CaliberSchools
caliber schools’ vision — where we’re headed
caliber schools’ vision Why have a vision? Caliber is an organization made of people who work tirelessly to do what’s best for kids. In some schools, that’s enough. At Caliber, we know the more aligned everyone is, the bigger their impact. Our goal is to make sure the hard work that happens in every classroom is collectively in pursuit of something bigger, something life-changing for our students. To do so, we must have a shared vision. We started the journey of defining this shared vision through a series of focus groups and surveys this fall. From doing so, we know that there are some shared beliefs that are held by most of our stakeholders -- core beliefs that drive how we approach our common mission of providing a great education to students. These beliefs are: WE BELIEVE that it is our collective and individual responsibility to work in service of and alongside our communities so that our students reach their full potential WE BELIEVE that all situations and people are best approached with empathy and kindness WE BELIEVE in respecting, validating, and affirming our students’ unique identities, passions, and needs WE BELIEVE that all people at Caliber should be challenged every day and be committed to feedback and continuous improvement
VISION = The goals of Caliber as an institution, as determined by student outcomes we prioritize MODEL = What we are doing to achieve our vision, or our theory of change for realizing our vision STRATEGIC PLAN = A detailed outline of priorities and initiatives at a school for the year
The Vision
Caliber’s Vision is rooted in student outcomes bec an organization that puts students first. Caliber’s v develop each student’s social-emotional abilities ( which enables students to create a strong sense of sustain meaningful and healthy relationships. That tional foundation enables all students to obtain th (SMART) and critical thinking skills (THINK) necess cate (ACT) for themselves and the issues impactin their community.
Caliber’s vision is ambitious, but so are those of ou This report is an invitation for feedback, collabora partnership in the ongoing work of reimagining edu we often say, no one of us is better than all of us.
We also heard, overwhelmingly, that a long-term vision and strategic plan that tied all Caliber work together was missing. Upon hearing this feedback from staff, Caliber committed to devoting SY 2017-2018 and SY 2018-2019 to establishing a thorough organizational vision and developing a 3-year strategic plan for 2019-2021. Each year, leadership teams at our schools have identified their own strategic priorities based on what they believe to be the most critical levers. The goal is to provide a common language and a long-term roadmap about how to determine these priorities. Our Vision is the bedrock upon which decisions are made. As a nascent network, we are now at a point where we can combine our founding dreams with our experience and define the concrete yet realistic outcomes we will commit to driving towards across all of our schools. As part of this work, we will also be making structural and policy changes to ensure staff and students have adequate support for realizing this ambitious vision.
How are we creating our vision? Our number one priority was to make sure the vision that will guide Caliber’s long-term strategic planning comes from the voices of Caliber. In our first two phases, we heard from the vast majority of our students, parents, families, and staff members. Their voices and ideas continued to guide all vision work.
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STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT Phase 1 — Initiate (2014-16): Caliber develops a model based on our philosophy around what students in Richmond want from a school. In 2015, we summarized these beliefs into our four pillars of HEART, SMART, THINK, and ACT Phase 2 — Listen (Fall 2017): Collect feedback from stakeholders to identify a shared vision and what model components are needed to realize this vision over the next three years Phase 3 — Define (Spring 2018): Finalize our Caliber Vision and 18-19 Strategic Plan Phase 4 — Implement (Fall 2018): Align Caliber policies and structures to vision and strategic plan Phase 5 — Finalize (Spring 2019): Develop Caliber’s 19-20 through 21-22 three-year strategic plan based on Caliber’s vision and feedback from the 18-19 Strategic Plan
This report concludes phase 2, our listen phase, details of which can be found below. It gives an overview of Caliber’s vision accompanied by how we expect this vision to impact our schools. Ultimately, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and this report ends with ways for Caliber staff to get involved and participate in how this work shapes our schools over the next several years.
Reviewed our current school model at both schools and analyzed results-todate
Surveyed and analyzed: • Close to 100 staff members • Close to 200 families • Over 1000 students
• 4 staff focus groups • 2 student focus groups • 4 parent focus groups were held to review and collect feedback on our interpretation of survey results
Conducted research on all model components and goals that came out of surveys and focus groups
heart VISION Our first pillar is Heart. At Caliber, Heart is the way we treat ourselves and others. We believe that all people are inherently kind and loving. However, our behavior is driven by complex emotions, expectations, and experiences. Our ability to navigate those emotions, expectations, and experiences is driven by a set of explicit social and emotional skills. A part of Caliber’s vision and responsibility to our students is to teach and facilitate the development of those social and emotional skills for every student. This means that we meet every child where they are in their own journey of social-emotional learning, respond to them with love and empathy, and teach them the explicit skills necessary to be aware of and manage their own emotions and build meaningful and healthy relationships with others.
We meet every child where they are in their own journey of social-emotional learning, respond to them with love and empathy, and teach them the explicit skill necessary to be aware of and manage their own emotions and build meaningful and healthy relationships with others.
