Network of Performance Based Schools

(This is republished from my Democratic Education blog)
My school, Red Bluff-Lhtako Elementary, has been a part of the Network of Performance Based Schools for the past four years. Our focus is social responsibility. I have seen a great sense of community evolve in the school over that time.
Here is an outline of what the Network is about. When I read through this outline, some words that we use regularly in our class popped out at me.

The Network of Performance Based Schools is a voluntary action research community designed to improve student learning and to strengthen public education.
Network schools represent the diversity of public education in BC with small remote rural schools, large urban secondary schools, schools serving vulnerable populations, and schools in affluent communities all being part of this learning community. Network schools use teacher developed and validated classroom based performance standards in reading, writing, numeracy, and social responsibility. Schools in the Network share a number of common characteristics and commitments:
Teamwork – a willingness to work in their own school as teacher-principal teams on behalf of their learners and families.
Interdependence – a willingness to work with and on behalf of all interested schools in BC.
Inquiry – an interest in developing and collectively pursuing significant learning improvement questions in depth and over time.
Assessment – a belief in the central importance of individual and classroom assessment evidence as a powerful change force.
Public Communication – an acted upon belief in telling change stories honestly with both qualitative and quantitative evidence sources.
Depth of Thinking – a commitment to going deeper by asking themselves increasingly challenging questions about practice.
Sustained Thinking – an understanding that realizing genuine learning gains requires time, focused work, reflection, and on-going commitment.
Connecting Ideas- pursuing over time and changing circumstances, connections among literacy, mathematical problem solving, citizenship and other areas of disciplined thought.Metacognition – using knowledge about learning to strengthen thinking
Use of Evidence – a commitment to using clear evidence patterns to illustrate and describe improvement.
(* retrieved from the NPBS.ca website)

If you are interested in reading more about the Network of Performance Based Schools, visit their website here. You will find a list of all the schools that are involved in the Network, their stories and goals, as well as ways of getting involved in the Network.