• Drop in trimester failures in courses from 700 in 2010-2011 to 365 in 2012-2013.
• Drop in behavior referrals from 8.1 per day in 2011-2012 to 5.45 per day in 2012-2013.  They had a total of 1406 office referrals in 2011-2012 and now have an attainable goal of 906 or less for 2012-2013.
• Increase in students involved in AP and honor classes from 664 in 2011-2012 to 936 in 2012-2013.  High School Principal Karianne Tharaldson Jones noted that "kids can choose to participate now in AP/honors courses; they don't have to wait to be invited."  

So how has Clinton High School achieved these changes?  It has been accomplished through a "systematic and streamlined approach," shares Superintendent Deb Olson.  Key supports that are in place include the following:

• Reteach and enrichment within classes, often resulting in "mixing the kids" on Friday's to assure the appropriate supports.  
• PLCs for teachers, counselors and administrators that assure common prep time, a focus on students and their learning, and identification of changes/supports to enable success. Each PLC addresses power standards, focus lessons, checks for understanding, analysis of data, and common formative assessments.  They meet weekly for 60 minutes and two times per month during early dismissal.  Data boards are shared with the entire staff three times per year. 
• CHS data teams that meet weekly to check on progress of each student, including academic, behavior, and attendance progress and determine if each is due to a "skill or will" deficit.  These teams meet every Wednesday in the data room to identify the  supports needed to enable success for the students.  They often lead to home visits, recommendations to teachers, assignment of students to study tables at lunch or after school, check in/check out, or escorts for students.  Close monitoring is making a difference! Interventions may last as short as a week if it is working or for the full trimester for ongoing support if needed.  
• Study Tables at Lunch:  These are held during lunch for students failing core courses in grades 9th and 10th. Junior/Senior study tables are based on trends in failures. Supports are provided to the students at the grade-level study tables by the At-Risk Staff - teachers, administrators, and para-professionals. There is also an AP/Honors Study Table for students with a C or below; these are monitored by AP teachers.   
• Contact log on Infinite Campus which has helped with streamlining supports and contacts.   
• Counseling program that assures classroom guidance lessons, homeroom lessons/activities, career seminars, 4-year plans and career/educational portfolios for all students. They also provide small-group work - e.g., 9th grade transition, anxiety, girls' leadership, study skills, individual counseling. 
• Homeroom Study Tables provided when a failure trend is recognized.  These are monitored by content teachers.
• Check in/Check Out and escorts to classes are provided as needed for issues related to attendance, academics, behaviors, and/or organization.
• 6th Period - After School Contracts:  When students are failing two or more classes, individual contracts are issued and students attend these study tables after school.  The at-risk staff members, who have a modified staff schedule, provide the needed support.
• Home Visits are made as needed and recorded in the Contact Log.   
• Reading Lab for students who received a non-proficient score in reading on the Iowa Assessments.  This pullout reading program meets twice per week.   The students are making an average of 1.1 to 1.24 year's growth in reading level after 10 weeks in the course. 

And it's all been done without adding personnel or extra dollars to the high school program.  Take time to visit this school on the move!    

• Responsibility:  Families are taking back responsibility for learning and choices are exploding.
• Expectations:
• Political consensus is that all students should be eligible and prepared for higher education.
• The "my way" generation expects customization for their learning.
• Aspirations:  The focus must be on higher-order skills, not standardized tests, to assure students' ability to create, perform, and persist.
• Content: It must go beyond textbooks and include online content and sophisticated learning programs that address learning level, interest, and modality.
• Pedagogy: It is all about being student centered, interactive, applied, and project-based learning.  Blended learning is key with customized learning experiences.
• Assessment:  Instant feedback is most important shift - for both students and teachers.
• Grouping:  Individual progress models will become the prominent mode of learning as well as small groups based on interest, skills, and purpose.
• Location:  Anytime!  Anywhere!  Certification may be place-based but education will be unbounded. 
• Culture: It will be mixed-age and in online, blended, and community ways. 
• Relationships:  Social networks will be the dominant organizing unit of learning.  While students will matriculate at their own rate, they will do most of their learning in a virtual community.  