Caliber facilitates social-emotional development across two domains. The first is self-awareness. In order to consistently be kind and show love to ourselves and others, we need to be aware of our emotions, the impact they have on our behavior and decisions, and have the ability to regulate how they influence our actions. The second is social awareness and relationships. We need to empathize with others to better understand how their perspective and experiences are likely impacting their behavior, and we need to have the ability to communicate effectively with others and resolve differences and conflict in a constructive and compassionate way.
GRADUATE PROFILE During their time at Caliber, all students will have developmentally appropriate mastery of the six social-emotional learning abilities below: 1) Identify and manage one’s emotions and behavior. 2) Recognize personal qualities and external supports. 3) Recognize the feelings and perspectives of others. 4) Recognize individual and group similarities and differences. 5) Use communication and social skills to interact effectively with others. 6) Demonstrate an ability to prevent, manage, and resolve interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
“If we teach children to care for one another and support their peers, no matter their difference, we will produce a generation that is less selfish and entitled than the one that precedes them. With strong social skills, we will also have students who support one another to thrive and grow academically.” - Caliber Parent
WHERE WE’RE HEADED In order to fulfill our vision for students’ social and emotional development, our school model must have several interconnected elements that are consistent, backed by research, and accompanied by meaningful and high-quality teacher training and support. Social Emotional Learning Curriculum To best develop social and emotional skills and abilities, students should be explicitly taught. Our social and emotional curriculum teaches students how to identify their own emotions, manage their own emotions, engage in and understand various social situations, and empathize and build relationships with others. These skills and abilities are taught through activities, role-plays, and lessons. These lessons are taught during a daily structure known as Circle, and teachers are coached and supported with Circle the same way they are any other class. Explicit Tracking and Measuring of Social Emotional Abilities In order to develop the complex social and emotional skills needed to fulfill Caliber’s vision for Heart, teachers, students, and families must stay informed with how students are progressing against our social-emotional development guide. Milestones have been backwards planned from our graduate profile and after each trimester, parents, teachers, and students come together to discuss how students are progressing against these milestones. Ability-Based Response to Behavior Social-emotional learning does not lower our expectations for how students treat themselves and others; it raises them. Students are held accountable to high standards for the way they treat others, but when they are failing to meet those standards, they are coached on how to use the skills and abilities learned through Circle to manage their emotions, empathize, and demonstrate kindness and respect. This guides the way teachers respond to student behavior and the way schools address student behavior. Restorative Justice Restorative justice is based on the ideal that “because crime hurts, justice should heal” (Braithwaite). The harm should be matched not by further harm but by restorative effort. Restorative justice is a theory of justice that involves repairing harm by inviting all impacted by harm to work collaboratively while taking into consideration the needs of the community and the afflicted while also considering the accountability and the growth of the offender. At Caliber, harm is restored through Circles, conversations, and group mediations depending on the incident.
smart VISION Caliber believes that all students should have the opportunity and ability to attend and graduate from college. One part of this is the content mastery of college pre-requisites, captured under our SMART pillar. Simple content mastery is not enough, however, for success beyond those classes. Through our classes, we also seek to teach our students HOW to learn. Our THINK pillar specifically addresses the way people approach learning and how capable they are of applying their knowledge and skills to new situations. By approaching our SMART content with a THINK lens, we ensure that we are teaching students not only the basic academic subjects they need, but also the higher-level skills that enable them to transfer what they know to new situations and learn new things independently.
We will engage students in rigorous curriculum and foster evidence-based discussion, thereby empowering critical thinkers who make meaning of the world around them and master grade-level literacy. - Caliber Teacher
GRADUATE PROFILE During their time at Caliber, all students will have developmentally appropriate mastery of the six academic learning abilities below: 1) Read and analyze grade-level text through guided reading, close reading, and socratic discussion. 2) Write across multiple disciplines and genres using Caulkins Writer’s Workshops. 3) Fluently use and create with technology using digital tools, programming, robotics, and makerspaces. 4) Use the scientific method to develop an understanding of how the world around them works through labs and experiments, hands-on learning, and developing focused, answerable inquiry and research questions. 5) Develop fluency in foundational numeracy and a conceptual understanding of mathematical reasoning and student thinking through performance tasks, mathematical discussion, and using multiple approaches and strategies to solve contextual problems. 6) Understand social-cultural history through the lens of power structures, perspective of others, and equity through discussion-based questions and making and defending claims with research and evidence.
think WHERE WE’RE HEADED Aligned to Rigorous Standards The curricula used and designed at Caliber are aligned to rigorous standards including the common core, next generation science standards, and an internally developed set of computer science skills and abilities. Our leadership and coaches will also develop a common understanding of what mastery looks like and how it will be measured.
