Region 12 strategic‑plan subcommittees present pilots on learning walks, rubrics, math and community partnerships

Carrie Snowden, presenting on behalf of the Teaching and Learning Council, told the Regional School District 12 board on May 18 that council subcommittees have developed next‑step deliverables tied to the district strategic plan.

"We've established a structure and expectations for a collegial learning walk and obtained leadership commitment to implement the protocol in 2026–27," Emily Jud said, describing Subcommittee 1’s protocol designed to foster classroom collaboration and to seed a teaching and learning handbook for tier‑one instructional strategies.

Subcommittee 2 outlined a districtwide 'vision of a learner' consisting of five competency categories — engage in creative processes; act with courage and character; solve problems ethically; communicate with reason and empathy; and develop positive relationships with self and others — and began drafting grade‑band rubrics based on faculty input. "We're working now on consolidating feedback into a rubric and refining it over the summer so faculty can vet it in the fall," Mark Peters said.

Subcommittee 3 reported choosing a low‑cost, multimodal program called Factswise to address elementary fact‑fluency in K–5. Dylan Stacy said the program is designed for short daily practice (5–10 minutes) and will be piloted with one teacher per grade next year; the committee signaled scheduling and assessment design as key implementation questions.

Subcommittee 4 described intra‑district collaboration projects linking high‑school students with elementary classrooms, a standards‑aligned 'Operation Gridlocked' interdisciplinary project, and a plan to digitize and vet an old senior‑project binder into a community resource list teachers can use for guest speakers, field experiences and career connections. "We want to make sure this isn't a binder that sits on a shelf," said Ed Bolinsky, describing vetting and annual update procedures.

Board members asked how students would engage with the 'vision of a learner' competencies and how the rubric would be simplified for elementary audiences; presenters said rubrics will be operationalized into look‑fors and student‑facing targets. The council tied several of the initiatives to professional development days next year and to summer work to develop materials before roll‑out.

Next steps include piloting Factswise in multiple K–5 classrooms, finalizing rubrics and graphics with student input, scheduling collegial learning walks districtwide in 2026–27, and establishing the digital community resource list with a plan for upkeep held within an administrative department.