Envision Learning Partners has had the honor of working with Antelope Valley Union High School District since 2017 and we’re excited to share an update on how they are Integrating Portfolio Defenses into the Curriculum: All-in for Success in this Guest Blog written by Duane Robertson.

It is more critical than ever to equip students with a range of skills that will prepare them for college, careers, and life. One strategy that has been implemented in the Antelope Valley High School Districts (AVUHSD) Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways is the Portfolio Defenses. The portfolio defenses not only enhances communication but also fosters students confidence, critical thinking, and collaboration. Recognizing this importance, AVUHSD set a plan to integrate the portfolio defenses into the curriculum, making them an essential component of pathway students’ learning experiences. The implementation plan, the challenges faced, and the successes achieved by AVUHSD is outlined below.

Identifying the Need

After discussions with CTE administration and feedback from teachers, it became apparent that many students lacked opportunities to practice public speaking in structured, meaningful ways – especially after COVID 19. While presentations occasionally appeared in class, they were sporadic and often lacked uniform standards, rubrics or assessments. To address this gap, portfolio defenses were implemented to incorporate presentations as a formalized, skill-building component of CTE pathways.

Setting the Objectives

The primary goals for integrating defenses into the curriculum included:

1. Skill Development: To improve students’ communication, critical thinking, and organizational abilities.
2. Interdisciplinary Learning: To encourage students to draw connections between CTE and Academic classes.
3. Inclusivity: To ensure all students, regardless of confidence level, had the opportunity to grow in a supportive environment.
4. Assessment Alignment: To create clear rubrics that aligned with broader academic standards.
5. Graduate Profile:  To align with components if the Graduate Profile.

Developing the Plan

The implementation plan was multi-faceted and involved the following steps:

1. Curriculum Mapping
   Pathway leads identified where presentations would naturally fit. For example, history classes could include debates or oral reports on historical events, while science courses might feature project-based presentations on experiments or innovations.
2. Teacher Training and Professional Development
   Workshops were organized to guide teachers on effective strategies for incorporating presentations, creating rubrics, and providing constructive feedback. Emphasis was placed on fostering a growth mindset and supporting students who struggled with public speaking.
3. Rubric Design
   A standardized rubric was created to ensure consistency and equity in assessment. The rubric focused on key components like content accuracy, delivery, visual aids, engagement, and providing student evidence of learning.
4. Student Preparation
   Resources were developed to help students prepare, including templates, teacher mentors, and strategies for engaging audiences.
5. Pilot ProgramBefore full implementation, a pilot program was conducted in select classrooms. Feedback from students and teachers during this time was invaluable in refining the student outcomes.

Overcoming Challenges

While the initiative was ultimately successful, it came with its share of challenges:

• Resistance to Change: Some teachers were initially hesitant, citing concerns about time constraints and additional workload. Regular meetings and showcasing other schools early successes helped alleviate the concerns.
• Student Anxiety: Many students were apprehensive about speaking in front of peers. To address this, smaller groups were formed and presentations were introduced before progressing to larger, graded ones.
• Resource Allocation: Ensuring access to technology required careful planning.

Measuring Success

The impact of this initiative was evaluated through teacher and student reflections, and academic outcomes. Key findings included:

• Improved Confidence: Over 80% of students reported feeling more confident speaking in front of an audience.
• Enhanced Engagement: Teachers observed increased participation and enthusiasm, particularly in interdisciplinary projects.
• Skill Retention: Students demonstrated improved organization and critical thinking in other assignments, indicating a transfer of skills.

Expanding the Vision

Encouraged by the success of the program, plans are underway to further enhance the initiative by extending portfolio beyond CTE classes:

• Incorporating alumni and peer reviews to build collaborative skills.
• Organizing a school-wide presentation day where students can showcase their work to a broader audience.
• Partnering with community organizations to bring real-world relevance to student presentations and participate as panelists.

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Conclusion

Integrating portfolio defenses into the curriculum has transformed the learning environment, empowering students with communication skills that extend far beyond the classroom. This initiative exemplifies how thoughtful planning, collaboration, and a commitment to students can create meaningful change in education. As students continue to excel in their portfolio defenses and critical thinking abilities, the benefits of this learning strategy reaffirm the importance of such initiatives in preparing our students for the future.

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Duane Robertson is the Coordinator of CTE for the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

Mr. Robertson left his position as a multimedia and computer science instructor and Academy Coordinator of the Lancaster High School Engineering and Multimedia Academy, the first Linked Learning Silver-Certified academy. He previously taught business classes as an Adjunct Instructor, after a 15 year career as a project manager. He received his B.S. in Business with an emphasis in Management from Cal State Dominguez Hills, and his first Masters Degree in Education from Chapman University and a 2nd Masters in Administrative Leadership from Cal State Bakersfield.

Duane’s desire to reach students led him to his current role as CTE Coordinator for the Antelope Valley Union High School district. Under his leadership, the CTE classes and academies continue to align with the district’s vision of “every student who graduates will be prepared to pursue college and any career to which he or she aspires”.

Duane is also an alumni of ELP’s Deeper Learning Leadership Forum, Cohort 4.

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When I was a kid, I was thrilled by timed multiplication tests. You know the ones. Fresh paper flipped with the blank side up, while you recite to yourself…

Then go! You flip your paper and, hardly registering the numbers, answer 60 multiplication problems in 60 seconds (or less) with the speed of Usain Bolt. And when the time is up, you pass the paper to a classmate, hopefully a friend, to grade your paper in purple gel pen and find out whether you are a math genius or…well…hopefully you have other talents.

I loved it. To me, math was speed and accuracy. As I went from carrying the one to the Pythagorean Theory, I learned procedures to solve problems with speed and accuracy, hardly registering the numbers. Until I couldn’t anymore.

Eventually, the concepts became too abstract and the procedures couldn’t carry me to any solution – let alone with accuracy and speed. Eventually, I figured that I reached my limit and stopped. As my identity as a ‘math person’ ended, so did aspirations to work in the sciences and anything STEM related. With one course, my plans for my life changed.

Later in life, math and I were reintroduced, this time as a teacher. And I saw that my journey directly conflicted with what we ask of our students: be lifelong learners, persevere, you can do anything you put your mind to. It was then that a thought occurred to me: we’ve been thinking about math all wrong.

So here’s a reframe. The purpose of math class is not to learn numbers and theorems. That’s a byproduct. Instead, the purpose is to learn how to think, problem solve, and investigate our world. Everyday phenomena – natural or socially constructed – are linked to mathematics. It adds data, color, insights, and questions. How we approach a new or difficult math problem informs how we approach challenges that we encounter in our lives. Sure, learning new strategies is an important part of what educators teach in math. But perhaps more powerful is the idea that you can find and use new strategies in creative ways. That we all think differently. That we can build on each others’ ideas. We can aim to support students as they build up their toolboxes and practice being problem-solvers, innovators, and world builders in a variety of circumstances.

