District leaders secure high school unit waiver

from EED

Like tater tots in the lunchroom, lockers slamming in the halls and the embarrassing yearbook picture, sitting down in your chair has been an essential part of the high school experience.

Until now, in the Northwest Arctic.

Of course the chairs are still there, but thanks to a waiver from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (EED), high schoolers in the Northwest Arctic Borough School District won’t need to spend a minimum amount of time sitting in them to earn credit. Students will be assessed on how much they have learned to do, rather than how much time they’ve spent in class.

With the waiver from EED, the school district, working hand-in-hand with the regional board, has cleared a major hurdle in its three-year-old shift to standards-based education, a student-focused model of schooling. NWABSD schools can now commit to teaching and grading based on what students have learned to do, not how long it has taken.

“We want our schools structured around student need,” said Superintendent Robert Boyle, “not just the school building. This is an evolution for us, and we are growing our students in this model.”

Students in the district were already taught in a standards-based program from kindergarten to eighth grades, but by state regulations they had to complete set course-hour requirements to graduate from high school.

After a June presentation by Supt. Boyle and Asst. Supt. Carl Chamblee, the EED agreed to waive that high school unit requirement for the 2005-2006 school year, setting this as a trial year for the district before Supts. Boyle and Chamblee return next June to extend the waiver.

NWABSD was one of three school districts granted a high school unit waiver in Alaska this year, and one of twelve total districts with the waiver, according to Harry Gambell at EED.

Rich DeLorenzo, found of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC) an organization committed to the standards-based revolution in Alaska schools, sees NWABSD making real progress in 2005-06. “We have six lighthouse districts in the coalition, and Northwest Arctic is one we really think is going to have a breakout year,” he said.