At Durango 9-R, all students own their learning, act on their learning, and impact their community. We believe learners must be actively engaged and that we must personalize learning based on each student’s strengths and needs. We believe our role as a school district is to provide learning opportunities where students develop their critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills. We believe that a personalized instructional approach aimed at graduation standards and a community of collaborative learning will equip each student for a successful life now and after his or her years in school. Durango 9-R utilizes several core practices to provide this type of learning experience for every student.
Empowered for College, Career, & Community
Learning Outcomes |
Students Own Their Learning |
Students Act on Their Learning |
Students Impact Their Community |
Instructional Approach |
Personalized; student-centered; competency-based content learning aligned to rigorous standards; data analysis and student tracking of progress; metacognitive |
4 Cs: Inquiry based, real life skill application through critical thinking, collaboration/cooperation, creativity, and communication |
Community based; character development and growth mindset |
Standards of Excellence for our Students |
● Students have voice and choice in their learning.
● Students know their level of proficiency against performance indicators, set learning goals, and track their progress.
● Students ask questions and solve problems relevant to them.
● Students initiate strategies to address their strengths and next steps in the performance indicators.
● Students are metacognitive in their learning.
● Student learning is competency-based and focused on content-area graduation standards and performance indicators.
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● Students engage in real life application of their learning.
● Students think critically about what they are learning.
● Students collaborate and cooperate with others, within and/or outside of the classroom to deepen their learning and engage in academic discourse.
● Students consistently apply, analyze, evaluate, and create as a means of engaging in active and meaningful learning.
● Students regularly communicate their thinking and learning with their peers.
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● Students collaborate and cooperate with others, within and/or outside of the classroom to positively impact their community.
● Students are respectful, responsible, self-regulate, and make decisions in order to achieve ambitious goals.
● Students embrace a growth-mindset and persevere when faced with challenging situations.
● Students exhibit poise in presentation.
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Students Own Their Learning
At Durango 9-R, instead of asking students to fit the mold and needs of the organization, we personalize learning and adjust instruction to meet the needs of each student. The result is that students own their learning, lending their voice to their personal development of essential skills and knowledge in all content areas. When students own their learning, they become prepared for the rigor of college, career, and life in their community.
As a regular routine in their class, students use tools to set learning goals, reflect on their individual level of proficiency in the performance indicators, and track progress in their learning. The use of student centered progress monitoring tools allows students to proceed toward mastery of skills and concepts across all content areas and in the Mindsets and Behaviors for Postsecondary and Career Readiness.
In addition to these tools, students are equipped with metacognitive learning practices that help them develop their ability to know what they know and reflect on how they learn best. These metacognitive skills allow students to demonstrate voice and choice in how they learn and provides them a set of tools to initiate their next steps in learning.
Students Act On Their Learning
Durango 9-R is also an organization where students act on their learning. That means that students have learning experiences that help them develop critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration. Instead of treating content knowledge as the ultimate goal, we recognize that in the real world, it is the student’s ability to build upon and apply these essential skills (critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration) in all content areas that will lead to success. Students partner with their teachers to develop evidence of proficiency in the performance indicators, empowering students to act on their learning in ways that are relevant to their interests, passions, and strengths. All students will have the opportunity to become creators of their own learning and take an active role in what they learn and how they learn. All students must have the chance to lead from their passions, discover new opportunities, and reach new horizons in their thinking and learning.
Students Impact Their Community
Durango 9-R is committed to developing behavior and mindset competencies in each student so he or she can make a positive impact on the community. This means that, in addition to a rigorous academic curriculum, Durango 9-R also values a focus on community engagement and service. We recognize a connection between students owning their learning, acting on their learning, and impacting the world around them. We believe that developing a growth mindset and persevering through struggles develops a student’s ability to be a respectable and responsible community member.
An emphasis on students’ self-advocacy and self-actualization is engrained in all we do in Durango 9-R. We set high standards for student behavior, and offer student-engaged classroom communities, student choice and continuous support and feedback. We emphasize self-regulation and good decision making in the pursuit of ambitious goals, helping students understand that some of the greatest learning can come from reflection on perceived “failures.” Students are active participants in designing and directing their own communities of learning, initiating strategies that will build on their strengths and attend to their needs. They learn the confidence and poise necessary to present learning to peers and lead conferences where they discuss their learning with parents and teachers.