We see this shift with the eight standards for mathematical practice, which describe the “processes and proficiencies” that learners will need to be effective in their math education. Simply applied to finding solutions to problems, our learners likely won’t internalize the power of these practices. However, applied as an approach to problem solving, students become empowered in their learning and move toward liberation. When students ask, “Why do we need to learn this math?” We can respond, “So you can change the world.”

This reframe requires safe learning spaces where our students can make mistakes, try new strategies, and explore their world. It requires projects, games, and exploration. Going into next school year, how can we move away from a focus on speed, accuracy, and learning math as a checkbox for the next level of math? How can we move toward liberation?

If we are truly pursuing justice – now and in the future – then we have to change the way we think about math class.

This Guest Blog was written by Envision Education’s Director of STEM, Kala Stepter. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Urgency, Patience, and the Cultivation of Hope

By Trevor Gardner

The tension between urgency and patience is a constant for educators. On one end we hold high expectations, pushing students to do more than they think they are capable of; we demand their best. On the other end we nurture; we meet them where they are; we remain steadfastly compassionate and understanding.

Paulo Freire first helped me understand this tension when I read what I believe is his most essential texts for school educators: Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to those Who Dare to Teach. In his “Fourth Letter: On the indispensable qualities of progressive educators for their better performance,” he frames the tension in this way:

[The progressive educator] must exercise wisdom in experiencing the tension between patience and impatience. Neither patience nor impatience alone is what is called for. Patience alone may bring the educator to a position of resignation, or permissiveness; that denies the educator’s democratic dream. Unaccompanied patience may lead to immobility, to inactivity… Untempered impatience threatens the success of one’s practice, which becomes lost in the arrogance of judging oneself the owner of history. Patience alone consumes itself in mere prattle; impatience alone consumes itself in irresponsible activism. Virtue, then, does not lie in experience either without the other but, rather, in living the permanent tension between the two. The educator must live and work impatiently patiently, never surrendering entirely to either (pg. 211). 

If you have spent any amount of time with young people in schools – but especially as a classroom teacher – you have felt the weight of this tension and you have struggled with the layers of complexity that pull you in either direction. And if you currently work with young people in schools, as we emerge slowly from the global pandemic that forced students to endure nearly a year and a half of online “school”, isolated in their homes, their bedrooms, and their computer screens; I imagine you are experiencing the antagonism of this polarity in a way that is heavier, more messy, and more emotionally fraught than ever before.

Ukiah Camping with Students

Moving into my 23rd year as an educator, both as a classroom teacher and a school leader, I find myself struggling more than ever, as I look out at the 28 students in my 11th grade US History class, or when I sit in coaching meetings with my incredible teachers, with the wisdom to locate the equilibrium in this tension.

Belief in the possibilities of education feels like it is at an all time low. Engagement in the classroom feels more challenging to sustain. Desire to struggle through difficult work seems more short-lived.

 When attempting to capture the feeling of this dynamic, I have been using the analogy of an athlete whose muscles have atrophied due to being sidelined for a long time due to injury. From March 2020 until August 2021, students (at least those in Bay Area public schools) did not step foot into a school building. They did not engage in small group discussion with their classmates. They did not get up in front of the class to model how to work out a math problem. They did not rotate around the room on a gallery walk, writing their thoughts on small posters and reading the ideas of their peers. They did not rush out the door to find their best friends for lunch.

Of course, after such a hiatus, they are less good at doing school. In this sense, yes, they have atrophied, at least as students in the classroom. But they have also built different muscles. They have learned to navigate the world in a pandemic, a world more complex than we have known before. They have learned to be closer to their families, to care for younger siblings doing online schooling and for elders facing health conditions. They have built muscles of resilience, awareness, and empathy. 

Ukiah Camping with Students

What I am realizing more and more is that, if we are exercising the wisdom of our experience, as Freire asks us to do, then we must find ways to turn this incredibly challenging moment into an opportunity. Our urgency must be marshaled not only in support of our students, but also in questioning, transforming, and reimagining how schools (or at least our own classrooms) function.

Do we want our students to build back muscles that help them comply and fit into a box, an institution, a system that can feel disconnected, uninspiring, and even harmful? Do we want them to be better at enduring boredom and passivity? What are the muscles we want to rebuild as we take this long journey together back to an education that truly serves our students and our communities?

What if we add a third point to Freire’s tension between patience and impatience and we call it HOPE – and we allow ourselves to pull equally in the direction of what else is possible? What if we add an element in our lesson plans labeled hope? What if we ask ourselves every day how we are cultivating hope – in our classrooms, in our discipline policies, in our communication with families and caregivers, and in our interactions with our colleagues? Hope that a different way is possible. Hope that what I learn today matters. Hope that we will learn through this difficult moment together. 

I know it is not simple. My students will certainly tell you that there have been more than a few US History lessons that have bored them to sleepiness or that did not inspire them to suck out all the marrow of life and use their knowledge of history to transform the world. I have work to do. At times I have let my urgency run over students and lose sight of the myriad struggles they continue to cope with. At other times my patience has left me mired in acceptance of the status quo.  I too have atrophied and have questioned my purpose as a teacher and school leader. 

But what if I, what if WE, collectively, placed the cultivation of hope as our primary objective? What if we met the challenges with what the incredible Shawn Ginwright calls “radical imagination… the collective dreaming about how things should be.”  Imagine what schools could become.

Trevor Gardner has been an educator in the Bay Area for 20 years. He has taught high school English and history and has worked at multiple levels of school leadership and is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning at ARISE High School in East Oakland. Trevor is the author of Discipline Over Punishment: Successes and Struggles with Restorative Justice in Schools and also an alumni of ELP’s Deeper Learning Leadership Forum. Connect with Trevor on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Vermont has been on an ambitious journey to implement student-centered, proficiency-based learning for over twenty years. That journey continues to evolve today, and this blog shares some of the key points along the way.

A publication by the Vermont Department of Education in 2003, “High Schools on the Move,” addressed “the critical issues facing Vermont high schools” and identified principles that remain at the heart of Vermont’s work today. These include:

• Empowering students, as young adults, to create and pursue their own personal goals;
• Providing students with a variety of education pathways in which they can pursue their goals; and
• Encouraging students to learn and apply skills in real-world settings.

(A Report to the Vermont Legislature on Career and Technical Education)

The task force recommended a focus on personalized learning environments that would enable students to take risks in a supportive setting and prepare them for life after graduation. The What and Why of Act 77 outlines additional milestones along Vermont’s path towards the Flexible Pathways Initiative, created by Act 77 of 2013 and found in statute under 16 V.S.A. § 941. This Act was “established to encourage and support the creativity of school districts as they develop and expand high-quality educational experiences that are an integral part of secondary education in the evolving 21st Century classroom; to promote opportunities for Vermont students to achieve postsecondary readiness through high-quality educational experiences that acknowledge individual goals, learning styles, and abilities; and to increase the rates of secondary school completion and postsecondary continuation in Vermont.”

