The direction the district has taken in the past four years was conceptualized at the 2018 Modern Schools Conference.
Echoes from Cañon
This December I’ve been culminating my effort to communicate the happenings of the Cañon City School District through Echoes from Cañon in four final installments outlining the state of the school district as I see it before Adam Hartman becomes our chief executive officer on January 1st.
The focus of this third installment is how during the past four years we became future focused, completely aligning our vision and mission with core beliefs and a profile of a graduate, then updating our Instructional Program Review process to measure our progress toward achieving them.
It's Hard to Do Better than Learning for Life
When I arrived in Cañon City in 2015 I often shared that our vision, Learning for Life, was impossible to top. I would not dare change it.
However, by 2018 it became clear that life was indeed changing for the next generation so it might be time to adjust the direction of our compass.
In Spring 2018, then Director of Curriculum and Assessment Adam Hartman shared with me his learning from an education futurist named William Daggett. Mr. Hartman had been studying Daggett’s work and that spring he took advantage of a trip Daggett made to Colorado Springs, taking all our principals to an engagement session with him.
Having sparked interest among our building leaders, Mr. Hartman expressed a desire to point our district in a new direction, with a specific focus on developing the traits and skills our students need to be successful in an ever changing future. I expressed my personal belief in his vision, while explaining I would not likely be in my position long enough to see it through. Thus, I challenged Mr. Hartman to prepare to compete for the superintendency of the Cañon City School District at some point in the future while we were on this path.
However, by 2018 it became clear that life was indeed changing for the next generation so it might be time to adjust the direction of our compass.
In Spring 2018, then Director of Curriculum and Assessment Adam Hartman shared with me his learning from an education futurist named William Daggett. Mr. Hartman had been studying Daggett’s work and that spring he took advantage of a trip Daggett made to Colorado Springs, taking all our principals to an engagement session with him.
Having sparked interest among our building leaders, Mr. Hartman expressed a desire to point our district in a new direction, with a specific focus on developing the traits and skills our students need to be successful in an ever changing future. I expressed my personal belief in his vision, while explaining I would not likely be in my position long enough to see it through. Thus, I challenged Mr. Hartman to prepare to compete for the superintendency of the Cañon City School District at some point in the future while we were on this path.
A Future Focus
The room where it happened: This is the table in the lobby of a Florida hotel where we crafted our core beliefs and refashioned our mission statement.
With my commitment to move forward, and enthusiastic support from our board of education when they replied, “we extend trust and respect to all personnel within Cañon City Schools to continually curate an innovative educational experience,” we then considered bringing in outside support to get started. After engaging several providers, we soon came to the conclusion we possessed the internal capacity to move our vision forward with the people we have.
To kickstart our process we pulled building leaders together and trekked to Florida during the summer of 2018 to attend the Model Schools Conference. While there we zeroed in on the seven traits and seven accompanying skills that became our graduate profile. Then, in one of the most inspired 90 minute sessions of my work career, we both revised our district mission statement and crafted the language that would become our core beliefs.
To kickstart our process we pulled building leaders together and trekked to Florida during the summer of 2018 to attend the Model Schools Conference. While there we zeroed in on the seven traits and seven accompanying skills that became our graduate profile. Then, in one of the most inspired 90 minute sessions of my work career, we both revised our district mission statement and crafted the language that would become our core beliefs.
A New Mission, Core Beliefs, and A Graduate Profile to Boot
The Core Four
Our vision remains Learning for Life! After 25 years we still can't top this!
However, our mission statement now reads; The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
The fascinating thing about the writing of our core beliefs is that we started by simply asking what we already believed as district employees. The answers came easy, in a matter of minutes in fact, and have since been codified by these four statements:
-We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
-We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
-We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
-We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Core belief number one means we recognize a child may not be ready to learn if certain needs go unmet. This has pushed us to work harder to ensure students are ready to learn.
Number two admits we don't control the condition our children are in when they come to us. However, it makes it clear WE are the difference makers in their learning in the time we have them.
Our fourth core belief simply means we put kids first. Too many education institutions become places where adults work. We choose to keep our focus on our kids.
However, our third core belief is where our profile of a graduate lives. The traits, which include knowledge, integrity, tenacity, agency, agility, civility, and innovation and the skills, which include empowerment, solution seeking, leadership, contribution, communication, reflection, and collaboration, have since defined the educational outcome we strive to achieve for all.
However, our mission statement now reads; The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
The fascinating thing about the writing of our core beliefs is that we started by simply asking what we already believed as district employees. The answers came easy, in a matter of minutes in fact, and have since been codified by these four statements:
-We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
-We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
-We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
-We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Core belief number one means we recognize a child may not be ready to learn if certain needs go unmet. This has pushed us to work harder to ensure students are ready to learn.
Number two admits we don't control the condition our children are in when they come to us. However, it makes it clear WE are the difference makers in their learning in the time we have them.
