Hannah Emmanuele
Kettle Moraine School District in the southeast region of Wisconsin has been on an amazing journey of transformation. This school district spans from 4 year old kindergarten through 12th grade with an enrollment of about 4,300 students.
In 2005, the Kettle Moraine Board of Education established a vision of “learning without boundaries” and boldly charged the school district to “transform our educational delivery system to better and more efficiently meet the needs of all students.” They are doing exactly that.
Recognizing true transformation district-wide had to evolve in centers of innovation, the school district embarked on parallel implementation tracks. One track focused on improving the learning opportunities within current classrooms while the other track focused on innovation and innovation centers. Much progress has been made in providing opportunities for the next generation of learners.
On the innovation side, the district has been aggressive in extensively renovating space in current buildings to create some really cool innovative schools, two high school and one elementary charter. Plans for a fourth charter high school in the health sciences is underway. Click on the school name for an impressive video:
Throughout the rest of the district, the K to 12 classrooms are focused on personalized learning. “Instruction delivery” is not in the vocabulary as learning is student guided and teacher supported with personalization to each student enabled by 1:1 computing . The district has shifted away from textbooks toward more dynamic online resources and is moving toward a paperless environment.
Some important notes:
- The technology program is tremendous with strong leadership from an ISTE awarded Instructional Technology director.
- The district has a true learning culture where the learning process is transparent and learning is shared openly between and among students, teachers and staff and the community.
- The students and community actively participated in the entire process and seem to have a growth mindset. The superintendent has taken her role as lead educator seriously by cultivating support through extensive community engagement and learning opportunities.
- The school district informs other districts around the state and country through tours and video documentation (select personalized learning from among the 300 titles).
The future looks very bright here.
Click here and here to learn more.
The State of Wisconsin generally speaking is doing some terrific work transforming all its schools through the regional CESA coops.