The Flexible Pathways Initiative paved the way for the inclusion of proficiency-based learning in Vermont’s State Board of Education Rules, Series 2000, The Education Quality Standards, that went into effect in April 2014. These rules state:

• Schools must provide students the opportunity to experience learning through flexible and multiple pathways, including but not limited to career and technical education, virtual learning, work-based learning, service learning, dual enrollment, and early college. Learning must occur under the supervision of an appropriately licensed educator. Learning expectations must be aligned with state expectations and standards. Students must be allowed to demonstrate proficiency by presenting multiple types of evidence, including but not limited to teacher- or student-designed assessments, portfolios, performances, exhibitions, and projects.
• Students must be allowed to demonstrate proficiency by presenting multiple types of evidence, including but not limited to teacher- or student-designed assessments, portfolios, performances, exhibitions, and projects.

In an effort to develop a shared vision for both proficiency-based learning and college and career readiness, in 2017 the VT Agency of Education began collaborating with the field to develop a statewide Portrait of a Graduate (PoG). Approximately sixty educators from across the state gathered to react to the initial draft. That version was influenced by a blog post, The Graduate Profile: A Focus on Outcomes, from Edutopia by Ken Kay that stated:

• Unlike a mission or vision statement, a graduate profile is a document that a school or district [or state] uses to specify the cognitive, personal, and interpersonal competencies that students should have when they graduate.                      

Over the next two years, more than three hundred students, parents, educators, and community members contributed to the final version of the Vermont PoG. The PoG provided guidance in the development of proficiency-based graduation requirements and articulates the vision for learners who are prepared for success in college, career, and life. Personalized Learning Plans, a requirement in Act 77 for students in grades seven through twelve, serve as a vehicle for documenting a learner’s progress towards the attributes of the PoG.  

Fast forward to 2020. . . Vermont educators had been working hard to implement the expectations within the Education Quality Standards for local graduation requirements, however, a survey that year revealed a wide variation in requirements across the state. Depending upon the supervisory union or district a student attended, there was a range from six to one hundred thirty-five Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements. This indicated that expectations for graduation, which are determined locally and approved by school boards, were being interpreted in a variety of ways. Educators moved forward with the development of PBGRs with good intentions, however, a collective understanding for these expectations had not been developed. Unintentionally, this range in PBGRS created inequitable expectations for learners across the state.

Concern about this lack of coherence and the impact on students, especially those who move frequently or attend Career Technical Education Centers from several different sending schools, gave “birth” to the Proficiency-Based Graduation Hierarchies. Content Specialists started by determining what it means to be literate in their content area and distilled the essential information into an overarching Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirement. Critical Proficiencies represent the enduring knowledge and skills within a content area and promote high expectations for all students. Priority Performance Indicators represent the skills and knowledge that will be taught and assessed. Finally, Proficiency Scales indicate the progression of learning over time. Once this information was drafted, the Hierarchies went through an internal review process using quality criteria documents as lenses for providing feedback. After an additional two rounds of feedback from the field, the Hierarchies were revised, finalized, and posted on the VT AOE website.

Since Vermont is a local control state, supervisory unions and districts are not required to adopt the PBGR Hierarchies. However, in the spirit of continuous improvement, educators are encouraged to adopt the PBGR Hierarchies, adapt them to fit their context, or use each Hierarchy to refine locally defined PBGRs.  

• Adopt: SU/SDs may choose to adopt the AOE PBGR Hierarchies. Broad adoption of these PBGR Hierarchies will help to ensure that students who move between schools or attend Career Technical Education Centers experience common expectations. Furthermore, common expectations between SU/SDs would also allow for collaborative processes of improvement.  
• Adapt: SU/SDs may choose to adapt AOE developed PBGR Hierarchies to fit their own local context and student needs. It is recommended that student data and local portraits of a graduate be used as the basis for differentiation between local graduation requirements and the state models.  
• Refine: Many SU/SDs have PBGRs in place. SU/SDs can use the AOE PBGR Hierarchies as a basis for quality assurance of local PBGRs by comparing and understanding their differences (e.g., why might a PPI that is emphasized in the state Math PBGR Hierarchy not be emphasized in the local Math PBGR). These conversations, reflections, or processes of comparison (between models and local policies/procedures/practices) are part of an iterative process of PBGR improvement that all SU/SDs are recommended to engage with.

As part of VT AOE’s continuous improvement process, members of the Student Pathways Division are working with educators in SU/SDs to support the processes of adapting, adopting, or refining local PBGRs through Participatory Action Research (PAR).

Numerous resources have been developed over time to support Vermont’s efforts to implement proficiency-based learning. The Vermont Framework for Proficiency: Resources to Support Implementation is composed of stackable documents that enable educators to access the information that is most relevant to the needs of their particular school system. It is organized from a backward-designed perspective so that the initial documents lay the foundation for subsequent work and inform decisions regarding next steps. The resources also demonstrate how different parts of the Framework for Proficiency connect and build upon one another. The hope is that by sharing these resources and Vermont’s journey, others can benefit and join us on the road to proficiency.

Guest Blog written by Pat Fitzsimmons

• Deeper Learning Leadership Forum (DLLF) Cohort 3 Alumni
• Proficiency-Based Learning Team Leader
• Student Pathways Division
• Vermont Agency of Education

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In this special Guest Blog Video Interview, hear from Alcine Mumby and Laureen Adams, interviewed by Niloy Gangopadhyay and Courtney Katen.

This interview was sparked by Alcine’s recent travel to the Ghana ASCD Educators’ Summit 2024 earlier this year.

Learn about Alcine and Laureen’s history- all starting in Oakland at Envision Academy, what Laureen took away and still carries with her as leader of the Tutu Institute in Ghana, why she believes so deeply in performance assessment, and what’s up next for her work continuing to support educators and systems.

We All Deserve Badges for Resilience and Adaptability

By Roman Stearns

During the pandemic, each individual and organization has been forced to practice unprecedented levels of resilience and adaptability. It’s remarkable really. Workers adapted to new conditions and norms. Students adapted to new places and forms of learning. Parents adapted to some form of homeschooling. Beyond individuals, businesses adapted to new strategies for offering products and services, and nonprofits and government agencies adapted to new and creative methods for providing support. From my observation, everyone, of all ages and across all sectors of society, deserves a badge for resilience and adaptability.

Badges as a Motivation to Advance

Most of us have grown up with some form of badging to recognize accomplishments. Some remember merit badges awarded during Boy or Girl Scouts. Some work in organizations that award pins for years of service. Of course, gamers are very familiar with endless ways to earn badges and level up. The age-old strategy persists because it works; it draws on our natural desire to improve, to achieve, to win, and to get recognition when we do.

Please indulge me while I reflect on personal experience. I’m a former high school Spanish teacher. My wife is multilingual. We see language as a tremendous asset, and thus are committed to promoting languages among our children. When our eldest son, Eli, was three years old, we enthusiastically enrolled him in a dual immersion preschool, where 100% of instruction was in Spanish. To our surprise, rather than becoming fluent, he emerged after three years with very limited capability. Years later, now at a charter Montessori school, Eli has one hour of Spanish per week – not nearly enough for him to become proficient. I had submitted to the reality that perhaps he would not emerge from his schooling speaking Spanish.