Conceptual Inquiry and Research of How People Learn Many classrooms use what is known as the transmission model of learning. The teacher possesses information that is transferred to the student. While this works for remembering facts or dates, it does not result in meaning making. For students to learn something deeply, they must construct their understanding through connecting new experiences to prior knowledge. This style of learning, exemplified by inquiry, gives students opportunities to explore ideas and topics, discuss them, and draw their own conclusions. At Caliber, units and lessons are designed on research-backed theories rooted in inquiry. Differentiated Practice Meeting students where they are at is a critical belief held by staff, families, and students alike – and the reality is that our students are at very different places academically. A critical part of achieving our graduate profile is giving students time and space to practice skills and abilities in a setting that is within their zone of proximal development. This means Caliber uses data to measure student performance against the course standards, and then uses that data to differentiate how students are grouped and what assignments they’re given. Coach Implementing these model elements requires supporting our teachers to do so — and coaching is the number one way of supporting teachers to develop their craft. We are committed, not just to continuing to support weekly or biweekly coaching for our teachers, but also to training our coaches around our model and their coaching effectiveness.
ACT VISION Our final pillar is Act. We believe the process of developing and understanding one’s identity is complex, critical, and unique for each person. Our identity is connected to how we view ourselves as a whole, and how we view ourselves as a part of the different communities we connect with. At Caliber, we believe that school must provide students with the time and experiences to explore both. In addition to developing a strong sense of self, students also develop the skills and strategies to advocate for the issues that impact them and the communities they associate with. At Caliber, we address this through engaging students in a series of projects and exhibitions dedicated to facilitating each student’s identity and ability to advocate.
It is important for students to be advocates for change and things that they believe in. We want our students to understand that their voice and ideas matter. - Caliber Teacher
GRADUATE PROFILE During their time at Caliber, all students will have developmentally appropriate mastery of the six abilities in advocacy below: 1. Demonstrate self-love and knowledge of themselves, their histories, and the cultures with which they identify. 2. Demonstrate respect and appreciation for people with identities and cultures that are different from their own. 3. Demonstrate an understanding of oppression, injustice, and the history of prejudice along with the impact of these issues on different people and groups. 4. Demonstrate an understanding of different social movements, their impact, and the strategies used to bring about change for specific issues related to social justice equity. 5. Demonstrate the communication and motivational skills necessary to effectively advocate for issues and ideas that are meaningful to them and connected to their sense of identity and community. 6. Demonstrate the ability to organize and successfully implement social action to create change while addressing issues of inequity, prejudice or oppression.
where we’re headed Act is about understanding one’s identity, both as a whole and as a part of different cultures and communities — and then using that understanding to advocate for awareness, equity, and action. At Caliber, we intentionally create space for this to happen: Mindsets and Beliefs Caliber believes we live in a society that is unjust and built on power structures that are inequitable, that those inequities are discriminatory and directly stand in the way of many of our students and staff, and that we must be actively anti-discriminatory (anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, etc.) to build an equitable community. That belief must be held, validated, and acted upon. Projects that Drive Awareness and Action The six goals listed in our graduate profile are rooted in the stages of social justice outlined by the 6-elements curriculum. From Kindergarten through graduation, students will engage with projects designed to deepen their understanding of each goal. This means each year students will build projects tied to one of the 6 goals described in the graduate profile. In earlier grades, the projects will be relatively simple and focus on developing a sense of self and community. As students get older, these projects will become more extensive and focus on understanding injustice and social action. Time, coaching, and support will be provided for students to create projects rooted in the goals outlined in our graduate profile.
WHAT NOW? (A CALL TO ACTION) As we move from Listen to Define in our Vision and Model development work, our focus will pivot from input gathering to creation. Your feedback is even more critical during this phase, and we would love for you to be a part of this process. The outcome of this next phase will define Caliber’s identity as a school and shape our strategic priorities for years to come. There are three working groups we would like to form in Winter / Spring 2018. Details on these groups and their charge can be found below. For some working group meetings, the SSO will happily fund sub coverage to ensure cross-campus collaboration.
HEART working group Goal: To refine our current SEL approach for a more consistent implementation Time commitment (Jan-May): 1-2 in-person meetings + possible work time between meetings. Deliverables: 1) Create a centralized repository of SEL resources to help in implementing our curriculum 2) Create a plan for measuring and responding to SEL data in line with our developmental milestones 3) Identify and build key goals and resources for stronger PD on what SEL means at Caliber
SMART/THINK content development
ACT working group
Goal: To define the vision and approach across our six primary subject areas (Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies, Computer Science)
Goal: To identify how ACT can be institutionalized across schools and grades in a way that is meaningful for students and realistic for teachers and leaders
Time commitment (Jan-May): 1 half-day meeting + possible work time outside of the session.
Time commitment (Jan-May): 1 half-day meeting + possible work time outside of the session.
Deliverables: 1) Develop a vision document that outlines the key beliefs, outcomes, and approach for each subject
Deliverables: 1) Pilot potential projects in 17-18 Circle time
2) Develop the 18-19 action plan for reaching centralized course consistency around: • Vision • Assessments • Scope and Sequence • Curricular resources • Content-specific PD
2) Create guidelines for 18-19 projects 3) Define the pathway for K-8 projects and the institutional support needed to implement
If you are interested in joining any of these working groups, or if you do not have the bandwidth to join a group but have general feedback about this work, get in touch with us: Ryan: ryan@caliberschools.org or (615) 631-0479 â– Rui: rui@caliberschools.org or (646) 255-2253