Tag: Community & Culture

Monterey Peninsula: Students and Teachers Co-Design Process Pilot

Monterey Peninsula wanted to solve a problem in their district: “How might we increase flexibility and personalization to build a sense of belonging and connection within the context of our labor and policy constraints?” After seeking stakeholder input and brainstorming a range of options, the design team decided to pilot a process to engage students and teachers to design new systems for personalization and connection.

This pilot had several assumed benefits. It was a chance to make sure that those most impacted by teaching and learning – students and teachers – led the change. Bringing together students and teachers for this work created an early opportunity to build connections. Lastly, the design team was also excited to build a reusable process that could be replicated to drive similar changes in the future.

To start, the design team wrote a project plan that would help identify participants, prepare them to engage in a design thinking process, and help them focus their efforts. They identified two teachers, two administrators, and 12 students as participants. Then, the design team curated resources and created short training sessions to introduce the participants to the process and design principles. Finally, they created a timeline for participants and a process by which participants’ solutions could be integrated into the district’s broader approach to teaching and learning.

February 23, 2021

Reflect on Equity in Your Solution Discussion Questions

These discussion questions accompany the Activity: Reflect on Equity in Your Solution strategy card.

February 5, 2021

Monterey Peninsula: Students and Teachers Co-Designing Strategies for Belonging

Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (MPUSD) sought to address a key problem in their district: “How might we increase flexibility and personalization to build a sense of belonging and connection within the context of our labor and policy constraints?”

The team decided on a solution that would engage students and teachers in a design process to design new systems for personalization, flexibility, connection, and belonging. Though Monterey Peninsula had engaged students and teachers throughout its design process (e.g., to identify the problem of practice), the design team knew that they also needed to be part of defining the solution.

This solution supports equity because it cedes decision-making authority into the hands of those closest to the problem. This solution supports resiliency because it requires the district to be positioned to respond to the solutions that teachers and students develop. It also introduces a new method: teacher- and student-involved design sessions, which the district can use in the future to address other problems.

February 4, 2021

Monterey Peninsula: Brainstorming Ideas for Flexibility, Personalization, and Student Sense of Belonging

In brainstorming solutions, the team identified six categories of solutions:

Engage students and teachers to design new systems. This set of solutions highlights the fact that equity requires those most impacted by teaching and learning – students and teachers – be involved in developing new systems. It also challenges the district to be resilient so as to adapt and flex to enable the new systems that students and teachers develop.
Revise policies. This set of solutions recognizes that sometimes, district policies are major barriers to equity in a district; certain policies like counts on seat time or grading expectations can limit flexibility and personalization. These solutions also demonstrate the district’s willingness to dramatically reinvent itself – even rewriting policy – so as to improve teaching and learning with equity in mind.
Focus on staff members’ sense of belonging. This set of solutions recognizes that in order for teachers to be able to foster students’ sense of belonging, teachers must feel that they belong and are supported.
Revise grading to be mastery-based. This set of solutions elevates the fact that traditional methods for grading are often not flexible or personalized (instead, grades are based on rigid scales, include non-academic behavioral measures, and are assigned at one point in time). A mastery-based approach to grading allows teachers to give more personalized feedback to students and gives students multiple chances to prove mastery.
Regroup students by academic need and/or interest. This set of solutions recognizes that each student has different needs, academically and beyond. It explores opportunities to revisit traditional structures (e.g., age-based grouping) and to instead develop systems that group students by targeted academic need and/or type of learning the student is interested in.
Build social-emotional activities into academic courses and set aside time for intentional community building. This set of solutions honors the fact that students’ sense of belonging and connection is an important precursor to academic learning. It also highlights the fact that building students’ sense of belonging cannot just be a “check-the-box” activity – it must be integrated throughout the approach to teaching and learning.

February 4, 2021

Monterey Peninsula: Problem of Practice on Belonging and Connection

Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (MPUSD) interviewed a range of teachers and students to identify opportunities to improve teaching and learning. From those conversations, they identified the need to increase students’ sense of belonging at school and personalized support for students’ academic development. After reviewing themes from the interviews, the team summarized a key problem of practice: “How might we increase flexibility and personalization to build a sense of belonging and connection within the context of our labor and policy constraints?”

This problem statement challenged the team to find solutions that met the academic and social-emotional needs of each student. The problem statement also required the team to think about those things it could adapt and change, even amid constraints.

February 4, 2021

Monterey Peninsula: Connecting Empathy Interviews and School Culture

Themes from Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s empathy interviews fall into multiple categories: developing stronger connections between and amongst students and teachers, and personalizing support for students’ academic development. The team’s discussion connected the themes from interviews to broader efforts across the district to increase flexibility and personalization while strengthening students’ sense of belonging.

February 4, 2021

Mastery Charter Schools: Connecting Empathy Interviews and Blended Learning

Themes from Mastery Charter Schools’ empathy interviews fell into several categories: supporting students and teachers with technology, fostering digital access, and creating independent learners. The team’s discussion connected the themes from interviews to broader efforts across the district to move toward blended learning, prepare students for the future, and standardize expectations for teaching and learning with technology.

February 4, 2021

Cedar Rapids: Connecting Empathy Interviews and Standards-Based Learning

When designing change in a district, it is essential that leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning); this is often done via empathy interviews. As they reviewed their notes from their empathy interviews, the Cedar Rapids Community School District design team surfaced themes about opportunities to build relationships, to create more personalized and authentic learning experiences, and to reconsider effective feedback for students. The team’s discussion connected the themes from interviews to broader efforts across the district to engage students authentically, enable more personalized education, hold high expectations for all students, and facilitate standards-based learning that could help meet students’ needs.

February 4, 2021

Article: Design Thinking – How to Create Your POV

When designing change in a district, it is essential that leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning); this is often done via empathy interviews. It can sometimes be challenging to make sense of the themes from empathy interviews, so this guide from Perficient introduces a framework for translating stories from empathy interviews into actionable insights.

February 4, 2021

IDEO Design Kit: Share Inspiring Stories

When designing change in a district, it is essential that leaders hear directly from students, families, teachers, and classified staff (i.e., those most impacted by teaching and learning); this is often done via empathy interviews. This protocol from IDEO guides teams to review notes from empathy interviews and capture themes that should inform your design team’s work.

February 4, 2021