Council on 21st Century Learning

Curriculum

Organization		Promising Practice

Bennett School District 29J Richard Coleman 303-644-3234 ext. 8203 coleman.richard@bennett.k12.co.us		The school district has an excellent relationship with Morgan Community College for post-secondary options, which allows high school students to earn college credits. This is a very popular program with the community, parents and students.

De Beque School District Doug Pfau De Beque School Superintendent 970-283-5418 dpfau@debeque.k12.co.us		We allow students to take online courses and courses at Mesa State to get dual credit. We also offer technology courses to all students K-12 to make sure that they are adept with technology.

Sheridan School District Dee Davis 720-833-6756 davisd@sheridan.k12.co.us		Arapahoe/Douglas Career and Technical School (ACTS) is a consortium of 5 school districts that provide career related opportunities for students. These students leave the building during the school day to participate in programs at other schools. The consortium offers 14 programs of study ranging from A+, Aviation to Graphic Design and Teacher Cadet. Sheridan offers transportation to nine of these programs. The master schedule is designed around these programs to insure that students will be allowed to participate.

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		Academy School District 20 has developed processes to help assure individual schools meet the various requirements of the district ET-IL plan, as well as integrate 21st century skills into their ET-IL and site plans. Each school’s ET-IL planning tool is completely aligned with the accreditation rubric, showing how ET-IL is integrated throughout the educational system. For instance, the “safe schools” accreditation rubric includes a requirement for schools to develop and implement an internet safety program to receive a status of “accredited.” The section on “Viable Curriculum” reveals that to be rated excellent a school must show that student performance is measured in all areas – including ET-IL.
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Teaching Practice

Organization		Promising Practice

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		To help individual schools implement the district ET-IL plan and integrate 21st century skills into their site plans, Academy School District 20 has created a rubric “planning tool” that schools use to guide their planning process for technology and information literacy instruction and assessment. The district has also aligned its ET-IL planning process with the district accreditation process – adding “look-fors” to the accreditation external review rubrics that include such things as evidence of collaboration among library media specialists, technology specialists and classroom teachers and links between the school’s ET-IL plan and site (SIP) plan.

Bennett School District 29J Richard Coleman 303-644-3234 ext. 8203 coleman.richard@bennett.k12.co.us		Each school building has a leadership team in place, which looks at school goals, curriculum and teaching practices and makes recommendations to the school administration on all of these.

Brush Public Schools Bret Miles 970-842-5176 bmiles@brushschools.org		We have taken the essential skills/power standards approach. Essential Skills are organized by quarter and every teacher is responsible for a formative assessment (common assessment for those in teams). The Essential Skills, the CSAP frame-works and our curriculum maps on our Wiki site to provide teachers instant access to the curriculum. This allows staff to meet the needs of students who are above and below their grade level. Teachers can create assessments, review the data, and plan interventions for students during their PLC time, which occurs every other week for 90 minutes. The professional development supports all the above activities.

South Conejos School District Ramona Garcia 719-376-6555 rgarcia@scsd.echalk.com		Some teachers are remaining after school to assist (tutor) students in areas where students do not understand or are falling behind during the regular school day. More one to one assisting.

RE-1 Valley School District Sterling, Colorado Ron Marostica, Assistant Superintendent 970-522-0792 extension 230 marosticar@re1valleyschools.org		RE-1 Valley School District successfully introduced Reading Recovery as a first grade intervention in 2006-2007. Second semester Reading Recovery staff went to our high schools and worked with identified struggling readers to provide one-on-one support. Reading Recovery staff continues to identify struggling readers in grades 3-12 to assist with reading interventions. The program provides individual reading support that older students have missed in their learning experience. Additionally, the Reading Recovery teachers are modeling sound reading instructional practices for secondary teachers.

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		At Mountain Ridge Middle School, teachers routinely plan together in a "backwards" fashion, starting with the desired learning outcome. All teams, the librarian, and the building technology coordinator work together to create lesson which guide students to forming essential questions. Students then go through the necessary steps to work either individually or collaboratively to locate and evaluate the information they need, compile that information to answer their original question, and create a forum within which to share that information with others. While these units of study are based on the IB Middle Years model, they could easily be adapted to other school settings. They reinforce those skills of collaboration, communication, and critical thinking that will allow them to learn and adapt in the 21st Century.
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Instructional Design

Organization		Promising Practice

De Beque School District Doug Pfau 970-283-5418 dpfau@debeque.k12.co.us		The district is part of the SMET (Standards Made Easy for Teachers) Partnership that has focused curriculum and teaching to the standards and made correlations to the state assessment practices. It is a very good resource for our teachers and has many other resources for training and professional development of our staff.

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		The district’s DECA program is acknowledged at both the state and national level as an outstanding program for providing students with the business and entrepreneurial skills to succeed in the 21st century. Writing business plans, interviewing for jobs, developing web pages, designing advertising campaigns are just a few of the opportunities junior and seniors have in this program. The entire community participates as judges in a DECA contest held in the fall of each year where students compete against others across the state for excellence in a variety of categories.

