Dive Brief:
- After being named a “district of innovation” for the state of Mississippi, the Corinth School District forged ahead on an ambitious examination of its practices, and the district has the leeway to experiment, according to the Hechinger Report.
- The district earned the distinction with two other districts. Its schools will have longer academic years with several breaks allowing time for educators to intervene with students facing challenges, a new curriculum and means of assessment, and new diploma options.
- Overall, educators and district administrators report that parents and the broader community have been receptive to the new changes, though some were initially surprised by the amount of reading and writing involved in the new curriculum.
Dive Insight:
In the midst of a national conversation regarding encroaching standardization and accountability in the form of Common Core, there are a multitude of examples of school districts allowing for experimentation in how they approach and accredit the education of their students. In Minnesota, teachers requested increased autonomy from their district, and they launched a pilot program in 2013 to structurally reform classrooms to their liking. In Connecticut, one school district offers a mastery-based diploma that measures competency and progress in the student’s learning, in lieu of a traditional diploma.
In the situation of the Minnesota educators, the teachers originally believed they would need to create a charter school in order to see their vision achieved, and it is interesting to note how these examples of districts deviating the norm are starting to fulfill the role originally intended for charters, which were intended to act as laboratories for experimental classroom teaching and techniques. In today’s environment, charter schools are broadly perceived as being a legitimate alternative to district schools, a relationship based in contrast as opposed to partnership. It will be important to measure how relationships between charters and district schools change if this kind of experimentation becomes more commonplace in public school institutions.