Defining Student Success in Bexley
21st Century Skills.
College and Career Ready.
Prepared for Success.
These are all phrases that we have heard over the past 20 years as educators, parents, higher education personnel, legislators, and employers advance the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that each believes is important for students to develop over the course of their K-12 educational journey. This conversation is good, and it is needed. We must think about what students will need to develop by the time they graduate from high school.
In recent years the term Profile of a Graduate has become part of our education vocabulary as we think about what a graduate should “look like”. What will they know? What will be they be able to do? And what attitudes, beliefs, and mindsets will they have developed? We are more in tune than ever that success in our rapidly changing world will require more than content knowledge. Consider these two students:
Student A Student B
Math Content Mastery
Science Communication
English Collaboration
Social Studies Growth Mindset
Which student would you want to hire? Which student can better manage life?
We have begun the strategic planning process in Bexley Schools, and one of the most important components of our work will be to develop a Student Success Profile. This profile will guide us in decision-making in a variety of areas: instruction, hiring, professional development, allocation of financial resources, facility needs, and the list goes on. It is important that we not just talk about what knowledge, skills, and mindsets we want our students to have; we must intentionally behave in ways that will develop our students and give them success, not just at graduation, but throughout their time in Bexley City Schools.
Our strategic planning process will be open to all in our community through a variety of avenues. We have invited 300 people to participate in one of eight focus groups: students, staff, parents, and community. Every staff member and every parent will be able to participate in an online survey. Finally, every stakeholder in our community will have the opportunity to participate in open community events to take part in the process. These three methods of information gathering will help us to develop our student success profile, strategic themes, mission, vision, three-year goals, and annual objectives. These products will inform our work in Bexley Schools and put us on the path to helping EACH Bexley student experience success now and into the future.
Posted: Tuesday, April 10, 2018