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		Working in conjunction with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Mountain College, Roaring Fork High School students are combining community college course work with internship experiences in businesses in the Carbondale Community. Business partners have committed to working with students to learn the business from the bottom up and to have the opportunity to work in the business on an ongoing basis after school and in the summers. Students are required to submit resumes and apply for the program and undergo interviews with the employer as well as the college and the high school. Businesses provide students with ongoing feedback concerning their understanding of all of the facets of the business. This program will soon be replicated in Glenwood Springs, another community in our district, again working in partnership with the local Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Mountain College.

RE-1 Valley School District Sterling, Colorado Ron Marostica, Assistant Superintendent 970-522-0792 extension 230 marosticar@re1valleyschools.org		The district’s new “Foundation” class for all freshmen students is designed to truly prepare students for a successful high school experience. The class is taught by various high school staff, including vocational/technology instructors and counselors. It provides extended “exploration” activities in all aspects of high school from academic opportunities, career choices, and extracurricular options. Parents and students are finding this required class provides a better understanding of how to optimize the high school experience and prepare for graduation.

RE-1 Valley School District Sterling, Colorado Ron Marostica, Assistant Superintendent 970-522-0792 extension 230 marosticar@re1valleyschools.org		District staff develop Preschool-Grade 12 curriculum with subject area committees under the direction of the assistant superintendent. The committees develop frameworks for each instructional area. After curriculum is developed and adopted, the committees select supporting materials and textbooks. They develop a very stringent template to send to publishers to find instructional materials that match our curriculum rather than matching the textbook. The interesting part of this process is how publishing company representatives have to prepare for our teaching staff. The staff is knowledgeable about what they need to support the adopted curriculum frameworks. The vendors have to answer the teachers’ instructional and teaching questions vs. the traditional presenting of all the “bells and whistles” of an adoption. The instructional staff are the experts!

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		With advisors from the non-profit Computers for Kids (C4K), student teams work on problems or projects submitted by local businesses. They access expertise worldwide to present a solution to the business partner, doing project planning, data analysis, complex research, interviewing, problem solving, and presentation planning. Students apply skills and knowledge in authentic ways through their work. Students discover new skills and talents, and gain confidence in their abilities as problem solvers in the world of business.

Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		Each year, Discovery Canyon Campus has a “Research Expo” with 6th grade students. Students are asked, “What do I want to learn that is new and challenging to me regarding earth, sea, and sky?” For Research Expo, 6th grade students develop personal guiding questions as related to this question. Students focus on the investigation process of the design cycle. Sixth graders learn to develop, evaluate, and categorize guiding and fact questions. They develop effective search strategies, evaluate print, human and electronic resources, complete note taking worksheets, and create bibliographies following MLA format. Throughout the process, students also keep learning logs that helped them to reflect on their accomplishments and problem solve their frustrations. Students are given rubrics to follow and are graded on the research process, the written paper and the presentation. Their final product is a poster board displaying three of their questions researched; their top choice question includes a hypothesis and annotated bibliography. Parents and community members are invited to the Research Expo culminating event – where students display their projects and talk about what they learned.

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		Roaring Fork High School, one of 4 in the district, is transforming into an international school, emphasizing learning in a global environment and project-based learning. Infusing the curriculum with an international perspective and 21st century learning skills, the school will encourage additional exchange students to participate in the program. The school offers flexible spaces for project teams, inviting collaboration among content areas.

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		The district recently brought the D20 TV production facility on line. This facility makes it possible to teach classes on video production, as well as offer opportunities for embedded video in online staff development, video production experiences for elementary and middle school students, and the creation of news magazine shows highlighting district programs and accomplishments produced by students. This program is especially well-suited for students who would like to explore this creative form of expression more fully. It can also be used to produce vodcasts for instructional use, whether student or teacher created. All aspects of video production are explored in depth, including production design, writing, on-air talent, and technical production activities.
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Assessment

Organization		Promising Practice

Bennett School District 29J Richard Coleman 303-644-3234 ext. 8203 coleman.richard@bennett.k12.co.us		Students are assessed twice a year before the CSAP is administered utilizing the MAP (Measure of Academic Progress). These results are then used to identify strengths and weaknesses and to adjust instruction accordingly.

Brush Public Schools Bret Miles 970-842-5176 bmiles@brushschools.org		Using a power standards approach, district teachers identify Essential Skills by quarter; and every teacher is responsible for a formative assessment (common assessment for those in teams). The Essential Skills, the CSAP frameworks and our curriculum maps on the district Wiki site provide teachers instant access to the curriculum. This allows staff to meet the needs of students who are above and below their grade level. Teachers can create assessments, review the data, and plan interventions for students during their PLC time, which occurs every other week for 90 minutes.

