 I think it's about time for us to come together and start the important work of the day if we could all gradually find our way to our seats. I'll start by briefly introducing myself. My name is Aidan Lodge. I'm a senior at People's Academy in Morrisville. And for the past two years, I've been working with Up for Learning's Communicating School Redesign Initiative with a small group of students and teachers in really communicating and facilitating our school's transition to proficiency-based learning. And how we want to start today is really looking at why we're all here. As I think that needs to be the driving force behind this important work. So I'll briefly start by saying I'm here because I believe deeply in equity and opportunity for both my generation and those generations to come and the vital role that our schools have in doing so. And I'll pass it off to you, Ben. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Ben Freeman, and I'll introduce myself a little bit more fully in a moment, but I just wanted to share that I'm here today to help amplify and support the transformative work that's happening in schools across the state to move towards a more just, joyful, and sustainable future. And I'm Helen Beatty. I'm the founder and executive director for Up for Learning. And I'm here in support of educational agenda in Vermont that I think is one to be a national model and proven to be able to best meet the needs of all students and thrilled to be able to celebrate it today. All right, so now if we could have you all share while you're here, if you could maybe look to someone that you don't already know. I know we all tend to congregate with those we do now. And yeah, so if you look to someone at another table and tell them why you're here today. I was up those last thoughts of why you're here. So we just wanted to share with you what's the picture for these next two hours. And we built these two hours around three different objectives. The first one is to honor and celebrate the efforts of everybody who has been doing this hard work of implementing proficiency-based learning for the last five years, a moment to stop and look at the incredible accomplishments, what's been learned, what's been established and then to move on to. Trying to capture the depth of wisdom which already exists in this room by sharing our stories of success and our strategies of success that really aid in building understanding and support for proficiency-based learning. And then really moving towards capacity building. How do we take the lessons that have been learned from across the state and in this room and build our capacity to communicate and effectively support those who are doing the hard work to transition into a robust system of proficiency-based learning that really gets at the deep issues around equity and sustainability and joy in our society which is ultimately part of what we're here working for today. And we wanna thank. So before we get launched too far in, we did wanna sort of frame things a little bit and start by giving some appreciation. And one is this event has come together in really pretty short notice and we're really appreciative of support, financial support and sort of network support that we got from the Alchemist Foundation specifically for this project and also from the Bay and Paul Foundations and the Vermont Community Foundation who support up for learning and Vermont Learning for the Future's ongoing project-based work. So we wanted to start with that and then also just a pause for a moment and recognize and appreciate the support and the privilege that we all have to be here in this room today. And to understand that those of us who are here and who are fortunate enough to be able to be in this place and this time are living in a place and in a way that is highly privileged and it's a responsibility and really it's a part of our own work to get to real issues of deep equity and to disrupt the systems of inequity that we can come here together today to do that work. So I just wanna pause for a moment and appreciate those who are not in the room and think to ourselves who we might need to reach out to and to understand more deeply in order to really do this work with integrity. Thanks. Before I pass the mic off I just wanna explain a little bit more about Vermont Learning for the Future and what my role is with that organization. I'm a network coordinator of a collective impact network. And what that means is that I'm standing here today trying to represent the efforts and the values and the passions and the goals of a wide swath of folks working across the educational sector in Vermont working towards shared goals around equity, sustainability and joy. With the understanding that those are critical elements of our educational system that we're seeking to create and to transform towards and that doing that work will move our whole society towards society that is more just, joyful and sustainable. So my work here today is really is to support all of that other work that's happening across the state and to try to find ways to amplify what's happening already and give support to that work. So just a quick story about upper learning. Some of you may know of our work. I look at around the room at some familiar faces. We began 11 years ago and we began with a mission to elevate the roles and responsibilities of young people in education in learning and in school redesign. Because we believe so deeply in their capacity as change agents, the brightness of their partnership within this process and experience of education. And we at every turn look for opportunities where they can step into meaningful roles in partnership with adults to be part and parcel of the process of changing schools. So five years ago as it relates to this convening Act 77 and proficiency-based learning became enacted. And we actually went to the agency of education, Tom Alderman and John Fisher at the time and wondered if there might be a role where we could help in messaging the why of proficiency-based learning, personalized learning and flexible pathways. That if we go into change without a plan to build understanding and support, we invite a really tough uphill trajectory. But when we plant the seeds and the understanding for these important changes and why they matter, then we set up implementation in a way that really expedites the change process. So we actually, with the support of the agency of education, created this effort, communicating school redesign. And that has mobilized 19 high school youth adult teams over the last five years who've learned communications theory and gone out and run their own campaigns, these youth adult teams doing that deeply locally as well as some state level work and producing of resources. So we've been with this for a while and committed, so committed, to being able to support this trajectory. We know it's hard work and we know in any change process there are waves of ups and downs and really felt like this convening was at a time where people need to hear, this is good work, this is the right direction, this matters, this serves our young people and our teachers better than any other formula we can think of. And so to take this moment and be able to affirm that, but also network us, like it feels really lonely sometimes when we're out in the field doing this school by school or group by group, but we know it's that quest is happening everywhere. So what better thing to do than to get us in the same room, to celebrate where we are and to be able to capture the wisdom to help expedite moving forward. So that's what excites me about today. As a school psychologist, I just saw so clearly that this is the pivot point for serving kids, for making school psychologists have fewer referrals. So each of you had your own reasons, let's kind of bask in them for these two hours and move together to whatever way we can find a collective voice or be energized, both informed and energized by one another. That's kind of our rallying here and our opportunity. So thrilled to see this room. This was like three weeks in the making guys and to see all of you here, I think is testimony to the need for us to be forward moving, to be able to be strength based and solution focused as a theme because we know that works, not shame and blame and explore how many ways you guys have been able to create that