In crafting a vision of the ideal school system, starting in February with the visit by “The Disney Way” author Bill Capodagli, “We learned that you have to gather the ideas and thoughts of your community. Walt Disney’s organization has continued to grow and sustain itself because of its focus on customer service,” Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel began Aug. 31 in the middle school Performing Arts Center. “We know there’s something to this customer-centered culture or, better yet, we’d say a student-centered culture in the educational world.”

Daniel recalled the four days Capodagli spent at Southwestern Michigan College working with a broad cross-section of the community on storyboarding, including partners SMC, the City of Dowagiac, the school system and Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital.

“Storyboarding is a way to generate three times the number of ideas than you would during a brainstorming session, then you filter those down and rank priorities,” Daniel said.

“We talked to secretaries, and they storyboarded. We talked to our custodians and bus drivers, our faculty, staffs and principals in each individual building. We also storyboarded with students at the high school. We tried to get as many ideas as possible for the dream portion. What came out of that is what you see on the board. Imagine if students had passion for learning and were excited about being in our buildings. A place where the focus is student-centered. What can we do to assist in moving students forward to gain greater knowledge and to master the standards to be ready to move into post-secondary life and be successful? We know this is going to take multiple people and organizations coming together to push us, to push learning and to learn from each other. Our children are peer facilitators and mentors, assisting in overall learning. Finally, a place that’s one in a hundred,” a slogan he said Thursday was suggested by teachers.

In a market-driven Schools of Choice economy, students “can move from one district to another,” Daniel pointed out. “They can enroll in our schools even though they maybe live in Cassopolis, Edwardsburg or Marcellus. That’s very important because that’s the way we grow. If we have a commitment to be a one in a hundred district, then we are meeting the needs of our students and our community. That uniqueness can drive growth. We think if we’re meeting the needs of our students and driving growth, you’re also meeting the needs of our post-secondary institutions, which are also meeting the needs of businesses and organizations that are located in southwest Michigan.”

Firm beliefs buttress the dream, which along with dare and do were the four core principles which guided Walt Disney’s decisionmaking.

“We have a Great Start early childhood program,” Daniel said. “How can we improve that to become the focus for Cass County? We believe all third graders must be reading at third grade level. Research is fairly clear that if a student isn’t reading at third grade level, they fall behind two grade levels thereafter and 93 percent of the kids never catch up. Think about 93 percent of students not at third grade level never catching up and that’s an unbelievable statistic — especially in today’s world where communication is growing exponentially with information. Those students will have a very difficult time surviving. We also believe in one year’s growth. If you’ve listened to the governor’s messages, that is going to be a mandate coming from the state Legislature. All students need to be taught the same curriculum. We also know — and this came from the kids and quite a few teachers — hands-on, real-world, make it relevant to us. Use technology and ramp it up. We can handle it. Create expectations and relevancy and classrooms that make it happen.”

Graduates need to leave high school with “21st century skills,” Daniel said, “which are teamwork, which is so critical no matter what area of life you enter; collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking. As I visited businesses in Indiana (before he came to Dowagiac in the summer of 2010), that was the number-one thing. People like Raytheon, the defense contractor, were saying even college graduates lacked problem-solving skills exiting universities.”

Besides insuring that all students grades 7-12 have degree plans required by law, Dowagiac desires a culture with volunteers where each student can find at least one “meaningful relationship. Similar to Big Brother Big Sister, but not that extensive. We think Justus Gage is the place for our expanded Great Start program to become the center for Cass County.”

To achieve all third graders reading at that level, Daniel proposes a dedicated reading recovery trainer, Katrina Daiga. “We are the only school district in Michigan with a trainer. That’s huge,” Daniel said. “No one in southwest Michigan is training reading recovery teachers. We want to be that site and to train our elementary teachers in reading recovery skills,” which he illustrated with a video clip about the research-based early intervention where an expert teacher works one-on-one with struggling students. Three-fourths reach grade-level expectations in 12 to 20 weeks.

At Kincheloe, out of 52 students, “only six were reading below grade level,” the superintendent said.

“One year’s growth” was coined by Gov. Rick Snyder. “I’m going to ask that available dollars reward school districts and schools that show that their children are growing at least one year for each year of instruction. I emphasize one year of growth because we do have schools in very different places, and I don’t believe it would be fair.”