Then came the pandemic and the transition to homeschooling. The school introduced Eli, then 12-years-old, to Duolingo, an online app for learning languages. All of a sudden, he became highly interested, doing Spanish for an hour or more a day! He began learning Spanish at a remarkable rate. I was fascinated by the change and wondered about the cause. Like many other online learning apps (e.g., Khan Academy), Duolingo is gamified, with students earning badges and leveling up. It celebrates progress and accomplishment, motivating users to continue to advance to higher and higher levels of achievement. To my delight, after just a few weeks, Eli was speaking Spanish around the house using full sentences!

Scaling Badges in Schools

As a school reformer, I’ve always liked the idea of awarding digital badges to students who demonstrate various competencies, whether collaboration, initiative, empathy, creativity, or civic action. I wonder why programs like 21st Century Skills Badging, designed jointly by the Foundation for California Community Colleges and New World of Work, have not become more popular in CA. Is it because the incentives are not in place? Is it that our education system does not adequately value student demonstration of 21st century skills and social emotional learning outcomes? Is it because those competencies have not yet earned a place in our state accountability system? Inherently, we know they are important, and a growing body of research reinforces the benefits to student achievement and success.

Badges could help us focus on what matters

In another blog post, I emphasized that the current circumstances accentuate the need and urgency to embrace success skills and social emotional development as core and central to our education process. As we reflect on what we’re learning – individually, organizationally, and societally – during the pandemic, we must consider how the “new normal” will value the competencies that young people have demonstrated so impressively over the past two years – adaptability, resilience, empathy, compassion, civic responsibility, effective communication across platforms, digital literacy, independence, initiative, resourcefulness, creativity, critical thinking, and more.

Could digital badges help us signal the importance of those competencies? How can we build the capacity of teachers to both demonstrate and measure these skills? Will we add them to report cards? Could more recognition, perhaps through approaches such as badges or gamification, elevate their importance for students? As per another blog post, might it be time for the traditional “currency of education” – the high school transcript – to give way to a newer currency that is more equitable, student-centered, and competency-based? Might digital badges be the best currency as we pivot to a competency-based approach to learning and assessing students?

Leading the charge

Fortunately, a group of school districts is already tackling these questions. They are pioneering members of a new community of practice dedicated to educating the whole child. A new California partnership, called Scaling Student Success, works with school districts that have engaged their local stakeholders to create a Graduate Profile – a succinct, one-pager that articulates the skills, competencies, and mindsets young people need for future success. These districts are eager to move “from poster to practice” – i.e., breathing life into their Graduate Profiles, giving each and every student an equitable opportunity to develop and demonstrate the competencies articulated on their Graduate Profile.

One common challenge among the districts in the Scaling Student Success community of practice is how to build coherence around their Graduate Profile and measure and report on the Profile outcomes. They recognize that not all are achievable during 180 school days, from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. They wonder how they can actively involve their community members in offering opportunities for students to practice and demonstrate competencies beyond the boundaries of the classroom, clock (school day), and calendar (school year). For example, would it be possible to engage families, neighbors, soccer coaches, dance instructors, youth group leaders, internship supervisors, and other youth-serving community members?

I have a dream

While my dream is nowhere near as ambitious nor eloquent as the one expressed by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963, it’s a dream that I too hope can become reality in the years to come. Let’s create a phone app that allows students, their peers, families and community members to rate student performance on any competence represented on a district’s Graduate Profile.

To understand how this would work, let’s return to my son Eli. Similar to a Graduate Profile, his school has a set of “Whole Child Reflections” that include empathy, independence/responsibility, acceptance of self/others, problem solving, positive risk taking, integrity, organization, contribution, curiosity and initiative, and critical thinking. On report cards each quarter, his teachers rate him on a scale (AC = area of concern, S = sometimes, O = often, C = consistently). But, those ratings are merely teacher observations during class time. They do not include self-reflection, peer assessments, or ratings offered by other adults who interact with Eli both in and out of school.

When COVID forced an end to his soccer practices, Eli insisted on continuing to practice every day. Happy to support his wellness, we drove him each afternoon to a local park. Over time, he became frustrated that he didn’t have goals, cones, hurdles, and other training equipment he was accustomed to. I suggested that he earn some money to buy the items he wanted. He learned during the recent spring break that he can make money washing cars. So, Eli created a flier promoting “Eli’s Car Wash,” printed it, and placed it on a few dozen door steps in the neighborhood (see Eli’s fun flier here). Over several weeks he earned over $500 and bought all the equipment he needed, including a new pair of cleats! Wouldn’t it have been ideal if he had the opportunity to ask the neighbors to rate him on independence/responsibility, initiative, and perhaps problem-solving. The neighbors could download the app, offer a rating, make a comment, and even attach an artifact.

Then, when Eli had received five or more ratings for, say independence/responsibility, he would use the app to submit the ratings for review and approval. His teacher would review the ratings and associated comments and evidence, and determine whether he had met a standard. If met, Eli would be awarded a digital badge representing his demonstration of competence. That badge would become a portable credential that he then could use in multiple ways, i.e., when applying for high school, college, or his first job.

Benefits to Students and Schools

An app like this could have many benefits, including:

• It puts agency in the hands of young people, allowing them a high degree of control over how they learn, who rates their competence and when.
• It engages the entire community in the education of our young people.
• It promotes equity by allowing any young person to tap a larger network of peers and adults to support their learning. 
• It moves our education system toward a competency-based approach to learning, a persistent goal of  school reformers.

Please share your ideas. How can we promote community-based learning opportunities and validate students’ demonstration of essential skills? Are there places where this kind of badging system is already working? What have you seen and experienced? What would you like to see?

Roman Stearns is Founder & Executive Director of Scaling Student Success, a California partnership dedicated to educating the whole child. Envision Learning Partners is an active practice partner, helping to co-design and facilitate community of practice sessions. Roman is also a member of ELP’s 5th Deeper Learning Leadership Forum.

What’s next? Enforcing “time served” is for prison guards, not stewards of genius.

Vinci Daro and Theresa Morris are two razor-sharp colleagues of mine. Among other qualities, they are math curriculum and assessment designers; they also help teachers shift the focus of learning to center students. The teacher works to guide, encourage, and create conditions for unfettering the growth of all students as full human beings, as problem solvers, thinkers, learners, and doers. That’s how I understand it, anyway. It is the opposite of my experience with high school math in particular, and I literally love them for it.

Once I heard Theresa very quickly answer a question about her mission and purpose: “Recovering lost potential.” Another time I saw Vinci’s response to a question about the values and principles she proposes when she is coaching or facilitating, and I think it was the only thing she wrote: “Students are brilliant.”

Think about that. What is happening in a course built on those directives? Let’s explore.

