Learning and Leading - August 2011

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High School did not have textbooks, and all students and teachers had laptops, the staff was forced to identify digital resources, create their own materials, and share them with colleagues. They proved to be successful. The school received an excelling school label.

After watching this unfold at Empire in 2007, Vail’s curriculum and technology departments began brainstorming to further define and improve the district’s vision for instruction and student learning. Then, in 2008, Vail gathered principals, tech coordinators, and teachers from each of Vail’s schools to meet with the district’s curriculum, technology, and special education departments, the superintendent, and members of the governing board. The charge for that day was to exchange ideas about creating digital instructional materials in an efficient format and about using electronic tools to access those materials. From that meeting, Beyond Textbooks was born. Student achievement and teacher collaboration began to reach new levels.

Beyond Textbooks The name Beyond Textbooks (BT) does not refer to an abandonment of traditional textbooks but rather a philosophy of learning and teaching that transcends textbooks and state standards to strengthen support for communities of teachers, facilitate learning and teaching, and improve student growth and achievement. This comprehensive approach begins with a shoulder-to-shoulder rather than top-down curriculum development process. Vail teachers and the Curriculum Department

collaboratively review state content standards to identify core sets of essential standards that establish what students must learn in each content area at each grade level. These will provide students with knowledge beyond just a test date. The documents produced in this process form the foundation of the core subject cur-ricula at each grade level and establish districtwide expectations for what teachers should teach and what students should learn and be able to do in relation to a specific standard.

The capstone of the curriculum framework is an online BT wiki, a free web-based tool from Mind Touch, which makes the collection of digital curriculum materials, support materials, and other digital resources accessible to all faculty. Teachers use the wiki to review the curriculum and calendars, locate and share resource materials, and communicate and collaborate with peers across the district who use the same curriculum but who would not otherwise be available to share resources and provide other support.

Partnering with Other Districts While BT began as a Vail initiative, over the past two years it has evolved into a program that has created partnerships and intergovernmental agreements with more than 25 diverse districts and charter schools to help fund the staff and equipment for the program. BT now reaches more than

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2,500 teachers and 50,000 students in schools across Arizona that have adopted it as a framework.

David Woodall, superintendent
of partner district Benson Unified
School District, is thrilled with the
partnership. “When I saw the amount
of time Vail had spent unwrapping,
prioritizing, and calendaring stan-
dards, and the amount of resources
they had generated, I knew that it was
something that would be very difficult
for us to ever produce, and if we could
tap into what they’ve created, it would
be very exciting,” he says. “In the long
run, this could really reshape instruc-
tion. It’s the ultimate tool for linking
instruction and teacher creativity.”
With the help of Vail’s ongoing pro-
fessional development, BT partners are
trained in the philosophy and practices
of the BT curriculum framework, effec-
tive implementation strategies, and the
technical facilitation of the BT wiki.

The dividends have already started to pay off in a variety of ways. For example, one high school math teacher from a rural district with limited resources and no one to collaborate with was able to share insights and expertise while finding a wealth of new strategies using this system.

“At its core, teaching is a creative endeavor,” says Vail’s superintendent Calvin Baker. “Within the context of clearly defined expectations, Beyond Textbooks provides teachers with the opportunity to fully engage their creativity and share it with teachers across our state.”