Developing Career Pathways for At-Risk Students: How Lee's Summit's Alternative Education Program is Addressing the Needs for Real World Learning and Empowering Marginalized Students to Take Ownership

1. Developing Career Pathways
for At-Risk Students
How Lee's Summit's Alternative Education Program is
Addressing the Needs for Real World Learning and
Empowering Marginalized Students to Take Ownership

3. Explore SRA's RWL Program Development
Understand How Our Values Informed Us
See How Our Personalization Model May
Inform Yours
Journey Mapping
Community Liaison Role
Opt-In Projects
PLPs in Advisory
Mastery Learning
Goals for Today

4. How It Started

5. Between 2015-2020*, we saw an increasing trend of students
needing Missouri Options to graduate
Wanted Better Post-Grad Results for Our Kids
District RWL Initiative created push to increase MVA attainment
Anecdotal internal data collected pointed us to a need for more
personalization and relevancy in curriculum design and delivery
*Pre-pandemic
Impetus for Change

6. Development Timeline
ID problems/Skills/Origins
Form Design Team/Brainstorm Ideas/Gather Data
Listening Sessions
"Ease In" Slow Development (Student Driven Momentum) Paired
with Strategic Structural Changes to Incentives & Schedule
Design Team Think Tank (Site visits, book study, pitch meetings)
Advisory Program Updates (PLP+YouScience Pilot)
Inquiry Project Options in Eng 12, RWL Speakers/Events on Fridays
Student PLP Binders in Advisory Housing Reflections, PLP Team,
Artifacts of Learning (Self Advocacy Tool)
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7. One of our design team members
gathered stories from existing and past
staff in order to clarify our starting point
and better measure our growth.
Instituational
Wisdom

8. UX Journey
Mapping
Before we laid out potential
changes, we needed to
have a common
operational foundation

9. Can't we do
more the
stories kids
bring to us?

14. Values
Knowledge

15. “Although school leadership must
have a vision for the future, it
should be used as a way to open
up a dialogue rather than be
handed down from on high.”
Source: How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank, John G. Gabriel & Paul C. Farmer, ASCD, 2009, Chapter 2. “Developing a
Vision and a Mission” http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107042/chapters/developing-a-vision-and-a-mission.aspx

18. New UX Vision
Based on our values,
capacities, and potential, we
mapped our goals onto our
journey map as we hoped
students would get to
experience our school

19. "...learner profiles are co-created by
educators and learners and
composed of rich, current information
regarding each student."
we need to "...launch and support the
design of a very different learning
ecosystem than most of us experienced
in our formal education" rather than
simply "settling for compliance"
Tapping the Power of Personalized
Learning, James Rickabaugh (p. 41).

20. Starting point for curious
parents, definitions, potential
community partners, and
general FAQs
Showcase of student work,
examples of projects
completed by SRA students
SRA RWL
Launch Page
bit.ly/RWLatSRA

21. Who are we? Students and Teachers
Reimagining Educational Access to
Meaning
What are we doing? Surveying Hazards
and Opportunities that Advance Learning
Where/How is innovation happening?
Curricular Entry
Ongoing Academic Reflection
A Guiding Visual
Metaphor
S T R E A M
s h o a l / c u r r e n t / o a r

24. We are moving into uncharted waters and
asking students to do the same
The challenges ahead include many
unknowns
It will take ALL of us working together to
make it through
Risks

25. Our First Steps
Compose Student Guidebook - "Sacred text" including
each student's Personalized Learning Plan and team
Vision/Goals - Design team vision writing
Planning Site Visits - Exploring model programs where
Personalized Learning is prioritized
Book Study - Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning
Data Collection & Analysis - Need to establish baseline of
both narrative and quantitative data that help tell our story

26. How It's Going

27. Open Fridays: Optional Events--Speakers,
interviews, shadowing, site visits, field trips,
project time
Success Lab: PLPs & YouScience, + Optional
OAR Activities
In Your Class: Optional RWL Inquiry Project
Opportunities
Scope of Phase 1

29. PLP

38. What's Next

40. "Bookending" of the PLP: The STREAM team is
investigating the use of a Mastery Based Transcript to
showcase student learning.
More RWL Examples: As we lean into this work, more
students and staff will have valuable experiences to share &
learn from.
Learning Labs: as optional project space/time based on
teacher interests and skills.
Forecasting Phase 2

42. A Dynamic Team that has a heterogenous group of
skills, dispositions, and experience profiles but a
homogenous set of common values
A Diffuse Narrative of the initiative that takes root
easily and is durably connected to sustaining values
A Limited Locus of Change initially will make shifts feel
manageable
Key Drivers of Success

43. Thank you!
Steve J. Moore, Ph.D.
Career Navigator & Teacher
Summit Ridge Academy
Lee's Summit R7 Schools
steve.moore@lsr7.net
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