Common Principle
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Implications for Reading VSC
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Implications for Math VSC
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1. The school should focus on helping young people learn to use their minds well. Schools should not be comprehensive if such a claim is made at the expense of the school's central intellectual purpose.
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>Assess & revisit relative focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, & comprehension as appropriate PK-12
> Ensure reading & writing across the curriculum
> Focus on high-order questions &
reading processes
> Emphasize “extend, connect, clarify” from MD MSA BCR rubric
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> Assess & revisit relative focus on algebra, patterns or functions; geometry; measurement; statistics; probability; number relationships & computation as appropriate PK-12
> Focus on application across standards & skills
> Emphasize problem-solving in all areas
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2. The school's goals should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. While these skills and areas will, to varying degrees, reflect the traditional academic disciplines, the program's design should be shaped by the intellectual and imaginative powers and competencies that the students need, rather than by "subjects" as conventionally defined. The aphorism "less is more" should dominate: curricular decisions should be guided by the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement rather than by an effort to merely cover content.
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> Create grade level & cross grade level curriculum maps that articulate VSC focuses
> Develop staff capacity to look at student work using NSRF protocols & practices
> Develop multidisciplinary units that emphasize reading, writing, & mathematics processes across the curriculum
> Plan, engage students in and assess deep understanding of key content
> Include special education and Title I staff and students in all curricula
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> Create grade level & cross grade level curriculum maps that articulate VSC focuses
> Develop math units that require application and encourage differentiation
> Develop “math across the curriculum” schoolwide, grade-level, and classroom practices
> Develop staff capacity to look at student work using NSRF protocols & practices
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3. The school's goals should apply to all students, while the means to these goals will vary as those students themselves vary. School practice should be tailor-made to meet the needs of every group or class of students.
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> Create profiles of individual students
> Generate individual goals & teaching plans for individual and groups of learners
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4. Teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Efforts should be directed toward a goal that no teacher have direct responsibility for more than 80 students in the high school and middle school and no more than 20 in the elementary school. To capitalize on this personalization, decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students' and teachers' time and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the principal and staff.
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> Encourage student choice as appropriate within skill clusters and assignments
> Emphasize differentiation of instruction as means of reaching universal high standards
> Engage in Lesson Study as form of teacher collaboration & professional development
> Assist in design of multiple assessments of key skills
> Revisit grouping practices
> Create student data folders to set goals & monitor progress
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5. The governing practical metaphor of the school should be student-as-worker, rather than the more familiar metaphor of teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be coaching, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves.
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> Plan for & monitor levels of student engagement
> Balance teacher-directed learning with expectations for learner application & independence
> Emphasize learning (not coverage) as goal of teaching
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6. Teaching and learning should be documented and assessed with tools based on student performance of real tasks. Students not yet at appropriate levels of competence should be provided intensive support and resources to assist them quickly to meet those standards. Multiple forms of evidence, ranging from ongoing observation of the learner to completion of specific projects, should be used to better understand the learner's strengths and needs, and to plan for further assistance. Students should have opportunities to exhibit their expertise before family and community. The diploma should be awarded upon a successful final demonstration of mastery for graduation - an "Exhibition." As the diploma is awarded when earned, the school's program proceeds with no strict age grading and with no system of credits earned" by "time spent" in class. The emphasis is on the students' demonstration that they can do important things.
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> Design exhibitions that require students to defend learning at high levels
> Engage families in student exhibitions
> Maximize curricula by focusing on recursive focuses across subject areas
> Collaborate to design data collection tools to enhance understanding of student learning challenges
> Use NSRF processes to look at student work as a form of assessment
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7. The tone of the school should explicitly and self-consciously stress values of unanxious expectation ("I won't threaten you but I expect much of you"), of trust (until abused) and of decency (the values of fairness, generosity and tolerance). Incentives appropriate to the school's particular students and teachers should be emphasized. Parents should be key collaborators and vital members of the school community.
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> Emphasize “rigor as an act of caring”
> Reshape community engagement and support
> Create opportunities for authentic leadership among all school community members
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8. The principal and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first (teachers and scholars in general education) and specialists second (experts in but one particular discipline). Staff should expect multiple obligations (teacher-counselor-manager) and a sense of commitment to the entire school.
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> Align and monitor curricula PK-5
> Provide seamless transitions for learners across grade levels
>Look at student work PK-5
> Maximize varied talents of school
community members
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9. Ultimate administrative and budget targets should include, in addition to total student loads per teacher of 80 or fewer pupils on the high school and middle school levels and 20 or fewer on the elementary level, substantial time for collective planning by teachers, competitive salaries for staff, and an ultimate per pupil cost not to exceed that at traditional schools by more than 10 percent. To accomplish this, administrative plans may have to show the phased reduction or elimination of some services now provided students in many traditional schools.
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> Align available resources to support clearly articulated goals
> Evaluate uses of resources in terms of student learning
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10. The school should demonstrate non-discriminatory and inclusive policies, practices, and pedagogies. It should model democratic practices that involve all who are directly affected by the school. The school should honor diversity and build on the strength of its communities, deliberately and explicitly challenging all forms of inequity.
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> Enlarge multicultural literature and nonfiction reading selections
> Honor mathematical thinking in equal proportion with reading/language
> Pose questions of equity of opportunity
> Pose questions of equity of results
> Expand repertoire of teaching strategies
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