Overarching goal of these reforms:
Northern Cass is implementing an inquiry strategy for learning at all levels. From the middle through high school levels, they have created a studio model where learning is co-designed between educators and learners. This model uses community experts who come into the learning centers while also allowing learners to go off-site and experience relevance from experts as well. This has embedded the community in the school while also providing learners with valuable experience which will prepare them to interact with others in a manner which allows them to advocate for their needs.
Co-designed learning experiences leads to a higher level of relevancy and self-direction, with the result that learners will develop the attributes in the Portrait of a Learner which are accountability, adaptability, leadership, communication, and a learner's mindset.
Innovation effort currently underway:
Northern Cass is currently looking to move to a more universal adoption of its studio model by developing a systems-level implementation protocol that provides guidance to educators while preserving a high degree of professional autonomy.
This past year, Northern Cass piloted the studio model at the high school level and is using learnings from that effort to further develop the resources and support necessary to scale the studio model across all grade levels and content areas.
Impacted Grade levels: Implementing elements of the model in PK-5, with fuller implementation in 6-8 and increasing implementation at the high school level with learners who have opted into the approach.
Moving Beyond the Carnegie Unit: Once fully realized, the studio model will allow learners to work in partnership with educators to develop self-directed learning opportunities through which they can demonstrate achievement of the attributes of the Portrait of Learner. In this way, learner agency and self-direction are harnessed, replacing teacher-directed, seat time-based models with demonstrations of achievement tied to key learner outcomes.
About Northern Cass:
- https://www.northerncassschool.org/
- Public school system, Grades K-12
- 630 Students
SPOTLIGHT: The Northern Cass Studio model
The key innovation being advanced by this effort in Northern Cass is an expansion of the district’s studio model. Under the studio approach, learners participate in a co-developed unit on an topic of interest, availing themselves of additional resources both inside the school and out, and producing a final product that demonstrates their learning.
At the middle school level, studios are six weeks in length, and while they are more educator-driven than they are at the high school level, they provide a high degree of learner choice around the focus of study, the experts consulted, and the culminating product, which must contribute to a community outside the school.
Studios at the high school level are closer to a true independent study, which are actively co-designed by learners and their educator “coaches”. Under this model, the learner earns credit by meeting a variety of standards they identify with their coach. The approach is heavily learner-driven, with coaches having the role of facilitating learning by actively guiding learners and pushing their thinking. The model has been popular with those learners who have participated in its early implementation, and efforts are underway to expand the use of the model across the entire district.