RE-1 Valley School District Sterling, Colorado Ron Marostica, Assistant Superintendent 970-522-0792 extension 230 marosticar@re1valleyschools.org		For the past three years, RE-1 Valley School District has been developing and refining a district-wide writing assessment based on the Six-Trait writing model. All instruction staff is involved in the administering and scoring of the assessment under the direction of the district writing proctors and scoring team. The results are used by all classroom teachers to improve writing skills across the curriculum. The design of the assessment impacts every student and impacts all curriculum areas.
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Professional Development

Organization		Promising Practice

De Beque School District Doug Pfau De Beque School Superintendent 970-283-5418 dpfau@debeque.k12.co.us		We provide two book studies per year that all our staff participate in to develop best practices and have the crucial conversations about our teaching and student learning.

Bennett School District 29J Richard Coleman 303-644-3234 ext. 8203 coleman.richard@bennett.k12.co.us		The school district has a staff development program which first involves new teachers in a supervised mentoring program. All staff development activities in each building are focused on the goals of the building and district. For instance, if raising math achievement is a building goal,, that is what the staff development focuses on.

Brush Public Schools Bret Miles 970-842-5176 bmiles@brushschools.org		The professional development supports all the Essential Skills activities at Brush (see Assessment). This year we have trainers in for Differentiated Instruction as well as Assessment. In addition to hired trainers, the rest of the PD offerings are not arranged until after each team has created their School Improvement Plan. which specifically asks for training or materials needed for the team to reach their goal they set following the Data Dialogue.

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		Every other month, we bring together the school librarians and instructional technology specialists from each of our schools for 2 ½ hours to focus on “Technology, Resources & Educating Kids.” Our focus has been on best practices to support integration of ET-IL and 21st century skills. Topics addressed last school year included looking at data to inform instruction in ET-IL, defining essential skills for the 21st century, strategies for collaborative planning, how to step up assignments to include inquiry and 21st century skills, internet safety and ET-IL assessment strategies. In our culminating meeting, we invited teachers who have collaborated with the librarians and technology specialists to share their successes with these practices. These “best practices” were video-taped and these examples will be made available to educators throughout the district.

Academy School District 20 Lynn Kintz 719-234-1316 lynn.kintz@asd20.org michael.doub@asd20.org		The district recently brought the D20 TV production facility on line. This facility makes it possible to teach classes on video production, as well as offer opportunities for embedded video in online staff development, video production experiences for elementary and middle school students, and the creation of news magazine shows highlighting district programs and accomplishments produced by students. This program is especially well-suited for students who would like to explore this creative form of expression more fully. It can also be used to produce vodcasts for instructional use, whether student or teacher created. All aspects of video production are explored in depth, including production design, writing, on-air talent, and technical production activities.
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Culture or Community

Organization		Promising Practice

Leigh McGown 970-945-9463 x101 lmcgown@mtnboces.k12.co.us		Professional Learning Communities at Yampah Mountain High support school culture which personalizes individual success for at-risk youth. The PLC is the action model—we use William Glasser’s, Choice Theory, as the guiding principles for our work.

Ramona Garcia 719-376-6555 rgarcia@scsd.echalk.com		After School Teaching for community members and parents in subjects such as basic computer skills, welding, quilting, music etc.

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		The district’s DECA program is acknowledged at both the state and national level as an outstanding program for providing students with the business and entrepreneurial skills to succeed in the 21st century. Writing business plans, interviewing for jobs, developing web pages, designing advertising campaigns are just a few of the opportunities junior and seniors have in this program. The entire community participates as judges in a DECA contest held in the fall of each year where students compete against others across the state for excellence in a variety of categories.

Roaring Fork School District Judy Haptonstall 970-384-6001 jhaptonstall@rfsd.k12.co.us		Working in conjunction with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Mountain College, Roaring Fork High School students are combining community college course work with internship experiences in businesses in the Carbondale Community. Business partners have committed to working with students to learn the business from the bottom up and to have the opportunity to work in the business on an ongoing basis after school and in the summers. Students are required to submit resumes and apply for the program and undergo interviews with the employer as well as the college and the high school. Businesses provide students with ongoing feedback concerning their understanding of all of the facets of the business. This program will soon be replicated in Glenwood Springs, another community in our district, again working in partnership with the local Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Mountain College.

RE-1 Valley School District Sterling, Colorado Ron Marostica, Assistant Superintendent 970-522-0792 extension 230 marosticar@re1valleyschools.org		The RE-1 Valley Board of Education reconfigured four neighborhood schools to two buildings -- a K-2 and 3-5. Staff is finding grade level meetings more meaningful to working with individual students and groups of students. The grade level teams support each other, students, and curriculum/instruction needs. At the secondary level, departmental meetings are used to address individual students’ learning needs. Special Education staff, regular classroom teachers, and administrators are talking about and connecting with students in more personal ways than in the past to help those students improve academic performance. This cultural change on identifying and working individually with students has positively impacted student achievement and interest in school.
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