyzing student data withtheir grade level teams and they par-ticipate in bi-weekly professional de-velopment sessions on small groupinstruction, one-to-one instruction,project-based learning, and data
analysis.In partnership with Jacksonville
State University, Piedmont is creating a corps of blended learning teachers for Piedmont and surrounding dis-tricts. Under the guidance of masterteachers, student teachers benetfrom year-long, hands-on training inthe district’s blended model.
The Operator: The district is lo-
cated in a small community of 5,000residents in northeast Alabama andserves about 1,200 students in theregion. After three years of phasingin the mBolden model at the middleschool, it will be scaled up to the highschool and down to the elementaryschool. Middle school teachers will
serve as the core group of train-ers for district-wide professionadevelopment.
As a member of the Digital Prom-ise League of Innovative Schools andVerizon Innovative Learning Schoolsas well as a founding member of theAlabama-based Collaborative Regional Education (CORE) initiativePiedmont has multiple networks
through which to disseminate bestpractices across the state and country. Piedmont City School Districtrecognizes it can become a nationamodel of innovation for rural schoolsand districts—the kind of districtsthat serve the majority of students inover half the states.
BLENDED SUBJECTS:Math, English/Language Arts,
Science, Social Studies
School URL: http://www.piedmontmiddle.org/ Operator URL: http://www.piedmont.k12.al.us/ | Contact: Matt Akin, [email protected]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Black & HispanicStudents
Free & ReducedLunch Students
Percentageof Student Time Using
Digital Content for CoreLiteracy and Math
BY THE NUMBERS:Year 1 public revenue per pupil:$6,893
Year 1 expenses per pupil: $7,251
Year 4 revenue per pupil: $7,346
Year 4 expenses per pupil: $7,209
Years to sustainability: 4
© 2015 EDUCAUSE. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
To manage the redesign of an existing school, Piedmont has a three-year plan. For Class Time, teachers build their expertise in one area of the modeleach year, starting with either project-based learning, integrating digital content, or eective advisory time. To rollout competency-based projects inClass Time, focusing on advanced mastery, teachers began by identifying critical standards for learning and are gradually implementing the signicantpedagogical shifts required by the model—starting with projects as assessment. Resulting interdisciplinary project-based opportunities evolve bysubject area and by the depth of the project. The school is phasing in key elements of Goal Time and My Time in similar ways.
64%
YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
CLASS TIME Teacher Expertise: Areas of modelwhere grade level teaching teams
are experts
1 2 3
Advanced Mastery: Phases ofimplementation of competency-based, project-based learning
Projects asassessment
Projects aslearning
Refne the
model
GOAL TIME Partnerships: Grades supportedby relationships with homegrownprofessionals and colleges
Grade 8 Grades 7, 8 Grades 6, 7, 8
Exploratories: Number of class-based and online Exploratoriesoered
4 8 12
MY TIME Flex Time: Percent of time spent inMy Time
20% 35% 50%
Digital Content: Number ofproviders teachers use
2-4 3-5 4-6
Expansionto 9th Grade
PHASED IMPLEMENTATION