Learning Outcomes update

Next week's faculty meeting will once again cycle back to the topic of Learning Outcomes. A critical component of a unified educational program, Learning Outcomes (also called Expected School-wide Learning Results, and/or Core Competencies) will help direct our process of curriculum review and revision in the 2011-12 school year, and were identified by Mitch as one of the strategic priorities for our ongoing program improvement process for this year. Faculty have already met to discuss the development of these outcomes four time this year, and we have solicited their input and feedback in a variety of ways:

- In early October, we asked them to complete "Y-charts" (a technique drawn from our work with Positive Discipline) on eight core competencies drawn from The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, a direction that was spearheaded by late Head of School Janet Stork in the spring of 2008-09, including a) critical thinking and problem solving, b) collaboration and leadership, c) agility and adaptability, d) initiative and entreprenuerialism, e) oral and written communication, f) accessing and analyzing information, g) curiosity and imagination, and h) self-knowledge and self-awareness (we blogged about this on Oct. 7; you can watch a video of Tony explaining these ideas here);

-In late October, we had them share how important each of these competencies was to their own teaching and perception of students at their grade levels, in groups of ECC through 3rd grade, and 4th through 8th grade. Importantly, using a 7-point Likert scale, only "initiative" and "accessing information" scored below a 5.5 in composite relevance to the faculty, at 5.2, while the others ranged from 5.7 to 6.4, indicating great agreement among faculty across grade levels about the appropriateness of these broad ideas;

- In November, faculty discussed the idea and language of competencies, and used the Circle of Viewpoints thinking routine (a technique drawn from our work with Harvard's Project Zero) to get inside each other's understanding of how learning outcomes might alter the way they conceive of and design curriculum (we blogged about this on Nov. 17);

-In February, faculty met to review the timeline for this process for the rest of the year; reaffirm that while expected school-wide learning results do not lead to the problems of standardization and focused testing that affect many public and traditional schools, they do designate areas in which we believe all students should become competent, and many should master, by the time they leave TBS; and complete a survey on "Trends and Forces In the World" that asked faculty to envision the future needs of students as people, citizens, and workers.

Going forward this spring, we'll be presenting a draft of TBS learning outcomes to faculty at our March 23rd meeting. We'll take their input and revise that draft into a second version, which we'll bring back to the faculty at an April meeting, and then go through the feedback and revision process one more time, before bringing them a final version of these outcomes in May. By including faculty so thoroughly in the design of the learning outcomes, we believe that we set them up for maximum success in implementing these ideas in their curriculum, and in working together to revise the curriculum next year.

We look forward to sharing a systematic and integrated set of TBS learning outcomes with all of our families later this spring, once this intensive process is complete!