A few years back I heard from two high school students from different schools who designed and prototyped shoes with batteries built into the soles, which recharge via kinetic and solar energy from being used like shoes – walking around, and it helps if it’s sunny. Both students researched previous attempts at such a design. Both devised and revised proposals, plans, designs. Both went into the world to share their inquiries and challenges with professionals, mainly scientists and engineers. One used design thinking and the other used the engineering design process to get to a working prototype, and they did not solve the design challenges in the same way. One of these innovators was acquiring a patent in hopes of a licensing deal and navigating all of that, while the other had a batch of shoes manufactured and shipped to families in Ethiopia so they can be less impacted by rolling blackouts. He raised the money for that, too! They both spoke publicly about their process, challenges, and learning and expertly Both answered a barrage of questions from adults. One shared her story through a professional presentation in a giant auditorium and the other stood by a digital display of his project and walked groups of people through as they approached and investigated his station.

How do we design for that? One answer may strike you as suspiciously familiar.

• Decide what learning matters most. Collaboratively designed and research-based “graduate profiles” or “portraits,” “21st century leadership skills,” and “competency-based learning” encourage us to aid student development in certain authentic skills that are transferable and in high demand. Students aren’t going to have fully mastered these skills by the time they are seventeen years old. Adults in the building won’t have mastered them all either.
• Define your competencies. Clearly formulate measurable outcomes that comprise this or that competency. This should define “what” students will do and leave plenty of room for student agency and choice on “how” the outcomes get demonstrated. “Backwards planning” and “Understanding by Design” are two approaches that empower teachers to think outside the box of traditional assessment and then “teach to a test” that is an unfettered expression of brilliance.
• Design courses around tasks, units and projects that grow up out of student agency. Instead of having student choice sit in the sidecar, focus on helping the people in your class take the wheel (or handlebars); as much as possible at any given point, turbo-boost their collection of strategies and mindsets that help them build on their strengths, challenge themselves, and move toward independent demonstration, meaningful application, and unique creations full of evidence of the learning that matters most. “Performance assessment,” “assessment for learning,” “project-“ and “inquiry-based learning,” support all that. Allow students to decide what and how they create. Let them make outrageous proposals, justify them, develop them further… Applying skills to new, real and unpredictable situations is a skill in itself and is also rigorous and engaging! Offer experiences worth reflecting on.

Schools have found themselves bogged down by inflexible structures at a time when we need flexibility most. Some educators worry about students completing work too quickly and then not having anything to do with the remaining class time.

Rooting conditions for school success in things like seat time ultimately dilutes the data that actually measures student learning. Here are some things we will miss: what students can do now, their strengths and needs, how to support them, and what’s next for them. Pretty important stuff! Once you have them in front of you, how will you use that time to answer those other questions, and teach things that can be learned? Relationships, home visits, personalized interventions, bus passes, carpools, and other creative community support are more effective ways to address the high crimes of absence and tardiness!

Education shouldn’t be like serving a sentence. Let’s instead refocus our approach on what matters most and prepare ourselves to cultivate some genius. Model those transferable skills, bring all students relevant learning experiences, assist them in gaining useful strategies, expressing themselves, creating real things, taking initiative, and generally developing their powers! Let the reality of student brilliance and the high stakes of lost potential set the terms, not “time served.”

In other words, your students are not done yet. They’ve got way more to offer and more to learn. So what’s next for each of them and how will you let them do it?

Exposure and practice to the art of public speaking has the power to deepen and strengthen our connection to self, our education, and our community.

Growing up, I devoted myself to school because it was the one thing in my life whose outcome I knew I could control.

If I did my homework, I got good grades.

If I tested well, I got good grades.

If I met my deadlines, I got good grades.

If I completed my reading log (even if sometimes I skipped reading) I got good grades.  

Good grades meant a great report card and that meant that I could eventually go do big things in the world.

My teachers had no complaints by the time parent teacher conferences came, except that they would love it if I “spoke up more and participated in group discussions”. And each time I would tell them that I would work on it, but truthfully, it was the #1 piece of feedback I received for years to come.

I’ll be honest in saying that for this introvert, it was difficult to participate in class. I was afraid of judgment, but more importantly, I needed time to process my thoughts and in some ways, protect my inner voice.

As a first generation, oldest daughter of an immigrant single mother, being the shy, quiet, & reserved Yvonne was simply more comfortable than being in the spotlight. Besides, it had always gotten me the results I “needed”: good grades. And that’s all I needed to help pave the way for my siblings and I to “be successful”.

There were moments I got glimpses of my power as a speaker as the MC for my elementary school graduation & cultural events, but the excitement of those moments were never fully integrated in the classroom.

When I started high school at Metropolitan Arts & Tech (one of the first Envision Education Bay Area schools) I had no idea that my engagement with my education would completely transform. Our curriculum focused a lot on internalizing our learnings through deep reflection, critical thinking, creativity, and talking about it. Every semester we hosted ‘exhibitions’ as a way to share our work with our peers, family, and friends. We were required to present a collection of our work to showcase that we had achieved the learning outcomes of projects across subjects, which made me incredibly uncomfortable and way too nervous. I remember thinking “Why are they making us do all of this extra stuff? Can I just take a test?”

We’d spend hours preparing our talking points, our presentation boards, and even our outfits. Each time, it got easier and I reconnected with my love for public speaking. I say reconnected because I already had it in me. I was just not always in environments that pushed me to step up. The Yvonne that I knew myself to be, could also now fully exist in the classroom. Public speaking opened the door for me to be more authentically myself. To lean into a perceived contradiction where I had a hard time participating in class discussions, but could completely dominate a speech because I had been granted the time to practice and cultivate my art.

And I didn’t do it alone. I had an entire community in my teachers and my classmates. We were all in it together and all bonded over having to deliver presentations so frequently. I grew closer to my classmates because we’d spend hours giving each other feedback or exchanging ideas for how we’d present. We could collectively share our nerves and also work through them to deliver.

No matter who we were or where we came from, when we showed up to the classroom we were given the platform to share our ideas & deeply engage in our education from the lens of our lived experiences.

Presenting in the classroom allowed me to understand myself at a much deeper level, feel empowered by my education, and learn to create community through the art of public speaking.

My hope is that we can all see the power of public speaking beyond simply “taking the stage”, but also recognize its power in helping us reconnect with our most authentic selves, our education, and the collective power of doing things in community with others.

Learn more about Yvonne and connect.

ELPers, Alcine Mumby and Aragon Burlingham speak on camera about their experiences being part of the first Nexus Fellowship. The Nexus Fellowship was developed by the Equity Lab in response to the overwhelming need for race, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) in the learning profession. The Fellowship helps leaders to create long-term organizational change around race and equity.

What experiences brought you into coaching?

I had the incredible experience to be on the team that founded Envision Learning Partners.  I was half-way into my teaching career at that point and was offered the opportunity to design and create a way in which we could share some of what makes Envision special with others around the country who were interested.  I spent 2 years feeling like I had gone back to grad school as we built ELP, as I was learning so much in the process! Wanting to put into practice for myself all of the rich growth I had experienced, I went back into the classroom at Envision for 5 more years.  It was a natural and wonderful return to coaching in 2016 when I was able to re-join the team on this side of the organization.

What do you most enjoy about being a coach?

