Alaskan School District Leads School Reform and Abolishes Grade Levels

Another example of ground-breaking school reform from Edutopia magazine! Alaska's Chugach School District has done away with grade levels, and students are performing better than ever. This district is based in Anchorage, but serves many tiny villages that are spread throughout 22,000 square miles.

This district has changed many aspects of the way it educates its students. The biggest change is that grade levels have been abolished. Instead, the concept is that a student must master each level in order to move along. Report cards have been changed as well to reflect this "leveling. Roger Sampson, president of the Educational Commission of the United States led this change in Chugach's district. He says, "What's constant is learning. Time is the variable," in contrast with the way that traditional education is structured.

Chugach's students definitely receive more personalized instruction, but they are not enabled by their teachers. They are responsible for much of their learning, and the older they get, the more responsibility they receive. In most cases, the district finds that students rise to the occasion.

What is the history of this transformational change? In the early 1990's, the students of Chugach's schools could barely read at a minimal level. Recent graduates were failing to become productive members of society. Those going on to college were almost nonexistent. The school district was just not producing college graduates. All in all, it was not a good situation for students or teachers. Then, Roger Sampson arrived and began to overhaul the whole system by getting support and input from all the major stakeholders. This is no small feat when we know that these kids are spread out geographically far and wide, with two villages accessible only by boat. Native cultures contrasted with more mainstream culture in the district. Chugach eventually became standards-based, but they didn't just include core academic areas. Standards were also presented for service learning; career development; personal, social and health development; technology; and cultural awareness (to help foster relations with the Alutiq culture). Students now receive ratings rather than grades and are called on to complete a wide variety of assessments.

Sampson cut administrators to add more teachers, and the current ration is 8 ½ teachers to 81 students. With all of these changes, Chugach went from the 20^th percentile in reading to the 80^th on the California Achievement tests. Nine other Alaskan school districts are now looking to Chugach as a model.

One of the biggest changes in teaching is that the lessons are focused on real-world applications. Service learning opportunities abound. Lessons are given the same way for all students, but students have multitudes of choices to explore learning concepts. Large unites are taught weaving many subjects and standards together. Students can also take online courses or do educational travel.

There are still some issues for this district. Tracking all these standards is a true nightmare in paperwork, but an electronic tracking system has been purchased in order to help teachers manage this. The demand on teachers is huge because they teach so many subjects and levels. However, teachers must learn to say "I don't know" to keep their sanity, which allows students to search for the information themselves, further empowering students.

Chugach School District clearly states that their model is no "golden egg" or whatever expression is used. Theirs is not the model that will work for everyone. There are problems, but it is working for them.

Other interesting facts for teachers or others in the field of education: Teachers get 30 days professional development a year and they choose what they want to learn. As set of standards spell out exactly what is expected and how these will be assessed. Each year the teachers receive an the same performance bonus (this year it was $11,000 each ) based on the average of their evaluations. This is to encourage teamwork among the faculty.

Chugach certainly seems to have a novel approach to education that works for them. It wouldn't work everywhere, but there are things that every school could be looking at or doing to improve.

Information adapted from Edutopia magazine.