In a room full of community leaders and educators, we all lean in to listen to two amazing students – one a fifth grader at O’Shea Keleher Whole Child Academy and another a high school student at Clint High School – as they lead us through a presentation on the innovative programs they have created on their school campus to reimagine how students learn, grow, and interact with each other and the adults on their campus. The confidence and conviction these students bring to their presentation reflects the type of support and encouragement they are receiving as part of the El Paso School Design Collaborative.
We recently hosted the region’s second ever showcase event for the El Paso SCD, an initiative created by CREEED, The El Paso Community Foundation and Transcend to work with local school as they redesign their campus culture and programs to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of all their students. A total of eight schools are part of the collaborative, and the showcase is an opportunity for all these schools to come together, share stories and data about the progress they are seeing in their schools, and celebrate the successes of each program.
While each school has created a unique program that was informed by data; student, parental and staff input; and research, the showcase gives us an opportunity to zoom out from the individual programs and see what impact it is having on all schools across the region.
The first is that schools are not seeing the programs as the end point, but rather the beginning. What we constantly heard from schools this year is that while the programs they initially designed for year 1 worked for where their students were at that point; but students and conditions change, so their programs need to evolve. Each school is now approaching everything they do – from academics to student support programs – with a research and design mentality. They no longer assume that what they are doing is working, but rather looking at the data, listening and getting input from students, and making changes when necessary.
The second is that schools are seeing positive change across the board. All schools participate in a LEAP survey, which measures student perceptions, experiences, and growth over the course of a school year. The results show that students are more excited to go to school, feel like they belong and are supported by adults, and express a genuine interest in learning. These survey results are backed by data showing improved attendance on these campuses, less disciplinary referrals, and better academic outcomes.
Third, school principals, teachers, and administrators appreciate the ability to collaborate with others outside of their own districts and be on a collective journey together. When we started this program, we took many of the school design teams to schools outside of the El Paso region to see how this work was happening in other parts of the country. But now they don’t have to look outward but can turn to other schools in our own region to support each other and their work to improve the experience and growth of students on each campus.
As the schools in the El Paso School Design Collaborative turn the page on the second chapter of this journey, we are excited that the progress and change they are seeing in their students isn’t just tied to the pilot programs they started last year, but rather it is spilling over into all aspects of the school. This lets us know that the schools are undergoing a culture shift that will benefit current and future students to achieve academically and emotionally.