understanding of the why, find that traction and be sustained and committing through those waves to make this a reality, the deepest reality it can be. It's a process and we need to celebrate some time. So here we go. I do wanna honor what happened a little earlier today. We had, she's looking at me, Kiana and Natalie, would you like to stand up please? They just gave testimony at the House Ed Committee on their experience and valuing a proficiency based learning along with Aiden. So a round of applause for her. And Tom, would you just stand up? I think, and John Fisher wanted to be here, he almost was here, but then he got sent to Seattle, but you and John were absolutely instrumental in pushing this legislation through and having such a deep rich vision. So a round of applause for your contribution. It's me. Keep going. It's me, okay. So what we're gonna do to bring us into this topic of proficiency based learning, we're just gonna kick it off and the why particularly. A couple of years, three years ago I think, we made a whiteboard animation called What's the Deal with Proficiency Based Learning? We vetted it by students throughout its entire scripting. It's actually narrated by a Harvard student. So we're just gonna start off by letting you sink into this iteration of the why. There's like five or six good reasons there that I invite you to listen for and just as a reminder. And then you're gonna do more talking about even a more expanded concepts of why. So here we go. This is What's the Deal with Proficiency Based Learning and how many whys can you find? What's the deal with proficiency based learning? Hi, my name's Onika, Vermont High School student. You may have noticed there's a lot of buzz and activity around school change these days with both teachers and students working to shift the current system to something that will improve learning and teaching even more. One main focus right now is proficiency based learning, also known as PBO. It is a way to personalize learning and assessment so that you can learn at your best case and demonstrate your learning in different ways. Now, I know many of you like the system the way it is, but once you understand how you can play a bigger role in shaping your education and monitoring your progress, it will become both more challenging and more fun. Why change proficiencies? Are rapidly changing worlds? One reason we are changing to a proficiency based system is because the world around us is changing. Schools are responding by redefining the ways we learn and how that learning is assessed. In order for us to be effective in whatever path we choose after graduation, we need to be truly prepared. Reading doesn't tell the whole story. Another part of why schools are moving towards proficiencies is that using only letter grades is a pretty limiting way to assess learning. Let's say you mess up early in the year and get a zero, like not handing in an assignment or bombing a big test. You can usually never get your grade back up, even if you've figured out the material later on. In the old grading system, your final grade is based on an average of all assignments. In the new system, you get to keep working on something until you get it. So it more accurately reflects what you know and can do. Wouldn't you rather have your grade represent what you can actually do through this type of meaningful assessment? You see, what we sometimes call failure is simply another step in the learning process. Since proficiency systems don't penalize us for making mistakes along the way, we can take risks and learn more. After all, none of us knew how to ride a bike the first time we got on it, right? Proficiencies match the way the brain works. We know each of us learns different subjects at different rates. Proficiency-based learning lets people advance through school at their own pace. I may be great in math and be able to pick up the pace in that subject, but I might need more time to master science. Proficiencies allow us to match our pace of learning in each subject. With more time, practice, feedback, and support, I can reach proficiency even in challenging subjects. Proficiencies personalize learning. Finally, proficiency-based learning is more personalized, so you can learn the content and demonstrate your learning in different ways, not just with tests and essay. What are proficiencies? Being proficient at something includes both knowledge and skills. Let's take, for example, driving a car. Not only does a licensed driver need to intellectually know and understand all the complexities of driving a car and the rules of the road, she also needs to apply that knowledge by actually driving. Proficiency-based learning is the same way. Not only do you need to know content in a subject, but you also need to know how to apply it, and usually it takes practice to really learn these skills. Just like learning to parallel park. Almost. Closer. Got it. Here's an example of a proficiency in global citizenship. It reads, I can propose solutions to local and world issues by using geographic tools to analyze data and examine cultural information. It's cool that it's written that way because it's really specific about what I need to learn, figuring out how to use geographic tools and data to explore an issue in my town or the world that interests me. Maybe something like using GIS neighborhood information to coordinate recycling pickup so there are less trucks on the road. Then I can demonstrate my learning by presenting at a community meeting on how to reduce pollution. What I'm learning is clear, relevant, meaningful, and I have more say in how I get there. Proficiencies let us spend less time memorizing facts and more time doing active and applied learning. In this case, the learning equation looks like this. Knowledge equals identifying a world issue. Skills equals analyzing and using geographic tools to figure out a creative solution. Proficient equals presenting an evidence-based solution. All brains grow. We now know that intelligence is not fixed and that all brains can and do grow. In this sense, the way we learn is the same way we strengthen our muscles with time, practice, feedback, and support. And everyone can get stronger physically and mentally. A proficiency system gives us the space to grow from where we start. So even if we hit a wall, we can pick ourselves up and keep going. Transferable skills. Finally, you might be hearing about transferable skills. They are the skills that serve us for life, like being able to communicate effectively, creatively solve problems, be self-directed, make a positive difference in our world and be able to apply our thinking to many situations. Building these skills will ensure that we have many choices after graduation. Graves in college. Some people are concerned that not having a traditional report card will hurt their chances of getting into college. Well, the fact is that many colleges have already been looking at proficiency-based transcripts for years. When they see you have achieved proficiency in a subject, it tells them what content and skills you have actually mastered, rather than the vagueness of a grade. A proficiency-based transcript will also give a better picture of who you are by including things like career and technical courses, dual enrollment courses, internships, service learning, and independent studies. Some transcripts may include standardized test scores. Your school is somewhere on the journey towards adopting proficiencies. The road may be unfamiliar for a while, but we're all going to the same place. So be open, be flexible, stick with it. You'll discover that with proficiencies, school can be more empowering, meaningful, and relevant, and more in your control. Enjoy the ride! We wanted to have an opportunity to collect all of our ideas about why proficiencies matter. We want to do it in a way that is efficient. So, thinking to yourself after just seeing that piece and then based on your own experiences and knowledge, what are your most compelling reasons for proficiency-based learning? And this is a fun way to capture your ideas. Let me just explain. So if you have a, you could just use your phone. You're going to text, the number that you're texting it to is 37607. You'll text capital U-P-F-949. And then it will say, you'll get a little message back that says, like, you've joined the poll everywhere. And then you