Joined by Kentucky's Commissioner of Education Jason E. Glass, Buddy Berry, superintendent of Eminence Independent Schools, shared the decisions behind why his district has prioritized deeper learning during the Kentucky Department of Education's (KDE's) June Superintendents Webcast.
The conversation builds on the department's vision for education called United We Learn, which is designed to ensure all students receive the support and educational experiences needed to reach their full potential as students and human beings.
"What started our journey was a sense of desperation and passion," explained Berry. "We were desperate to find an identity. We were desperate for something different."
Dealing with declining enrollment and test scores, as well as finding it difficult to retain staff, Berry said the passion within the district allowed them to "jump into deep water."
"The biggest thing for us was we wanted our diploma to mean something," he said.
Taking over as the district's superintendent in 2010, Berry immediately began planning the School on Fire motto for the district, which would launch in 2012 and still is used today.
"It was the framework for innovation for reinventing education," he said. "We thought we needed something bigger than a program. We needed ... something for our town to rally around. The goal was (to provide) a completely personalized, technology-rich, authentic, passion-based learning environment where kids couldn't wait to be at school every day."
For Eminence, the Eminence Exemplars, or a set of standards built into each grade level, have been successful at bringing transformative learning experiences to students.
"To be honest, that's the secret sauce. We have created core content standards for communication, for philanthropy and for perseverance," Berry said, adding that combining both innovation and best practice, rather than choosing one or the other, has been beneficial for the district.
The biggest piece of advice Berry had for his fellow colleagues who may be in the initial planning phases of how to develop deeper learning experiences, is to collaborate with local communities to ensure that they are receiving support.
"That is the thing that can drive the work," he said, "because it can build the community buy-in. If you do the process correctly and get all the local business advocates, parent organizations and teachers, it can help be the momentum you need to really give you the vehicle to get to where you want to go."