Read this book to understand the predictions he is making:

• In 10 years most students in the United States will attend a blended school where students report to a physical space and most learning happens online.
• In 5 years science will confirm the obvious about how most boys learn and active learning models will be developed in response using expeditions, playlists, and projects.  
• In 5 years with a decade of data, second-generation recommendation engines will drive tutoring applications that are more effective than one-on-one sessions with a live tutor.
• In 10 years most learning platforms will feature a smart recommendation engine, similar to iTunes Genius, that will build recommended learning experiences for students.
• In 5 years information from keystroke data will unlock the new field of motivation research, yielding insights about what causes students to persist through difficult work.
• In 5 years instant feedback from learning games, simulations, and virtual environments will be widely used, resulting in more persistence and time on task.

And be sure to attend the Competency-Based Education Conference June 26-27, when you can meet Tom Vander Ark in person and learn more about the impact of digital learning on educators and students!  

Purpose:

• To expand the knowledge base of educators and others interested in competency-based education 
• To build the capacity of educators and others to transform the current system of education in Iowa to a system focused on personalized learning for each and every student

Featured Speakers:

Join us for learning and conversations with national leaders like Rose Colby, author of Off the Clock and a national consultant on competency-based education; Kathleen McClaskey and Barb Bray, consultants on personalized learning; Michael Soguero, Director of Professional Development at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Colorado; and Tom Vander Ark, author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning Is Changing the World and founder of GettingSmart.com.

And there will be several Iowans joining the conversation and sharing their expertise:  Dr. Jason Glass, Director of the Iowa Department of Education; CBE Task Force members Jeff Herzberg of Prairie Lakes AEA and Bridget Wagoner of Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District; and Representatives Tyler Olson, Renee Schulte (pending), and Cindy Winkler.

And Andrea Stewart, teacher in the Muscatine Community School district, will be one of several sharing how it is delivered in the classroom.   

Sessions will include among others:

• Define:  What is a competency?
• Design:  How do we design and assess competencies?
• Deliver:  What does it look like in my classroom?  

Mark your calendars now!   June 26 an 27!  Register for the Conference on the Iowa ASCD web site.  The fee is $250 for Iowa ASCD members and $295 for non-members. You may also  . . .  

• Mail a check/purchase order with date/name of conference and names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith, Drake University School of Education, 3206 University, Des Moines, IA  50311.
• E-mail a purchase order with name/date of conference and names of participants to Bridget A. Arrasmith at bridget.arrasmith@drake.edu. 
• FAX purchase order with name/date of conference and names of participants and grade level/role to Bridget A. Arrasmith at 515.271.2233.   

We hope you have been following the tweets on competency-based education from Iowa ASCD.  If not, follow us now on Twitter and review the CBE tweets. Watch for new ones coming out this next week! 

Educators agree that each child, in each school, in each community should be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. But how do schools arrive at this ideal? ASCD's third annual Whole Child Virtual Conference, "Moving from Implementation to Sustainability to Culture," has some ideas.

From May 6-10, 2013, ASCD will be offering educators around the globe 24 free sessions to help them implement and sustain a whole child approach to education and move towards making it part of their school's culture. Daily sessions will be presented live between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Session presenters include the following:

• Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Helsinki, Finland, and an internationally renowned education speaker and writer;
• Michael Fullan, professor emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and a worldwide authority on education reform;
• Andy Hargreaves, the Thomas More Brennan chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and an internationally recognized researcher, writer, consultant, and adviser;
• Educators from Milwaukie High School in Milwaukie, OR, the winners of the 2013 Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award; and
• Prominent ASCD authors, experts, and education thought leaders Thomas Armstrong, Yong Zhao, Eric Jensen, William H. Parrett and Kathleen M. Budge, and Wendy L. Ostroff.