can answer. And this is going to generate into a word cloud. So it'd be good to use short phrases that are compelling and powerful instead of long sentences. And you're also texting. So I imagine you probably do not want to be doing that too. So take a moment right now. Think about, well, first of all, signing in. You can also do it from your device as well. If you have a computer, you can go to the website. And you're going to respond. You can respond more than once as well. So if you want to do it in multiple texts, you can do that. What are your most compelling reasons for proficiency-based learning? Let's see, do you have a question? Pretend the question is not, how are you feeling today? Right. I'm just filling that one right now. But the question that was just given to you about the compelling reasons. And so the idea is that it's populating a word cloud. And if it doesn't work, then maybe turn and talk right now to your neighbor. It's not working for you. About how to, what is your reason? So try to talk for a moment and then we're going to move into the next piece. Yes. Yes. But I'm sure some people aren't able to access it. No, that's why I haven't turned to us yet. Okay, so to tag on to your turning talk and what you're seeing up there, we'd like you to split your table into, if you're sitting at a table with, you know, more than three or four people split into two groups. So in groups of three or four at your table, there's, you'll see these at your table too, the question. So don't think you have to memorize them right now. They're right there in front of you. We'd like you to discuss, there's actually three questions and we're going to take about 10 minutes or so to have this tabletop conversation and we'll do some sharing out strategies. So the first one is which of the many reasons for efficiency-based learning is easiest for you to communicate to learners, educators, parents, community members, why? And that's going to depend on your role and, you know, and who your people are. And then the second question is which of the many reasons for proficiency-based learning is hardest for you to communicate to learners, educators, parents, community members, and why? And then finally, what strategies have been effective? And that's what we'll end up doing a little popcorn share out in a little bit. We'll give you about 10 minutes for that discussion at your table. In groups of three or four would be probably the best way to go about it. Thank you. If we can kind of have our table conversations come to a close. We're gonna have an opportunity to share, to share a lot more about the strategies in just a moment, but I wanted to provide an opportunity for people just to share a few. So does anybody have, and I'll come around with the mic, does anybody have an effective strategy that they wanna share, or they heard, or they wanna share out to the whole group? Students being at the center of the communication, I think that a lot of folks, particularly naysayers, are a lot more likely to listen to students. And especially when you have those really added naysayers, they're not coming to yell at the student just as a general rule of thumb. And I think that students being where the change is coming from, it's also really important that students be where the community is. Thank you. Another strategy. You should, you should. We have to do this. You should. We were discussing this idea of like the discrepancy of a transcript and that's supposedly being this thing that really communicates like what a student can do. So we, I guess the question was asked of like, how long are we gonna have to wait until the DLP becomes the thing that is used to apply to a college or for a job, which is really a snap out of the person that's not the grades they got in the class. Thank you. How is it? It's like all the whole day here. My name is Dr. Bradley, I'm a principal and I've always said that the principal, there's actually 328 principals in my building and they're all children. And I truly believe that in the final day of that every day, although I can be a judge. But with that said, we have something in Bethel that is called Bethel University, it's a pop-up university. So anybody can offer any class in the month of March for as long as they want it to be every day, it could be every night, it could be once, it could be an hour. We offer, not your grandparents' public school, twice a month. And we offer it and share what is happening in public education as we want in the last 20 years. Everything from PLPs, CBLs, WALs, it's out of its suit and we explain it. And we engage the folks, we actually have them do a proficiency activity, they have to do a yoga pose and be graded first with A, B, C, D or F and then the next group is graded on a proficiency scale. The beauty of that is I don't do the yoga pose. Thank you, so that's just to get us started. We're gonna be going much more into a deeper opportunity to share strategies, but I'm gonna turn it over to Aiden right now. So one thing that is really at the center of change and narratives around change is sharing our stories. And I know that there's so many in this room, but I'd like to just take a quick minute to share a little bit of my story. So when I was thinking about what to share with you all, I started to think a lot about my own trajectory as a learner. So I entered high school with what was a really, I think, destructive mentality around this notion of success. And this was largely due to the traditional one through 100 average based education system. I was always calculating in my mind what my average would look like if I should fail this test, if I take a risk and the teacher doesn't like it and they give me that grade, will howl that affect my average. And I say this quite literally in that on my school-issued computer, I had bookmarked a final exam grade calculator where I could plug in those grades. And that doesn't fall for good learning. That just creates anxiety. And I'm sure, as many of you know, risks and moments of mistake are where some of life's best learning comes from, but this didn't exist in my system of education. I was scared to take risks and even more terrified to make a mistake, hadn't forbid I make a mistake, right? Because that'll destroy my average. And yeah, we're punishing students for taking risks and making mistakes. And I was focused just on the learning that was taking place in a grade book rather than the actual learning that was taking place. And it took me a little bit to sort of recall this system and how it affected my learning. As, yeah, for the past couple of years, I really, my learning has operated within the context of proficiencies. And while under the proficiency-based system, I still strive for success. I still push my learning. What that looks like has changed quite radically. I now feel far more comfortable taking risks than making mistakes. As I know, maybe if it doesn't pan out, I will get that timely feedback. I will see where it didn't work out because of learning scales. And also because of the proficiencies, I've had the opportunity for my learning to expand both within and outside of the classroom. I've had the ability to take part in much of the story where I got to reach my English proficiencies, traveling around the state, interviewing folks about food insecurity and food waste, issues which felt really relevant to me and piecing that together into a documentary. And that's, through this, I've grown not just to enjoy the content of the schools, I think that's something which I've always had a relative interest in the content. But I've also grown to really enjoy the process of learning as learning felt like something which I have control over, which is relevant to me. And I think that this is really what we need to be striving for and not just for me, for every student in Vermont. I think we have advocates as students, as educators. We can sit around and discuss these really weighty ideas of equity, but what does that look like in practice, right? And I really think that this is the key to it, that students feel willing, able, and also encouraged to make mistakes and take risks, that mistakes don't equate to failure, that they equate to opportunities for learning. I'm gonna put my page a little bit. That they can start down one path and say, oh well maybe this isn't for me. Let's try this thing over here and they're