The South East Education Cooperative along with input from its staff, superintendents, principals, and governing board created an Innovation fund in December of 2021 to help districts lift innovative projects up in their schools and communities. Applications must focus on innovation and cannot supplant any current work or initiatives. The goal is to encourage growth, expansion, and capacity building within the district(s) in our region. You can read the full Innovation Fund Guidelines for the 2022-2023 year here.
In its first year, three applications were submitted and funded through the newly established fund including Kindred, LaMoure, and Northern Cass. Learn more about each project below!
Essential Skills Expansion and Data Collection
Kindred Public Schools connected its innovation application to one of its strategic plan goals around Essential Skills and aligning programming and practices throughout the district. Kindred chose to utilize Innovation Funds to create a comprehensive assessment and screening system to assist counselors with being proactive in delivering direct and indirect student services to meet student needs.
Through using Mosiac by ACT and its comprehensive assessment system designed to measure five Essential Skills and two dimensions of school climate the district’s goal was to utilize the assessment data to measure growth and assist in facilitating conversations between students, parents, and educators.
In the year-end report, Kindred was able to share that it was able to assess 65% of students in the areas listed above and will continue to assess and implement the curriculum identified to support and strengthen areas of need. Continuation of the program will allow them to have spot screeners implemented this November and in March 2023 and post-assessment in May 2023. These assessments will enable the district to address areas of need to work on emotional health and academic progress while also improving relationships with school personnel as well as overall school safety. Student reports will then be available to share individually with students but also with parents and teachers so everyone is working together for student success. The district leadership will also gain insight into areas that need to be strengthened through individualized specialty programs, classroom support, and professional development.
Click here to view initial reports for the elementary and high school students generated in May 2022 for the year-end report on initial assessments to show the data available for more understanding and impactful conversations and decisions moving forward.
Project-Based Learning
LaMoure Public Schools layered their application on top of the professional learning between Cultivate21 and the school staff completed over the past two years to foster the development of hands-on learning with the teaching staff. This funding was focused on supporting each individual staff member to plan and implement two successful Project-Based Learning units in their curriculum area for the Fall of 2022.
Staff schedules were full and teachers didn’t have the extra time within the school year to develop and structure project-based learning lessons and projects. The Innovation Fund was able to support extra contract days during the summer months for educators to dedicate time in creating 24 lessons/projects to be implemented this fall.
LaMoure’s vision is to utilize the existing knowledge and put it into structured activities staff can implement and measure outcomes. The impact will ideally go beyond the K-12 staff and students and also impact the families and community as students take on projects that are directly related to their city.
As the new year began and these lessons/activities have begun implementation there has already been increased excitement and interest from both students and staff. Superintendent Mitch Carlson shared with us a city park project that the Business Class took on. In cooperation and planning with the LaMoure Park board to design, contruct and build a whiffle ball diamond at Sunset Park. The project also included students presenting their project and finance needs to the local Baseball Boosters who did contribute funds for the success of the project. The diamond will be completed this Fall and be utilized in the Spring of 2023! Take a peek at photos below showing the students work on the project.
Alternative Graduation Pathway
Northern Cass Public Schools directed their Innovation Fund application to add to the district’s competency-based system and work on developing an alternative graduation pathway for their learners. Their project was to build studios for levels 6-12 and pilot them with learners (at-risk and on-pace) during the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year. Utilizing internal expertise along with an outside consultant work with Building 21 and Eagle Academy the pilot engaged 15 educators (voluntary) across all levels in developing 25 studios.
The studios created were linked to content standards, addressed the district’s Portrait of a Learner competencies, and impacted all educators and learners PK-12 along with family involvement. The nine pilots tested in the Spring of 2022 engaged students wanting a different learning experience. These pilots allowed four learners to graduate high school (who otherwise wouldn’t have obtained the necessary credits) and five learners to explore passion areas and create things like graphic novels and podcasts to demonstrate their learning.
When learners were surveyed prior to the pilot, they shared their learning was relevant and self-directed less than 15% of the time. Every learner increased in their post-scores with the average going above 80% in both!
The district was also able to utilize the pilots and redesign their middle school level for the 22-23 school year for learners to engage in multiple studios for six-week sessions. The redesign will also include an expert coming ‘into’ the learning center, learners going to an expert outside the learning center, and the creation of authentic learning consumed by outside stakeholders via a presentation format for the community.
The long-term goal is to create an Alternative Pathway example through SB 2196 for other districts across the state to utilize if and when they want to move toward competency-based learning.
Click here to view samples of students’ final projects.
We look forward to many more innovative and impactful projects across our region through the utilization of the Innovation Fund. Please reach out to your superintendent if you have an idea for your district and community.
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