Chugach School District
Rural Response to Local Expectations
Chugach School District in south central Alaska transformed their district from a failure to a success by engaging the community, asking fundamental questions, and using real data to understand where resources needed to go. In 1994, the district was failing by almost all measures: staff turnover exceeded 50%; students scored lowest in the state of Alaska on California Achievement Tests; business leaders complained that graduates lacked basic skills; and only one student in 26 years had gone on to college.
"We were on a burning platform, getting miserable results," said Robert Crumley, Chugach School District Assistant Superintendent. The district covers 22,000 square miles along Prince William Sound and serves 214 students in three communities: Whittier, a former army base, and two Alaskan Native Communities, Chenega Bay and Tatitlek.
Through a series of town hall meetings, the district determined that the traditional industrial model of education to prepare students for college was not relevant to their community. Students needed to prepare for five possible outcomes, equally weighted in importance: college enrollment, business entrepreneurship, full-time employment, military or service learning, or vocational training.
The school board and district leaders proposed radical changes to suit the remote community's needs. The district eliminated grade levels as measures of progress and adopted a standards-based system with levels of mastery that emphasize real-life learning situations. The standards continuum extends from pre-kindergarten to the equivalent of grade 16 and students complete their education at their own pace, graduating at age 14 to 21. Each student has a learning plan based on their learning patterns and needs, and an assessment binder containing formal and informal results aligned to standards. Students must demonstrate proficiency in 10 areas of performance, including basic academic and career development skills as well as cultural awareness and character skills.
Results have been dramatic on the California Achievement Test: reading scores rose from the 28th%ile in 1995 to the 71st in 1999; math scores increased from 54th to 78th; and in language arts from 26th to 72nd. Fourteen of 17 CSD graduates since 1994 are attending post-secondary institutions.
The organization of the district changed as well. The district reduced the number of administrators to three and eliminated spending on packaged curricula in order to increase travel funding. Teachers spend more time together learning techniques, developing skills, and a "trickle charge team" of experienced educators visits sites to provide peer coaching and substitute teaching. Faculty turnover has dropped from over 50% to 12%.
Recently, CSD led the formation of the Alaska Quality Schools Coalition and 12 districts are replicating their model. In addition, Crumley is developing the Aligned Information Management System (AIMS), a productivity model for educational institutions that includes leading indicators to measure leadership, staff focus, student focus, and process management. In 2001, the district was the smallest organization ever to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards for performance excellence in education.