I feel so inspired by the brilliant educators with whom I get to cross paths and sit shoulder to shoulder while on my coaching journey.  I was worried that I would miss the beautiful chaos of teenagers on a daily basis when I left teaching, but coaching provides similarly vibrant relationships with the folks I get to partner with.  Coaching offers a bit of a different cognitive challenge as I get to think about units of change larger than my own classroom. This is invigorating and often makes my brain hurt in really cool ways.

What do you like to do when you are not coaching?

When not on a plane or sitting in an airport, you can find me running the trails of the incredible hills and redwood forests in the east bay, talking to every dog I pass on the sidewalk, enjoying the incredible food and wine that we have at our fingertips, traveling to far off magical lands as often as possible, cooking dinner for former students, and stepping out on a dance floor when the music is right.

Hear why our newest Deeper Learning Coach, Morgan Vien, joined ELP and is excited about her new role working with our partners across the country.

‍What experiences brought you into coaching?

As a student, I loved learning but found school more stifling than unleashing of my love of learning. As a high school teacher, I loved learning from my students and helping them discover themselves and the world around them. As a lead teacher, I always wanted more time to design amazing learning experiences, think about school-wide systems, and learn more about what other great schools are working on.

What do you most enjoy about being a coach?

As a coach, while I miss crazy teenager energy, I love the increased impact my work has on many other people’s students; I love the nitty-gritty of it too: learning, collaborating, and co-designing learning experiences and systems that help schools and districts in their process of transforming teaching and learning from the systems we all inherited.

What do you like to do when you are not coaching?

I am an activist, an artist, and an introvert! A big contradiction of things. I try to maintain space for calm, for creating and appreciating art in many forms, for reflection, and for just existing outside as part of the natural world, as well as fighting the fights that must be fought to make the world a better place.

What experiences brought you to ELP?

I first learned about ELP as a client when working at ARISE High School in Oakland, CA. We were building out new graduate student profiles/senior defenses, as my team 

• What are you hoping to learn while you’re at ELP?

While working with ELP, I am hoping to continue to gain knowledge on how to work with a variety of partners to achieve common goals around bettering the quality of education for our youth. I’ve been on the other side as a client, and I am excited to really dive into the ways of leading this work as an assessment design partner. I am also excited about having the opportunity to lead virtual workshops that can potentially reach the world (s/o to Vinci who had someone from out the country in her last workshop!). 

• What are you most excited about starting at ELP?

I am SO excited to be a part of this team! Even before I started on my first day, I felt accepted, appreciated, and valued. The fact that I am surrounded by so many knowledgeable and wise educators with a breadth of experience has already begun to excite me even more so about this work. There is a lot of passion and dedication, as well as a strong focus on equity and cultural responsive practice which definitely aligns with my work morals/ethics. And, I’m always excited to grow myself as an educational leader, and I know that’s going to happen here with ELP!

• What do you like to do when you’re not working?

When I’m not working, I’ve been enjoying learning about, and exploring Long Beach/SoCal! I just moved down here in March, and there is so much to do! Aside from exploring, I love to listen to music; sing, dance, zone out, etc. I have been reclaiming my love for exercise, and have been kickboxing and bike riding as well. I just recently got back into art, so I’ve been painting too! Then there’s: time with my family and partner, catching up with friends, sports (playing and watching), watching anime, meditation and breathwork, reading, journaling, amateur photography…I like to do A LOT when I have time! 

Fun fact: Current ELPer, Ruth Chung Wei and I discovered that her nephew is my kickboxing coach here in Long Beach! =)

What’s your new role?

I am serving as the Chief Program Officer (CPO) of Envision, a new role for the organization. My job is to steward the overall academic model of Envision Education, which is enacted through our four charter schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and through our nationwide consulting arm, Envision Learning Partners (ELP).  

What does Envision Education hope to achieve with this shift?

Before the CPO role was created, the bridge between ELP and our schools ran through the CEO, at the very top of the organization. The intent of my role is to lower the altitude of that bridge and add lanes. I am working to increase the bandwidth of learning between our schools and our nationwide coaching.

How does it support Envision E ducation’s mission and vision?

Since its founding, Envision has been dedicated to the idea that students deserve an education that attends not just to what they know, but also to what they can do and how deeply they can reflect. (See our principles of High-Quality Performance Assessment, or HQPA.) And we’ve always been committed to serving not only students in our own schools but also students everywhere, by sharing our ideas with public schools and advocating for shifts in policy.  In that sense, Envision is proud to be living out the original purpose of charter schools: places to test ideas and, if they work, share them. The job of the CPO is to ensure that we live up to that ideal.

What’s your favorite part of your new role?

I am interacting daily with broader swath of Envisioners, including students, teachers, and school leaders. I directly support a team of directors of academics and student services who are brilliant and collaborative. Plus, I still get to hang with ELP!

What are you bringing from ELP that you’re using in your new role?

My decade at ELP taught me that change happens not through mandate but through persuasion and inspiration. That requires communication that is clear, tight, and uplifting. I try to apply those skills every day.

Where do you see yourself and/or your role in the next few years?

I have so much to learn if I am to succeed in my new role, but I remind myself that over my 20 years at Envision, I’ve been here before. I was there when I had to figure out project-based learning as a brand new teacher. I was there when I joined ELP and had to learn how to facilitate learning for educators (a tough crowd!). And it’s where I am and will be for the foreseeable future: climbing a learning curve that’s real steep, pausing now and then to enjoy the view.

Although I have a title of Executive Director (privileged to do work I love with people who inspire me), I still call myself a teacher. I have always been, and remain, completely in thrall to the process of human learning.

Back in 2008, in my sixth year as an English teacher for Envision Schools, I was lucky to be involved in the design and implementation of a multi-disciplinary project that was chronicled by a professional documentarian. Many of you will be familiar with this video of the Campaign Ad Project, but for those who aren’t, it’s a blast-from-the-past glimpse into who I am as a teacher, why I love teaching in a deeper learning culture, and why I am so committed to the overlapping concepts of project-based learning and performance assessment.

Young people deserve learning experiences that are challenging, exciting, supportive, and memorable—what I like to call “learning you can tell a story about.” ELP’s mission is to help learning communities create the conditions for these kinds of experiences to be typical, not extraordinary.

Follow Justin on Twitter @jusowells.

This rounds out our introduction of every ELP team member. In upcoming installments, we’ll pose questions that prompt deeper insights into the ELP team. If you have a question for the team that you’d like answered, please send your question to Courtney Katen for a chance to have it answered in a future newsletter.

Hi I’m Michael, an 11th grade student from Envision Academy, born and raised here in the Bay Area. Interests that I have are the inner workings of cars and what goes into building/modifying them. I’m very interested in the Mechanical Engineering world and would love to pursue a career in it. I look forward to spending the week with the ELP team and learning from them in order to grow as both a person and finding out what makes things work.

I chose to go to Envision Academy in Oakland because I heard great things about the school from my older brother who also attended for the full 4 years. So far I’ve had a great experience at Envision Academy with the school being very inclusive, I never feel out of place.

