Focusing on the future . . .

Last night we had our second Future Ready Cafe attended by over 100 people including students, parents, community members, business owners, teachers, support staff, Board members, and administrators. The focus of the evening was on our Future Ready initiative and how the system's Outcomes and Indicators are part of the foundation of this work.  In the first Cafe, we received feedback and suggestions for changes to the Outcomes and Indicators to ensure that they aligned with what we are learning are critical work related attributes necessary to ensure that all students experience success in post high school learning and work. Yesterday we shared the revised document driven by that feedback and suggestions and asked the participants for additional feedback and guidance.

The recommended changes can be seen in the picture below.  The proposal is to change the name of Collaborative Worker to Collaborative Teammate to focus on the school experience and to add Conscientious Worker to capture the attributes that we want in our schools and that employers are also seeking.  In addition, we added an outcome, Responsible Decision Maker, to reflect the need for a focus on making sound decisions related to media, technology, money, and health.

The work on Outcomes and Indicators has been and will continue to be an ongoing process engaging diverse groups of people.  The goal is to bring the revised Outcomes to the Board for approval before the end of this school year.  Last night we brought the Outcomes below for feedback and will now use that information to identify any additional changes that may be necessary.  The work on the Indicators will take place next year and involve multiple prototypes across the grades beginning at the high school level.  This will look at taking the revised Indicator language and working with students, parents, and teachers to identify the language in grade level bands that clarify the expectations of each Outcome.  Today, the majority of the revised language comes from what we have learned and what has been captured in the work of other organizations.  The result from the prototyping will be Indicators with Tahoma language.

I'll share an additional slide used last night to capture parts of our current reality and our responsibility to take this big opportunity we now have to create and implement structures and strategies to ensure success for all students in post high school learning and work.  It was for me a rewarding and energizing evening demonstrating our commitment to supporting success for ALL.  Look forward to comments from others that might have attended.