able to do that. And that education is as unique as the students who are participating in it. And something as vital as education cannot be met with feelings of fear and anxiety by students. It needs to be affirming, it needs to be flexible and individualized. And most importantly, I feel deeply that it needs to be accessible and equitable. And this is all operating under, I think the implicit truth that a more equitable and accessible school results in a more equitable community and thus a much stronger and more inclusive society. Thank you, you might imagine. Aten was both a participant in our communicating school redesign initiative and then he was co-faculty with me this year. So what a joy and what wisdom to share. We wanna now turn to the teacher perspective and Kate Tolan, a passionate teacher from People's Academy is gonna share her story, her perspective on efficiency-based learning. Here we go. Stand under this light, great, I can do that. Hi, thank you to those of you that returned my emails in the last week that I asked you questions about teaching and learning. I see a lot of you in the crowd. Thanks also to Helen and Ben for convening us to, and Aten for convening us to celebrate what's right. You can always count on Helen and Ben to help us think about what's right in learning. I've called Helen probably 500 times in the last 10 years on a Wednesday night at nine, on my Thursday morning at six. And she helps to set my compass for real learning and deep learning. I'm right here at Nancy Kathleen. Thanks for the emails this morning, probably, the last 24 hours. I have always been on a quest since I started teaching to identify what real learning is. And it's hard to identify a real learning, especially in a public school where time is measured in really minutes, 11.05 is when I, 11.07 sometimes is when I have time to meet somebody. Lunch is 19 minutes and everything happens at a very fast pace. And that's really no way to run a learning organization. Humans don't learn like that. If you go to Christian Jordan's website, he will tell you that the things we've learned about the brain are that humans can think well about one thing at a time. And I know students will argue or people will argue, you can think about lots of things, you can, but you can't think well about more than one thing at a time and proficiency-based learning, the educational quality standards in Act 77 have celebrated this and have brought the spirit of this into learning. It's not easy, it's really complex when you really begin to think about designing around skills and proficiencies, everything changes. Stan Williams from CBU told me, no, no, no, no, this is how you do your grade book. At the top, you don't put the assignments anymore, you put the skills. It's repeated practice at the skills that matter. And one of the things that I think about a lot is specificity. We're very good at big, general things, but how do you begin something very general? It's like trying to put something together that you've never seen before without the manual or at least somebody on the other end of the phone telling you we need to be very specific in our instruction. You can't assume that people have already done it before. And so the work with proficiencies is getting super clear about what matters in learning, distilling, very, very clearly. What is it that we want our young people to leave our high schools with or have a K-12 experience with repeated practice at things that matter? That's not an easy conversation. They will tell you at CBU that they spent seven, eight years on the conversation. Our school is in the third year of it. It's really hard. We have a huge list right now, by the way. But we're working on distilling that. What does it look like? What is repeated practice at the skills that matter look like over four years or the K-12 experience? The conversation is riveting. People really care to show up every single day because they really want great things for the world and for young people. And to get us into dialogue about what matters, great news because I've had to work outside of schools for a long time to have that conversation because it doesn't seem like there's time for it in the day. But it's becoming the center of the conversation. What matters? What matters in our world? And we'll stand up and ask us, what are we doing today about climate change? What are we doing when we constantly say to young people, it's your world, you're gonna have to fix all of it? Okay, well my current events class asked me last week. Okay, all right, fine. But if we're gonna change everything, how might we go about doing that? What do we need to do in order to do that? Right, so we've spent a couple of weeks with Nancy's help designing questions about tackling our future, engaging with the future in a way that possibly we'll get it. They said, do you think we're up for it? Let's look, let's figure it out. What might it take? And so everybody's doing a different question. The skills really quit clearance. It's inquiry, right? Developing questions and planning inquiries right from the C3 framework. So we're not going way off book here. We're really teaching skills that matter, but based around student interests that will engage them with one another in deep conversation about what matters. It slows things down a little bit. Kathleen Kesson made a joke the other day that we have a slow mood movement. Could we have a slow learning movement that leads to deep learning over time and asks people to reflect on things that really matter and share that with one another, right? The idea of joy, I feel like a lot of people would laugh. Especially our young people in classes when we say we're working on joy today. I can't believe that we go to school with so much energy and that we can actually zap all the energy from our young people within the first 40 minutes of the day, that's impossible. So really distilling what matters and designing around that and getting youth and adults in conversation about what matters. Sitting here looking at Aiden, one of my best teachers when I first, my first year of proficiency based learning, Aiden worked with me on the learning scales and in fact, the listening learning scale. If you see it, it's on Kathy Cadwell's website. Aiden approved it by about 100 times. So thank you for your work. And so in dialogue together, youth and adults, act 77 and the educational quality standards give us the possibility and a coherent experience that young people can feel proud about and the whole world can feel optimistic and hopeful about. So we're excited. Thanks you guys. Thanks for convening us. Thank you, both Kate and Aiden for sharing those stories. And it's, I was at, I was working, worked in school for a number of years as a teacher and then as an administrator. And I always am struck by the power of the authentic voice and the stories and how that can really shift the way that we look at the nature of a problem and see it as an opportunity. And so I'm just really appreciative of what they've shared. And the next exercise that we're gonna get into here is called the spotlight round. And I'm not gonna be able to do this. Helen's gonna have to log in. But there's really nothing except it says spotlight on the screen. What we're gonna do is have an opportunity for about anywhere from 10 to 12 different conversations to happen over the course of the next 25 minutes or so. And the way that we're gonna do this is that these conversations are gonna be generated out of the room, out of the expertise and the curiosity and the ideas within this space. So I put this out in an email just yesterday out to all of you who are registered to say that we're gonna do this round and if you have a story or an idea or a strategy that you'd like to share, there would be an opportunity to do that and engage in conversation with others. And this is that moment. And there are a number of you who had already expressed interest. So if you're among those folks who have a story or an idea or a strategy that you'd like to share about communicating the power and transport of power proficiency-based learning to enact the change that we'd like to see. Now's your time to come to the front of the room. So I'll invite you up here. And we're gonna have each of those people share just a one minute. Please come, please come, just start moving. They're gonna share