Here are a few things that I am doing at school: A bridge project in my Physics class where me and a group of students work together to design a bridge that can hold up at least one brick. A satirical piece of writing in my English class where I am pointing out a problem of my choice in today’s world/society while incorporating ideas like irony into the text.

Right now I am looking at colleges which can help the dream of me wanting to become a Mechanical Engineer with a friend of mine contributing to it as well. We have a full list of colleges with each being color coded to indicate how likely we are to be accepted, with green being we are sure to get in and red being a longshot. I am currently looking at Georgia Tech and Stanford University as my top two choices for Mechanical Engineering classes.

What I want to take from this experience of working with the ELP team is how organized and calculated I can get with all my work, but also researching so I can continue to investigate more opportunities that I and others can benefit from.

Week Recap:

My week here has been amazing. Being able to meet all these amazing people that helped me settle in and feel welcome was exciting. I got to learn what goes on behind the scenes here and also have my share in the conversations not being left out of meetings and being asked for my inputs on a variety of subjects. A skill I improved at was my communication and planning skills. By being able to participate in the meetings I got better at talking with people that are older but also come from different backgrounds than me. Having control over my schedule also gave me a better understanding on how to handle my time in order to get the work I need done but also make time for other things, whether that be meetings or interviews by my fellow peers. I would recommend that other schools also start to implement an internship week of sorts because the opportunities and just overall knowledge that gain from a work environment is different to that of a school one. The amount of connections you can gain would be very helpful for students so that they get a sense of what their future can hold for them and it would also help them narrow what it is they actually want to do.

Michael was also able to interview three other Envision Academy interns who were at the Envision Education Support Office in Oakland, CA.

‍

Start of the week:

Cristian: “I chose this because David, my mentor, the senior directive of student services, made me interested in learning more about the school policies and how they work. I want to gain a different perspective of life, although there are many other opportunities, I want one that hears about students and how they feel when it comes to certain activities. I want to improve my communication skills, not just with students but with adults too. I want to become a structural engineer/architect. What interests me about Envision is its cultural theme and how inclusive they are with African American, hispanic, etc, and how they treat them and their months for example black history month, especially with how inclusive they can be. I’m a sports guy. I play a different variety of sports like baseball, soccer, football, etc. I played for the school soccer team this year. I was thinking of going to a college in Boston or Riverside, San Jose State university.”

Jesus: “I chose this internship because it was close to my home and the work seemed interesting to do throughout the week. I want to learn what are the steps that ELP does to work with the school and how the hiring process works here. I want to improve my communication skills. What interested me about Envision was how it was really close to my house and my siblings had already gone to Envision before. I want to pursue a career in real estate. I like to play soccer, baseball, and I’m interested in the process of making music. I also like to play different instruments like the guitar, accordion, and the drums. I was thinking of trying out Sonoma State, UC Santa Cruz, Cal State, and UC Davis.”

Melanie: “I wanted to go into a medical field assisting but things didn’t work out, but Mr.Viera introduced me to Ms.Kat and the idea interested me because she works with HR and the higher ups, staff, and teachers so I wanted to look more into what goes on behind the scenes at Envision to make things work at the school. I want to learn more about the environment and Ms.Kat’s routine, and what goes on behind the scenes because I didn’t think that all this went on to make the school work. I thought it was just the Principal and the staff at the school. I want to improve my communication skills and hands on work with computers like google docs and sheets. What interests me about Envision is that it’s a small community so you’re able to know almost everybody and with how it is an art and technology school I had an interest in going here when I was coming out of middle school. I’m very interested in the medical field, more specifically the dental industry. I like to explore, hang with my friends, and create memories while also having fun. Some colleges I have on my mind are UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal Poly.”

End of the week:

Cristian: “I learned a lot of communication skills, being able to interview teachers, students, and other staff, all of these being people I do and don’t know broadened my interviewing skills. I got to create more and better bonds with all these people. Other Jobs I did were to attend a lot of meetings. The fun part about that was being able to go out, visiting the office, and getting a lot of new views/perspectives on different topics. My experience here was good. I got to meet new people and learn more about them, their job titles, and all the work they do to make everything happen. I think it’s a good idea to add an internship week for other schools because it’s a valuable learning experience, getting them slowly out of their comfort zone white also giving them knowledge on career paths that they themselves might want to pursue after the week is done.”

Jesus: “My week here went well and I definitely learned about the process of how teachers are hired and what they look for in teachers. A skill I improved on was being able to stay focused on a piece of work since I’m very easy in getting distracted so this internship bettered my focus. I would recommend this internship to other Envision students because it’s an easy job but you gain so much knowledge and you learn a lot from being here. I would recommend other schools to also start doing an internship style week because of the amount of opportunities you gain. For example, I was able to get a letter of recommendation from my mentor here. You also get to actually experience what the working world is like and it’ll give an early opportunity for students to learn about it.”

Melanie: “My week was very flexible and very calm, the first day I got an understanding of what the rest of my week was going to look like. After that I spent my time doing my work and overlooking my mentor to get a better understanding of what she does. I’ve learned that the process of having new people is not just accepting the job on the spot there is so much behind it. It can take weeks looking at them and accepting new staff and what they actually look at for potential staff. I improved my understanding and listening better with one on one talks with my mentor, asking her questions, and also just paying attention better. Just comprehension skills overall. I do recommend for other schools to start an internship like week because of the new environment you can get into and the vast majority of opportunities you can get by just meeting new people. A lot of students might not get the most out of just going to school so it would be very great to also learn about other experiences at other workplaces, while also giving students new jobs to look at that they might be interested in pursuing in their future.”

During the 2019 calendar year, ELP’s Alcine Mumby and Aragon Burlingham participated in the first Nexus Fellowship, a program from the Equity Lab. Nexus was designed in response to the overwhelming need for race, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) in the learning profession.

This was a transformative experience for us and the other 14 Nexus Fellows! Michelle and her talented team curated a deep and personal experience for our new community of equity leaders. Nexus took us into a deep personalized leadership journey based on our identities around three specific design challenges:  challenges with people, challenges with processes, and challenges with programs.

Watch the video to hear about the experiences of the Nexus Fellows and Equity Lab’s ED, Michelle Molitor.

Thank you Michelle and your exceptional team for creating this incredible program!

Describe what you do at ELP?

I lead the operations side of Envision Learning Partners. This primarily involves behinds the scenes work to ensure our infrastructure and systems are running smoothly so our coaches can deliver high-quality professional development. ELP’s start-up culture has built our service and systems through many years of relationship building, prototyping, and refining.

What experiences brought you to ELP?

I began my work with Envision as an English teacher at City Arts and Tech [our school in San Francisco]. After stepping out of the classroom, I worked closely with all of our schools in a highly successful reading intervention program. In 2010, I became a founding member of the Envision Learning Partners team. We spent the first several years of ELP figuring out the most high leverage work we could do with our external partners. The journey has been amazing – we’ve grown our service from 3 team members serving 1 partner to 11 team members serving over 60 partners.

What do you enjoy most about working for ELP?

