Operating within a test-based accountability universe is very challenging because it runs counter to our District Vision. We’ve chosen to reject this model and follow another pathway for our students. Why…because to follow it would blur our vision and take us off course. 

Our district’s vision is to Inspire and Empower our students. We do that through our focus on Academics, the Arts and Athletics. These three areas provide the school district’s forum to further develop our students to be successful adults. Having a forum is only one variable to inspire and empower. From an academic standpoint, we need engagement; and in order to more formidably engage our students we will continue to design or redesign higher quality learning experiences to enable this to happen. In some instances we will need to create new opportunities from scratch, and in other cases it will only take slight adjustments to the instructional program.

As we are designing and redesigning instructional experiences for students, the standards and course content serves as the foundation, however we know it isn’t enough. In Olmsted Falls Schools we believe that there are 7 student competencies that are so important to a student’s development, we felt the need to identify them, and begin to clearly ensure they are a major part of the student experience. These 7 competencies are so big and so critical, they permeate not only a student’s academic experience, but the experiences they have in their extra-curricular programs. Sometimes a student’s extra-curricular experience is in the Arts, or through Athletics…but not always. Other students are involved in clubs and groups. Regardless, all of these opportunities are in existence, not simply because they are “nice to do,” but because they serve as a unifying force to our student purpose ethos. They provide growth opportunities in Citizenship, develop a student’s Self-Confidence, help kids become more Self-Directed, assist in the refinement of Collaboration and Communication; and possibly become more Creative or more adept at Thinking Critically. It is the responsibility of the adults in charge (all of us) to ensure, make visible and amplify the connection of these important competencies to everyone–most importantly to the students that we serve.  

Inspire and Empower them.

How?

Purposefully design the work so that it engages them.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, the skills and competencies that will matter most to students…those things that they will rely on when they’re out in the world, aren’t found within the items on an Ohio Graduation Test…they’re found within the quality interactions of the adults they see everyday and through the relationships they’ve forged with those in their lives.

Don’t settle. “See the invisible so you can accomplish the impossible.”  Dare to be different…the world needs more different. #EducationalFreedomFighters