in one minute what their topic, their strategy, their idea is that they'd like to engage in further dialogue with the rest of us about, we'll hear all of those one minute narratives and then they'll move to the tables and we're gonna go to whichever story, whichever conversation we wanna engage with. So this is sort of a crowdsourced conversation piece. So we have, if you're, are these all individual? So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Wonderful. So you'll see around the room, the tables are all numbered. So I believe they start in the back corner with number one, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Looks like Helen's gonna join in as well. So we'll just do one minute a piece and we'll then go in the order that they're standing, that will be their table number and then once they've all shared their story, we'll move to the table that we wanna engage in conversation with, all right? So you'll each have one minute and I'll try to like give you a time or not just so you know what's next. It won't take a minute. So Andrea and I co-teach, fifth through eighth grade humanities at Orleans Elementary. We're up in the Northeast Kingdom, if you're unfamiliar. We are sort of the guinea pigs for lack of a better term, I guess, for our supervisor union. So for the last couple of years, we've been piloting a proficiency-based reporting system that no one else in our school or in our supervisor union has been using and now everybody else is finally on board. And so we have sort of shifted our focus from just using the system to how do we really communicate with parents as well as students all along the learning pathway, how progress is moving forward, how growth is happening and how can we do that in between those designated chunks of time that are report cards or progress reports and how do we make it just sort of an ongoing progress communication between school and home. So that's what we'll share. Exactly a minute, nice job. Whoa! Proficient. My name is Deirdre Bokray. I teach math at the Memorial Union Middle School and I am using a data wall system with my students that help them keep track of where they are in terms of our school's proficiencies so that they know where they need to go next and I know where I need to go next for the class. I'm Sam Nelson. I teach sixth or eighth grade social studies at Shelburne Community School. After loads of inspiration, including some from Lindsay Hellman regarding negotiated curriculum and student design curriculum, three years ago I started what I call the student planning committee where I sit during lunch with students and we actually plan all of my curriculum together. So my story is going to be about how does this evolve and continues to evolve and what does it look like when four days per week I sit down with students and we start from the ground up and design all of the learning together. My name is Don Taylor. I teach language arts and social studies to grade seven and eight at Main Street Middle School. I'm also the co-director of an organization called PLP Pathways. We were created to facilitate and guide participants through the design and implementation of personalized learning programs to fulfill the vision of Vermont's Act 77. In four years of working with educators, PLP Pathways has supported teachers through webinars, blogs and a consultancy model. We've developed and distributed curriculum materials through our blog and website to support PLP's flexible pathways and proficiency-based learning. And we're creating dialogue for educators to consider the possibilities for flexible pathways and share tools and strategies to support schools. Our current webinar series covers a range of topics including implementing student-led conferences, setting goals, communicating with parents and families, student-negotiated curriculum and the evaluation of personal learning systems. I would invite you today. Our discussion is gonna talk about the needs of educators who are seeking to evolve their PLP's, maybe design more robust, flexible pathways and use proficiency-based learning strategies to support student growth and learning. I'm here to listen to what your needs are so that our organization can support those needs. And if you can tell me what those are, that would be great because we can start designing our instructional materials today. Thank you. I'm number five. I also feel like an imposter with these four. It's amazing and I've seen them present. Go to their table. I'll tell you what I can talk about is I can talk about anything, but I'll tell you as a school administrator and I've been a counselor and I did an internship in my public school. Principal's office for four years. Let's go. I was in the office a lot. I wanna talk about not school reform, but school revolution. And I wanna talk about creating the conditions to make sure that every kid that is in whatever grade, whether it's fifth, sixth, ninth, 10th, that it's the most amazing experience they have. I believe in the fierce urgency of now to borrow from Martin Luther King and from Barack Obama. There's no tomorrow on this, it's now. And I would love to talk to people about creating the conditions for that. We would like to talk about what it looks like from a student perspective and how do we get students involved in this movement and how important it is to have give students a seat at the table. We're both juniors. We've been through proficiencies for the past three years and we believe it's really important to give students a voice in their learning and the decisions that are being made for them. I would love to talk about my school's team's experience in communicating school redesign. So that'll look like really going over tactics of communicating change, intentional design of teams in order to, in order to communicate that change. And I can mostly, the power of youth adult partnership also have held in with me to talk about the broader initiative throughout the state. Yeah, and try to capture the strategies of 18 other schools that have participated over time too. Sam Crocher, Harvard Union High School. I would like to facilitate a discourse about the challenges and the growth areas and the successes that we've had in the past year in communicating our school change. We, our leadership team try many different sort of flavors of communication with some great success and also some, you know, areas for improvement and I would need the topic first. Good afternoon, I'm Pat Fitzsimmons. I am the Proficiency-Based Learning Team Leader at the Agency of Education. The most phone calls I get about grading and transcripts for a lot of parents and students who are very concerned. So I wanted to have a conversation at my table about some of the resources that we have available at the Agents of the DL website that grading is a local decision. So we try to create some resources that will help make informed decisions. Yeah, we'll do, thank you very much. Now comes the hard part is when you actually have to choose which one of these awesome conversations to engage with. So again, the tables are oriented starting back in the back corner with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Is it the other way around? I can't see the numbers so you gotta help me out. It is one, two, three. So we're going in that direction. This just seems like maybe nine here. Nine, nine, nine, 10. Okay, one, two, three, where's four? Four, five, six, it goes like an S, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Okay, thank you for correcting that for me. And our groups are going to orient in the way they're standing. So one, two, raise your hand, your address three, Sam, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine. And we're gonna give you about 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes. I gotta check our timing on our schedule. To really just to learn more about what they have to, what the story is that they have to offer and then engage in dialogue. And really think about how can we take the lessons that have been learned and take the wisdom in the room and think about how do we move this towards positive action and direction. So enjoy your conversations. All right. Back in the 90s, Chris learned to fly. That was still a highlight of his. In high school. In high school, yeah. So the thing that, the piece for me that is like, instead of just inching along, is to