What is the “curriculum” for high school redesign? What do we need to know and be able to do to move our high schools to be more equitable and challenging, student-centered, proficiency-based learning environments? Those are some of the questions addressed at a recent conference sponsored by The New England Secondary Schools Consortium in Hartford, Connecticut. John Tague, BFA Principal, Joe Emery, BFA Social Studies, and Linda Keating, FWSU Curriculum Director of Curriculum attended the two-day event.
NESCC represents 5 states and has 119 member schools. BFA will apply for membership in this consortium, which will help to support our continuous improvement in Proficiency-based, Personalized Learning, Student Leadership, Flexible Learning Environments, and Engaged Community Partners.
Our team diverged and converged in our workshop choices to address our learning needs in the following areas: demonstrations of proficiency, student voice through personalized learning, and equity.
As we shared our information from different sessions or collaborated in joint sessions, we came away with important information to move the work of proficiency-based, personalized learning forward at BFA Fairfax High School. Most importantly, we came away with an affirmation that our work here at BFA is on a solid ground of research and best practice.
Joe Emery summarized the sentiment of our team: “It was exciting to see models of ways we can have students demonstrate their knowledge in exhibitions. I feel we are in a good place with understanding PBGRs, now it is time for us to act!”
The FWSU Story 