Superintendent Jeni Gotto of Westminster Public Schools is so accomplished at competency-based education that she has literally written the book on it.
Gotto, who has worked in various roles in the Denver-area district since 2009, will publish “Pioneers of Personalized Education” with a team of co-authors in May. The book describes Westminster’s 16-year project to make competency-based education its North Star and details how K12 leaders can adopt the concept.
“We have changed everything we do,” Gotto tells District Administration. “I believe this is the right way to educate kids.”
That statement covers everything from the learning management system to procurement as Westminster has embedded competency-based learning from preschool to 12th grade. Educators there have abandoned traditional practices such as social promotion and holding students back a grade.
Academic progress is measured by “proficiency scales” that cut across grades so a student starts the new school year exactly where they left off the previous year or in summer school. That means a sixth-grader could be working on seventh-grade math, fifth-grade English and grade-level music at the same time.
“We are eliminating some of those things that create a ripple effect when we socially promote a kid from third grade to fourth grade, fourth grade to fifth grade,” she says. “Otherwise, when they get to high school they have so many gaps in their learning, they give up in despair.”
The district, which also hosts a competency-based learning summit each fall, has created its own aspiring leaders training program to ensure all new administrators are also proficient in competency-based education.
“Every time we would bring a leader from outside the system that school or that department would reset back to traditional thinking,” Gotto notes. “We have not hired a school leader or district leader from outside the system in nine years.”
What else is going on in Westminster Public Schools?
Gotto and her team are transforming an old high school into an “innovation campus” that offers career-connected pathways such as cybersecurity, aviation and biomedical science. The project was launched with $25 million from the school board and will be now upgraded with new pathways, supported by a $40 million bond the district just passed.
That bond will also fund a new, STEM-focused preK-8 school that will serve as a feeder for the innovation campus.
“All of the pathways that we have, we’ve worked with partners in the community to look for the industry demands,” Gotto states. “We also want to bring up our overall community and we also want to keep our kids here.”
In partnership with local business and community colleges, the innovation campus will offer programs at night for community members to earn industry certifications and college credits. “Our focus is on a multi-generational campus,” Gotto concludes.