create the revolution. And you know, I've been saying it for years and I believe it is dead. If we reform things, we just move them around. And if we, but if we revolutionize things, we can see them differently. And I think, I think it's really great that the internet happened, right? So we don't control information anymore. Used to be the teacher had it all and doled it out, right? Still we have to facilitate it, but kids can go on to Khan Academy or whatever they want. It's not necessarily good information. But they can get to whatever, any information they want. So I think a big part, what we should teach now is discernment. But to create the conditions, one of the ways I've done that even before I got any authority, like formal authority, like when I was at Montpelier High School, is to use the documents that have been developed. So the school's mission statement, the school's strategic plan, the state. Now the EQS to use the Act 77, nobody can argue with it because it's the law or it's the local law policy. So I've always used those as like fulcrums to do whatever I want or help create the conditions. I've also told kids, learn these documents and use them and make the adults will listen to you if you go in and start quoting the mission statement and that your work is through that mission statement. One of the pieces also that I've come to realize is if the principal doesn't get behind something, it will not happen because the principal can block everything. And that's a fact. Anybody with more positional power can block, put up barriers to anything. We know that, right? So whether you like your principal or not, I think it's essential that they understand this style. For me right now, the piece that I'm really excited about and it's not just happening in Vermont, it's happening in Arkansas, Joe DiMartino out of the Brown University is doing some stuff, New Jersey's doing PLPs, but I feel like we have the opportunity to really screw this up or make it amazing. Being that we are so small, under 100,000 children, zero to 18, I feel like we should continue to push our people in Washington to create an educational lab right here in Vermont because we have such a small thing and we can move and we're doing it in a way. Is this helpful, Mark? Yeah. I also would like people to join in because there's a lot of expertise at the table. I also know that too. So I don't need to talk for 15 minutes, but I'm happy to. But one of the things I've done with some of the proficiency stuff in the last year is every school board meeting I present something on proficiency to the board because the board will sit there and they will react to basketball complaints or a bus complaint, but they need to be educated and not to do it in some pedantic model or it's really just to celebrate some piece of it and to show a story or an example and then bring it back to the language that the state and the teachers have built. Makes sense. Yeah, so I started my work with CSR two years ago. And so really the first element I think to address is really working out what your specific community needs communicating to them, learning where there's that uncertainty or hesitance or resistance, whatever that issue may or room for growth you may be addressing is. So the first part is really assessing what your research and action cycle will be. So we started by for one thing, sending out a survey, a fairly in depth survey to the student body to really look at mindsets around proficiency-based learning and also one huge benefit of having a student-based team is that I think that we're some of the best research you can have out there. We're out there, we hear what our classmates are saying, we see where there's teaching practices vary. I think that's integral to the process. And yeah, so throughout the years we've done a number of things. We've had a lot of successful parent nights where we've really been able to sit down and facilitate conversations and engage in dialogues with parents. We've also been able to do the same with, at this point, every grade in our school, I believe. We've also headed off initiatives. This past year we had the WOW project where it was, what do I wanna do and how do I get there? So we had professionals from our broader communities come in and share their stories because considering these things like flexible pathways, they're great if you know where you want to go. So we really wanted to make sure students knew where they wanted to go. And I think that one thing, which has been really at the core of our work is intentionally designing a team which can function well together. So I think the first element of that is having a really open youth adult partnership with an explicitly defined that we're in this together, we're in here as equals, it doesn't have to be students looking to adults for guidance as I think it often feels since I have to go. And it also doesn't have to be adults looking to students for guidance. It's really looking at each other around a table. And yeah, so that's one of the key things is having that laid out explicitly. The idea is of being able to speak your truth. And then also, and I'll get it slightly into the intentional design of the team is, so this year we have an entire, pretty much entirely new team. And the last remaining member is simply because... And then our advisor, who's kind of like our study hall support walking bar is your teacher was like, hey, you guys are really strong leaders, I think you should try this out. And then through that initiative is where like everything just started like sprouting off and they backed us in leading faculty meetings and just sharing our voice more in general. And then next year we're talking about hopefully doing a committee between students and teachers and doing it during a lunch time where students can share their voice and there can be open conversation about proficiencies and the student concerns, but also the teacher concerns and hopefully an environment where it's not just a, this is what students are thinking, or this is what teachers are thinking, but to start a conversation about the concerns that's not in like a negative way because I know a lot of the concerns that are brought up by our peers are very negative and like, I don't want to do this. This isn't going to work. And instead of saying those negative things like what can teachers help with? What do teachers need from students who are starting out? And we kind of want to get to a point where students feel comfortable having a serious conversation with the faculty members and not like, oh, like saying negative things or like not saying things that are meaningful to them just because their teachers are there and they think that they're going to get like judged or that they're not going to get support. And so that's one of our biggest things. Can you describe what it's like to be outside the classroom and get there, like, to UBP as kindergarten teachers? Do you decide to teach yourself? The me working in the kindergarten program was mostly through guidance. I had a free block and I was in a class that just wasn't working for me the first couple of days of the school year and I was like, I'm taking two other AP classes. I just don't think that this system is going to work for me and I don't think this class is going to work for me, so then we explored my options from there and one of them was I'm really, I love working with children and that was one of the things that I'm really passionate about so I set it up with my guidance counselor saying I want to go to the kindergarten for an hour a day and I want to help out in the classroom, teach lessons, whatever I need to do. I also did an independent study my freshman year about the teenage brain and that was something, again, I had a block that wasn't working for me so I went and I said, I want to do something I'm passionate about and they essentially told me come up with a list, we'll choose from the list. So there is a lot of flexibility and that's how we're able to expand outside the classroom and I think that's a practice that should be carried over in many more schools. I don't know, sorry, go ahead. How were you supported in that? Through the kindergarten learning, my kindergarten walk, it was much easier because I work K through 12 school, work preschool through 12 school so I was just able to go over to the kindergarten and we just