'Huge shift' guides district change

"We've got to establish foundations," she said. "This is a huge shift in educational philosophy."

The district now has 126 digital classrooms that incorporate iPads and laptops, and technology upgrades are under way as a piece of the $124.5 million bond package passed in 2011. Those include new video surveillance for security as well as more WiFi access points for digital learning.

Principals are meeting with parents to explain LEAD (Leading Excellence—Action Driven 2021).

Unlike more traditional schools in Texas, the district is not teaching specifically to the state-mandated STAAR exams, said Rick Westfall, chief learning officer and second-in-command after Superintendent Robin Ryan. Districts, he said, "can fall into that trap with unreasonable accountability the state has put on all the schools."

The goal, he said, is to give students a higher level of learning that they can retain longer. As long as the district is teaching state standards — "and we are, and we are engaging students in their work" — he expects the state assessment scores to fall into place, although testing is likely to change after this legislative session.

More than two dozen bills have been filed by lawmakers who have said they are listening to constituents concerned about excessive testing. Under the STAAR system in use now, students take as many as 15 state exams at the end of a semester.

Teaching teachers

Not all teachers embraced the concepts immediately, Overman said.

"Some jumped right out of the gate, some are getting more information. We're here for them through that process."

Heather Cato, an instructional coach, took to it right away. When she began to use problem-based (also called project-based) learning, everything opened up.

"For the first time in my life, I felt like it made sense for me as a teacher," she said.

Project-based learning is but one option for teachers under LEAD 2021, she said. They can use other ways to help students learn, many of them goal-based, including the pilot programs at two elementary schools, O.C. Taylor and Colleyville, that have young kids talking about their goals, both in life and in their studies.

Overman said the pilots aren't intended to set a child's career in motion in elementary school, but to get the students used to setting their own goals and then understanding what it will take to achieve them, skills they can always use.

Some of the ultimate aims are much further into the future.

Cato said businesses want college graduates who are communicators, collaborators, critical thinkers and who display creativity. The district wants to get its students on that path early.

All the pieces

LEAD 2021 reaches down into even such routine decisions as desk choices.

"As we're looking at, say, furniture, we're looking for what allows that type of collaboration," Overman said.

Students anywhere in Texas can apply for the new state-accredited college-prep virtual academy. It will open doors, said Westfall, to students who are unable to attend classes for medical reasons and others.

Staying financially lean also is part of the strategic plan and a necessity, given the state's cut of $5.4 million from education last year and the district's $28 million contribution to Robin Hood, the mandatory tax distribution to other districts.

Along those lines, the district also is gradually becoming more energy-efficient and looking at using green products.

The court ruling in February that the state's method of funding public education is unconstitutional will have ramifications for the district's finances, although it remains to be seen what they will be.

LEAD 2021 was planned as a long haul, a 10-year effort with quantifiable results coming slowly.

As Overman noted, the first group of students to graduate under the initiative are in the fourth grade today.

MORE ABOUT LEAD 2021

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD provides monthly updates about LEAD 2012 efforts in the classroom, as well as detailed information about the initiative, on its website: www.gcisd-k12.org.