Moving forward

According to the survey with 118 responses, 83.9% of students do not think the school has communicated the standards-based learning plan to students clearly.  

Linton said, generally, the student body is left in the dark surrounding the new system and the administration’s plan. 

“There is still a lot of ambiguity regarding what the school wants to do with standards-based learning because most of what I’ve heard has been from other students or from teachers and it’s felt like a lot of rumors,” he said. “Whereas in terms of what I’ve actually heard from the school itself, there hasn’t really been anything solid.”

Similarly, Holmberg said standards-based learning is, at first, difficult to “completely understand.” Thus, in order to ease the transition for new students coming from different systems, she said the school must provide “a clear explanation of what standards-based learning is.”

Donovan said the school will continue to examine student and parent feedback throughout the transition.

“My hope next year is that we’ll be working much more closely with parents and students to talk about their experience so far and to talk about what this could look like moving forward,” she said.