had to coordinate with the teacher. For the independent study, it was a little bit harder just because I was a freshman so I didn't know a ton, I hadn't had a ton of classes and we were able to coordinate with a psychology, one of our psychology teachers and I was able to work with her a little bit during her prep time and then also I was in guidance every day, I was working and it was pretty much self-directed so I had like the support when I needed it and I just said, this is the support I need but then it was pretty much me as a freshman. Are you aware of, are some of your peers in your school working with external providers, people outside of the school on there? Yes, not as much as I would like to see, I would like it about to see more expanded and that's to use, expand the proficiencies to the community and working more in the community. We do have outside work, like through internships and again, we're a type who's taught the 12 school so the education standpoint or maybe working in a health class or something like that, we have a little bit more of a facility but I would love to see that expanded to more community. We've had a student who is a senior now, she is really passionate about labor and delivery and becoming a labor and delivery nurse so we were able to set up an internship for her through the guidance department and one of her advisors who's an English teacher for her to go and intern at the hospital and now she actually volunteers at her regular thing. Who haven't mastered that, who are struggling and what do you do in that case with that? It's almost the inverse of what I was just describing earlier which is whereas if you've mastered and you're ready to move on, we wanna give you the opportunity to choose something that you do need to work on. The inverse of that is with the next project, we're gonna practice this other skill that a lot of people need to practice and we should probably go back and look at that last skill again so that you can get some extra practice with that so some students have more ability to negotiate what they're working on than others. What does that look like in a regular class day? What does that look like when you say this student needs to work on this proficiency while others are going ahead, what goes on with them in the same class period? It kind of varies some, but it really comes back to a lot of the workshop model that we do so that those students who are moving forward and sort of self-sufficient to some extent are doing their independent work and we can pull small groups of students. We have the luxury that we co-teach and so there's two teachers in the classroom as well as whatever support staff is available to us at the time and so one of us can sort of be checking in with the independent students, making sure that they're staying on track and that they don't need anything while the other can pull a small group into one of our two classrooms and be able to work with that group for a certain amount of time and then we may switch out depending on our own strengths as well. Does that mean they could take longer with a particular project that's aimed at generating a skill or do you say that project is due on a given date and you've got to move on wherever you're at and we're going to figure out another learning opportunity? Yeah, we actually just wrapped up a project where we said, we'll give you the time you need and we generally don't start out with deadlines. We figure out where they're at and when we see people are starting to wrap up then we give them, we have this much time left, but that's what we did the last project was people were wrapping up and we're not really leaving class time so we said, okay, we're going to stop giving you project time in class time but those of you that are not quite done hear all the times during the day when you come see us and we'll continue to support you with that project. Whether that's study hall, we have an after school, like a homework room type thing for an hour, you know, feel free to access any of those times to wrap this up, we'll be here for you, we'll support you as needed. I'm still giving feedback on writing cases for kids that are still working and then there are other kids who are done their writing cases, some of them wrote letters to the governor, those are been sent, there's all different kinds of projects going on, working on what you need and making sure that they get more time. But we also, at the same time, we'll have absolute cut off days for different things, like if we gotta move on, we'll circle back to us at another point in the year. Is that probably the progress report to parents and to students? Your status of kind of assignment completion, or are you really putting that in the background and having the proficiencies take from you? We mostly focus on the proficiencies. We had one student that I mean, I'm not sure if this is the trash, but we had one student who just never really did the writing case that they asked and so the feedback system, they can't really accurately assess it, so the parents had to have that information through the meet back, they hadn't completed the assignment. And then when you had those skills we were gonna get to again a little bit later, so we had to do that. Yeah, I always try to frame it within the context of the skills. Because when they see you down at the same time, it's this big eye of yours, and you have to hear the like, I've demonstrated organized communication many, many times, so why do I have to, it's almost like why do I have to perform it, it's a performance assessment, a performance indicator, why do I have to perform again in my organized community? They'd be like, talk to Pope Ray, he's like, don't tell you that I did that well, and I'm kind of caught because of the fact that. I think that's the next step for my skills proficiencies is where we have this product, but that's the next step for finding that. That's nice. And some of those, I hate to do this to you all, but I do want to give you guys a promise to try to wrap up in the next couple of minutes. We're going to transition to another activity where you can share out some of this in a different way. So this is a two minute warning. There is no requirement to do that. The school board, if your job is to work through these expectations, that one probably shouldn't have taken care of the first right now. Plus, and it came out of it, out of it. By the end of the year, every student is at proficiency or above in all of your skills. And if it's done right and you're not overdoing it with too many skills, it's pretty much there. It's that whole Rick Wormley would say, like, if all of your students are at proficient or above, does that mean you're an easy grader or does that mean you're a good teacher? Right, exactly. Jack, what do you think? There's tons of ways to get at those transferable skills. You're darn right. It's presented to students in a traditional system as a solid curriculum of things that you have to know, rather than something that's flexible and there's many different ways to get at those skills. And I think if students have that kind of input into the ways to get to those skills, there's gonna be a lot more student interest in the topic and there's gonna be more progression towards reaching proficiency. Jack, you're so right. It's probably not shocking to hear that when I sit down with students and say, we can demonstrate this skill in numerous ways. How should we do it? They're never going, ooh, I would love a five paragraph essay, please. You can do that type of structured writing in lots of different ways. But then the really funny thing, and this is what convinces the naysayers, is that especially by eighth grade, I have students in SBC going, you know, even though we don't love it, we know we're gonna do things like tests and five paragraph essays in high school. So can we do that as like a summative for the next unit? And I'll say, yeah, let's do it in a meaningful way. Tests are a whole nother thing because it's not like we have memorization and regurgitation as our transferable skills. So we'll just do it and it'll just be ungraded, let it be self-assessed and not going to the book. A practice. So in addition to the driver's test and those things, what's the most unique or interesting content that your students have come up with themselves? That was maybe like, oh my