Standards Based Education at Hall-Dale

RISC Overview - The RISC Approach to Schooling is a revolutionary approach to education that represents a dramatic shift in the educational process. The RISC approach is the first comprehensive school reform framework set up as a performance-based system rather than a Carnegie unit or time-based system. Already being implemented by more than a dozen schools and districts in the United States, RISC has caught the attention of educators in countries around the world who see it as a pathway for delivering on the promise of education for every child.

Leadership — the deliberate focus on developing strong leaders at every level. Effective, highly skilled leaders who are willing to step outside the accepted paradigm are essential to RISC’s success. We chose the name RISC purposefully. Shifting to a RISC system is risky. The change involved is profound, deep, transformative, uncomfortable, unsettling. People will be challenged in ways they likely have never experienced in their professional lives. Leading change that shakes up the status quo in such essential ways requires new skills and processes, but most important, it requires a fundamental shift in mindset.

RISC leaders at every level of the system are compelled to break out of the paradigm of “manage crisis, comply with federal and state mandates, and avoid risk.”

“Leadership is where it begins and ends. If you don’t have leadership to initiate this journey, it will never happen. If you don’t have the capacity to build leadership from everyone—teachers, administrators, students, school board members, and so on—it will never be sustained.”

Rich DeLorenzo, RISC Cofounder

Shared Vision — the education community speaking as one voice. What skills and knowledge must all students master? What are the purposes of schooling? What are our educational values? From Day 1, RISC’s shared vision process deliberately draws in parents, business and community leaders—everyone who has a stake in the success of the school—from the ground up. We have found that for success and strong results to be sustained over time, 75-80% of the school community must embrace the system as their own and stand as partners with school leaders for the new system to work over time.

Standards-Based Design — the core of RISC’s distinctive approach to the teaching and learning process. Standards-Based Design is the nuts and bolts of RISC: what students will learn, how they will learn it, how they will be assessed and graded, and how their performance will be reported.

Key aspects include:

• A transparent curriculum. The knowledge and skills students must learn as they progress through developmental levels to high school graduation are open and clear to everyone.
• Flexibility. Students are encouraged to move in and out of levels in different content areas, at their own pace.
• Student ownership. Students own, lead, and partner with their teachers in every phase of learning. Goal setting. Tracking progress. Student-teacher conferences. Even assessment.
• High standards. Students must demonstrate proficient or better knowledge or skill (equivalent to a grade of B or better) in every required standards area.

Continuous Improvement — the systemic processes at every level that ensure that improvement is never ending. Continuous improvement is an important component of any high-performing organization; in a RISC system, continuous improvement is deliberate. It is built into every aspect of the system. It permeates everything and affects everyone. RISC’s continuous improvement cycles are focused, systemic and systematic, and create a climate of ongoing refinement and innovation.











Please Visit the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition website for more information. http://www.reinventingschools.org/