Our fourth core belief simply means we put kids first. Too many education institutions become places where adults work. We choose to keep our focus on our kids.
However, our third core belief is where our profile of a graduate lives. The traits, which include knowledge, integrity, tenacity, agency, agility, civility, and innovation and the skills, which include empowerment, solution seeking, leadership, contribution, communication, reflection, and collaboration, have since defined the educational outcome we strive to achieve for all.
Making Our Work Actionable
Shad Johnson and Adam Hartman share their vision for the future of the school district in a 2018 all-staff gathering.
Striving to become a future focused district and having crafted a modern profile of a graduate, our next task was to make our work actionable.
We began by communicating why this was even necessary to the entire staff. Many may recall the all-staff keynote message that me, Adam Hartman, and Shad Johnson shared in August 2018. It was there we painted the picture how advances in Artificial Intelligence are gearing up to replace many of the traditional careers we’ve been preparing our children for. For many years I had been preaching about the need to prepare students for jobs that have not yet been invented. What was different about this presentation was the realization we are preparing students for careers that will no longer exist!
Our next steps required defining what it looks like for a child to demonstrate each skill and trait at benchmark grade level. Adam expertly guided our instructional leaders and teachers to do this work. Walk through any school in Cañon City today and you'll see evidence of this. At the same time, the Cañon City High School Assessment for Learning Project team, led by Principal Bill Summers and supported by the Colorado Education Initiative, created a capstone graduation requirement by which we can measure student development of each trait and skill. I do not exaggerate when I say this is the best example of a capstone process in Colorado.
My major contribution to this effort was re-tooling our annual Instructional Program Review to where it could measure progress being made in each school toward achievement of our vision, mission, core beliefs, and graduate profile. Thanks to a Colorado Department of Education Accreditation Pilot Grant and a partnership with several other school districts and higher education institutions, including Boulder Valley and the University of Colorado, we've also evolved this process to where it may be one of the best examples of a school district locally deciding what's important and measuring whether it is achieving its goals.
We began by communicating why this was even necessary to the entire staff. Many may recall the all-staff keynote message that me, Adam Hartman, and Shad Johnson shared in August 2018. It was there we painted the picture how advances in Artificial Intelligence are gearing up to replace many of the traditional careers we’ve been preparing our children for. For many years I had been preaching about the need to prepare students for jobs that have not yet been invented. What was different about this presentation was the realization we are preparing students for careers that will no longer exist!
Our next steps required defining what it looks like for a child to demonstrate each skill and trait at benchmark grade level. Adam expertly guided our instructional leaders and teachers to do this work. Walk through any school in Cañon City today and you'll see evidence of this. At the same time, the Cañon City High School Assessment for Learning Project team, led by Principal Bill Summers and supported by the Colorado Education Initiative, created a capstone graduation requirement by which we can measure student development of each trait and skill. I do not exaggerate when I say this is the best example of a capstone process in Colorado.
My major contribution to this effort was re-tooling our annual Instructional Program Review to where it could measure progress being made in each school toward achievement of our vision, mission, core beliefs, and graduate profile. Thanks to a Colorado Department of Education Accreditation Pilot Grant and a partnership with several other school districts and higher education institutions, including Boulder Valley and the University of Colorado, we've also evolved this process to where it may be one of the best examples of a school district locally deciding what's important and measuring whether it is achieving its goals.
Looking Ahead
So where are we now?
Right in the middle of the stream, metaphorically changing riders, as I indicated to Adam Hartman back in 2018 would be the case when he encouraged me to embark on these major systems changes.
However, by transparently sharing all I knew about running a school system, and thanks to truly visionary leadership by our last two boards of education, Adam and I have been riding the horse together. All I have to do is get off it and hand the reigns to him.
Still, though we are well along the path to where we are headed, our compass pointed in the proper direction, we still have a long way to go.
However, with the systems we’ve already put in place, mostly envisioned through Adam Hartman’s strategic leadership, Cañon City has gained the reputation of being the most forward thinking school district in the state of Colorado.
In my opinion, it is! However, just you wait until we actually achieve this vision!
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
Right in the middle of the stream, metaphorically changing riders, as I indicated to Adam Hartman back in 2018 would be the case when he encouraged me to embark on these major systems changes.
However, by transparently sharing all I knew about running a school system, and thanks to truly visionary leadership by our last two boards of education, Adam and I have been riding the horse together. All I have to do is get off it and hand the reigns to him.
Still, though we are well along the path to where we are headed, our compass pointed in the proper direction, we still have a long way to go.
However, with the systems we’ve already put in place, mostly envisioned through Adam Hartman’s strategic leadership, Cañon City has gained the reputation of being the most forward thinking school district in the state of Colorado.
In my opinion, it is! However, just you wait until we actually achieve this vision!
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
