Rick Gordon was the founding director of the Compass School, which operated in Westminster from 1999 until it graduated its last class in May.
WESTMINSTER-While so much attention about schooling focuses on spending and governance, too often we forget about the central question of what the children are actually experiencing in school. How do we assure successful education for every child?
For 26 years, Compass School demonstrated how to support each child in finding success in school and in life beyond the school walls. Sadly, demographic shifts and the decreased number of school-age children in Vermont led Compass to close this year, but the lessons from this idealistic experiment can help all schools better support each child in Vermont in their learning and growth.
Here are some elements that made Compass so effective in transforming students' lives:
• The value of diverse experiences for all: The more diverse the experiences related to school, the greater the chance for individual students to find something engaging. Likewise, diverse experiences teach students a wide range of skills beyond the typical limited priorities in most schools on verbal acuity and logical, numerical ability. Project- and problem-based learning, job shadows, field-based studies, community service, field trips and travel, student work jobs, independent study, and other learning opportunities expand what we ask of our students.
When we engage all students in diverse experiences, there will be some that feel comfortable to a child, and others that will be a stretch. This diversity helps offer opportunities for every child to feel successful and other places to feel challenged and different chances to feel engaged.
• Creative use of the schedule and calendar: If every day the school schedule looks the same, it's hard to offer the diversity of experience that can connect with the diversity of students we serve. Not everything worth learning fits into 45- or 90-minute periods.
Having days or weeks with longer blocks of time for learning experiences opens opportunities for different types of learning and interaction. Aligning these "special days" with the rhythm of the school calendar - offering new energy near the winter holidays or that dreaded last week of the year - can lessen the burden on teachers while enlivening learning for kids.
• Rituals and rites of passage: Besides graduation, we have too few rites of passage in American schools that recognize the flow of time and help punctuate the mundane regularity of day-to-day life. For students (and teachers), school can be a grinding repetition of barely changing days strung out over a 12-year slog.
The calendar at Compass included three-day intensive projects in September, Mountain Day in October, College Day in November (when every student at every grade went on college visits), Giving Day in December, Community Service Winter Term in February, Portfolio Week and Spring trips in May, and Project Week leading up to graduation and an all-school Move Up Celebration in June.
Not only were these all powerful learning experiences, the break from the norm made the "regular" classes more appreciated and effective.
The importance of student-teacher relations, caring, and believing in every child: Students aren't empty vessels we fill up with learning. It matters that kids have trusted adults in school. Students respond better to teachers they like, and they like (and respect) teachers they know as fully realized human beings (something they see when they see teachers through diverse experiences).
And as challenging as some kids can be, when we truly believe in them for the long haul, they sense our support and eventually see themselves with this same belief offered by caring teachers.
One small but powerful strategy at Compass was ending every all-school or faculty meeting with celebrations - where individuals (students or teachers) could thank, appreciate, or commend another.
In spite of the many challenges inherent in any school, these celebrations set a tone of positivity that is infectious and uplifting.
Proficiency-based personalized assessment: All this "cool stuff" would be less valued and less valuable if it wasn't part of the assessment, accountability, and feedback process. Compass students were asked to track their learning and growth in the learning realms of Knowledge, Communication, Collaboration, Thinking and Reasoning, and Personal Development, under which there were 25 proficiencies - skills and abilities that matter to life beyond school.
With an innovative report card and transcript that represented this breadth of learning, and a portfolio process that added another layer of meaning and personalization, every student was led to be reflective and accountable for developing as "good students and good people" ready to make a positive contribution to the world.
The value of a shared learning community and student voice: It is rare for anyone, teacher or student, to have expertise in the range of experiences Compass valued. But educators and students worked together as part of a shared learning community, generating energy and ownership that made this all work.
Most of the best ideas at Compass came from students, who were invited to exercise voice in a student council with real policy-making input, a student judiciary central to the restorative justice practices, in town meetings to refine rules, and in summer planning sessions to shape curriculum.
Students are the experts on their personal experience and know what can most help them learn. Including them as partners in the teaching and learning process makes teaching easier and success for all more attainable.
The chance for a fresh start and the value of choice: Students came to Compass often feeling beaten down by previous school experiences. Whether they had feelings of not fitting in or had been hurt by a harsh teacher comment or bullying by peers, students coming to Compass got a fresh start.
Having a choice gave students hope to turn their lives around.
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No school can be everything to everybody - sometimes the geographically mandated school won't be right for a particular child. If we truly commit to ensuring every child has a successful school experience, we must consider how to provide options for new opportunities that offer hope for a better future.
None of these ideas involve revolutionizing education, nor do they cost more than what schools are already doing. In fact, Compass educated students for thousands of dollars less per pupil than surrounding public schools.
What made Compass special was its intensive focus on recognizing every student as an individual and commitment to doing what is best to ensure success for each of them. This is something that all schools can do.
This is a legacy for all in the Compass community - and hopefully beyond.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
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