“That’s important because there’s an outcome that each of our teachers can focus on,” Daniel said. “Taking a student from where they are to one year of growth. If we have students below grade level, we have to accelerate that. We can always improve. One is called RTI — response to intervention. For example, if we had a first grader not reading at grade level, reading recovery is prevention. There are small group interventions and whole class interventions. We’re getting better and better at what some of our principals say, prescriptive. Take this prescription and see if it works. If it doesn’t, regroup. I’m excited about one year’s growth because that means we are truly digging in and trying to find solutions.

“The PDCA Davenport model running right now at the middle school is wonderful,” he said. “It looks at assessments and asks the question, did our kids really master those standards that were taught. If they did not, then we’re going to have intervention for them and actually adjusted their day to allow for that, a 30-minute period for students who need to have it retaught,” sealing the cracks students used to fall through as surely as crumbling infrastructure needs are addressed.

“Other students may be doing enrichment activities,” Daniel said. “Student engagement is a huge thing. We’re going to be working with our teachers and our students in the classrooms using walk-throughs. Every one of our principals and central office staff, including myself, will be walking into classrooms for the purpose of seeing if our kids are engaged. If not, how can we help them? It’s a time commitment that has to be made. We have a new teacher evaluation model from new state law. In a couple of years, 25 percent of their evaluation, the principals’ evaluation and our evaluations — we’re all in this together — will be based on student achievement. By 2015-2016, 50 percent of evaluations will be based on student academic performance. Fifty percent of classes used to graduate, but our world has changed. We now have the expectation that 100 percent should graduate. What a difference since the late ’50s and early ’60s, when we had places for dropouts to go” and land employment. “There aren’t places for high school dropouts to go today. The majority will head to penal institutions. We have to change that to a  goal of zero dropouts. The education evaluation model continues to ramp up expectations for us as professionals. Instructional leadership includes coaches and advocates as we try to develop one-on-one relationships and small group contact with students. That’s why it’s so important to have the community involved. We cannot do it by ourselves. We would need 20 guidance counselors. This spring we’ll probably go with online high school scheduling. How do we become more efficient in terms of software and equipment? Those are ideas we’re thinking about. When we can finally get to the discussion of data on a weekly or biweekly basis and data teams and design teams,” Dowagiac will be in league with a Cincinnati administrator who leads a 90-90-90 school — 90-percent minority student population, 90 percent qualifying for free and reduced lunches and 90 percent achievement on Ohio examinations.

“We’re to move that way,” Daniel said, “but you have to have consistent curriculum in place and you have to be transparent so parents can see it. I’m very excited about this, but it has to happen. We’ve been told it must in our Title I audit.”

In the ongoing pursuit of rigor and relevance, about three dozen teachers and administrators Wednesday morning made a field trip to a school in northern Indiana that just implemented PBL, or project-based learning (bie.org), the buzzword for replacing boring lectures by a teacher at the front of a classroom with small-group projects solving problems for “work that matters.”

Adults already inhabit a PBL world, from workplace teamwork to home improvement, but the three C’s — critical thinking, collaboration and communication — haven’t been at the forefront of what’s taught in old-school classrooms.

Teachers tasking students with PBL, which mixes their current knowledge with skills they can rely on in future endeavors. Students conduct research, share feedback and generally figure out ways to contribute their points of view, whether it’s an educational video illustrating the connection between hand washing and avoiding the flu or posters that depict how viruses spread.

Direct involvement and bouncing ideas off their peers engages their passion more readily than listening to an older figure talk at them while they take notes.

PBL “creates the relevancy for students,” Daniel said. “Interest and enthusiasm. Experiencing it translates into much longer memory. In other words, they don’t just remember until the test, then forget about it. It’s a different way of teaching that you’re going to see more and more at universities. Those are twenty-first century skills and incorporate work ethic, citizenship. The major theme in (the Indiana school) this morning was trust, respect, responsibility. There’s a great amount of freedom, but freedom comes with responsibility and the proper use of technology. But it’s not technology that drives this, it’s instructional techniques. Technology is part of it because our students have cell phones and iPhones, communicating instantaneously through social media, with immediate access to information that’s off the charts. How do we tap into that stream and use it as a tool? I’ve visited several of these schools and what excites me is the interaction and collaboration between teachers, like a social studies teacher teamed with an English teacher. Connections start happening when students notice math in their science course. We sit a three-iron shot from SMC, one of the premier junior colleges in the United States. That facility should be strongly connected to us. We have a connection now, but how can we make it stronger?” Daniel describes 10-year plans stretching from seventh grade to “14th grade. It doesn’t stop at grade 12. We need to follow up with our kids after graduation.”