PREPARING ALL CHILDREN FOR LIFE, WORK AND FUTURE LEARNING

Like many Districts across the country, Brewster embarked upon the development of a Strategic Coherence Plan (SCP) out of the recognition that in order for children to thrive and survive in the 21st century, they need to be able to think critically, collaborate and communicate effectively, persevere when they encounter challenges, adapt quickly to change and participate in and contribute to their communities. Content knowledge is no longer enough to secure success in this dynamic and ever changing era defined by creation and innovation.  Our Strategic Coherence Planning Team identified a number of academic and social-emotional skills that all students must acquire–critical thinking, collaboration/communication, perseverance, adaptability and civic responsibility. Without these essential skills, students will have limited choices and be unable to reinvent themselves, adjust and change over the course of their lives where they will have to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn. 

21ST CENTURY REALITIES

Our students will face a number of realities that support why Brewster needs to concentrate on how we are integrating these important academic and social emotional skills into curriculum, instruction, assessment, the learning environment and professional learning:

• “Students will be judged in work, college and life not on what they know, but on what they can do with what they know.” (Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Kids for the Innovation Era).
• They will have 10-15 jobs in their lifetime and most of the jobs that they will have don’t exist.
• Students will encounter complex problems that require complex and creative problem solving.
• They will operate in a highly networked world that requires complex and interactive communication skills.
• Students will encounter massive amounts of information that require the ability to analyze, synthesize, leverage, and create new and old information.
• Young people will face a society in constant flux that requires the need to continuously improve.
• According to employers, the cross-cutting skills of written and oral communication, teamwork, ethical decision-making, critical thinking, and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world settings are more important to an individual’s success in the world of work than their undergraduate major (Hart Research Associates, 2015).

The Strategic Coherence Plan team convened to develop a plan
that outlined the 21st century skills important for all BCSD students.

The Strategic Coherence Plan was adopted and approved by the Board of Education

 The original SCP team and a newly formed team of educators began meeting in August, 2016 to implement the plan by:

*Streamlining the eight skills to five
*Defining the five academic and emotional skills
*Creating a Brewster Profile of a Graduate
*Developing an SCP logo to symbolize 21st century learning

In the 2017-18 school year, we are dedicated to marketing and promoting the five academic and social emotional skills and creating examples of how these skills can be integrated into the curriculum, instruction, assessment, learning environment and professional learning.

 By May, 2019, utilize the Strategic Coherence Plan outcome goals listed on pages 36-42 of the document, along with the Internal Coherence Survey created by the Strategic Education Research Partnership, to identify ways to assist teachers as they continue to integrate critical thinking, collaboration/communication, perseverance, adaptability, and civic responsibility into their curriculum, instruction, assessment, the learning environment and professional learning.

By May, 2019, extend online resources, which include articles, videos, podcasts, blog posts for the community to show how educators are integrating critical thinking, collaboration/communication, perseverance, adaptability, and civic responsibility into their curriculum, instruction, assessment, the learning environment and professional learning.

By May, 2019, finalize SCP rubrics that educators can use to guide and monitor the integration of critical thinking, collaboration/communication, perseverance, adaptability, and civic responsibility into the curriculum, instruction, assessment, learning environment and professional learning.