God, it was definitely this year, it was definitely that game of life piece. So it was all about career pathways, but essentially what we tried to do was like put a little bit of gamification and very much like first person real world learning into thinking about career pathways. So what we did was I kind of had it as like a first person look at like, okay, so starting right now, you're gonna use the interest inventory through VSAC, like the My Next Move Onet Profiler. Fill that out, pick some of the careers that you're matched to based on your personality and then pick one of those and go after building that career. What would it look like? What do you need to do to train for? Are you looking at like a tech program in high school? Are you looking at a college pathway program? Are you looking at internships? And then from there, what are your next steps? Like are you going to college? Are you starting somewhere like working part-time or working in an internship? And it built all the way up so that students are eventually like choosing where are you gonna live? What are you gonna like, like based on that? What's your relative salary gonna be? Are you gonna buy a car? Like what's your house gonna be like? We used like, you know, like Zillow and all these little tools so that they were just getting into it with a lot of zealots. It was so fun. We've been at like fake cards so you'd draw cards once in a while and it could like mash your life up, not really badly, but like it was so fun. It was game five, then Gage was just through the roof. I liked that. What was that called again, the title? The Game of Life. Yeah, all students came up with all that. Oh my God, that's so good. I can share any of that with any of you guys. It's all available. Sorry. All for free. This is who you're talking to. But we'll have to offer the world subsequent to this two-hour session, I think can be captured, literally captured, in the next and final activity. So around the room, you will see a number of easels. And in each one, there's a question. So the questions are, what effective ways have you experienced or do you know about and wish you could have done or planning to do to build understanding and support for proficiency-based learning? And the first station is with learners. The second station is with educators, parents, higher ed, media, policymakers, because each of these groups does respond differently to different things. Some of them may cross all of the groups, like young people being involved, that could be all of the groups, but there are specific nuanced ways that you may already have experienced or are willing to share. So, and the second set of questions are these, because we felt they were just so important to this time. What did teachers need to be able to fully implement proficiency-based learning and continue on the path that they're on? What do learners need to be able to fully partner in proficiency-based learning in a really important final question? What needs to be in place to ensure equitable opportunities and outcomes through proficiency-based learning for all students? Not a small question, but an absolutely critical one that we begin to dive deeply into. So, the task is en route, you can pick up a little boot, but please go to as many of these stations as you feel like you have something to offer. Don't try to get to all of them, but where do you have an expertise, an idea, a phrase that you use, a tool that you use, a video that works in this, like whatever it is, this is like a huge brain storm to be captured on these sheets. And we're gonna ask you to do it in silence because it would be way too easy to have tons of side conversations while you do this and not be able to get to share as much as you have in the room. So, the incentive for you to do this in silence is I'm gonna put the our time video on, which was a song created by young people from Vermont that captures their vision of what education should be and performed by schools throughout Vermont. Don't look at the video, but just listen to their gorgeous words as you move from station to station and share your wisdom. All right. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] One of these stations for you, you feel like is your next best piece of work. Like in it may be the group that you struggled most with that you get the chance now to go, get some wisdom and ideas from other people and create one action. The one thought of one thing you can do, small or large, but doable in the next five minutes. So, there you go. One station, one action you wanna take and performed by the wisdom of the people in this room. Go for it. If you could write it down, please, we would love to capture those. So, there's a little space in each one of those flip charts for your next step. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Sorry, I feel like I'm in your way. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, so, it looks like our time is dropping out as we can all sort of concentrate and try to form a circle of sports, form a few tables, some ordinary shapes where we can all look at each other. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Yeah, as we wrap up the earlier conversation, yeah, your first one, your first circle, come together. Yeah, it's coming together, it's coming together. ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] One of the most important parts of these days is that they get to spend together, is harnessing all of this fantastic energy and these fantastic ideas that you're having in the room right now. Sometimes fear that they might not make it out. So in order to do that, I want to go around and share what our next steps are. And be specific to yourself about what those next steps are. I'm not sure we have time to be specific with each other about what those next steps are. So if we could just say, yeah, just one word of what our next step is going to be. One word about next step, or how you're feeling about this? One word. Engagement. Dialogue. Meditate. College. Input. Listening. Connecting. Iteration. Transparency. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. Iteration. Transparency. Youth leadership. Dialogue. Storytelling. Collaboration. Network. Joy. Empowerment. Student participation. Commitment. Vermont. Renuncation. Connection. Persistence. Commitment. Vermont. Communication. Connection. Persistence. Embodiment. Engagement. Student agency. Fun. Sharing. Resources. Compassion. Exploration. Teacher agency. Community. Feedback. Courage. Creativity. Exciting. I was at Owen's table, so revolution! Adventure. Positivity. Community. Joy. Visual. Voteful. Wrong. Questioning. Partnership. Flexibility. Shared resources. Convergence. Think who it is. Action. Artistry. Collaboration. I was a fun. Elevaging. Partnership. Persevere. Youth and Health Partnership. City. And now for one last part of the day, I want to affirm to each other one last time why this work is so important. We've discussed it so many times the other day, but I think that's really where this needs to be coming from. Understanding why this is so important and the passion behind it. So I'm going to put out a question to you all about the power of proficiency-based learning. What I'm going to do is I'm going to say the power of proficiency-based learning is. And then if a few of you just want to shout out from across the circle, wherever you are, one word or phrase which is really where the power of proficiency-based learning is. So hopefully this works out because I'll look silly if it doesn't, so please help me. The power of proficiency-based learning is equity. With students. Respect. Breakthrough. Transformation. Potential. Relationship. Growth. Relevance. Creativity. Intrinsic motivation. Let us hold on to all of the inspiration all of the wisdom the collective commitment oh my heavens it is so heartening that you are here today and brought into the room what you brought into the room and what you believe to do so thank you so much may we celebrate always each other's accomplishments and go forward into this hard but important work thank you so so much. Manuel Say proficiency-based learning is a mate. No. Here it is. This is your moment. You're emerging. Thank you all again for coming and I do hope that we'll all go forward from here and do what we can to actually take action to move the dial forward. Thank you all so much.