I am driven by the mission of ELP and expanding positive educational impact to all students. I believe deeply in providing access and high-quality learning experiences to all students. At ELP we primarily work with adult learners to refine their teaching practices and educational systems, but my motivation still comes from impacting students’ lives by shifting adult teaching and learning.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

I spend most of my time on outdoor adventures with my wonderful husband and two children. We like to hike, rock climb, backpack, ski, and camp whenever we have the opportunity. Almost every morning before the sun is up you can find me at a barre class and I always sneak in time to read several novels per month.

have always been incredibly passionate about the work I do with students and families. I started my career as a Special Education Teacher in Philadelphia, Pa. At my core, I will always be a special educator.  I transitioned into student services/ special education administrative work which allowed me to have a deeper understanding of the way systemic oppression impacts vulnerable populations. I learned how to center the needs of the community and work alongside those who are most impacted.  While working in this role, I developed a passion for inclusive education – it can work when we work it (see article). This led me to another passion of mine – teaching. I work with the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University teaching aspiring general education teachers how to incorporate best practices into their teaching while challenging the narrative of what it means to educate students who learn differently. With my transition to ELP, I am hoping to bring a perspective that allows us to center the most vulnerable populations in the amazing work we do.  I am hoping to uphold high expectations for all of the students we serve and, I am hoping that students who learn differently will see themselves reflected in the work we do with districts, organizations, and communities.

What are you hoping to learn while you’re at ELP?

I am hoping to learn how to design high quality performance assessments on a large scale while centering neurodivergent learners.  I would like to support districts and school communities with inclusive education as it relates to high quality performance assessments and graduate portfolios.  I am also hoping to learn more about research projects on a large scale and how to use that information to improve school outcomes.

What are you most excited about starting at ELP?

I am most excited about working with a team that centers human connection while making an impact on the world of education. I am looking forward to getting to know everyone on the team as well as getting to know our clients and their school communities.

Another project that I am incredibly excited to join is the work ELP is doing with the Oak Foundation. The case study aims to illustrate high-leverage school practices that support the well being and success of Black and LatinX students with learning differences.  I am beyond honored to support this work.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

• Cuddles with Sully (my dog)
• I’m a professional frolicker
• Music is Life

Roilyn’s Bio:

Roilyn is a trailblazing advocate for inclusive education and has been in this work for the last 20 years. With an unwavering commitment to equality and empowerment, she has dedicated the past two decades to transforming the educational landscape for marginalized students.

Roilyn began her career as a special education teacher for the School District of Philadelphia. After teaching for 10 years, Roilyn transitioned into special education administration and served in schools on the east and west coast in similar capacities. Currently Roilyn works as an Assessment Design Partner and is a course lecturer in the graduate school of education at Stanford University. In her spare time she enjoys cuddles with her dog Sully, chatting with her nieces and nephew, and karaoke (mostly at home).

Learn more about Roilyn in her ELP blog post and/or connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Hi! My name is Royce Conner, and I recently joined the team as ELP’s Executive Director. In many ways, I feel like I have returned home. While I am new to Envision, my education career began by learning about progressive education from leaders in the field such as Ted Sizer and the Coalition of Essential Schools. Since then I have put students at the center of each of my classrooms and schools. I am thrilled to be part of a team that cherishes the idea that students thrive when given authentic, challenging and rigorous work that is personally meaningful to them and their communities.

A bit more about me…

What experiences brought you to ELP?

A visiting professor from a teacher preparation program once visited my classroom. He observed students deeply engaged in projects that provided them various opportunities to use their knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions about the world and their places in it. Some students led Socratic seminars about the nature of goodness. Others wrote policy briefs for local legislators. A few wrote an original play to be performed along with local actors using interviews the students conducted with immigrants. When the professor left, he said, “This is the way school should be.”

I spent ten years learning the craft of teaching using projects and performance-based assessments. I became a lead teacher in my school, supporting new teachers as they designed projects and aligned performance assessments to local standards. My middle school students, the majority low-income students of color, would often return to my classroom as high school and college graduates sharing gratitude that the work we did in my classroom prepared them for what one student called “the world I almost missed out on.”

After my time in the classroom, I spent two years in the public policy arena, working on statewide and national education issues with Rhode Island Kids Count. I enjoyed policy, but I eventually felt the call to return to education. I moved to California to pursue a degree in educational leadership and policy. After that I spent two years consulting with various school districts, including Oakland USD. I then spent one year leading the recruitment team for San Francisco USD. Following SFUSD I entered the world of school leadership. I served as Head of School for three Bay Area charter schools. One of my schools scored a front page article in Education Week for its innovative blended learning design, and another connected me with Bob Lenz and PBLWorks for its dedication to project-based learning for our students in K-8.

Before joining ELP, my most recent role was as a Fellow with Foster America, a national nonprofit working to improve outcomes for foster youth and develop innovations for the child welfare system.

And this brings me to Envision. While my career has had many interesting turns, I am delighted that I find myself back in an organization that operates and promotes schools that are, like that professor once said, the way schools should be.

What are you hoping to learn while you’re at ELP?

I am going to learn a tremendous amount from our schools! I look forward to seeing how partners in rural, suburban and urban districts rally their school cultures around student-centered design and performance assessments. We know there is no such thing as “one size fits all,” so I cannot wait to learn about how our partners are implementing high-quality performance assessments, graduate profiles, and portfolio defense in their unique contexts.

What are you most excited about starting at ELP?

Truly, it’s the team. I have the great pleasure to work with expert educators, coaches, facilitators, designers, researchers and operations professionals. They are parents, siblings, authors, cooks, readers, adventurers, musicians and athletes. They appreciate a challenge and embrace the power of difficult conversations. As excited as I am to connect with schools, it is the team that brings me the most joy.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

I would love to tell you that I dive deeply into great works of art and literature, but the truth is that I love my PlayStation and I play it like a teenager guzzling Mountain Dew. I am also a movie fan, especially horror movies. But I also love my outdoor time, especially hiking. In addition, I love to travel. So far I have traveled to 48 states (I’m looking at you, Mississippi and Hawaii!).

Anything else to add?

My favorite quote is “Don’t dream it—be it.” Extra points if you can name the source.

Royce’s Bio:

Royce joined Envision Learning Partners in 2023. A native of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, he attended Brown University, where he was first introduced to progressive principles of education through Ted Sizer and the Coalition of Essential Schools. He spent 10 years teaching at Community Preparatory School in Providence, Rhode Island. He then worked on statewide and national education policy with Rhode Island Kids Count, where he was selected as an Emerging Leader by The Children’s Defense Fund. He moved to California in 2007 to attend Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, where he earned a Master’s degree in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies. He spent two years consulting with urban school districts and another year leading the recruitment team at San Francisco Unified School District. He then served as Head of School for three Bay Area charter schools. His most recent role was as a Fellow with Foster America, a national nonprofit working across the country to improve the child welfare system and increase opportunities for foster youth. Royce lives in Richmond, California with his husband. He is thrilled to be part of the team at Envision Learning Partners!
Connect with Royce on LinkedIn.